ARTISTS. If you want to see how effective an artist’s website can be in communicating with art lovers, visit the recently launched website of Alexander Gramm Studio, Inc. The website was designed to offer a high-quality online experience to art collectors, buyers, and fans of mixed-medium artwork.
The new site features a behind-the-scenes look at the artist’s process with “Never Give In,” a motion time-lapse video shot by photographer Bryan Fletchall over a seven-day period. The video, which runs under three minutes, shows Alexander Gramm using a multi-layer technique to create his large canvas mixed-medium work of the same title. You watch Gramm sealing in vintage pages, then applying the paint and various other elements that make up his tactile pieces.
Visit the Alexander Gramm Studio website (www.alexandergrammstudio.com) to see the time-lapse video.
“The idea of having a camera in the studio was a little unsettling at first,” Gramm acknowledges. “But in the end I wanted something that would let people connect to my artistic process.”
The site also features a gallery of Gramm’s work, with a built-in store through which you can purchase high-resolution prints or get quotes on artist-embellished fine art prints and original pieces. High definition video will accompany featured works. The website also includes full social media integration and a news and blog section.
“From the very beginning it was important to us to create an immersive user experience that connects the audience to the artwork and studio,” said Donna Baldwin, co-founder of Alexander Gramm Studio. “Our new website provides insightful content about the studio, Alexander’s unique process, and our ever-expanding collection of works.”
ARTISTS. DESIGNERS. If you haven’t yet found the right online gallery—either to buy or sell art online—check out Thumbtack Press. The company offers a hand-picked collection of open-edition prints by over 100 top low-brow, illustrator, and character artists from around the world.
Humming Bird Girl by Rick Beerhorst, The Blessing by Craig LaRotonda, and Big Head by Bob Dob.
“Why open-edition prints? By selling prints without limiting their availability, we reach collectors who have elite tastes, but perhaps lack the dollars to match,” explains curator/owner Barry Friedland. “This way, if you don’t currently have the means to own an original Paul Blow, say, or a Matthew Woodson, you can still get your hands on their work in the form of a high-quality print. We help artists reach new fans; and we help fans become collectors.”
The Thumbtack Press site includes up-to-date features such as a Virtual Room to help customers visualize how a print might look on their own walls. Buyers can search for art by genre, artist, color, size, and subject and choose from hundreds of frame and mat options.
Marketing with Attitude
Personally, I am impressed not only by the freshness of the art, but also by the whimsy of Thumbtack’s marketing.
For example, according to the “research department” at Thumbtack Press, the giving and receiving of art results in a 56% improvement of personal relationships, a 28% increase in creativity, and a 41% more charming personal space—all of which lead to a longer and more fulfilling life.
Giving and receiving art can improve your life. Source: Thumbtack Press "Research Department"
While it’s unclear how the marketing braniacs at Thumbtack arrived at those exact figures, you have to admit it’s a fun way to promote the sale of gift cards for art prints.
You can order a gift card for whatever occasion you choose, include your own message, and have it sent instantly to whoever you think might enjoy the distinctive selection of featured on the Thumbtack Press site.
The company’s promotional strategy also includes public relations, advertising, search-engine optimization, social media, and personalized outreach to bloggers (like me!).
“We encourage our artists to work in concert with us — to use our social media integrations with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr and others to provide a sales synergy to get your art seen by the greatest number of people around the world,” says Friedland. Over 25% of Thumbtack’s sales are international.
Benefits for Artists and Designers
In addition to exposing art enthusiasts to unique, affordable art, Thumbtack Press wants to help advance the well-being of artists.
“We love art and treat artists with the respect they deserve,” says Friedland. Along with producing high-quality prints on a range of substrates, Thumbtack Press handles every element of the day-to-day complexities of running an online gallery business so you don’t have to.
Thumbtack deals with the website programming, hosting, credit card transactions, fulfillment, framing and matting, packaging, quality control, advertising, marketing, accounting, and everything else that goes into running a world-class e-commerce site.
