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ARTICLES FOR THE MONTH OF JULY 2009

 

This is really cool summer art

According to an article two days in the Los Angeles section of About.com, two very enterprising young architects have found a new way to supplement their incomes during the hot summer months. They are driving around L.A. in an ice cream truck selling ice cream sandwiches resembling miniature architectural structures. Calling their business “Cool Haus” (in homage to the famous Dutch architect Rem Koolhaus) they sell frozen treats with a designer look to them. In keeping with the architectural theme all these summer delights have been named after architects or famous architectural structures. Feeling hot? Cool down with a sugar cookie with strawberry ice cream “Frank Behry”, named after architect Frank Gehry who designed, among many other buildings, the Disney Concert Hall. Master modernist Mies van der Rohe has been ‘honored’ with a chocolate cookie with mint chip ice cream named the Mies van-illa Rohe. The two young lady entrepreneurs promise to post their daily itineraries throughout the summer at Twitterfeed if you’d like to buy some of these art sculptures. Now that we have understood how the ice creams get there names, I wonder whether the truck has a musical loudspeaker by Renzo Piano? If you do hear the truck in your neighborhood, rush out and Getty yourself a Richard Meier ice delight. Frankly, I laud their initiative. Wright on!

Neon Signs, Billboards, Flashing Lights, Traffic Signals and Dangling Art – keep your eye on the road. 
If I’m already taking stuff from About.com, I might as well tell you about another article that was posted there recently. The writer of this article informs us that street art has taken on new heights. Apparently street artists, looking for new ways to embed their art, have taken to dangling "stuff" from the wires that extend across the streets. Recent sightings of this art include plastic ducks dangling at various intersections in L.A. while a dangling letter “B” caught the writer’s attention, hanging from a wire in West Hollywood. Next time you get stopped by a red light, look up, there might be a work of art hanging right before your eyes.

French Landscapes

A new exhibition opened yesterday, July 28 at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center and will be on view until November 1, 2009. This latest exhibition entitled “Capturing Nature’s Beauty: Three Centuries of French Landscape” spotlights three centuries of the French landscape tradition from its emergence in the 1600’s to its preeminence in the 1800’s. All the works in the show are part of the Getty’s drawings collection or are from the Getty Research Institute. In the late Middle Ages French artists depicted landscapes in manuscript illuminations, murals and tapestries, but only as backgrounds to human activities. It was only from the beginning of the 1600’s that landscapes per se became independent and respected artistic subject matter, and French artists turned it into their own specialty.
By the middle of eighteenth century pure Landscape painting was taught at all the art schools and studios. The genre was by now greatly appreciated and collected by the aristocracy and wealthy commoners who commissioned the works to hang in their salons as symbols of their status. This was an age when styles of art were classified by the literati into a kind of hierarchy, where subject matter was ranked according to intellectual or moral content. According to this perspective, pure landscapes were placed beneath historical paintings and portraiture and still considered secondary work.  At the same time, not all landscape had equal status within the position; as pure landscape art had evolved it was commonly accepted among artists and connoisseurs that the more idealized a landscape, the more respect it was likely to command. This concept of idealization in landscape drawing and painting was embraced and largely perpetuated by French artists themselves well into the 1800s. It was the Impressionists with their new vision, new color palettes, with their rupture with the old traditions of realism in art, who brought Landscapes to the forefront of French art in the late 1800’s.
The Getty exhibition really does demonstrate the “Capturing of Nature’s Beauty” in the wide range of techniques and styles attesting to the mastery of French landscape artists over the past few centuries. There are works by Nicolas Poussin, Fragonard, Claude Lorrain, Pissarro and Dutch artist Van Gogh who spent his adult life painting in the South of France. The landscapes, from different periods, all have one thing in common – they are expressions of the artist’s passion to recreate the real in art while searching for ideal in nature. If you like landscapes - go see this exhibition at the Getty. We think you’ll enjoy it.

Camille Pissaro
"Louveciennes"
Watercolor over Black Chalk

The Docent at your local museum

Got time on your hands? Enjoy visiting the local museums? Why not volunteer to do something that will enhance the time you spend there and give a lot of pleasure to other visitors at the same time? Consider becoming a docent. We’ve all see them and heard them during our visits to the exhibition. Often visitors will gather around them as they talk about a specific painting or discuss the work from a certain time

period. I, personally, have never come across a “bad” one – they are always informative, entertaining; never snobbish nor with superior airs, and I leave the museum feeling enriched by the insights they provide.
A docent is an educator – the word comes from docere in latin - which means to teach. Normally in the context of art museums they take on the role of tour guides leading observation and inquiry based tours of mostly groups through selected exhibitions. In general no formal academic qualifications are necessary to enter the training programs provided by each museum. It is useful to have a good understanding of art history and an appreciation for art itself, but perhaps the most important qualifications are enthusiasm, the ability to be a good communicator and the desire to share your appreciation with others.
Contact your local museum and ask about any volunteer positions they have, or any volunteer programs. Most big museums need volunteers at many levels - manning the information desk, signing up new members, giving guidance to families who have ‘lost their way,’ leading school groups and even doing research. In general all volunteers are asked to commit to at least one day a week and the ones who are accepted to the docent programs might undergo training for up to a whole year until they are entrusted with groups to lead. It is great way to enrich one’s own knowledge about the artworks in the local museum and a wonderful way to give back something to the community. So, if you have the enthusiasm, the commitment and discipline to become a docent make that call and get started……

A SANDSATIONAL DISPLAY OF ART FROMTHE YOU-KRAINE

Starting Branding Yourself As An Artist Now

There are tens of thousands of Artists in the Los Angeles area trying to sell their work privately, or through artists’ cooperatives or suburban galleries. By suburban I am not including mainstream dealers who have established healthy lists of well heeled collectors, and certainly not the top echelon of superstar galleries that attract the super wealthy Hollywood set. Suburban galleries are the entry gateways for almost all artists into the art market. Many of these places come and go and those who do survive struggle to pay the bills. The ones who weather the ups and downs do so by exhibiting emerging artists and concluding sales of work at in the $1000 to $5000 range. If an artist has sales at the suburban gallery level, the owner will try to promote him/her by making a recommendation to a mainstream gallery, where the owner has much more influence to generate buzz and sales. All artists know how tough the competition is to get exhibition space at the suburban gallery level; the competition at the next level is a hundred times more difficult, because the potential profits and losses are more considerable. Above the mainstream galleries come the branded super galleries, whose names are known to all in the world of art and who have acquired the trust and confidence of super rich buyers who are looking for investments. The superstar galleries are branded galleries and as brands they use their money and influence to brand the artist they represent, so that any work by him/her becomes desirable no matter the quality or content. The branded galleries don’t deal in artworks –they deal in Artists. They are the gateways to the ultimate levels of success – Sotheby’s and Christies- the two great mega stars of the art world who do not deal in art nor artists –they deal in money! 
The world of contemporary art is a total puzzle for most people. Does anybody, nowadays, know what art is? “Luckily” the top dealers do….. or at least they have the charisma, verbal power and publicity machinery to convince us that they do. While we tend to go along with the spin, it is evident that while contemporary art is becoming more difficult to define, the players are diverting our focus on to the artists. If, for the top dogs, it is the artist who is important and not the art, how can an emerging artist get a head start on this road to fame and success? Maybe take tips from two of the most successful living artists at the moment: Jeff Koons and Britain’s Damien Hirst. Both of them are flamboyant ‘characters’ adept at creating buzz and scandal about their every moves and generally acting out the role of rich super stars. Both of them have declared that much of their artwork has not even been created by them. They have established factory type studios where assistants actually do the work and the two masters will sign their names to the final piece if they approve it. Please, don’t tell me that some of the great old masters used to work in the same manner! Back then the apprentices came to learn artistic skills from the masters, while it seems that the only skills some contemporary ‘artists’ have are marketing skills! To illustrate the point, Hirst has sold dozens of paintings of a series called Spots. When asked which ones in the series he preferred he said that, in his opinion, the best were by one of his assistants called Rachel. When Rachel’s paintings are signed by Hirst they sell in the hundreds of thousands of dollars –when Rachel’s paintings are signed by Rachel they have no buyers! Damien Hirst does not create art; Damien Hirst creates Damien Hirsts’ in his studio, just as Jeff Koons creates Jeff Koons.’ These are what the market buys.
So, all you young emerging artists take some time to think about how to get noticed. Make your art outrageously and completely non-understandable and, if you’re not already a ‘character,’ take some acting classes - there are plenty of them around in L.A. Today’s art market is about you, not about your art.

