Art Print Issues

Audio Added for Your Listening and Downloading Pleasure

I added a new widget to the Art Print Issues blog today. Odiogo allows blogger to "Voice Your Content" by digitizing the blog text and creating an audio file read in some bloke's pleasant computer voice. You can also choose to download it as an mp3 and listen to it on your iPod or other audio players. I think it is a cool service some will appreciate having. It will be interesting to get your feedback. Click the icon to start listening.

As with all new technologies, Odiogo comes with some features that are less than perfect. One is it sometimes rambles from one sentence to the next without a natural pause making casual listening difficult in those instances. Another is it doesn't read the list numbers as in my previous "Thirteen Sure-Fire Rules..." post. Lastly, its attempts to pronounce giclee are downright humorous. Given giclee is a French word, it's easy to see how this could happen. It sounds very much like the way many people I've heard try to say it when they first encounter the word. I've heard it as "jie klee" and as "gick lee" but all in all it's pretty impressive. I'm sure as the service gets older it will improve, the model is advertising free now, but it intends to monetize the free service by adding that as a feature sometime in the future.

Odiogo has a blog; its Deploying the Odiogo service on a blog: Why and How is a good read. The Daily Cup of Tech blog recently had a very good post about Odiogo, Now with Audio Goodness, offers some additional insight. If you are a techie type, check it out for its other posts as well. If you want to add it to your Blog or mainstream media Web site, simply go to www.odiogo.com and sign up for the free service.

Thirteen Sure-Fire Rules to Create Success for the Emerging Artist - Part One

1. Don't paint or photograph with the preconceived view of becoming known for a look or style when you have so much to offer on a wide platform of personal interests.
2. Don't have any concerns whether galleries or collectors will have a clue as to what to expect from you when you jump from painting portraits to ponies. With your abundant talent, it doesn't matter because it's only time before the whole world is beckoning to it.
3. Don't submit to any of the multitude of regularly available columns, features, special sections and other FREE publicity opportunities. After all, why go for the filler copy when the cover stories are just around the corner?
4. Don't go out of your way to have any valuable contact with the media when you just know they will be courting you once you are rich and famous.
5. Don't ask any reps, whether they be advertising, tradeshow, framing, paper, printer or art reps, who call on you to tell you what is happening in the business; you wouldn't want to benefit from someone who sees the business from 30,000 feet when you can stay grounded in your studio.
6. Don't bother investing extra money to get the best digital scan possible for your reproductions. If less than the best is acceptable for you, by golly it ought to be good enough for your collectors and would be collectors.
7. Don't ever access the wealth of great information so freely shared by Alyson Stanfield, Robert Genn, Paul Dorrell, Dan's Empty Easel, Charley Parker, Katherine Tyrrell, Clint Watson, Dick Harrison and Barney Davey to name just a few because you suppose you can't trust anyone who is not another starving artist. Surely, they are a bunch of self-serving types just angling to retire once they glom on to a huge chunk of your awesome marketing budget.
8. Don't go to art tradeshows such as ArtExpo or Decor Expo when you can't afford to exhibit. Why would you waste your time seeing how your competitors are doing when none of it matches the masterpieces coming from your easel?
9. Don't waste your time reading a trade magazine like Art World News, Art Business News or Decor. You can't afford to have your creativity be informed by what the most successful artists and publishers in the business are doing.
10. Don't participate in artist discussion boards such as Wet Canvas, Digital Painting Forum, Art Scuttlebutt and Online Visual Artists when you could be watching reruns of Desperate Housewives instead. What could you possibly learn there you don't already know?
11. Don't use the Internet to market yourself and your business. Why would you spend your time with a Web site or one of those trendy Blog things? For heaven's sake, don't even think of whiling away precious hours starting a Squidoo lens or figuring out how the likes of Boing Boing might help jumpstart your career.
12. Don't succumb to the siren song of shameless self-promotion. Stay humble and know that hope alone will bring you all the sales, notice, fame and glory you surely deserve. Let the money grubbers have their time now, your lasting fame and legacy after you are long gone will be the best revenge.
13. Don't go to the extra expense of using a professional printer, or at least carefully follow all the procedures they employ to create lasting art, when you can bang out almost archival reproductions right on your desktop. After all, a giclee is a giclee is a giclee; right?.

