Art Print Issues by Barney Davey

Charley Parker's Excellent Advice on How Not to Display Artwork on the Internet

Some of you may have heard about social networking and Web 2.0. While this blog is not about those things, they do come to mind because I happened to stumble upon Charley Parker's great blog today. It is titled Lines and Colors. He's an artist and Web designer, free thinker and definitely a Web 2.0 type of guy. There happens to be a site called Stumble Upon. It is a great way to find new blogs and all sorts of things on the Internet. I stumbled on Charley's blog in a different way, but it did cause me to think about Web 2.0 and social networking. I will post about those things sometime soon as they are relevant to art print marketing.

Back to the post at hand. Charley provides all the dumb things artists do to make their sites and images less compelling and harder to view for Web surfers. If you read over the list and recognize doing any of the things he talks about, I urge you to admit your guilt and take immediate measures to change your ways.

Think about it, How hard did you work to create the images? How hard did you work to get them properly digitized for the Web? How hard do you work to get traffic to your site? None of this comes easy, it requires your attention. What Charley is pointing out are the things you may inadvertently be doing that are keeping the traffic you have managed to get from having an easy enjoyable time reviewing your work.

There is a discussion in the comments following the post about piracy. The facts are it's here and not soon going away. All the arts are subject to being knocked off or pirated. The Internet just makes it easier for that to happen. It also makes it easier for you to keep ahead of the copycat crooks by continuing to innovate. I suggest doing what is prudent, fighting to stop piracy when possible, but don't let it get you down or eat you up. Instead, focus on being creative and growing your business, it's so much more productive. I have had contact from artists asking about Asian oil painting knockoffs before they have published their first piece.That is irrational fear. It is an admitted drag and time-consuming and spirit killing thing to suffer. But, there are worse things, like no one buying the real art. That's something to seriously worry about.

Keep in mind, that if you are being knocked off or pirated, it is a good indication your art is viable in the marketplace. It's a painful kind of compliment to have this happen, it's also a rite of passage. Go forth and heed Charley's advice and get yourself some sales in the process! It may not help to know this, but even Disneyland is being knocked off in China. Check out the vid here to see what I mean.

The Double Entendre of the Artist Selling Out

Seems like visual artists carry more baggage regarding being true to their art than other genres. Sure the rockers with message music from the Sixties and early Seventies who later turned up sponsored by beer or credit card companies took some early criticism. Where they took it was right to the bank. Today, does anybody care if the likes of Bob Dylan and U2 are selling travel packages to their concerts?

Whose Art Is It Anyway?

Some of you may already know I occasionally blog on Absolute Arts, one of the more heavily trafficked sites for visual art. My latest post there has the same title as this post. It talks about some interesting observations regarding money and art, throws in a dash of politics and a flourish of acknowledgment for the accomplishments of one determined person to do good by following through on a good idea. Here's the link: http://blog.absolutearts.com/blogs/archives/00000344.html

Artprints.com Announces a Wholesale Division

ArtPrints.com, an online retailer of primarily posters, announced it has launched a wholesale division. I can't claim any knowledge of this company's business activities or reputation. It could be solid gold, it's just not one that has reached my consciousness. But then, there are supposedly more than 100,000 sites selling art these days.

What caught my eye was the company's foray into the wholesale consolidation business. Consolidators take small orders from retailers who don't want to order the minimum numbers required by many poster publishers. For instance, a retailer might need one piece from Haddad's Fine Arts, one from Wild Apple Graphics and two from Winn Devon. Rather than loading up on more prints than needed in order to meet the minimum, a retailer can go a consolidator and get a small order, or batch order placed with one-stop shopping.

What Does ArtExpo's Parent Company Selling Properties Mean?

Summit Business Media LLC, which last November bought Pfingsten Publishing LLC, the then owner of ArtExpo, Decor Expo, Art Business News and Decor magazine, recently announced it had sold four properties in its industrial division. Pfingsten's art and framing properties were bundled with its financial services and industrial books in the sale to SB Media. The prize in the package is the financial services publications while the art and framing and industrial groups were ripe to be divested.

It is interesting while SB Media has a sizable war chest slated for agressive acquisition, its first completed transaction was a sale. Obviously SB Media has begun paring those parts of its operation that don't meet its guidelines for growth. A recent press release announced the company's sale of its construction/industrial properties. Here's a quote from William F. Reilly, Chairman and CEO of Summit Business Media:

"These were legacy titles acquired during the formation of Summit last November that fell outside of our core insurance and financial services focus. This action represents a minor pruning of our portfolio as we continue to invest in organic growth and follow-on acquisitions."

The press release edited for the business press with an interest in business and financial services media companies did not mention SB Media's art & framing group. It is easy to deduce from the omission of the art and framing group from the press release that it is not on the radar screen of company execs seekng to grow the business. It therefore would not be surprising to learn the art and framing group is being actively shopped for a new owner. If that is the case, let's hope the new owners bring a passion for the business and a willingness to invest in it.

Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art & Curves of Steel

The Phoenix Art Museum ends its triumphant run of the very special exhibit, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art on May 13. The show includes 90 stellar examples of Dutch 17th century paintings, prints and sculptures. I visited last weekend and jostled with the steady crowds of viewers attempting to absorb the art.