Summer School for Art Detectives

Every summer millions of tourists flock to Italy to see the wonderful masterpieces in the churches, museums and art galleries. This year a few art aficionados are looking and learning about some unusual aspects of the art world from a different angle. In Amelia, a small picturesque town in Umbria surrounded by a high mediaeval wall, a group of students are taking part in summer courses of a master’s program in ‘International Art Crime Studies.’ One of the teachers is Dutch Professor, Edgar Tijhuis, a criminologist who teaches at VU University in Amsterdam. His classes focus on international organized crime and especially the part played by art theft and fraud. Other lecturers include retired FBI special agents and a detective from the Art & Antiques Department of Scotland Yard who have all had hands-on experience in solving art theft crimes.  According to some sources, after weapons and drugs, art comes in at third place for the amount of illegal money that changes hands throughout the world. The courses include art history, criminology, art forgery, provenance (documentation) forgeries and the technical aspects of museum security measures. The three month program was set up following the surge of interest generated by media reports about the recent restitution of looted art works from the Nazi era, the increasing number of high profile art thefts and the ever more sophisticated forgeries and frauds appearing in the art market. Among the participating students are criminologists , writers, private investigators, police officials, museum professionals and art historians –all have come for their own reasons to learn how to combat and solve some of these problems.
The academic program was organized and sponsored by an American representing the ‘Association For Research Into Crimes Against Art.’ The decision to hold the classes in Umbria was to highlight the fact that Italy has by far the most art crime of any country in the world, with 20,000 art thefts reported each year. The Association, when not occupied with the summer program, consults for individuals, insurance companies and art institutions on the ‘protection and recovery’ of art.
Although there are universities around the world offering classes on art faking, forgery, intellectual and property copyright protection etc., the organizers of the Umbria master’s program maintain that it is the first to provide an interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach to the international problem of art crime. In one interesting assignment about ‘security’ students were asked what they would go steal from the town’s archaeological museums; how they would go about it and where they would expect to sell it.
The degree conferred on ‘graduating’ students is unfortunately not, for the time being, formally recognized by any accredited university.
If you’re interested in applying for next year’s summer program, you’ll need $7,000 for tuition alone and a hefty sum for travel costs and accommodation. You might have to steal a Rembrandt to come up with the money!

The “One and Other” London Project

Your chance to make an exhibition of yourself

Since July 6 visitors to London’s famous Trafalgar square, have been witnessing the daily spectacle of ordinary men and women climbing up on to an empty plinth where they stand alone for one hour as living monuments. In the center of Trafalgar Square stands a statue of Lord Horatio Nelson perched on a high column. Surrounding the base of this column are statues of four lions. At each of the four corners of the square is a plinth normally reserved for statues of past military heroes of the British Empire. One of these four plinths, being temporarily empty, is being used for an art project devised by a British sculptor called Antony Gormley. The idea of “One and Other” is get members of the public to occupy the 4th plinth every hour, 24 hours a day for 100 days until October 14th. 2400 people, chosen at random from a huge list of eager would-be participants can do whatever they like during the allotted time on the plinth providing it’s legal. Some have chosen to remain silently immobile as if in deep thought, while others have used their time to dance, sing, vent their anger, or rant and rave and protest about whatever seizes them at the moment. All the participants of this ‘artistic experiment’ are from the UK, must be at least 16 years old and are supposed to represent a wide selection of the island’s population. They are permitted to carry hand held accessories with them onto the plinth if required for a performance.
Extra video cameras, in addition to the ones already installed in Trafalgar square, have been set up to record every moment of this living sculpture project. Certain safety measures, such as a net around the plinth, have been installed to prevent wild theatrical attempts of suicide. While some people anticipated extreme acts of folly and indecency by some participants to get their “15 minutes of fame” (as Andy Warhol once said), the spectacle until now has proved to be quite un-interesting. After two weeks, according to some UK newspapers, most passersby don’t even take notice of the project and Nelson’s Column has reclaimed its No. 1 spot in the Square. The press, of course, needs titillating; stories they would prefer to have a few lunatics up there on the plinth from time to time to ‘liven’ up the live statues with something a little more scandalous than poetry reading, song and dance, and protests about the ecology and economy.
Perhaps if the organizers had used ‘American Idol’ or ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ as examples, they could have selected unknown everyday people who actually have something interesting to say or do during their time on the plinth.

ART EVENTS AND OUR ART BLOG

At Artlanow we are inundated with invitations to exhibitions by gallery owners. Some contact us with requests to publish announcements and their own critical articles about their upcoming or current shows, and some have even invited us to write our own critic.  For the time being, we will continue our policy of ‘non-intervention and neutrality’ when it comes to promoting certain shows above others. 
The Artlanow team goes to quite a lot of openings at Galleries all over Los Angeles. First of all we enjoy looking at art; we like to keep abreast of what’s currently showing in the local art scene and, as an extra bonus, we get to meet a lot of new interesting people. Sometimes, but not always, we also enjoy the various activities woven into the art that transform the evening into a memorable ‘eventful experience.’ As long as the ‘event’ remains secondary to the exhibition of the art, these complementary activities can add an extra dimension to enhance the art experience. A lot of galleries though are going overboard with extravaganzas that have no relation to the art and totally distract attention from the central exhibition. I guess it’s a part of life in Los Angeles, where we love cinema, theater and showmanship; where we like larger than life characters and we are so used to spectacular events that, without them, we are frightened of boring others.
We have seen work by hundreds (if not) thousands of Artists in Los Angeles and we are constantly amazed by the exceptional quality and endless innovation. The works are good enough to be appreciated without the unrelated theatrical sideshows that often accompany the exhibition.
There are two types of Art Blog. The ones published by magazines, journals, newspapers and news associations generally give information about current exhibitions and include written critics of artists’ work. The second kind of Art Blog, found on many Artists’ personal websites today, is the posting of commentaries and introspection by artists themselves about their works in progress.
The Artblog/Art News at Artlanow is a little different.  Not wishing to pose as expert art critics, we rarely write specifically about the exhibitions we see or give our opinions as layperson/art enthusiasts with a lot of practical viewing under the belt.
“If practice makes perfect”, though we are far from being perfectly qualified art critics, we are perhaps practiced enough to give a qualified opinion on rare occasions. So, in this rare moment, we like to recommend that you visit the 10th Anniversary All Group Exhibition at the Valley Institute of Visual Art (VIVA) on Moorepark St. Sherman Oaks. In this no frills, art only show, that runs from July 19- August 8, more than two hundred works by about 100 Los Angeles Artists from four local art associations are exhibited. (We congratulate those members of Artlanow who have had their work accepted.) The show gives an excellent opportunity to see so many diverse genres in one show.
Having established that our Art Blog is not a regular art critics’ or art news forum, we encourage individual artists (especially members of Artlanow) to republish with us written material from their own personal blogs that will be of general interest or benefit to the arts community. Bear in mind that though your thought processes and spiritual frame of mind, while preparing and developing an on-going artwork are important to you, it is doubtful that your daily diary is of interest to a general audience.
The Artlanow Art Blog/Art News is what it is. We hope you enjoy reading it from time to time and we invite you all to send in articles for our attention when the muse takes you.

