Artists

New artMatch App Lets Buyers Order Art from iPhones

ARTISTS. Art.com, Inc., a leading online provider of wall art, has introduced artMatch™ for the iPhone. The free app makes it easy for art lovers to find, explore, discover, share and purchase art right from their iPhones. After snapping a photo of any work of art, you can instantly search for matching or similar items on Art.com. You can also preview selected artwork in your own space by simply holding up your iPhone. The application is free and can be downloaded through Apple’s App Store.

“Art.com has one simple goal—to make art accessible to all—and our new artMatch application for the iPhone takes that one step further, making it easy and fun for people to engage with art wherever and whenever inspiration strikes,” said Geoffrey Martin, CEO of Art.com, Inc. “Imagine walking down the streets of your favorite city, spotting a work of art you love in a café, gallery or museum and being able to go on your phone, find that work on Art.com, frame it and have it waiting for you at home when you return.”

ArtMatch uses Art.com’s Visual Search™ technology. This makes it possible to:

Instantly find a work of art. Take a photo of a work of art, upload a photo from the phone, or enter a URL, and Art.com will instantly tell you whether it is available for sale on the site. If it’s not on Art.com, you will see similar works that are available on Art.com.

Browse the collection of more than one million works of art available through Art.com. The collection is conveniently presented in list, grid and single views optimized for viewing on the iPhone. Read information about each art piece and use the Super Zoom™ feature to examine brush strokes, texture, and other details of specific art pieces.

Visualize how the selected work of art would look in the room you have in mind. Simply hold up your phone to see the selected work in your own room or select from the gallery of rooms on Art.com.

Save your favorites to a gallery and share them with via email or Facebook. This feature can be useful if you want a second opinion before ordering art for a certain room in your house.

Purchase your pick right from the phone. The app’s integrated shopping cart can sync with your phone contacts for easy shipping to the selected destination. Your artwork arrives ready to hang on your wall. Learn more at www.art.com/iphone.

Art.com was founded in 1998 to make art accessible to all by transforming the way the world discovers, personalizes, shares and purchases art. Art.com, Inc. runs three sites in the USA—Art.com, AllPosters.com, and ArtistRising.com—and has a strong international presence with 25 local sites in Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, Mexico, and South America. Art.com, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Emeryville, CA, with other facilities in Ohio, North Carolina and the Netherlands.

LINKS

artMatch App

About Art.com

 

 

Copyright Enforcement Group Offers Anti-Piracy Protection

The Copyright Enforcement Group (CEG) offers end-to-end solutions that can help content owners minimize copyright and trademark infringements and realize revenues that would have been lost to digital piracy. Their protection and monetization services cover all types of content, including audio, video, images, logs, trademarks, and text across peer-to-peer protocols (P2P), user-generated content sites, and websites.

The CEG WWW Collect™ service utilizes crawlers, scanning tools, and the latest recognition technologies to track a variety of websites for image copyright infringements. When an infringement is tracked and authenticated, the website owner automatically receives a “pre-settlement” offer along with a request to remove the infringing image or other content. If the infringer doesn’t pay the settlement or ignores the notice, the legal team at CEG takes over until a collection is realized. Good-faith efforts can be made to convert the infringing website into a legitimate customer by offering them the option to license your content.

In order to subscribe to CEG’s WWW Collect Service, you must have secured a copyright for every piece of content you want to protect. The CEG offers an in-house copyright service for content owners who haven’t yet registered their copyrights. Content owners simply provide key details and the Copyright Enforcement Groups will do the rest.

CEG will be promoting their services at the Visa pour l’Image International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, France from August 28 to September 4. Photojournalists are particularly concerned about protecting their images from piracy, because capturing some of the best images often requires significant expenses, hardships, and sacrifices.

LINKS

Copyright Enforcement Group LLC

 

How to Use Photo Books to Market Your Photography or Art

PHOTOGRAPHERS. ARTISTS. The latest e-book added to PhotoShelter’s online library talks about “Marketing Yourself with Photo Books.”  Although the advice was written for photographers, the e-book might also interest artists, designers, and others who could use photo books to complement other marketing efforts.