Because Thumbtack Press is a curated site with a particular look and feel, not all work that is submitted to the site is accepted.
“The best way to get a feel for what we are looking for is to take a look around,” says Friedland.
To be considered for inclusion, submit at least three works for review. (See the submission guidelines on the Thumbtack Press website.)
If your work is accepted, you will get access to a private Artist Control Panel where you can upload and control the art you want to sell and provide information that will enable customers to know more about you and your art. The Artist Control panel also lets you track your sales and payment history.
You will receive a royalty for each print the Thumbtack Press sells, as well as portion of the frame sale.
This week, I’ll highlight ways that artists, designers, and photographers are using Valentine’s Day as a way to promote more personalized and meaningful gifts. Let’s start with a Valentine’s Art Show and Market in Houston designed to benefit area artists.
A Celebration of Many Facets of Love
With all the turmoil, struggle, division, and inequality in the world, maybe what the world needs now is an art show to pay tribute to love in all its forms. At least that’s what Houston photographer and antique dealer Gordon Greenleaf believes.
So, when he decided to do a follow up to the first “Occupy Wall Space” art show he held last November, he settled on Sunday, February 12 as the date and chose this theme: “Occupy Wall Space 2 – For Love and Art, A Valentine’s Market.” The event will be held at Rudyard’s British Pub, 2010 Waugh Drive, Houston, from 4 to 8 pm.
Greenleaf started the “Occupy Wall Space” show as a way to help local artists sell their work with no upfront gallery fees or deducted commissions. The first event was an impromptu show at Cecil’s Pub in Houston. Artists were charged nothing to show their work, and kept all of the proceeds from their sales.
“It is difficult enough for aspiring artists to make a little return on their art,” says Greenleaf. “Of course, art galleries need to make money to stay alive and viable. And most Houston galleries do a great job and have the Houston art community’s best interests at heart. But some just charge the artist for wall space and then really don’t do much to promote the show or get buyers in.”
Greenleaf believes his event will actually help the art galleries and the entire art community by directing people to other places that the artists show their work.
“But primarily my goal is to put a little extra money in the artist’s pocket and promote their talent,” he says. “And by showing at some unusual, non-typical venues, the art gets to some people who may not otherwise seek out the galleries.” If the public can buy works from up-and-coming artists at more affordable prices, Greenleaf regards it as a situation that benefits everyone.
Greenleaf reports that his first Occupy Wall Space show brought in a large number of people and most of the artists sold work.
For the Big-Hearted and Broken-Hearted
Some people ask him if the Occupy Wall Space moniker represents a political affiliation. “Absolutely not,” Greenleaf says. “Alluding to Occupy is simply a tip of the hat to those who would protect the little guy and his free speech.”
As for the Valentine’s Day theme, Greenleaf says, “A lot of people write off Valentine’s Day as just another big business commercial day, created to make more money from the hardworking citizen. But I envisage that it could also be a day for celebrating love in all its colors through art: romantic love, love of life, love of country, love of family, love of food and drink, brotherly love, sisterly love, love of humanity, erotica, even love of dogs and cats.”
At the upcoming show local artists will hint at, portray or poke fun at some of love’s many facets with painting, drawings, photographs, cartoons, jewelry and sculpture.
Greenleaf is promoting it as a show “for the erotic and the neurotic, and for the big-hearted and the broken-hearted.” He expects the afternoon to be more of a party than an art show.
Some of the artists to be featured in the show include:
B.D. Himes – Cartoon men and women
Tara Jordan-Greenleaf – 3D paintings
Johnny Rojas- Sculpture in Iron
Tracy Pierce – Found object art
Bhavana – Eastern and spiritual influenced art
Lynn Chapman – Blue ladies and Vivid hearts
Robin Winfrey – Brazen photography of women
Gordon Greenleaf- Then & Now (35yrs of photos)
Vendors at the show will be offering gifts such as handmade valentines, french postcard art, pin-up art, homemade chocolates (made with local honey), nautical items and Hawaiian shirts. Greg Harbar will provide gypsy music, and the owner of Rudyard’s Pub will be offering champagne specials.