Hollywood Celebrities Buy Art

The paparazzi bring us photos and stories about the Hollywood celebs all the time. We get to see where they eat, their latest fashions, where they vacation and whether they’re ‘attached’, single or breaking up. Since Artlanow focuses on the goings on in the Los Angeles art world, I decided to try to find out something about how the celebrities spend their money on Art. Here are some recent magazine and internet articles that came up in my research. The first, published two weeks ago, relates that Brad Pitt visited the Art 40 Basel show in Switzerland in June of this year and purchased a painting for just under $1million, done in 1998 by a German artist Neo Rauch.  Born 1960 in Leipzig (then East Germany) Rauch is considered to be part of the social realism movement – a kind of post communist surrealism depicting historic social struggles. With his latest acquisition, Brad has acquired work by a young artist whose work is already in some of the best art museums in the world including the MOMA in New York. In the past he and Angelina have been seen at the L.A. show of famed British graffiti artist Banksy where they made a few purchases of his paintings. It is rumored that they sometimes consult with the Broad family of Los Angeles when considering new works for their collection.
In the last week of May this year, I came across Leonardo DiCaprio at Bergamot Station. He was looking at art work that was be included in an upcoming sale at the Santa Monica auction house which is located within the Bergamot Station complex. His name came up in an article I read a few days ago about a current exhibition of work at the San Jose Museum of Art (June 20 –Sept 16) by Los Angeles artist Todd Schorr, who is known as being part of the L.A. lowbrow art movement. Schorr, aged 54, has done numerous massive canvases of iconic cartoon characters that are entertaining and thought provoking at the same time. The article mentioned that his work is collected by Leonardo DiCaprio and another Hollywood celebrity, David Arquette. Mr. Dicaprio apparently collects work by another local artist who does cartoon-like pop surrealism paintings (think of Alice in Wonderland), who is called Mark Ryden. Mr. Ryden, who was born in Oregon, moved to Southern California, studied art in Pasadena and has lived for some time in Sierra Madre. Leonardo DiCaprio should be lauded for his support of local Los Angeles artists and his support of local charities: one internet website mentions that Leonardo has among his collection a painting made by a talented elephant named Aet purchased during a charity fundraiser. (They have a picture of the abstract work published on the site and honestly, it looks like Leonardo DiCaprio knows good art even when it’s done by an elephant!)
Hollywood actor, comedian, director and producer Steve Martin has acquired an interesting collection of artworks including a Picasso, a Lucien Freud, a de Kooning , work by Cy Twombly, Georgia O’Keeffe, Roy Lichtenstein and a couple of Edward Hopper paintings. Though his tastes are more conservative than those of the younger Brad and Leo, his collection reflects his strong support and commitment to art and his ability to put to together a good collection of modern work.
Another Hollywood celebrity art collector, known for his diabolic smile, dark glasses, superb acting and his court side seat at the Lakers’ games is Jack Nicholson. Scottish painter Jack Vettriano, whose most famous painting is the one of a couple dressed in evening attire  dancing on the beach, while the servants protect them from the wind with umbrellas, has boasted that while none of his paintings have made it to important art museums they have found their way into our Jack’s art collection.
I’m sure many other Hollywood celebs deserve praise for their support of the visual arts, however, information about their collections is scarce and perhaps, rightly so…Why invite burglars? On the other hand, who’d have thought that there was something about their lives that the tabloids haven’t yet told us yet.

Left handed Artists

 

All left handed people, at some time or other, become aware of the association of left handedness with the dominance of the right side of the brain. Medical research has shown that the right hemisphere of the brain controls creativity and visual skills, however, somehow  the word ‘genius’ seems to have filtered its ways into the common profile and become attached the list of left handed attributes. I guess this addition is due to the assumption that creativity leads to genius or that genius stems from creativity. Whatever the reason, I as a left hander, am  not going to put a stop to the rumors. If left handedness is associated with creativity and creativity leads to genius then I, of course, must be a genius –yes, it makes prfect sense to me!
Being a lefty, I take note of other lefties, especially people I see in the news who are left handed. We are a minority group -a secret society of folk seemingly like all others, yet we’re not. We hold our pens differently, we brush our teeth differently and we hold our tennis raquets and golf clubs ‘backwards’. Lefties, have you noticed that President Barack Obama is a member? If you haven’t,  watch him when  he next signs a Bill –who knows maybe you’ll see it when he signs the Health Coverage Reform Bill. As a bolster to the claims of us lefties towards genius status, did you know that five of the last 7 presidents were left handed ? Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush (father of), Bill Clinton and now President Obama were, or are, all members of our tribe. You’ll  notice that President George W. is not in our list of left handers. Since he is right handed and obviously NOT a genius, I put this forward as further circumstancial evidence to support to our irrefutable claims.
Let’s look at the history of Art for more scientic proof of our creative genius. Some of the greatest artists of all time were left handed. ( For the benefit of our argument we will disregard the thousands who were not.) We lefties must stick together if we are to perpetuate the myth -oops – ‘the scientific conclusion’ –that we are all potential geniuses. Among the famous left handed artists were Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo (ambidextrous), Raphael, Rembrandt, Raoul Dufy, Albrecht Durer , illusionist painter M.C. Escher, Hans Holbein the Younger, Paul Klee, Sir Edwin Landseer, Edvard Munch and let’s not forget the No. 1 commercial success of American contemporary kitsch Thomas Kincade. The list of lefties goes on and on and on……Do you really need more proof of how great we are? But, now I must stop. I feel something, I have had an epiphany and an over- powering urge to grab my brushes. Ah, this genius has had another idea!

 

When Art is Priceless, Just Pricey or Just Phony

When an artwork is priceless, we generally mean that its importance to our cultural heritage is so great that it would be wrong for it to be in the hands of an individual. It has a universal value that cannot be appraised in monetary terms and therefore no amount of money can take it from public ‘ownership’. It belongs to the people. Pricey art, albeit an indicator of contemporary culture is not the same - it has a number attached to it which nowadays can be up in the 100’s of millions. As much as we are agog at the immensity of these figures, there is still a clear distinction between the two definitions. Pricey art is private enterprise while priceless art is the public domain.
A lot has been written about the workings of the Art Market. Despite all the literature, most of us still have no idea how it operates, who or what drives it forward, and how seemingly ‘worthless’  pieces end up commanding such enormous prices. Obviously Art is no longer judged purely by its aesthetic qualities; in fact ‘Art’ has so changed over the last 100 years that today’s experts convince us that just about anything can be defined as art. When I talk about the Art market I don’t see the art as the commodity, I prefer to think of the Artist as the investment. He or she is a ‘company’ whose stocks and shares fluctuate up and down. The high end buyers are buying into ‘companies’ that have a proven  track record, meaning in this case, that the movers and shakers in the art world have made a collective, conscious decision to manipulate the market in the artist’s favor. It happens in all the stock markets, right? An acquisition of art is the purchase of stock in an Artist – and specifically in his signature. For many high end buyers it is done on the ‘understanding’ that as soon as the purchase is made, the dealers who brokered the deal will start looking for a new buyer to acquire their ‘stock’ in the future at a higher price.
Now, coming back to the investment in the Artist’s signature - Insider trading, stock manipulation and fraudulent schemes are part and parcel of the art world. Art fraud has been going on forever; many of the old masters used apprentices to execute works to which they, then, signed their own name if the work was to their liking. Wasn’t that fraud? Copying art is, and has always been, an accepted learning process in many developing artist’s academic studies. Some realized, however, that in the modern world of art, there was money to be made by copying - if they could copy the art to perfection, why not copy the signature, as well? The twentieth century, when the ‘Art Market’ sprung into existence and expanded rapidly, is when we began to see the price of a work generating more interest and conversation than the artwork itself. Driven by the large sums to be made, Art fraud, since then, has taken on new dimensions. The victims include some of the great manipulators of the Market, who in their hurried search for profits have fallen foul to modern sophisticated forgers and con artists.
Recently I finished two very interesting books that give insights in to the fraud and deceptive goings-on in the world of art: “Provenance” by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo is about the exploits of art forger John Myatt and his mentor/associate John Drewe. They were active in the UK art world during the late 1980’s and into the 90’s. The second: “The $12million Stuffed Shark” by Don Thompson is an exposé of the manipulative methods used to promote –not art- but prices of art. Having just finished these two books I was amused by an article in the L.A. Times this week about a well known figure who previously owned a gallery in Manhattan. He has been accused of stealing from artists, collectors and investors to the tune of $93 million. Among the victims of his alleged fraud was the estate of the late father of actor Robert de Niro, who was an abstract expressionist painter by the way, and also tennis star John McEnroe. The wheel of crooked fortune spins endlessly round and round as the con artists devise new ways to get in to people’s pockets.

