The Suction Cup

What Art School Didn’t Teach You: How to Form Your Own LLC

June 17, 2013 in Business Planning, Kate Renee, What Art School Didn't Teach You | No comments

You would think that art school would have some business classes thrown in there to help teach artists how to manage their own business….yah because that’s what professional artists do, run businesses! Most of what I have learned and accomplished as a professional artists has come from research, asking questions and trying things out on my own. And what I have learned, is that art school does little to prepare students to walk out into the art world and live and work as a professional. Business skills are essential. The legalities of being an artists are your responsibility to know. I decided to form my own LLC or Limited Liability Company for my arts career.

There are a variety of reasons why you can start your own LLC. I started mine for legal protection. Having a company verses a sole proprietorship also adds a notion of business professionalism. You can do transactions through a business account when you own an LLC too. Here are the basic steps on how to build your own LLC business. All of these images come directly from the Minnesota Secretary of State website and demonstrate the visual steps for completing the LLC business set up process. The purpose of this post is to aid artists in forming their own LLC companies.

Step 1. Go to the MN Secretary of State Website

If you Google search MN Secretary of State this is the first search result that pops up. You can click directly to “Starting a Business or Nonprofit.”

Step 2: This is the part that I got lost at and needed help. There is a full page of Steps and options to click on, all you need to do here is find Step 3 and click the link “Next Steps” to continue ahead.

Step 3: This is the next page that comes up. From here you want to click on the left hand bar where it says file online which is under the Business & Nonprofit tab.

Step 4: Once you click on File Online, a new page will load. Scroll to the bottom half of the page to see this chart:

Step 5: To file for a basic Domestic (within the USA) LLC for Minnesota, the cost is $155.00. The Limited Liability Company option I chose is highlighted in purple above on the chart. Click the option that you want to have for your business.

Step 6: Once you choose which LLC you want to have, you will be asked to answer two questions. The first question is if your LLC is a non-profit. A non-profit uses the funds they receive for the organizations mission and goals rather than for profit or income. If you are an arts gallery or an arts organization, you maybe a non-profit. If you an artist selling art work to make a profit and pay your business bills and to pay yourself, you are for profit.

The second question is asking if your business needs to operate with personal whom are licensed. For example as listed above people in the accounting or medicine need licenses to practice as a professional under the Minnesota Status. For artists, this means you click no. Then click on “next” to continue the process.

Step 7: Choose your LLC’s business name. There are some parameters to the name requirements as listed in the blue box above. The system will search your desired name and make sure there is not already an existing company with the same name. When it determines that your name is available, a button will pop up that says File For Limited Liability Company. Click that to continue to the application.

Step 8: At this point you will continue through the formal application. This process is easy. Most of the information provided is your name and address of your company.

Step 9: Near the end of the process of forming your LLC you will need to pay the fee. For the LLC domestic, it costs $155 and they allow you to pay this online. If there are any desired changes to your LLC company after you have filied, there are additional fees to change that information. You can also determine if you want your LLC certificate mailed to you which can take numerous weeks or if you want a digital certificate which is emailed to you directly once you have filed.

Step 10: Once you have completed filing your LLC you need to file a FEIN number and a MN State Tax ID number. Once you have those two additional pieces of information you are able to head to the bank to open your own business account. I will blog about the FEIN Numbers and State Tax ID numbers in an additional blog post!

WARM Beginnings: Jumpstarting the New Program Cycle

June 10, 2013 in Kate Renee | No comments

This was a blog post written for WARM at the start of the 2013-2014 cycle. Here is the original post first written in February 2013.

The 2013 – 2014 Women’s Art Resources of Minnesota (WARM) mentor program is off to a blooming start. After a long process of applying and interviewing potential mentors, us protégés have been matched and are eager to learn and be challenged from our mentors. During this program cycle the mentor program has 25 protégés and 13 mentors working together. We are also blessed with two great program coordinators Tina Nemetz and Karen Searle and six more on the Mentor Program Committee.

Early February, we kicked off the year with a potluck event. Protégés and their mentors came together and shared good art and good food at the Merriam Park Library on February 2^nd. This was the first event where both the protégés and mentors meet together in a large group. All artists were to bring artwork and an item for the potluck to share.