For an art lover, it was a huge treat to enjoy exposure to such exquisite art in one place. To understand the exhibit celebrates a momentous turning in the development of a modern society that helped shape the framework of what would become the U.S. made grasping the importance of Dutch art and all that it symbolized more poignant.

I was partly inspired to take up woodworking when I realized the beautiful double settee crafted by former president, Jimmy Carter, would live on in the Smithsonian Institute long after we are all gone. Art is a gift to the future. Certainly, neither Rembrandt nor any of this contemporaries could have imagined how revered and important their work would be more than 300 years later.

Self-portrait as the Apostle Paul,
Rembrandt van Rijn, 1661.
Oil on canvas, 35 ¾ x 30 ¼ inches.
Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Of course, among the many interesting and compelling parts of Rembrandt's story is he was a master printmaker. His etchings have been sought as valuable collectibles from their creation in the 1600s to today. A restless perfectionist, he made a series of etchings of the same image. He called the iterations "Estates."  He continued to redraw the plates until he was satisfied with the outcome. It's a rare thing to be able to observe the artistic process in such detail. One such example was on display at this museum show.

The free audio players that were included with the price of admission allowed for a self-paced docent style tour of the exhibit. The commentary was superb providing insight and details into the changes on etchings and into the artist's thinking on making the changes.

Obviously, Rembrandt embraced the high tech of the day, which included making etchings. One can only wonder what this genius might have done with the wide variety of high tech media available to artists today. Would he have jumped on multi-media? Would he have a My Space site? Would he be using digtial painting techniques to get different results from oils? I suppose to some purists such questions are heretical enough to get me burned at the stakes. I like to think Rembrandt would have delved into everything he could to express his creativity.

Less Smoking - More Art-o-mat

The state of Arizona, where I live, enacted a statewide smoking ban on May 1. Smokers think it is another example of governmental intrusion into private life while non-smokers breathe (pun intended) sigh of relief.

Regardless of your position, it is a good time to get the 411 on the Art-o-mat. An art exhibition concept  turned into long term project, Art-o-mat celebrates its 10-year anniversary in 2007. Congratulations to the organizers for the concept and longevity. This description is from the Art-o-mat Web site:

What is an Art-o-mat?
Art-o-mat machines are retired cigarette vending machines that have been converted to vend art. There are 82 active machines in various locations throughout the country.

What do you get from an Art-o-mat?
The experience of pulling the knob alone is quite a thrill, but you also walk away with an original work of art. What an easy way to become an art collector.

This is a wonderful re-use of retired cigarette machines. It's a way to create revenue for local arts groups. It's quirky, green, fun and helps promote visual arts. There's everything to like about Art-o-mat.

You may have noticed the growing trend in trading art cards, or ACEO (Art Cards, Editions and Originals). The Art-o-mat is part of the trend. Trading cards have been around for centuries in one form or another, but the resurgence in the past decades for sports trading cards has inspired arists to create and trade or sell their own trading cards.

The Importance of Typography in Design

Recently, there has been a lot of well-deserved hoopla about Helvetica. The ubiquitous typeface turns 50 this year and there have been numerous articles, blog posts and even a movie to celebrate this most servicable font. New York's Museum of Modern art has mounted an exhibition in honor of Helvetica. Take note, this level of attention will likely never be seen for another font in our lifetimes. 

Here's an excerpt from Frank Jordans' Associated Press piece on Helvetica's half-century run titled, Oh Yeah, You Know the Type:

Open a newspaper, look at a street sign, type an e-mail and chances are a Swiss design icon is staring you in the face, though you'd be hard-pressed to identify it.

But peer closely at the shape of the letters: If they're easy to read and without unnecessary flourishes, then you might well be looking at an example of the Helvetica typeface, which turns 50 this year.

Helvetica lettering adorns images most people can conjure instantly, from New York  subway signs to the logos of Harley-Davidson, American Airlines and BMW. But much of the time it remains invisible in a sea of print, unobtrusively conveying the message the designer intended it to.

Reading about Helvetica caused me to reflect on the importance of typography in design. You might ask, what has this to do with art prints?  Many art prints have graphic elements in them, knowing about how to use them can greatly enhance a piece.  Further, through decades of experience of seeing the graphic design of artists who self-designed their advertising and promotional pieces, etc. I can emphatically say there was an ocean of difference in the quality of those designs. And, quite often, the best pieces were simple, yet elegant. Exactly the purpose for the use of a font such as Helvetica. (If you are nosing around your Windows computer to find an example, the best most will find is Arial, a very close cousin that MS didn't have to license to use.)

Dick Harrison's Sage Art Marketing Advice

If you haven't spent time on Wet Canvas, you are missing a most valuable resource. With statistics like the following, you could spend days mining the information available: Threads: 418,661, Posts: 5,628,165, Members: 105,331.

This month, Dick Harrison, who was a professional full-time art rep for 20 years has generously offered his best advice to artists seeking to succeed in the business. He has posted a number of Podcasts on the Talk Shoe podcast site. In keeping with his savvy, he chose the Wet Canvas/Art Business Center/General Art Business thread to announce he had created these most informative podcasts to give to anyone one who wishes to listen. 

My strong advice to you dear readers is to listen to all he has to say. Here are the links to the Wet Canvas threads with links to the podcasts: Selling Tips from an Art Rep with 20 years experience http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=414300 and Who Gets What and How Much http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=418004. Kudos to Dick for his unselfish sharing of such valuable information!