BONUS POINTS

1. Don't take the snarky tongue-in-cheek comments personally and keep in mind that controversy sparks more interest than milquetoast commentary.
2. Keep in mind the timeless advice to Wear Sunscreen, which is the common name of a column titled Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune on June, 1 1997. The most popular and well-known form of the essay is the successful music single released in 1999, accredited to Baz Luhrmann.
   

The Secondary Art Market - Bev Doolittle's Beyond Negotiations Sold Out & The Lunacy of Limited Edition Giclees

Brad Greek, a longtime supporter of my book, consulting and blog recently notified me Bev Doolittle's latest limited edition piece, Beyond Negotiations, was sold out at Greenwich Workshop, her publisher of many years. No surprise in that news really. When I blogged about the work last month, the larger canvas giclee 350 piece edition was already taken. It was only a matter of time before the smaller canvas edition of 3,750 would also be no longer available at the publisher level. Together, the two editions represent $4 million in retail sales for unframed work. (Erratum, the edition of 3,750 was identified on my previous post as being on paper. That is incorrect, it is also a giclee on canvas.)

There may be other artists selling out large editions like Doolittle's, but I doubt any are doing it as quickly as we've seen with Beyond Negotiations, which is her first limited edition published in eight years. Obviously, her fans, collectors and speculators remain enthusiastic about her work. The new piece is already active on the secondary market. The secondary art market and unlimiting giclees are the subject of this post.

Barney Davey Featured in Great Output Magazine

I was honored to be invited for a Q & A interview with Eileen Fritsch, the editor of Great Output magazine. It is the cover story for the July/August issue. Although I primarily work with painters, I've lately found many photographers and convergent media artists interested in learning the nuts and bolts of the fine art print reproduction market. This feature story is an example of the growing interest in developing a following from photographers in the art print market and art marketing, primarily in the form of giclees.

Here's the description provided on the publication's Website:

GREAT OUTPUT is our bi-monthly printed publication for photographers who want to know more about how to print, finish, display, and sell digital images. Eileen Fritsch continues her leadership role in compiling and editing newsworthy and commentary content that has, over the last three years, earned a quality reputation and built a loyal following.

The GapingVoid Comes from the Creative Mind of Hugh McLeod

If you haven't yet availed yourself of the wit and wisdom of Hugh McLeod, please do so forthwith. His blog post, HOW TO BE CREATIVE, from nearly three years back remains his most popular. With good reason, it's brilliant, pointed, poignant and downright hilarious. Read his 31 tips on how to be creative and you are sure to laugh, be informed, be reminded and be resembled. The full title of his blog is, gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"  Enjoy!

ArtExpo Bets on Las Vegas Redux

New Beginnings - ArtExpo Bets on Las Vegas

In the art world, when a show in a new venue springs forth with energy, sales and optimism, the excitement is palpable and contagious. It's my hope this post will herald a new beginning with ArtExpo Las Vegas. The past decade has wrought so much change within the industry and for the most part, everything is more difficult and confounding. But, opportunity still abounds if you know where find the cheese in its new spaces. I truly hope this show is one of those spaces. The industry sorely needs the shot of adrenalin that good news and great results a happening new venue always brings.

If you have been a reader of my Art Print Issues blog, you know I have expressed the importance to the industry of having a vibrant ArtExpo and dismay at changes there that don't portend well for the portion of the art market it importantly represents. I won't discuss the changes wrought by a host of factors, some of which are roiling industries of all sorts here. See the blog for details.