Passion Vision Board, Kate Renee

The artists in this program cycle work with a wide variety of media including encaustic, clay, watercolor, furniture design, public works, oil portraits and manipulated imagery to name a few. We had protégée Odessa Clay begin the show and tell by playing a video clip which interviewed abusive men who are in prison. Painter, Kate Renee, showed her vision board to help illuminate the creative path ahead. And wearable artist, Mary Laurel True, showed her “Dressed to Kill” outfit which comments on women in the military and the Iraq war.

Sweet Flying Machine, Layl McDill

The mentors shared some fun pieces as well. Layl McDill dangled her fun polymer flying machine and Barb Kobe shared featured a wood doll with a small face in the center. She compared the piece to the mentor program and how the mentors hold a space to nurture and grow the protégé. All of us protégés can agree that the statuses of our mentors are that of fairy godmothers!

The great aspect of this opportunity is that we all got to see each other’s creative work but we also got to learn about where we were in our life and our career. Many of us are using this time to wake up in our career, challenge our fears, and as Barbara Porwit explained, “getting comfortable with the uncomfortable.” We can all agree that while this is just the beginning of our two year journey together, we are coming together as a support group for each other. There is an immense sense of spirituality, playfulness and exploration within this group of women.

During the next two years we will be working together again as a large group, breaking off into small groups and working one on one with our mentors. We will be exhibiting together, attending social events like WARM Coffee and have a Critical Response where we have a supportive space to give and receive critique about each other’s art work.

WARM Adventures: The Studio at Blue Horse Farm

June 3, 2013 in Kate Renee, Women's Resources of Minnesota (WARM) | 2 comments

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Following our winter trip to the Minnesota Historical Society, Jill Waterhouse and her four proteges headed out in the spring to New Richmond, Wisconsin to visit Karla Faith and the Blue Horse Farm. When we arrived we had a lovely lunch on the deck of Karla’s house. We then had a tour of her art farm and studio!

Here is a glimpse into Karla’s studio on her farm.

Karla has an amazing studio in a converted barn building. This is the upstairs filled with hundreds of her drawings.

This is the downstairs of her studio space.

Here is a work of art that Karla made which is a portrait of Jill! You can tell these two artists have been friends for a while!

Karla talked about her history as an artist. She traveled to China and studied caves and murals there. She was also a professor at Concordia College. Here Karla is showing one of her fresco paintings and Jennifer and Anne are looking on!

Karla also had these gorgeous paintings that she unrolled for us. The are painted with layers and layers of watered down paint.

After getting a tour of her studio, Karla sat down with us and we had a bit of art chat! Here is Anne showing all of us her work. It was really great to get some feedback on our work.

What is extra great is Kara’s Art Barn! In her large barn space, she hosts events like weddings here. She also has Art Camp here in the summer. What a great space to sit in and be creative! She has many tables and chairs in the space to accommodate many guests.

In June, the WARM mentors and proteges will all be traveling to the Blue Horse Farm to hang out in this creative space. There we will be having a Golden Paint demonstration and hopefully making some work. I can’t wait to go back and visit again in the next couple of weeks!

To find out more information about Blue Horse Farm check it out here: http://www.bluehorsefarm.com/

Check Advantage and Kate Renee: Frozen Treats Series

May 27, 2013 in Check Advantage, Kate Renee | No comments

Food Series Checks

The food series features a bunch of deliciously cute frozen treats.

Checks

Address Labels

Check Advantage and Kate Renee Address Labels

May 13, 2013 in Check Advantage, Kate Renee | No comments

I have been working alongside Check Advantage and creating products with my artwork and designs on them. In addition to checks and checkbook covers, my artwork is on address labels.

When you order a series of address labels there are four different images. Above is the Adorable Animals Series. This group of images are my most popular works of art. What better than to have all four!

These are the four images that are for the Troll Series address labels. What is super cute about these trolls is that they all have individual wacky hair styles. While there are only four trolls here, I have over twenty small paintings of trolls.