I’m taking a field trip to Indianapolis this week. (It’s about 100 miles up the road from my home near Cincinnati.) As a Cincinnati Bengals season-ticket holder, I had fantasized about being in Indianapolis next Sunday to watch the Bengals play in the Super Bowl. No such luck.
But I do expect to see something to cheer about at the TURF Art Pavilion hosted by the Indianapolis Downtown Artists and Dealers Association (IDADA). The IDADA is a non-profit organization of studio artists, art galleries, and arts-related businesses within 20 blocks of the city’s center.
The goal of the TURF project is to promote the work of Indiana artists on their home turf as tens of thousands of sports fans, celebrities, corporate marketing executives, broadcasters, and journalists converge in Indianapolis for Super Bowl XLVI.
The TURF IDADA Art Pavilion is located in a historic building just 1700 yards from the site of this year’s Super Bowl—Lucas Oil Stadium. The pavilion is an experiential art and design gallery, with exhibits that appeal to the senses of sight, sound, and touch. It opened January 14 and will remain open through Sunday, February 5.
From 10 am to 7 pm on Tuesdays through Sunday, the IDADA Art Pavilion is free and open to the public. In the evenings, the pavilion will be used to private gatherings and parties.
TURF events will culminate Friday evening, February 3, with a gallery tour that will enable Super Bowl tourists to view the work of artists other than the 20 artists whose works are featured in the TURF Art Pavilion.
To create the venue, IDADA worked in cooperation with the Super Bowl Host Committee, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and the Indianapolis Mayor’s Office.
“Indianapolis has a wide variety of high-caliber artists and galleries, and this is our chance to let the world know it,” says gallery owner Mark Ruschman. “To the best of my knowledge, this has never been attempted by a Super Bowl host city before.”
So, if the Bengals won’t be playing in the big game next week, I’m happy to root for the art team! Let’s hope the IDADA can break through some of the Super Bowl’s traditional brand-marketing-palooza and score some exposure for Midwestern artists and their ideas.
ARTISTS. Here’s an example of how technology is transforming how art will be collected, sold, and displayed in the future. Although this particular site (www.seditionart.com) is still in the “private-beta” stage, it’s good to be aware of new business models that are being proposed and tried.
S[edition] is a digital platform for collecting contemporary art. With prices starting under $10, S[edition] enables you to view and display limited-edition art by contemporary artists on all of your devices, including your mobile phone, iPad, computer display, and television screens.
The platform was developed to help stimulate the growth of a new generation of collectors. The goal is to make art collecting more affordable, instantly gratifying, more social, and less intimidating.
Featured artists include: Shepard Fairey, Damien Hirst, Isaac Julien, Mat Collinshaw, Michael Craig-Martin, Tracey Emin, Bill Viola, and Wim Wenders.
Every edition is numbered and sold with a Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist. Certificates are automatically generated upon the completed purchase of an artwork. Then, the certificate and purchased art are stored securely in each collector’s digital “vault.”
As a collector, you can view your purchased art in high resolution or send it to any of your connected devices. You may not print copies of either the certificate of authenticity or the artwork itself. Digital watermarking technology is used to track every purchased edition.
With the free iPad app, you can view or show your entire collection on the iPad anytime, anywhere—even without an Internet connection. The recently announced App for Facebook Timeline lets you show your personal s[edition] art collection to friends, and highlight your favorite artists.
One benefit of buying art through s[edition] is that you can receive regular information directly from the artists, get priority access to new collections, and connect with other collectors.
The creators of s[edition] have announced plans to launch a marketplace through which a collector can sell works to other collectors after editions are sold out .