The free, 23-page e-book describes ways self-published photo books can be used to effectively build a following among prospects and expand interest from existing clients. The content covers the following topics:

  • The economics of self-publishing
  • Using a photo book as your portfolio
  • Using a photo editor to help select and sequence your best images
  • Design considerations
  • Color fidelity
  • What to consider before and after you make your book

The publication also talks about what magazine photo editors and ad-agency photo buyers think about photo books. One photo editor says she doesn’t like getting huge packages in the mail from people she doesn’t know, so she doesn’t like receiving unsolicited books. But she says small photo books can be a great leave-behinds for photographers who come in for a meeting to show their portfolios.

Pro photographer and avid Blurb bookmaker Dan Milnor wrote the section on things to consider in making a photo book. He notes that, “Making a photo book is a great way to elevate your work.” He says that when you showcase your work in a book, it suddenly has context and presentation that goes way beyond what a promotional postcard can do. Milnor talks about some of the planning that should be done before you start, as well as some ideas for promoting your book.

Case studies in the book feature candid insights by fashion photographer Michael Creagh, travel photographer Graciela Cattarossi, advertising and editorial photographer Andrew Kaufman, documentary photographer Matt Eich, and lifestyle photographer Terry Vine.

Also included is a profile of Larissa Leclair, the founder of the Indie Photobook Library. The Library’s goal is to archive, preserve, and showcase self-published books and magazines.

Guidelines for submitting photo books are included on the Library’s website. Some books from the Library’s growing collection will be exhibited at the Photographic Resource Center in Boston this fall.

Although the “Marketing Yourself with Photo Books” guide was sponsored by Blurb, the e-book also discusses photography bookmaking services from other vendors. To encourage you to apply what you have learned about photo book publishing, the guide includes a 20% off coupon from Blurb.

“Marketing Yourself with Photo Books” is the latest in PhotoShelter’s ongoing series of free business e-books for photographers and marketing professionals. PhotoShelter’s library of 13 free e-books includes guides on email marketing, search engine optimization, starting a photography business, and marketing for freelance professionals.

LINKS

PhotoShelter

E-Book: Marketing Yourself with Photo Books

The PhotoShelter Resource Library

 

 

Opportunities and Challenges for Fine Artists

According to the 2010-11 Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were approximately 221,900 working artists in 2008. This number includes 84,200 art directors, 13,600 craft artists, 25,700 fine artists (painters, sculptors, illustrators), 79,000 multimedia artists and animators, and 21,500 other types of artists and related workers. About 60% of artists and related workers are self-employed.

While the outlook is bright for multimedia artists and animators in fields such as motion-picture and video production, advertising, and computer systems design, very few fine artists can support themselves solely through the sale of the work. Most fine artists have at least one other job, such as working in a museum or gallery, teaching, or working as illustrators. Some artists hold jobs in unrelated fields and pursue art as a hobby or second career. Below are some of the challenges and opportunities that may affect art careers in the years ahead:

Challenges

Lack of career preparation. Many art schools focus almost exclusively on teaching technique, without much emphasis on the practical business skills that artists need to earn a living. Today, anyone who wants to pursue a self-directed career such as art, should know how to promote and market themselves–online and in-person.

Balancing art creation with self-promotion. It can be difficult to focus on creating great art while continuously networking and working to get name recognition. It’s incredibly time-consuming to do both things well.

New sources of competition. Many retiring Baby Boomers are pursuing long-deferred dreams of becoming an artist. Unemployed or underemployed workers are trying to convert their art hobbies into new careers.

Opportunities

New tools for creating and displaying art. Technology is making it easier for artists to experiment with new forms of visual expression. For example, today’s digital-printing technology makes it possible to reproduce your art directly on fabrics, backlit films, metal, wood, or vinyls.You can also combine digital images with traditional art materials to create one-of-kind prints with texture and dimensionality And visual art is no longer confined to a frame. It can be displayed on computer screens or projected or applied to indoor or outdoor walls.

New opportunities to promote and sell art. Technology has opened up new ways for artists to promote and sell their work. For example, social media is making it easier for artists to build relationships with other artists, gallery owners, editors, art journalists, and potential buyers of their work. Online galleries make it possible for artists to show and sell their work to buyers around the world.