Websites for Artists

Artlanow is a collective website where many Artists show their work. The content of our site, both in images and texts, is far larger than what would be needed by an individual Artist exhibiting his/her own portfolio of work on a personal website. Many of our participating artists have sent us emails saying how much they like our design and how easy it is to navigate through the categories and different pages. We thank you for your compliments. Artlanow.com is supposed to be easy to navigate –as any website should be – and as for design, we adhere to the old saying that simple is best!
We do a lot of research on the web, browsing through personal artists’ websites. We have seen hundreds, if not, thousands of Artists’ websites that have been designed up by themselves, or by using templates or by website specialists. They vary from the basic to the ultra complex incorporating the latest technological gizmos and special effects.
This article is to write about what types of programming are best suited for displaying art work in the most effective manner possible. Remember, setting up a personal website is only a first stage; the most important step is to “optimize” your website. Basically this means getting people to see it among the billions of other websites that are on the internet. The optimization process really begins with the correct way to code your website, because, believe it or not, some of the online portfolios that we see, when researching, are not suitable for ‘search engine optimization’ at all. In a nutshell, people find your website via Google, Yahoo and the other search engines; their robots or ‘bots’ can read certain coding better than others when they whizz through cyber space looking for information to answer a search inquiry.
There are three main types of websites: HTML which is the most widely used type of programming (Artlanow.com is based on HTML), and then there are JavaScript websites and thirdly Flash websites.
The internet was founded on Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML); it is the basic programming language, a lot can be accomplished with it and it is still constitutes the building blocks of today’s internet. In addition to its own capabilities it can also support more concise and more recent programming like PHP and ASP to facilitate certain programming tasks. The great thing about HTML websites is that all the search engines read their codes very well. When you navigate from page to page within an HTML website, you’ll see that the address at the top of the browser changes, and if you pass your mouse over any links, you’ll see the new linking HTML address appear at the bottom of your browser. These adaptations allow search engines to pick up all the pages within the website very easily.
Websites that are based entirely on JavaScript do not allow search engines to ‘read’ individual pages so easily and therefore some content will go undiscovered. This is not to say that JavaScript is not good programming; you can accomplish great things with it, however, I think it makes more sense to use lines of JavaScript within the context of HTML in order to facilitate SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Judging from our research, more and more artists seem to be setting up their personal websites with Flash. Although Flash programming provides some very “flashy” effects with animated graphics and fade in and out images etc. - for the search engine bots they are almost invisible. Check it out: no matter where you go within a Flash website the address at the top the browser remains unchanged. The search bots, therefore, can only read the content of one page when looking for results to a search inquiry. Another thing to consider is that Flash websites take time to load. People are impatient; if they don’t have super-dooper high speed internet access they might pass onto the next in line if the website doesn’t open instantaneously. Another thing to take in to account is that quite a lot of computer owners do not install the upgrades they receive over the net, and without the latest Adobe upgrades, a lot of the Flash gizmos will not appear on their screen. If their computer cannot read the Flash programming, images do not appear at all –which is a downer if you’re an artist exhibiting your work online. I know a lot of Flash websites come with a “click here to download the Flash player necessary to view this site.” Again, I say, your website is one of billions –why make viewing it more difficult than others when the competition is so fierce. In addition to all these remarks, I’d like to say that when I look at art online, I like to control the amount of time I view each piece with the click of my mouse. The automatic ‘fade-in- fade-out to the next image’ on Flash Artists websites can be annoying when you forget to hit the pause button…..
Anyway, as usual, we leave you with the conclusion that it’s important to do your homework before deciding on what is best for you and your artwork. We think that the art work should speak for itself. If it’s good, it will not need to be dressed up with special effects and flashy presentations. If you do use that stuff in your website, don’t overdo it –keep it simple and keep it secondary to your own art.

Installation Art – is it time to move on

 

When Marchel Duchamp submitted a urinal to a New York exhibition in 1917, the question of what is art began to take on new definitions. The latest, in vogue, seems to be that “art can be anything.” Unfortunately, if art can be anything, this ultimately implies that there is no art - in the sense that art is something special. It seems that since Duchamp’s porcelain piss pot, (artistically renamed “the Fountain”), 100 years of art under the banner of “installation –environmental – project art” -call it what you will, is being slowly flushed down the toilet. It’s as if somewhere down the line Artists began to say to themselves, “Why bother to create, let’s just take whatever is to hand, throw it together –and call it art! We’ll take mundane objects and, by the very touch of our hands, transform the bric-a-brac of everyday life into a transcendental experience that illuminates and satirizes human defects, frailties and obsessions.”
By the 1960’s the term “Installation Art” was coined to describe the new kind of art that had developed over the years building on the ideas behind the Duchamp urinal. Recently, it seems to have gradually taken over contemporary galleries almost to the exclusion of other movements -quite amazing, given the almost non-existent commercial value installation art has. What else can possibly be done in installation art? Surely we have seen and heard it all -a hundred times in different shapes, sizes and in different materials. I am so blasé by the installations, to which we are exposed, that the best reaction I can muster nowadays is a shrug and a sigh. The concept behind installation art is to transform indoor spaces providing the viewer with a total sensory experience, rather than focusing his/her mind onto an isolated focal point on a wall or pedestal. Since installation art is usually temporary, I can see that both time and space become dimensional elements of the art itself. All of this was interesting in the beginning but it is now boring, boring, boring. It is time to move on! The urinal was thought provoking; it was new, it was innovation. Taking mundane, disparate objects, basically drab paraphernalia and presenting them as art can work for a while but let’s stop this excruciating anti-climax to what was an interesting period in the annals of art and move on. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. These endless repetitive non -statements around ‘stuff’ now leave me empty. I want art to be at least good. I want it to thrill me, excite me, even, anger me –any reaction will do, except boredom. It is time to stand up and ask the real question: Is it art, and if it is, is it good art? For me, there is no spark or contagious energy in what we’re seeing nowadays, and I can only say that I am relieved that  installation art is conceived as a temporary display  to be followed by dismantlement and, for most of it, -oblivion.
Let’s move on. I don’t know about you, but I look forward to something different, something that will re-kindle my enthusiasm, pique my curiosity and make me eager to immerse myself in art again.

The Smallest Artworks in the World

‘Your name on a grain of rice’ sounds pretty amazing. I’ve seen people doing this kind of thing along the promenade at Venice and at street fairs here and now but, to be honest, I’ve never really looked to see how they do it. Do they really manage to write your entire name on a single, normal grain of rice, or is it only the initials, or maybe just the first name? Whatever, it is a quite an achievement. Imagine practicing this delicate technique at home by copying your own name “Don” or your sister’s name “Ann’ for endless hours on grains of rice; then, when you think you’ve got it mastered, you set up shop along the boardwalk and your first client is called Charlotte  or Brandon – where do those extra letters go?
Though the name on rice thing is quite an achievement, it pales in comparison to the scale of the art work of a British guy called Willard Wigan who creates micro- sculptures that fit in to the eye of a needle -literally. His works are so small that they have to be viewed through a microscope to be seen at all. How does he do it? Apparently he goes into a meditative trance while working, so that his heart beat is slowed, allowing him to eliminate virtually any hand tremors as he works between heart beats to create his figures. He sculpts grains of sand as his material and then applies color with ‘brushes’ of a single hair. For his ‘services to art’ he has received an MBE award from the Queen. As small as his art work might be, it is nowadays receiving huge mega prices when it comes up for sale.
Wigan’s sculptures are probably the smallest examples of hand-made art work to date, but they are not the smallest examples of nature’s art work. Nano technology is allowing scientists to ‘see’ and ‘photogragh’ the wonders of nature at the atomic level. (FYI a nanometer is 60 billionths of a meter; a human hair measures about 80,000 nanometers wide just to give you some idea of what we’re talking about when we talk of nano-art. Using high powered spectrometers scientists have been able to photograph nature at the tiniest level and ,as to be expected, it is just as beautiful there as in our everyday lives. Scientific journals have published some beautiful colored photos of the abstract nano world.
A few years ago IBM unveiled what they called the ‘smallest man assisted artwork’ ever. It was an image of the sun that IBM scientists made from 20,000 microscopic particles of gold etched on to a silicon chip wafer using special computer controlled sensors and lenses inside nano-circuits. Scientists are known to like challenges and this feat will surely set off a competition to create smaller and smaller nano-artworks as technology becomes more advanced.
Now, if we’re going to make small art, then we’ll need small art galleries and museums in which to show them. In Hillsboro Village, Nashville there is a gallery measuring 29 inches by 40 inches which claims to be the smallest in the world. Artists specializing in miniature art are vying for the very limited exhibition space in the gallery where the directors have decided to accept works that are only less than 5” in size. In Bristol, England another Gallery, the size of a walk-in cupboard, has opened its door - and for a small place it is making a big noise in the local art community. The British, being generally a wacky bunch of people, have taken whole business of small art galleries to heart….In  a small village called Upper Settle a former telephone box has been transformed into what the locals call “the smallest art gallery in the world.” The council leaders have made an official application to the Guinness Book of Records to have their gallery officially recognized as champion in its category. Among other galleries, competing for the title of smallest art gallery is a place in Amsterdam which has recently opened in the famous red light district. The owner was inspired to open after visiting two miniature galleries in Paris and decided to “expand’ on the idea by opening an even smaller establishment than the French version. In keeping with the window displays of her red-light neighbors, she exhibits a miniscule nude of herself on a horse in the front window to attract clients.
It may be small art in small galleries but it is all organized by big thinking entrepreneurs!

