How It Works


THE COMMISSIONS PROJECT IS AN ARTISTIC OPPORTUNITY TO PROVIDE BEAUTY, HOLISTIC JUSTICE AND HOPE THROUGH ARTWORK THAT IS GENERATIVE, PURPOSEFUL AND CULTURALLY INSPIRING.

 


Working with clients on specific commissions has become an integral and deeply meaningful part of my artistic vocation. Be it for personal or communal purposes, I will work with you or your organization to create an image that seeks to communicate, bless and inspire. We’ll make open edition prints from your commissioned artwork to directly benefit the charitable organization of your choice.

For example, half of the proceeds from every open edition print of the commissioned painting, This Beautiful Mixwill go directly to the Red Cross Canada! This is Generative (fine art open edition prints), Purposeful (caring for the world’s most vulnerable people through reputable not-for-profit organizations) and Culturally Inspiring (artwork that awakens, inspires and brings beauty to the culture). Together we are bringing hope and visual compassion to the world that so desperately needs it.

 

 

HOW IT WORKS:

Fine art prints of the commissioned artwork will be made available to the public, where 50% of the proceeds will go to a non-profit organization of the commissioner’s choice.

This means that if you are impassioned about a particular nonprofit organization or charity, your commissioned artwork has the potential to raise significant funds for that very organization. Not only that, but we will also donate a specific number of prints that will go directly to the organization of your choice itself. Imagine: commissioned artwork raising money for an anti-trafficking organization and generative artwork hanging on the walls of transitional housing for emancipated women. Beauty, justice, hope. We can do this = creative advocacy.

It’s pretty exciting.

If you are interested in beginning a conversation about a potential commission or if you have any questions about THE COMMISSIONS PROJECT, please contact me.

Click here to see projects already at work.

 


“Natalie Salminen is a world-class interpreter. Assigned with the difficult task of turning shared communal values into modern day icons, she was able to translate our hopes and ideas into oils and pigments. We were so pleased with the results that we couldn’t limit the impact of the pieces to a singular set. To solve this good problem, we decided to make prints for those who share these same values to hang in their homes. Currently, there is a wait-list for the next batch of prints.”

– Joe Manafo, pastor, author of …And We Will Become a Happy Ending  // Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

 

“When I first came to Natalie, I had quite a few ideas floating in my head. I gave Natalie a bit of direction, but really wanted to rely on her to make my thoughts into reality. Many of the ideas I had were abstract thoughts, impressions and spiritual verses that were personal and important to me. When Natalie introduced the finished piece, I was astonished at how perfectly she took my thoughts and translated them amazingly into an encaustic. I can’t be more thrilled. She truly has a special gift.”

– Lerryn DeJong of Vanderburgh and Co. Humidors // Sarnia, Ontario

 

“For my birthday, my husband commissioned a piece from Natalie, an artist whose work we had seen at Chicago’s Old Town Art Fair. I talked with Natalie about the pieces of hers that really resonated with me, and why, and she began the process of working on a piece that would eventually be known as The Exalted Palace of Season. Natalie became pregnant while working on the piece, and she described the tree branches in the piece as representing her own growth throughout the pregnancy. The flowers in the piece are a combination of paint and small pieces of familiar hymns, torn from old hymnals; my son, who was one at the time, had been born during my last year of seminary as I studied for the ministry. It feels like a true collaboration between me and Natalie, marking her own fertile period as an artist and my own journey as a mother and minister. The painting is quite large, and fills the wall across from my bed; it is the first thing I see in the morning, and the branches stretching upward continue to call me to grow and evolve.”

– Amy Pagliarella, minister  // Chicago, Illinois