A wider, deeper pool of art collectors. A 2010 survey found that consumers are investing more in original art, which has become more widely available as artists have started exploring different ways to market themselves.  Digitally printed limited editions are making it easier for more people to buy art they truly love, instead of only those prints available from mass-market art publishers. Some gallery owners sell lower-cost editions to attract new customers who might someday become serious collectors. A growing number of health care facilities, corporations, educational institutions, and civic leaders are commissioning or collecting art because they recognize how much art can enhance our surroundings.

Online Art Gallery Helps Emerging Artists Gain Exposure

ARTISTS. The Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery was created to help new and emerging artists gain experience in applying for and participating in art competitions. Light, Space & Time also strives to help artists gain exposure to decision-makers from the art world.

Each month, Light Space & Time Online conducts a themed online art competition. The winners of each competition are promoted on the gallery’s website and featured in an email to gallery owners and directors, corporate art representations, and others from the art and design world.

The theme for the August competition is “Seasons.” The competition is open to all 2D artists (including photography, but excluding video). The top five finalists will be featured in a group exhibition in the Light, Space & Time Online Art Gallery during the month of September. The deadline for entering is August 29. All winners will be announced on September 1.

The gallery and monthly competition were founded by John R. Math, an art photographer who successfully sells his work through art galleries and art representatives. He recalls how hard it was to break into the art market, and thought to himself, “There must be an easier way.” So, he formed the online gallery to help give talented artists an opportunity to develop their art resumes and quickly and economically get wider exposure for their work.

LINK

 Light Space & Time Online Gallery

 

E-Book Lists Seven Essential Practices for Professional Artists

ARTISTS. “Seven Essential Practices for the Professional Artist” is a 20-page e-book that can be downloaded free from the website: www.themindfulartist.com.

The book was written by Michele Théberge, an exhibiting artist who has spent the past 20 years developing effective practices to sustain a balanced and thriving art career.

“Before things started to happen for me, I suffered from enormous self-doubts and questioned my work constantly,” says Michele. “I knew I wanted to make art my life, but I had no idea how to approach an art career.”

She says she read books and took courses with advice about being a professional artist, but “What I didn’t get was the confidence or a clear strategy to follow through on much of it.”

Over the years, Michele began to fuse what she had been learning from decades of meditation and spiritual growth with the basics of making and showing art. Her techniques began to bring results. She grew more confident and was invited to be in shows and was sought out by residencies and galleries rather than having to pursue them.

The seven essential practices outlined in the book involve consistency, awareness of your thoughts, creativity, connection, well-being, organization, and clear intentions.

The seven practices form the basis of an eight-week Artist Mentorship Program Theberge has developed to help artists create their own studio habits. The next eight-week program begins June 15, and includes nine recorded seminar modules and weekly assignments to help you gain momentum. During the three live group calls, you can ask questions, get feedback, and share victories. In the private, online forum, you can connect with other artists in the program, chat, post your artwork, get feedback, and share resources.

“Artists who have worked with me in the program have reported feeling more confidence and clarity in the work as a result of establishing a regular studio practice,” writes Theberge.

She says many artists mistakenly measure their success by focusing on whether their work is getting outside recognition: “That kind of outward focus is a creativity squelcher. If you are looking toward something outside of yourself to validate your work, such as a sales, exhibitions, or accolades, it will be hard to maintain your creative practice during the inevitable up-and-down cycles of your career.”

She says her own career started to turn around when she recognized how her negative thinking patterns were holding her back: “I started to think differently about my work and its place in the world. I began to embrace the value of my work and ceased to worry about those who weren’t interested in it. This new attitude prompted intelligent, heartfelt action.”

Theberge says, “I want emerging artists, budding artists, even people who are afraid to call themselves artists to know that someone cares and that their work is valuable and it matters. It makes me sad when someone gives up on their dream because they don’t have the wherewithal or the support or mindset to keep it going. When you are creative, it’s not just for you. It helps lift everyone around in ways big and small.”

LINKS

The Mindful Artist E-Book: Seven Essential Practices for the Professional Artist

The Mindful Artist Mentorship Program

About the Artist: Michele Thebérge

 

Campaign Promotes Bill of Rights for Creatives

Logo for Bill of Rights for Creative PeopleEleven professional photography associations have launched a worldwide campaign to help promote the intellectual property rights of creative people in all disciplines—photography, video, film, fine arts, music, writing, design, etc.