Artists Colonies – The new you

If only we could all do exactly what we want. Just imagine, chucking in the day job and dedicating yourself full-time to your art! Of course, taking that step takes a lot of courage and a little bit of ‘crazy’ because even if you’re going to do your art full-time, it doesn’t mean you’re going to sell more. Painting or sculpting all day long on an empty stomach somehow doesn’t have the same allure as whiling away the evening hours on your latest creation with a glass of wine and a few crackers to hand.
But if you do decide that it’s time to take the leap (and it is, in a way, a leap of faith in YOU and your talent,) don’t do it by holing up in your ivory tower studio, isolated from the real world. That you want to focus full-time on the work is fine, but allow someone, whose opinion you trust, to look in from time to time and proffer advice. If you really want to go the whole hog and live the ultimate artist’s dream –why not join an artists’ colony? There, you’ll be working alongside others who are just as adventurous and determined and, together, you will be able help each other through the adjustments and the rough times, if they happen (and they will.)
There are plenty of artists’ colonies spread out over the country offering various living and working conditions at different cost levels. Some of them are small intimate places with few participants, some have hundreds of artists grouped into the community, some are based on medium preferences, some offer just studio locations. If this is the road for you to take, do some research, go visit the ones you like and think long and hard before you pack your bags. We’re not saying don’t follow your dream, we’re reminding you that dreams come at a price.
Go east young man! According their website, the MacDowell Artists Colony in New Hampshire prides itself on being the oldest artist colony in the USA. Set in 450 acres of woodland and fields there are 32 artists’ studio, secluded from each other by trees and shrubs and each studio is furnished. The MacDowell studios are equipped to host visual artists, musicians or photographers.
In Ajo, a little town between Yuma and Tucson in Arizona you’ll find the Curley School, an artists’ colony set up in eight buildings on a seven acres campus. There are painters, sculptors, mixed media artists and photographers living and working on the site, operating a communal gallery to exhibit their work.
In San Francisco you’ll find Hunters Point Shipyard & Islais Creek Studios where about 200 or so artists at any given time work inside, what used to be, shipbuilding, repair and maintenance hangars. They put on shows twice a year that attract huge crowds.
In downtown Los Angeles, there is the Brewery Art Colony in what was previously a Pabst beer brewery -probably most of you know about it already. It’s quaint, the prices for the studios are not too expensive, and you get to work alongside other dedicated artists, exchange ideas, encourage and critic each other as neighbors and friends. There are open days when the general public can come visit your studio and the galleries on the site that can represent your work.
And, if you’re getting on in years, and you’d like to spend your retirement with other artists, check out the Burbank Senior Artists Colony in Burbank. If the practicalities of life have forced you to be more levelheaded than you’d like to have been, perhaps now is the time to let loose - it is never too late to chase a dream!

Artists in Los Angeles are lucky

Artists in Los Angeles are lucky to have so many career opportunities in fields related to the arts provided by the local movie, TV, theater, entertainment and advertising industries. Most young art students dream of becoming become successful fine artists, known for their paintings, sculptures or installation work. However, given the high costs for tuition that art students have to pay to get a ‘formal’ education in Art, it is a blessing to have so many professional fall back positions available such as graphic designing, animation, prop design, illustration work, and advertising visuals. The entertainment capital of the world thrives on the talents of our visual artists.
An article in today’s local press about the change of leadership at the Pasadena Art center College of Design brought to my attention that tuition and fees for an undergraduate fine art degree are currently around $128,000. Tuition fees alone at this Pasadena institution have grown from $12,000 to $15,000 a term over the last four years. Reading this made me realize, just how much artistic talent must go unrealized since those kinds of figures are way beyond the reach of most families. Secondly, I realized that graduating ‘Artists’ in Los Angeles are lucky to have many more opportunities than students in other areas of the country to earn a living and pay back those $$$$$$$ invested in their art.

 

The Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold

Coming up with a list of the most expensive art works in the world is about easy as compiling a list of the “best” artworks in the world. If we mean by expensive ‘the sum of money paid by one person to another’ then we can compile a list of sorts, but it will be based on recent auction house prices and does not include some of the secretive, private, undisclosed deals that go on in the art world. In addition, let’s not confuse the terms ‘expensive’ and ‘valuable.’ Just because an art work has been under the auction hammer recently doesn’t mean that it is among the most valuable pieces in the world. How much would some rich billionaire be prepared to pay for  the Mona Lisa or any other of the great paintings that hang in the museums of the world? There are expensive artworks, then there are exorbitantly expensive ones, and then there are priceless ones that are beyond money.
For the time being it would seem a painting entitled “Number 5”, done in 1948 by action painter Jackson Pollack, who died in 1956 is the reigning champion as the most expensive painting sold to date. In November 2006 it was sold for the reputed amount of $140 million. Coming in at No. 2 is another American artist Willem De Kooning, whose work “Woman III” changed hands (again in 2006) for a little less at $137.5 million. Apparently the seller on both occasions was the same person! Number three in our top of the arts chart is a Gustav Klimt “Adele Bloch-Bauer I, painted in 1907. This was sold for $135 million in a private sale again in 2006. (It would seem that all the big collectors were rolling in money back in 2006 when the economy and business was booming. I doubt if we see any sales of these amounts during the 2009 auctions!) No list of art, of any kind, would be complete without the presence of the master of modern art….Pablo Picasso. His “Garcon a la Pipe” from 1904 comes in at number 4; sold in 2004 for $104.1 million in New York by Sotheby’s. The great man also takes the number 5 spot with ”Dora Maar au Chat” a much later work from the early 40’s. After the success of the sale of Klimt’s “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” four other Klimts were put on the block at Christies, New York a few months later. “Adele Bloch-Bauer II was sold for $87.9 million giving the artist another slot on our list at number 6. In 2007, Sotheby’s New York again made headlines when it sold “Tryptich” by Francis Bacon (1976) for an impressive $86.3 million. So, we’re up to number 8 –and still no Van Gogh? Well, here he is, at number 8 on our list with “Portrait of Doctor Gachet” that was sold in 1990, exactly one hundred years after it was painted by the poverty-stricken artist, for $82.5 million. Ah, poor Vincent, he could have used a few of those dollars when he was without food! We are back to 2006 for number 9; a Jasper John entitled “False Start” from 1959 went for $80 million in another private sale. Will those heady days of 2006, when money was so abundant and credit so easy, ever return? Now, we will let the French in on this list at number 10 with an impressionist painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir called “Le Moulin de la Galette," from 1876 which went under the hammer in 1990 for $78.1 million. When you get down to the $70 millions, it seems like peanuts compared to the top of the list, so we’ll leave off here while we await the next champion to claim his/her place as Number one. Unless, of course, you’d also like to know the highest amount paid for a work by a living artist. That distinction goes to British artist Damien Hirst, whose work “Spring Lullaby” sold in 2007 for $19million. The piece is neither a painting nor sculpture –it’s more like a stainless steel and glass pill cabinet. Judge for yourselves.

Jackson Pollack No.5	Lullaby Spring Damian Hirst

What about the most expensive sculpture ever sold? Well, for the time being, that is Constantin Brancusi’s “Bird in Space” bought for $27.45 million in 1990. It seems a pittance compared to the canvases and I can’t see why collectors of art would value sculpture less than paintings, but who am I to question their judgment? And now the most expensive photograph ever sold was “Pond-Moonlight” by Ed Steichen that was sold in 2006 (yeah for 2006). It is a rare example of color auto-chrome photography and was shot on Long Island in 1904.
And finally, here’s another perspective on how to consider the world’s most expensive art work. Ingenuous Artist Art Marcovici came up with a one billion dollar ‘art work’ -an installation piece of 10 million $100 bills stacked on 12 wooden pallets. I don’t think he was allowed to take his art work home with him but here’s a photo to show you what a billion dollar ‘art work’ looks like.

