About Art of a Kind
This website is a passion project of Jessyca Frederick. I’m here exploring the art world and sharing my experiences with you.
My goals are as follows:
- Help artists thrive (i.e. sell more work on their own terms)
- Promote art among non-artists
- Help you buy art produced by living, working artists
- Encourage you to go out and experience art in the real world, especially in your own community
- Have fun & make money — because life is short and I still have to eat
What Is Art of a Kind?
Art of a Kind, for now, is a website designed to help you find interesting art you’ll like in a low-pressure environment that feels comfortable, like other online shopping.
My focus is on making art accessible. Accessibility comes in a variety of forms.
Price accessibility is highly variable, so I assume you can’t afford to spend millions of dollars on art, but that your discretionary income leaves room for big purchases, ranging from $500-$50,000.
I also want to make art feel accessible to anyone, regardless of much you know about art history, how art is made, or what an individual piece means. To accomplish this, I refrain from dissertations on art movements (though short descriptions are provided), discussions of nuanced technique, philosophical discussions, etc. I provide the artist’s statement in their own words, and occasionally offer additional information I think is helpful in understanding the place the piece occupies in the canon of contemporary art.
I’m not an art expert, though I have a Bachelor’s degree in the subject. I’m also not an art consultant or an art buyer. I have no relationship of any kind with any of the artists listed on this site.
I make money via affiliate marketing, which is essentially like commissioned sales online. This means if you buy art after clicking links on this site, I may earn a commission.
My Art Story
Among other things, I am an artist. I’ve applied my creativity and problem-solving skills elsewhere for many years, but after all this time, I’ve come back to art — making it and promoting it.
When I started making art in college, it was because I couldn’t fathom the idea of taking four upper-division math classes (I was a math major, after all). I picked up art as a second major because something in me liked the idea and thought it would bring balance.
My professors genuinely encouraged me as best they could — they even invited me to participate in the department’s Honors Studio as a senior. I was not exactly a fully-formed human being yet and I didn’t have a reason for making art beyond “it’s my major” so while my early work is unique, it’s mostly devoid of any real meaning or expression beyond, “see what I can do?”
After graduating from UC San Diego with a Bachelor of Arts – Fine Art Studio, I basically went on a very long art sabbatical. I wasn’t exactly avoiding art. I was excited to learn about website development and I followed career opportunities as they presented themselves.
My subsequent path to making art has been serpentine. I picked up digital photography to learn composition quickly. That was effective. Next, I applied my creative side to the landscape and completed the Landscape Architecture certification at UCLA Extension. I didn’t feel I was a good personality fit for the field so I didn’t continue. Then, much like in college, it dawned on me — I wasn’t spending my limited time on this Earth doing something I find fulfilling. To be inspired, I joined private Facebook Groups for artists (painting, drawing, mosaics, metal clay, and more). After a long while, I finally found that inspiration I needed to go out and start making art again.
To determine what kind of art I wanted to make, what kind of statements I wanted my art to make, how I wanted to reach viewers, I started exploring the art world in depth. And that is how this site was born — as a means to catalog my own journey of art discovery in the digital world.