Gallery owners and artists who are interested in creating a limited digital edition should send an email to: info (at) seditionart.com
An informal survey of online press releases, trade-show topics, and market-research reports indicates which art-market trends and technologies are likely to gain momentum in 2012. Let me know what you think about some the trends I have listed here, or if I’ve overlooked any major developments.
More artists are integrating technology into the process of making art.
“Cyberarts” is defined as any artistic endeavor in which computer technology is used to expand artistic possibilities. The cyberarts movement definitely appears to be growing, as artists experiment with different kinds of apps, motion graphics, augmented reality, and various forms of mixed-media printing.
Artist Dan Hermes has written several informative blog posts about “moving paintings,” which are also known as video paintings, dynamic paintings, ambient paintings, moving digital paintings, and ambient video. Increasingly, these paintings will be designed for display in residential or commercial interiors, on either flat-screen TVs or as projection installations
Dan Hermes was one of several artists who exhibited “dynamic digital imagery” at the 2011 Cyberarts Festival in Boston.
Elliot Grey has posted a YouTube video explaining his approach to “Cinematic Digital Painting,” which turns your television set into a canvas.
Interest in iPhone art is also rising. More than 3,000 iPhoneography artists gather on the website iPhoneArt.com to discuss their work, collaborate, and share what they have made. Cofounders Daria Polichetti and Nathaniel Park are dedicated to creating exhibition opportunities, financial support, international recognition, and promotional opportunities for iPhone artists.
As our homes, offices, and public spaces become increasingly screen-filled, many art lovers will treasure the tactile substance and presence of physical art objects. Thus, mixed-media printmakers such as Bonny Lhotka (author of the book Digital Alchemy) are teaching artists how to create art by combining digital techniques with traditional hands-on methods. Lhotka has developed methods and materials for transferring inkjet-printed digital images onto a variety of substrates such as aluminum, acrylic, birch, fresco, stone paper, and aged metal. Some of Lhotka’s works are currently displayed in the “Digital Darkroom: Exploration of Altered Realities” exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles.
Efforts to expand the base of new collectors will diversity and intensify.
Online galleries of all types are experimenting with many different ways to help more people discover and buy more affordable art.
Artspace, which partners with some of the world’s most renowned art institutions, is positioning itself as “an online art advisor.” One of their goals is to enable collectors and art enthusiasts to discover and collect art from renowned contemporary artists as well as emerging talent at prices ranging from $200 to $10,000.
An article in the December, 2011 issue of Wired magazine profiled the founders of Art.sy, who have created a formula for finding art that matches your personal tastes. They have lined up relationships with more than 180 galleries and are striving to make Art.sy accessible to the average art fan, in ways that art advisers are not. The service is trying to be “an omniscient art historian for the entire world—no matter where you live or how much money you have.” The article notes that right now only a tiny fraction (perhaps 4%) of the fine-art trade takes place online, and the global market for fine art and antiques is estimated at roughly $60 billion a year.
Efforts to expand exposure opportunities for artists are happening at all levels. In December, the Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery launched a YouTube channel that presents moving slideshows of the previous online exhibitions.
Collectors and galleries will use high-resolution LCD panels to display collections of artwork.
At the Miami SOLO show presented by Artexpo, Planar teamed up with Samsung Semiconductor to display works by 30 emerging artists on Samsung’s new “SM’ART” gallery frames. These LCD panels have much higher resolution than television screens, making it possible not only to reproduce the original colors in a painting, but also the textures.
"Flowers" by Simon Bull on Samsung Sm'art Liquid Crystal Canvas panel
According to a Samsung product manager, the panels will also be much simpler to operate than a TV. There won’t be wires and cables hanging out of it, and the controls will operated either by tablet computer or smartphone.
Ultimately, Samsung and its partners envision the creation of a cloud-based art-gallery database that will include high-resolution scans of paintings or original digital art (such as moving paintings and dynamic digital imagery).
Just as e-bookstores and iTunes have opened up markets for new writers and musicians, the art database would enable buyers to discover works they might otherwise never be able to see in big-city brick-and-mortar galleries.