THE CASE FOR VEGAS
Following a trend begun in 1998 by casino developer extraordinaire, Steve Wynn, to bring fine art to Las Vegas, ArtExpo is set to open its first international art fair in the gambling mecca next month on the weekend of September 28 - 30. ArtExpo brings its 29-year old reputation from New York City where it is established as a premier destination for the fine art trade and collectors of fine art. The venue is the very popular and ultra-hip Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

New Beginnings - ArtExpo Bets on Las Vegas

I guest blog at Absolute Arts on a semi-frequent basis. The subject of my August 9 has the same title as this post. If you go there and my blog is not up, please try again later. It is sometimes mid-morning before they get the latest contribution posted. If you have been reading the posts here the past few months, you know I have expressed concern over changes at ArtExpo New York that do not bode well for the industry. I know changes are inevitable and today more than ever Will Rogers' astute admonishment rings true:

"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

Accepting change is one thing, being concerned the changes are causing harm to an industry is another. Right now, ArtExpo is planning its coming out party for Las Vegas. I am cautiously optimistic to know the show being held at the Mandalay Bay Casino and Resort on September 28 - 30, is sold out. That's a good thing. Now to bake that cake and eat it too, buyers have to be drawn to the show and they have to buy. If that happens, we will be witnessing one of the best things to happen to the industry in a long time.

By the way, if you haven't spent time on Absolute Arts, you should. It has lots to offer artists and there is much to learn from the site. It offers artists high traffic and some I've seen on artist's discussion boards have reported good sales results from it, while others have not had that result. That would tell me the sales came from those artists who have images with appeal that are priced appropriately.

THIS JUST IN: Dick Harrison reports he has put up another of his informative podcasts on his www.salestipsforartists.com Web site. This on the subject that vexes nearly every artist, especially emerging artists: How Should I Price My Artwork. As always, Dick in his incredible generosity offers this invaluable information at his best price: free. I've yet to listen to one of his podcasts and not come away better for it.

Do You Have a Second Life? Do You Need a Second Life?

If you want to be somebody else,
If you're tired of fighting battles with yourself.
If you want to be somebody else
Change your mind, change your mind. - lyrics to Change Your Mind by Sister Hazel

If you answer is yes, you likely are one of the 8.5 million plus people who have created a virtual alter ego on Second Life. Here is the description of what Second Life is from its Web site:

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 8,558,745 Residents from around the globe.

There are who find it hard to imagine one having enough time for a rich involved second life when their real life is so hectic already, while for others the escape from the clamor of reality is the lure. Me, I signed up and got an avatar, but was fairly bored before I got off Help Island where you learn to walk, talk, drive and fly and get an appearrance and find and move stuff. I did go to some galleries and cafes, but still was anxious to get back to RL (real life) in SL parlance.

Despite my personal experience, I don't underestimate the power of such software to transform people's lives and businesses. That actual countries are setting up consulates on Diplomacy Island gives you another glimpse of the depth of involvement and the potential others see in the virtual world. If you can find a way to make this work for you, go for it and please report back here when you do or if you already have.

Before you think I'm crazy and wonder why I'm posting about Second Life, you should know it is in the press for many reasons. For example, it was featured as a cover story in the May 6, 2006 BusinessWeek magazine with this headline: My Virtual Life - A journey into a place in cyberspace where thousands of people have imaginary lives. Some even make a good living. Big advertisers are taking notice.

The July 4, 2007 edition of The Art Newspaper carried this article: Art Makes a Scene on Second Life - The online virtual world is becoming one of the best places for for artists, curators and dealers to meet. The article mentions the island of Artropolis where artists have set up galleries that sell both virtual and actual art online. One artist claims to have made more than $10,000 offline from contacts made in Second life.

The blog, Business Communicators of Second Life recently announced Sanpellegrino's pool party launch for those whoever wanted to be part of the high brow Italian art and club scene. Wow and darnit! I missed it on July 25. Before you laugh, consider its sponsor is international consulting firm Accenture. So, if you are just bored, want to kill some time in a virtual world and perhaps pick up some sales and contacts you would not otherwise get, Second Life just might be the ticket for you.