 

New strategies for attracting more people to Art Museums

In 2008 attendance figures for the nation’s 200 largest museums remained un-harmed by the recession with thirty eight million people art lovers passing through their doors. Perhaps the continued public support and interest given to these institutions point to a psychological need for reassurance in troubling times. Museums provide a reassuring setting where people can view art, as part of their cultural heritage, in a stable, long established environment –and in looking, they get to mingle with other people.
One of the reasons museum attendances have thrived through the rough waves of the economy is due to the innovative strategies adopted by the administrators to maintain public support. The initial exclusion of museums from the government’s economic stimulus package left many of them searching for new ideas to cover their yearly costs.
Too often, art museum directors have continued to maintain their institutions as isolated, elitist hallways, set up for the educated and erudite class. They have not been very good at communicating to or marketing themselves to the greater masses of society. The science and natural history museums have done a much better job at reaching out to the wider public by embracing modern technology to create educational, inter-active, and, above all, user-friendly activities. Achieving the same results with paintings and sculptures in an art museum is a little more difficult, but art museum directors have taken to other techniques to draw in the crowds. Following market research, that brings to light the trepidations of the greater public about the art museum experience, new strategies are focusing on redefining the sense of accessibility that needs to surround art museums. Directors are now offering many more free-entry times, expanded hours and they are organizing special ‘fun’ events that highlight parts of their collection and artists’ lives etc. Most art museums already have coffee shops, cafeterias and souvenir bookshops to lighten up the ambience of the visit; part of the new strategic is to prepare more lounge areas among the artworks where viewers can ‘relax’ as they walk about. The principle aim of the new game plan is to be “friendly, welcoming and engaging.” They want families to think of the art museum as a place where the kids want to go and not where they should go. Some of the more adventurous art museum directors are also turning to the world of game designers, computer animation specialists and computer scientists for ideas about how to bring the art museum experience into the 21st Century.
Some administrators are even turning to the public on the museum websites, on online forums, and in publications to engage in dialogue about how to improve their institutions. While many are prepared to seek new ways to encourage visitors, others in the profession warn that these new strategies detract from the core mission of the art museum – conservation, curatorial work and education about art.
We, at Artlanow applaud all their innovative efforts. Art and art museums should be attractive venues for all. Imagine, if on Sunday morning you said to the kids “what shall we do today?” and they shouted back with joy “Yeah! Let’s go to the art museum!”

This is one museum where you might not want to exhibit

The Boston Museum of Bad Art was highlighted a couple of weeks ago on one of the evening news shows. The MOBA is the world’s only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms. During the news article, a spokeswoman for the museum said something quite catching. She said that if your art is accepted to the MOBA –you can tell everyone your work is in a museum: if your work is not accepted then you know your art is not bad enough for the Museum of Bad Art. It’s a win –win situation!
The MOBA was established in 1994 and is dedicated to bad art of every kind. Its proclaimed goal is to bring the worst of art to the widest of audiences. A very worthy and noble goal indeed! Since its inception the museum collection has grown to almost 400 pieces, but due to limited exhibition space at their location in the basement of a Boston movie theater, only 30 to 40 works are shown at a time. Due to the success of the Boston location, a second location in Somerville, MA has been opened this year to accommodate more shows.
The curator in chief has said that “the principal principle for a work of art to be accepted to the MOBA, is that it must have been initially created as a serious attempt to make an artistic statement. It is an attempt that has gone horribly awry in either its concept or execution.”
A book called the “Masterworks” of the MOBA has been published in case you’re looking for another coffee table art book to impress your guests. The book has glossy photos of the best of the worst with detailed information about the artist, the title, size, medium etc. and an ‘expert’ commentary to help readers understand the vision of the artist. So, the next time you tell your friends about your work at the MOCA in downtown Los Angeles, make sure you enunciate the word clearly -  MOCA – you don’t want them thinking you’re in the MOBA.

The Jackson legend in mural art

Michael Jackson was laid to rest yesterday. The intensive media coverage of his death and his life will, one presumes, now gradually give way to the pressing problems of the economy, health coverage and the conflicts in the world. The 1st Century Roman Satirist Juvenal was right when he spoke of “panem et circenes.” The emperors gave the people ‘bread and circuses’ to keep them happy and divert their attention away from the problems of the empire. The coverage of Michael Jackson’s death has been a bit of a circus, as far as I am concerned. The man was a great singer, musician, an innovator in his field, and a very good dancer. He was the ultimate worldwide celebrity. However, all his attributes (and his weaknesses) do not merit the global hysteria the media has generated since his death on June 25. I think it is a sad reflection on the values of our society when public discourse and interest is whipped into frenzy by an event that will ultimately leave no lasting effect on the overall well-being of the planet.
The real Michael Jackson will be cherished and remembered by those who truly knew him as a person –by his family and his close friends. The public persona, the stage Michael, the legend will live on too; of that, there is no doubt. Movies, books, documentaries, and myriad other commercial enterprises are being prepared already for future consumption.
One way that the Art community has begun to pay homage to his life is in the murals that have appeared, not only in Los Angeles where ‘celeb’ culture is at its zenith, but on walls all over the world. Some of them have become sites where admiring fans of Jackson come to leave wreaths and tributes. In L.A. on Melrose Ave, near Heliotrope Dr., where hip hop boutiques (used to) thrive, a mural portrait of Jackson from his ‘Thriller’ days has been painted during the past week. On Hollywood Blvd., in the parking lot of a wholesale lighting company, another mural of the king of pop, wearing his well known red leather jacket adorns the walls.
Though Michael Jackson is not the first ‘celeb’ to be “immortalized’ in L.A by mural art, the growing number of paintings, depicting him, attest to the intensity of the public interest in his death.
While his music will certainly endure, I’m sure that visual artists will find many other ways to portray the many facets of Mr. Jackson’s life in the years to come.

The kind of collectors we hope will come knocking on the door

Among the top ranking 200 art collectors worldwide, there are six, who call Los Angeles their primary ‘home’ and another three who have secondary residences in L.A.
Coming in at number three on the list published by in the summer 2009 edition of Artnews (Volume 108/Number 7) are Edythe and Eli Broad, who have contibuted so much to the arts and cultural institutions in the city. They are out-ranked in their acquisitions only by Roman Abramovich (now of London) and Debra and Leon Black of New York. The other L.A. people who made the list for their immense activity as collectors are locals Maria and William Bell, Peter Norton, Judy and Michael Ovitz, Eric Schmidt and Dean Valentine. It is interesting to note that among the top 200 collectors in this list, 106 are in the USA. We not only have some of the best artists in the world, we also have the best kind of art lovers –those who pull out their wallets to show their appreciation.

 

Art Shows and Fairs – Enjoy the Summer Sun and Make Some Money

The summer months are when Artists can find opportunities all over the US to exhibit their work in Art Fairs, Festivals and Craft Shows. These events have become summer weekend attractions everywhere as cultural events and as promotions to attract the public to commercial centers. In the summer we all kind of slow down the pace, like get out and enjoy the warm, sunny weather and look for new things to do. (Don’t forget to take your hat with you in California.)
Visiting or selling at Art fairs are great ways to connect with fellow artists. I, personally, like to talk with artists presenting their work at these events and am usually pleasantly surprised to find some very gifted people among the participants.
For home-based artists and crafts people these are great opportunities to ring up sales and find new clients at very little cost and investment. Typically, shows charge a couple hundred dollars for a weekend booth. It might seem a lot but when you consider you are in a location with high pedestrian traffic, and that you have no sales commission to pay (as you would in a gallery), it look like a pretty good deal.
Making money at Art fairs is not as easy as it seems. It requires research, planning and the ability to keep smiling all day long. In addition, you have to have a bit of the retail seller personality to go with it. If you are the shy retiring type, pushing yourself to participate in these events can help you overcome some of your shyness. Remember, the old saying “to sell the product, you have to sell yourself first.”
If you think selling at shows and fairs might be a good step for you, read through the following tips and suggestions:
1) Almost, all of these events have been in existence for a few years, and have become annual attractions. Visit a lot of them and get a good idea of the ‘quality’ of the work at each venue. You don’t want to downgrade yourself by show your art with a lot of “junk.” The juried shows are usually the best shows for presenting serious artwork. Remember, also, that some of these Art shows represent only the best of the best, especially the indoor shows, so do your homework and find the level with which you feel comfortable.  Talk to artists when you visit the shows –they’ll give you a lot of information about the procedures for participation and they can usually give you names and locations of good upcoming events.
2) Find out who typically attends these shows; what kind of attendance is expected and examine the costs in light of the numbers. During the summer months there are quite a few options, so you should factor in travel costs, shipping, and the cost of the booth etc. against the potential number of attendees. (Depending on the location, you might need to purchase a city or state license or permit to sell.)
3) Some artists and crafts people have been doing the same shows for years, and have developed a loyal customer base. If you’re about to embark on the road to selling at fairs and festival, keep your expenses to a minimum while you try to establish a following for your artwork.
4) Price it right for the venue. While cheaper is easier to sell, you are there to make a living. Don’t give it away and don’t overprice. Some art shows have guidelines about pricing as an aide to potential vendors. A wise decision is to have on hand a selection of work with a wide range of prices. That way your work is accessible to collectors rich and poor. It is a good thing to have a credit card machine. Some buyers make on the spot decisions and might not have sufficient cash on hand to cover the payment. Try to avoid checks –if it sinks you lose out totally!
5) For your first few shows bring along a family member or a friend for moral support. Fairs can be physically and emotionally exhausting –especially if there are no sales. Don’t forget you’ll need someone to watch the shop when you need to eat and go to the bathroom. In addition bring along material comforts like chair, a table and shade. Bring pens, a calculator, bags & packaging materials and don’t forget your business cards and sign in book –so that you can build mailing lists.
6) At these shows you are not alone. You are competing for the dollars with the other exhibitors. Like any good sales person, you should do something extra to attract the clientele. One easy way for artists to pull in the crowds, is to create artwork on location. It’s a crowd pleaser and encourages the spectators to look more closely at your booth exhibition. So, get out the easel and enjoy yourself while you’re there.
7) After every show, sit down and count your money. Figure out whether you made or lost. Sales are great but profits are the best! Don’t be discouraged if you don’t make a fortune. Building a reputation and a following takes time whether you sell on the net, in galleries, through wholesalers or at fairs.
Those same Artists, who you see every time you revisit your local fair, keep coming back because they are making money. If you have the character, the artistic talent and the determination Art Fairs, Festivals and Craft Shows might be the way for you.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

