Info About .....
The Artist
I graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1985. There I studied, among other things, photography, filmmaking and animation. A year after graduation I came to Arcata, California for an informal "artistic retreat" from the city. My goal was to complete the drawings for a new animated film. Three months turned into 18 months, and I just never went back to the midwest. The film, entitled Arcata Brain Closet, is nine minutes long. It won several awards at independent film festivals, and has been shown on television and in museums, including the MOMA in New York, and the DeYoung in San Francisco. For a while it was even available on home video, with a collection of other animated shorts from the same year(1988).
During the making of that film, I began to use rubber stamps. It was just a few at first, but then I needed more. It wasn't long before I was making my own stamps from my own drawings, either by eraser carving or sending the art out to a stamp maker. That got expensive so I began to sell some of my stamps on the side to "pay for my hobby". It was hard to sell them without a way to show them, so I made a catalog and... next thing you know I'm in business.
The style of my artwork is always evolving. My earlier designs had a lot of eraser carving and bold, graphic elements. My later work includes more fine detail. Also, I feel that my recent work is my most original. When I do people now, I base them on life drawings and photos that I take myself. In the past, most of my nudes were based on art books and photos. I still take inspiration from other artists, but now instead of re-doing it in my own hand, I try to learn about it, appreciate it, and let it add depth to my own creations.
- Steven Vander Meer
Guarantee
No questions asked on returns within 6 months of purchase: if the stamp is unused, you get a full refund. If the stamp is used but somehow defective, you get a full refund.
The Company
Meer Image is the company name I use for my rubber stamp business, but it's really only me. At conventions you will see Carol stamping away at the demo table, but back home she has a "real job". I enjoy self-employment; it's never boring. I am always trying to invent new ways of making my job more efficient, or more fun. If something in the stamp making process is not going well, I'll build a jig or figure a better way to do it. The underlying motive is always to make the best possible rubber stamp. After more than 13 years of business, pieces of the puzzle continue to click into place.
The Studio
In April of 2004 I leased a large space on the garden level of the old Stewart School Building in Arcata. Five other artists and I built walls and made ourselves a creative place, complete with a room dedicated to life drawing. Locally we are known as StewArt Studios, and twice a year we have "open studios" when the public can come in and shop. I find it really helps the creative process to be in a space that is surrounded by other people who are also doing art.
This Web Site
I do all my own web work; its hand coded in html and css. I learn as I go, so there is a mixture of styles in the code, but I am dutifully eliminating all of the depricated attributes, one by one. The site is designed in such a way that you can browse around and shop at the same time. You can read articles about stamping, or look at the inspiration for a stamp design that is documented in the blog, all while having immediate access to your shopping basket. Hand-stamped examples have been moved, there is no longer a separate art gallery; these works can now be viewed on the shopping cart pages. For example, scroll to the bottom of the page for Norwegian Blue. Also, from anywhere in the site, you can hit the contact button and ask me a question, report a broken link, or perhaps draw my attention to something that isn't quite clear. In addition, the contact button can be used to convey heaps of lavish praise and adoration.
The Blog
I started blogging in July of 2003, and have tried to keep it up on an almost daily basis. Mine is mainly a visual blog; I don't write a whole lot. If I'm designing new rubber stamps, I show the rough drawings and the daily progress of the design. Other days I shoot photos, either in the studio or out in the world. Not everything has to do with stamps, of course, but you never know where inspiration might come from, or where it might lead. Looking through the blog archives is fun for me because I see the otherwise long forgotten roots of my creations.
Custom Rubber Stamps
I don't make them. Google custom rubber stamps.
Wholesale
Currently I do not sell wholesale. This is because I do everything myself and do not have any employees. If I decide to sell wholesale in the future (that's a big IF), it will most likely be on a very limited basis and have terms such as but not necessarily limited to nor including: prepaid orders, 40 percent discount, proven storefronts only, 2 piece per design minimum... that sort of thing. There is no "list" to be on; should I begin to sell wholesale you can find out by checking this website.
Copyright & Angel Company Policy
MEER IMAGE is what they call an Angel Company. That means if you want to make things with these rubber stamps, and then sell them for profit, it is okay, just as long as you buy the rubber stamp and then stamp it by hand on what you are selling. Mechanical reproductions like photocopies and scans are a violation of copyright law. Also, plucking images off this web site is not cool - I don't do clip art! If you want to use one of my images, contact me and, depending on your plans, we can probably work something out.
Privacy Policy
Spam is a scourge and I will never do anything with your email address, or any of your private info, to cause spam or anything like it to gravitate in your direction. As for your credit card info, if you pay on-line, Authorize.Net takes care of that for me, and I never see, much less keep, your info. If you pay at a show, I keep a copy of your credit card receipt for a while, and then I destroy it (I do not simply throw it away!). At shows I ask for your phone number - this is just in case there is a problem with the credit card, and is never used for anything else. A "problem" does not necessarily mean it was declined, it could simply mean that all the numbers did not come out.
Publication Incentive Policy
I like to encourage everyone to be creative in as many ways as possible in their daily lives. What you make is valid and good; the process of making art is an end in itself. Selling your art or getting it published is all well and good, but certainly not the goal. Ah, but what about compensation? Afterall, Meer Image received "free advertising" via your published piece, shouldn't you get something? As far as I'm concerned, you already got plenty: an incredibly well-made product featuring a design that you judged good enough to pay money for, excellent, speedy and no-nonsense service, plus the enjoyment of being creative with the product at home. If you throw a little business my way by being published, I say "thank you for the tip!"