The campaign centers around an Artist’s Bill of Rights that outlines a set of ethical principles that enable individuals to control how their creative works are used. It updates a document that the international Pro-Imaging Organization initiated in 2008 to protect the rights of individuals who enter photography competitions.

The Bill of Rights is helping to raise awareness of the practice of “rights-grabbing” in which some competitions harvest unlimited usage rights, or even the copyright, of the works submitted by contest entrants.

According to campaign manager Gordon C. Harrison, “The worst type of rights grabbing is where the terms and conditions for a contest require the entrant to assign the entire copyright and other rights for any works submitted to the competition, and to waive their moral rights. These practices are not uncommon. We have documented 35 cases of  copyright grabbing, 26 cases where moral rights have to be waived, and 7 cases where both occurred.”

If the practice of rights-grabbing continues to spread,  it will devalue photography, art, music, and creativity as a whole by reducing the need for organizations to commission or purchase creative works.

A key aim of the Artist’s Bill of Rights campaign is to educate the public about the importance and potential value of their intellectual property rights. The campaign can also help educate contest organizers who might unknowingly be asking for more usage rights than they actually needed to conduct and promote the contest.

The Artist’s Bill of Rights campaign is presented through a website that is now available in over 40 languages.

Campaign Aims

The campaign has the following aims:

  • To provide a means whereby all artists’ associations can unite around a common set of standards for preservation of their rights.
  • To promote the Bill of Rights’ standards for the preservation of artists’ rights in competitions and appeals seeking creative works.
  • To promote organisations who support the Artists’ Bill of Rights and to promote their competitions and appeals.
  • To educate the public about the purpose and value of their intellectual property rights and to enable them to recognise when they are being exploited.
  • To publish reports about the extent of rights grabbing and to analyse and quantify the rights grabbed by the private, public, charitable, and non-profit sectors.
  • To press for legislative changes that would protect the public from unfair and unethical terms and conditions that seek to exploit their intellectual property rights.

Campaign Supporters

The eleven associations currently supporting the campaign include:

  • Advertising & Illustrative Photographers Association (New Zealand)
  • Association of Professional Photographers (Iceland)
  • Association of Photographers (United Kingdom)
  • Australian Commercial & Media Photographers
  • Australian Institute of Professional Photography
  • British Institute of Professional Photography (United Kingdom)
  • British Photographic Council (United Kingdom)
  • DJ:Fotograferne, photographers within the Union of Journalists (Denmark)
  • Editorial Photographers of United Kingdom and Ireland
  • Pro-Imaging Organisation (United Kingdom)
  • The National Press Photographers Association (US)

In addition to these associations, many private and public sector organizations have proclaimed their support for the principles, including the Society of Authors. All of the supporters are listed on the campaign website. All artists organizations are invited to participate, and contact the campaign organizers through the website.

The website also lists photography competitions that comply with the principles in The Artist’s Bill of Rights and those that don’t.

If you or your studio or organization want to show support for the principles in the Artist’s Bill of Rights, you can grab the appropriate logo below, and link it to: http://artists-bill-of-rights.org

Logo for Organizations to Support Artist's Bill of Rights

Logo for individual support of Artist's Bill of Rights

LINKS

Website: Artist’s Bill of Rights

Resources on the Artist’s Bill of Rights Website

Guide to Rights & Licensing
An overview of copyright, types of licenses, moral rights, and the consequences of rights grabbing. As the authors of the website point out: “Rights grabbing devalues creativity by acquiring creativity for nothing.” Rights grabbing can also damage your reputation if your work is used to promote products, services, or campaigns of which you don’t approve.

Organiser’s Guide to The Artist’s Bill of Rights
This section of The Artist’s Bill of Right website explains how contest organizers can write competition terms and conditions that will give them the rights they need for their own publicity and promotion requirements while respecting the rights of the entrants.

Rights-Grabbing Statistics
Spreadsheets on this page attempt to calculate the extent of the problem and pinpoint the sectors in which rights-grabbing occurs most frequently. An analysis of current statistics estimates that more than 6,000 images are being grabbed each day.