A new painter in Washington DC? First Lady Michelle Obama has plans to paint the White House - Green.
So, says an article published in late May 2009 by the Weekly World News (“the World’s Only Reliable News”, according the header on their website.) It’s one of the tongue-in-cheek, nod- nod, wink-wink, say no more, journals out there.
According to their ‘sources’, Mrs. Obama thinks the change of color will better reflect the tone of President Barack Obama’s policies towards energy and environmental conservation. The story presents this novel idea as being one of Michelle’s creative diversions from the problems of the current financial crisis. According to their story Mrs. Obama, as always classy and dignified, has remained silent on the issue since these rumors were circulated. It’s an amusing story but it does kind of show that journalists can, if they want, speculate and get rumors going about anything. (Remember the Obama is a Muslim stuff?) In this case, we think the story is a great joke for our July 4 Blog.

While Michelle goes off to paint the White House-green;
We, at Artlanow are off to paint the town – red.
We wish you a very enjoyable Independence Day, July 4, 2009

 

Your Art – In A Reality TV Show

Well, they have done just about everything else in the reality TV shows, so why not a show where Artists compete for a gallery exhibition? A cable series focusing on the contemporary art scene is in the works at Bravo. Two production companies, “Pretty Matches” and “Magical Elves,” who already have a few successful reality shows under their belts will be working on the yet-to-be-named project. The general idea is to get thirteen contestants to compete for exhibition space in a reputable gallery, with the chance to win a sizeable cash award and a sponsored national tour. The artists will need to demonstrate their creative talents and ingenuity in various fields such as painting, sculpture, photography and industrial design.
As with all prospective participants for these reality shows, there will be several stages during the selection process. As a first step there will be an open casting call held in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Chicago beginning July 11. The panel of judges slated for the show include well known figures in the art world; fellow artists, gallery owners, curators, critics, and collectors.

If you think you have what it takes: The casting calls for the untitled Art project are as follows:
Los Angeles: Saturday July 11 & Sunday July 12 10am-2pm. Go to http://www.laxart.org for details.
Miami: Tuesday, July 14 10am-2pm at the Fred Snitzer Gallery. Go to http://www.Snitzer.com for details.
Chicago: Thursday July 16, 10am-2pm at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sullivan galleries, 33 State Street http://www.saic.edu
New York: Saturday, July 18 & Sunday, July 19, 10am-2pm at White Columns. http://www.whitecolumns.org for details.

For additional Info go to www.BravoTV.com/casting
In each episode of the series, contestants will be asked to create unique pieces highlighting the role of art in everyday life. In working beyond their preferred media, the artist will need to show talent and skill in every discipline.
Good luck to all the brave souls who set out on their quest for fame and fortune in the TV art world. 

 

14 Local Artists Get Fellowships –Hope to see some of your names in future years

The Los Angeles Times announced today (July 2) the names of the 14 Los Angeles County Visual Artists who have won fellowships from the California Community Foundation in partnership with the Getty Trust. Despite the recent cuts in budgets by the Getty and the fears that, perhaps, the fellowship program would be affected, the monetary awards granted to the winners have been maintained. Ten Mid-career artists will receive grants of $20,000 to pursue their artistic work and four emerging artists will get awards of $15,000. The 10 names of the mid-career artists were given as: Rheim Alkadhi, Edgar Arceneaux, Andrea Bowers, Sharon Lockhart, Euan McDonald, John Malpede, Mineo Mizuno, Sandeep Mukherjee, Jennifer Steinkamp and Pae White. The grants to the emerging artists go to: Juan Capistrano,  Sara Daleiden, Zackary Drucker, and Elana Mann.
Congratulations to all of them. We hope to see some of our Artlanow members receive fellowships in the coming years!

Inventive ways to get the clients into a gallery

I’ve said it many times, but I’ll say it again –the internet is a mine of interesting and useless information. But, when I find something amusing about the antics of the art world, I post it just for fun.
Opening an art gallery is a daunting task. The financial risks are enormous and it takes years to acquire a reputation and a loyal clientele, who will trust the owner’s judgment when it comes to advice about purchases and investments in art. One intrepid entrepreneur in Swindon, in the county of Wiltshire in England found novel way to publicize the presence of his newly created gallery in 2004. Set up in the old town center, the new gallery called Gallery 39 was the brainchild of Kevin Money whose intention was to exhibit within its freshly white-washed walls the best of Contemporary British Art.
One of the first shows Mr. Money organized was called “Bodyline,” an exhibition of ‘nudes’ celebrating the human body. In order to attract public attention to the show, and as a marketing tool to encourage sales, the gallery owner encouraged visitors to the exhibition to strip off and feel a closer relationship to the art by viewing it naked. As an incentive, the enterprising Mr. Money offered 25% off any purchases to any visitors who bared all. The article from which I gleaned this titillating piece of bizarre info, mentioned that the local residents of Swindon were not amused by the enticing offer. I hope you are slightly amused by the story itself.

14 Local Artists Get Fellowships –Hope to see some of your names in future years

The Los Angeles Times announced today (July 2) the names of the 14 Los Angeles County Visual Artists who have won fellowships from the California Community Foundation in partnership with the Getty Trust. Despite the recent cuts in budgets by the Getty and the fears that, perhaps, the fellowship program would be affected, the monetary awards granted to the winners have been maintained. Ten Mid-career artists will receive grants of $20,000 to pursue their artistic work and four emerging artists will get awards of $15,000. The 10 names of the mid-career artists were given as: Rheim Alkadhi, Edgar Arceneaux, Andrea Bowers, Sharon Lockhart, Euan McDonald, John Malpede, Mineo Mizuno, Sandeep Mukherjee, Jennifer Steinkamp and Pae White. The grants to the emerging artists go to: Juan Capistrano,  Sara Daleiden, Zackary Drucker, and Elana Mann.
Congratulations to all of them. We hope to see some of our Artlanow members receive fellowships in the coming years!

