DIY: to sell or not to sell (your artwork)

JennaMartin, Petapixel

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At some point in your evolution as an artist, you reach a stage where it's time to decide whether to share your work with the world. Deciding whether to sell or not to sell can be a difficult decision. I know one fine artist who never made it past that one. Does it come from a fear of rejection, a fear of success, or loving your work so much you can't part with it? Here's an article from Art Business on how not to sell your art. Note that the site considers art a business.

If you decide to try selling, a host of other decisions crop up. Through a gallery? Online? For how much?

In my view galleries are a necessary evil for the professional artist. Unless you are very successful already, you become part of a stable of artists, so a sense of competition enters in. The gallery wants money to cover expenses, sometimes more than what it takes to cover expenses. But people often go to galleries with the express purpose of buying art. Here's a list from Art Bistro of articles about art gallery know-how (and alternate spaces for showing your work). Jenna Martin at Petapixels posted an informative article titled Selling Art in Galleries.

If you've decided to take you heart in your hands and offer work to a gallery, here are some pointers from About.com. If you decide to go the route of selling your work online, here's a list of ways to sell digitally.

So, you're standing in front of the gallery owner with a painting in your hand and s/he wants to know how much to charge. Here are two approaches to pricing your work: Maria Brophy and Amy Wilson at Art Bistro.

Juried competitions are a nice option. It may be a competition, but you end up with an idea of where you fit in the art spectrum. Of course, this depends on who's judging the show. There are a number of sites that offer information about upcoming competitions, such as Artshow, Café, and Artists' Register. Be sure to check with local artists for opportunities nearby as well.

If you decide to sign up for a distant competition, how to ship your artwork becomes something to solve. I'll be writing about this next time.

-- Marge

This Land Was Made For You and Me...

With a nod to Google's 4th of July doodle, taking a look at street art, AKA grafitti.

Let's start with Art Crimes - The Writing on the Wall, a site devoted to grafitti.  Their subtitle pretty much says it all.  However, many tag (another word for grafitti) artists that start with writing on the wall and move on to successful careers in art.

An example of an extremely successful move to "serious" art is KAWS, former tag artist.  In the video below are some good views of an artist's studio and what having a gallery show is like.

Grafitti is a world-wide phenomenon.  I particularly like some of the Brazilian artists, such as Os Gêmeos.  Here's a review of Os Gêmeos from the New York Times and a pic from the review:

Please take time to look at the slide show of Os Gêmeos' work.

One of my all-time favorite videos shows a group of Japanese artists working on a wall (uhm, large surface?) for a week:

-- Marge

Google's Art Project

Looking around Google's Art Project, all I can say is, Wow!

According to the FAQ about Art Project:

The Art Project is a collaboration between Google and 151 acclaimed art partners from across 40 countries. Using a combination of various Google technologies and expert information provided by our museum partners, we have created a unique online art experience. Users can explore a wide range of artworks at brushstroke level detail, take a virtual tour of a museum and even build their own collections to share. With a team of Googlers working across many product areas we are able to harness the best of Google to power the Art Project experience. Few people will ever be lucky enough to be able to visit every museum or see every work of art they’re interested in but now many more can enjoy over 30 000 works of art from sculpture to architecture and drawings and explore over 150 collections from 40 countries, all in one place. We’re also lucky at Google to have the technology to make this kind of project a reality.

The FAQs explain how to use the site and seem to me recommended reading.

Using the various features available, you can:

• get much better look at the details than you would even get in the gallery,
• easily compare overall view with detail view, instead of walking forward and backing up repeatedly,
• read a short background of the artist and the work (click on Details),
• take a virtual trip to the gallery where the work is being shown, using something much like Google Earth technology.

 As an example, here are snips of "Professional Way, Babylon:"

One of the lions with detail control panel

Detail: one tile (could even get closer)

For a gallery view of "Processional Way, Babylon," follow this link.

While poking around the Art Project I came across this video about visualizing images that Van Gogh painted over when recycling his canvasses.

Good hunting.

-- Marge

Now to feast the eyes a little

There are many, many sites that offer views of digital art.  To find some search on "digital art portal, "digital art gallery" (will bring up brick-and-mortar galleries, as well), and "digital art online gallery."  Many of these portals feature works for sale.  Here is a sampling of what I found today:

Abstract Digital Art and Fractals Gallery --  The front page of this site doesn't offer much visually, but scroll down to the middle of the page and you'll see "gallery 1, gallery 2 ... gallery n."  In gallery 1, I found this piece

"Support System" by Aeires

The CG Society Art Gallery features art by both professionals and amateurs. A lot of the work is 3D.

UNESCO Knowledge Portal: Digi-Arts -- This site shows some of the many ways that digital art can be used.  It features the artists that produce digital work, such as

Joe Davis, Microvenus (2000)

DeviantArt is one of my favorite sites.  There's a wide variety of artists' works with t-shirts, gear and prints of the works offered for sale.  Anyone can join and upload artwork.  Here's a post-apocalyptic one that's very good (in my view).

"castle NASA" by *ProgV

I hope you enjoyed this little foray in digital art. There's a lot more out there, some of it extremely beautiful. 'Til tomorrow then.

 --Marge