After buying art from the database, people can display one image on the SM’ART screen for months without adverse affects to the screen. Then (without having to rehang a new frame), they can use the panel to show new pieces that reflect the changing seasons, décor, or event themes in hotels and reception areas. People will own art purchased from the database, so they can port it to new screens as display screens continue to improve.
More art is being displayed outdoors and in non-traditional venues.
The Streaming Museum
You don’t have to visit a museum or gallery to see art. As demonstrated by projects such as The Streaming Museum and The Billboard Art Project, you can see art displayed on screens in public squares or on digital billboards traditionally used for advertising.
The Art Prize festival/competition turns the entire city of Grand Rapids, Michigan into an art gallery. Last year, more than 160 venues (including office lobbies, restaurants, courtyards, and parks) displayed the works of 1582 artists hoping to win some of the $498,000 in prize money (including $250,000 for first place). The 19-day event attracted 320,000 visitors and provided a $14.5 million boost to the local economy.
Entrepreneurial artists are using websites and social media to get exposure.
The days of sitting idly by and hoping to get discovered have vanished for all creative professionals. Many are going online to build relationships and using SEO (search-engine-optimization) techniques to increase the odds of being discovered.
More and more artists are promoting themselves through online press releases, social media, self-published books, and apps. Art business coaches and organizations such as the Institute of Arts Entrepreneurship are helping artists be more proactive in creating opportunities for themselves.
Goldberg Lite app features works by artist Colin Goldberg
In December, artist Colin Goldberg introduced an app that enables iPhone and iPad users to use some of his original art as wallpaper for their screens. The app can also be used to order prints of some of his images through his gallery on etsy. He used an online press release service to announce the availability of the app.
In a blog post about “A Tale of Two Unhappy Artists,” John Math of the Light Space & Time online gallery told the story of two artists who wondered why they weren’t selling more art. One artist complained that even though he had won several competitions, their art sales were still poor. John Math observed that he didn’t have an attractive website or social media links. Furthermore, he hadn’t even bothered to announce on his website that he had won the competitions.
“It is evident to me that no one would know about this artist, based on the lack of press releases, social media networking, and any ongoing promotions,” said Math. “In addition, his website did not contain any associated article content that would help draw anyone to his website. Consequently, his website traffic was poor and he was frustrated.”
Math noted that “Many artists will embark on a marketing campaign, not see any results quickly and then give up their efforts. It is the artist who markets their art on a continuous and consistent basis who achieves successful results.”
Send Me Your Stories
If you have stories, news, or ideas related to any of these trends, we would love to hear from you! Send ideas for articles or guest posts to: eileen (dot) fritsch (at) creativesatworkblog (dot) com.
In one of the first posts on this blog, I wondered how long it would take before designers started taking full advantage of some of the creative possibilities of the most recent advances in digital textile printing. Here’s a great example of a photographer who is not only creating beautiful products, but also appears to be marketing them with a carefully planned strategy.
Cherry Blossom Scarf by BryonyShearmur
Photographic artist Bryony Shearmur, who has been creating fine art images of Los Angeles for over a decade, has brought some of those images to life as limited-edition silk scarves.
Entitled “Really Beautiful Things,” the Los Angeles-themed scarves are part of her new “Silk” series. The scarves are described as “living photographs” and “cascades of color.” Each piece is individually printed on 100% Habatai silk using the most advanced technology in digital fabric printing. Then, each scarf and pocket-square is hand-finished and signed by the artist.
“I have wanted to create ‘Silk’ for many years but the technology was not there,” says Shearmur. “Finally it is and I can realize my vision”
In addition to scarves and pocket squares, Bryony Shearmur is developing silk tops and skirts, and a collection of cashmere-lined blankets that feature her most popular snow and water landscapes. She says the “Silk” collection seamlessly blends her passions for photography, conceptual art, and design.
The press release she developed to promote the scarves is accompanied by top-quality high-resolution photographs designed for use if magazines that promote luxury goods.