Art Competitions & Opportunities -Deadlines July 2009

 

Here’s an opportunity to show your work in Europe. The Marziart International Gallery in Hamburg, Germany invites all Artists, 18 years or older to a juried competition entitled Best of the Year 2009. There are 5 different categories. The aim of the competition is to allow talented artists the opportunity to present their artworks to the German public. The competition is open to all visual artists working in photography, painting and sculpture (no installations accepted). The 5 categories are: Landscapes/Nature; Cityscapes; Today’s Life/People; Still Life; Abstracts. The exhibition for the selected winners will be held at the Marziart Gallery in Hamburg from July 31 to August 13 when each winner in each category will show between 5-8 artworks. The winners’ work will also feature on the gallery’s website for one year. For details about entry fees etc. contact Marziart International Gallery, Eppendorfer Weg 110-112. Hamburg 20259, Germany (or) Fax: 0049-40-31819676 (or) go to http://www.marziart.com/Wettbewerb2009/Start-Competition.HTML DEADLINE JULY 4,2009

The Center for Fine Art Photography, 400 N. College Avenue, Fort Collins, Colorado 80502 has a call out for entries to an International Photography Show. This is a juried event. All submission can be made online at their website: http://www.c4fap.org. The Center’s International show is an event for photographers from all over the world. There is a submission fee of $35 for the first 3 images and an extra $10 for each additional image. Experimental and mixed techniques are welcome. DEADLINE JULY 7

The Fine Arts Center in Hot Springs, Arkansas has a call out to all artists living in the USA for the “Diamond National Art Competition” to be held Sept 4 -28. There are 3 awards in each of 4 categories totaling $2400. All entries must be original artwork, never previously shown in the Diamond National Competition. There are fees of $35 per entry –with a maximum of 3 per artist. For prospectus send a SASE to; The Fine Arts Center, PO Box 6263, Hot Springs, AR 71902 or contact them at hsfac610@sbcglogal.net if you want more details. DEADLINE JULY 11, 009

Here’s an unusual but interesting opportunity: The Postcard Art Competition and Exhibition is open for submissions of artworks from artists who are at least 18 years old. The competition is sponsored by the Curt Teich Postcard Archives and the Lake County Discovery Museum. All submitted work must be original. Photographs must also be original. Digital art is acceptable. Entries will be judged on technical excellence, creativity and content. A final set of 12 winning postcards will be made. Artists may submit as many entries as they wish, however, there is an entry fee of $20 for the first three works with an additional fee of $5 per extra work. Artwork must be 4″ x 6″. Each entry needs to be matted in a 4″ x 6″ window cut in an 8″ x 10″ mat board. Designs may be vertical or horizontal. Do not frame entries. Twelve winners will be selected. Each winner will receive $150 and 200 postcards printed with their design. Winning entries will be eligible for Awards of Excellence in the amounts of $300, $200, and $100 for first, second, and third place, respectively. Winning designs will be displayed at the Lake County Discovery Museum and other galleries. Twenty-four merit award winners will also be selected. Their designs will be offered for auction to the general public at a price not to exceed $150 per postcard.
NB: A 30% commission is charged by the Lake County Discovery Museum on all works sold. For more information go to: http://www.graphicdesignbasics.com/2009/the-postcard-art-competition-and-exhibition-2009.html    DEADLINE JULY 13,2009

The Peninsula Art League in Gig Harbor, Washington has a call out for the 7TH Annual Peninsular Art League Open Juried Art Exhibition held on October 6-November 12, 2009 at the Gig harbor Civic Center. They are offering $2500 in cash prizes. Artists must be at 18 years old and may enter up to 3 digital images or slides. Fees for League members are $30 for up to 3 entries and non-members pay $40. You can download a prospectus at www.peninsularartleague.com (or) email palartshow@comcast.net (or) Tel: 253 549 4646 DEADLINE JULY 15, 2009 This one will interest our Artlanow members! Prepare for the next “Affaire in the Gardens Art Show” in Beverly Hills. The weekend show will be held on October 17 & 18 at the Beverly Gardens alongside Santa Monica Blvd, in Beverly Hills, CA. Artists in the following categories can send in an application: painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, mixed media, ceramics, glass & jewelry. There is a $30 entry fee and the selection committee will decide who gets to show their work at the event. Several awards are given during the show – including Best of Show & the Mayor’s Purchase Award. There is a prospectus at http://www.beverlyhills.org/affaireinthegardens (or) send a SASE to City of Beverly Hills, Greystone Gatehouse, 501 Doheny Road, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 (or) email: kmclean@beverlyhills.org (or) Tel: 310 285 6835 DEADLINE JULY 20, 2009 2009 Digital Art in Los Angeles –International call to Artists
The L.A. Center for Digital Art announces an International Juried contest for all artists working in styles where digital processes of any kind are integral to the final creation. Accepted are: digital art photography, short experimental video, video loops, mobile media, interactive media, and internet art. Selected winners will be exhibited in the “Digital Art L.A.” expo in a larger exhibit at the LACDA gallery scheduled for August 14-16. The show will be promoted and will include a reception for the Artists. Info at Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, 107 West Fifth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013 (check out their website for details) DEADLINE JULY 20, 2009

For Democrats & Republicans alike! The J. Lucas Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts announces a call to all artists for a group show, entitled Icons & Art: Michelle and Barack.” The exhibition will be held from Sept 25 –October 25, 2009 and the idea behind the theme is to focus on how the Obamas have, seemingly, overnight put hope back onto the table, and how artists have incorporated Obama imagery into their work. Any 2-dimensional work can be submitted with maximum size 16” x 20”. There is an entry fee of $20 (US check or Money Order). For more details visit http://www.jlucasgallery.com (or) send a SASE to; J. Lucas Gallery, 437 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA 02657 (or) Tel: 508 487 1890 DEADLINE JULY 24, 2009 The Art Center of Northern New Jersey, in New Milford NJ has a call out to all artists working in fine art media and who are current residents of the USA. The exhibition dates for the selected entries are from October 11 until November 2, 2009 at the Art center, 250 Center Street, New Milford, NJ 07646. To participate in the juried competition send images in a self addressed envelope with a non-refundable fee of $20 for up to two works. There is an additional fee of $5 for each extra image. The Art center will collect a 30% commission on all sales at the exhibition. For more info go to http://www.artcenter-nnj.org  (or) Telephone 201-567-8798. DEADLINE JULY 31

Studio Visit Magazine whose offices are at 450 Harrison Ave.,#47, Boston, MA 02118 invites all USA artists to send in examples of their work for publication in the Spring 2010 issue of their magazine. This is a juried competition and it is free to enter, however, artists will be responsible for a $225production/publication/distribution fee if their work is selected for the magazine. Each selected artist with be provided with one full page that will include a color image, contact information and an artist’s statement. Studio Visit is mailed to 2000 Galleries and curators nationwide and has a growing subscriber base. Send a SASE to The Open Studio Press c/o Studio Visit Magazine (address above). For details look at their website at http://www.studiovisitmagazine.com  (or) Telephone 617-778-5265 DEADLINE JULY 31, 2009

Another opportunity to have your artwork published –in a book this time….
Kennedy Publishing announces the preparation of Best of Worldwide Artists & Artisans Art Book Volume I. This competition is open to all artists. The organizers intend to eventually publish 15 books in the series, each one dedicated to a single medium or genre. Selected artists will receive a 2 page full color layout of their work. The fees for participation are $40 for 10 images. Send a SASE to Kennedy Publishing, 5251-18 John Tyler Highway #311, Williamsburg, VA 23185. More info at http://www.bestofartists.com  (or) Telephone 757 564 6261 DEADLINE JULY 31

Gallery 5, a non-profit visual & performing arts center in Richmond, VA has an open call out to all artists and curators nationwide. They are seeking portfolios for their 2009-2010 season. You are invited to submit between 10-20 Jpeg images with accompanying descriptions (title, medium, size, year of creation & price). Include an Artist’s statement and/or bio. There are no fees but commissions of 35% will be charged for exhibition sales. Go to http://www.gallery5arts.org for more information (or) Telephone 804 644 exhibition closes. There is a non-refundable entry fee of $25 for 2 entries with an extra $5 for each additional entry (limit total 5 entries per person). Send a SASE to Clay 3, Clay Space, 28W210 Warrenville Rd., Warrenville, IL 60555. For more details go to http://www.clayspace.net (or) Telephone 630 393 2529 DEADLINE JULY 31,2009

Cedar City Arts Council is organizing a juried selection panel for artists to present their work for the Cedar City Arts Festival as part of the Utah Shakespearean Festival at the Southern Utah University. The exhibition dates are set for August 28-29, 2009. They are accepting work in just about every category. There is a $60 fee. If you’re interested send a SASE to Cedar City Arts festival, PO Box 2655, Cedar City, UT 84721. Go to their website at http://www.cedarcityartscouncil.org for more detailed information (or) call 435 586 9290 DEADLINE JULY 31,20090005 DEADLINE JULY 31,2009

This one is for Artists working in Clay: Clay Space in Warrenville, Illinois is sponsoring the Clay 3 2009 National Juried Ceramics Exhibition to be held at the IBEM Atrium. There is a Best of Show prize of $575, 2nd place $250, 3rd place $100 and an Honorable mention $75 award. The juried competition is open to all artists in the continental USA. Works are limited to sizes of 12”x12”x12” and clay must be the primary medium (at least 75% of the material). Accepted works should not be too fragile for shipping and public display. All accepted entries for the exhibition must remain on display until the end of the show.

 

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