The Downside to Painting on Paper

I've been debating the wisdom of painting on paper for some time. Though storage is easy, matting and framing are costly. Last weekend I was talking with a more established artist, and he gave me some insights into some other shortcomings of paper and how I've been presenting works on paper.

One of the key points he made was that people respond very differently to a painting under glass. It's certainly true that you lose your sense of the surface when a painting is under glass. I have seen some shows, for instance the Hopper show at the National Gallery of Art, where a few paintings on canvas were under glass-- and I always was distracted by the glass and wondering why it was there. The point my friend made was that, under glass, a painting often loses much of what distinguishes an original from a glicee print, undermining its value.

A second point he made is that mats may not be working well for me. I came from a printmaking background where the deckled edges of the paper were prized, and floating your work unmatted in the frame was the standard operating procedure. Recently I had resorted to matting to avoid tearing down my paintings to get a clean edge. He was strongly recommending floating over matting, because it is a more polished style. Or, better yet, switch to panels and get rid of the glass.

So much of selling art is creating the perception of value, and I can certainly see how not obscuring work behind glass and mat board might be a cleaner, preferred look. I'd been starting to move towards panels, and this conversation certainly encourages me to follow through.

The Parts of My Dog 12 (2007)

I've been struggling a bit with finishing paintings since the beginning of the month, and I'm not really satisfied this one is done either.

Godzilla versus Stegosaurus (2007)

I managed to finish one of the 5 x 7 inch panels by switching subjects. This may be the first of many toy paintings, or it may be one of a kind. No telling at this point.

Dimensional Dementia

I got myself a passel of 5 x 7 inch panels thinking I might churn out some painting studies. Hey, I certainly have no troubles with drawings and watercolors at that size, and there are plenty of daily artists who work even smaller with impressive results. But I'm either picking lousy subjects or lack the finesse- it feels like I'm building a ship in a bottle with fireplace tongs. The dog paintings are just 8 x 8 inches, but somehow going down to 5 x 7 inches crosses out of my comfort zone. I think I need to do a couple of 18 x 24 inch paintings to settle down.

Tagging Along

I was tagged by Tracy Helgeson with the challenge of listing five things you might not know about me. Seeing as this is an art blog, I should probably be shocking you with factoids like that I have a regular job (ooh!) and wear a tie each day (aah!). Somehow when try to come up with five things, I find that I am just profoundly normal. Well except for:

• When I was a kid, I loved making art, the color lavender, Bobby Sherman, and dressing up in my father's hats to sing show tunes. And I'm straight. Really.


• I am a merciless lobster slayer, with hundreds of kills from decades of beach parties. Three inches of sea water in the tub, drop them in at first boil and loosely cover, seventeen minutes from the second boil, pull an antenna to test. Like a crustacean killing machine.


• My childhood dentist wore a pair of flip-down magnifying glasses as he closed in with the drill, like some bug-eyed reject from a David Lynch movie. And no Novocaine. It's amazing that I've ever been back to any dentist.


• The most famous artists to emerge from my tiny undergrad studio art program are comic strip cartoonists (Watterson and Borgman). I'm kind of proud, but I occasionally ponder whether the Kenyon art department admits that to new prospects.


• If you don't know already, I have a tribute blog for my dog, Pappy. He's like ten times more famous than I'll ever be. His Youtube movies have 200,000 views, and he's going to be on the National Geographic Channel's "Dog Genius" later this month.

Now there is the question of who to tag to pass along this great opportunity. Coming in on the tail end of this thing, I'm having a tough time finding people who haven't just done it among the art blogs I know well. So I am going to do the lazy thing and say-- if you feel inspired to do this tag, please leave me a comment and let me know to come look at your blog. I'd be thrilled to update the post to link to you.

On Exhibit

I have two pieces in a show at the Touchstone Gallery, 406 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC. The "Art on the Small Side" show, juried by Rosemary Luckett and Jon Wassom, runs from December 12 to January 5. The opening is Friday, December 14 from 6 - 8:30PM. Shouldn't let pleasure get in the way of business, but the opening conflicts with a friend's Christmas party.

Wordless Wednesday: Postcard Art

If you'd like this free postcard, enter by emailing me at doingart-whorl-gmail-period-com and I'll contact the winner. More Wordless Wednesday here.

Evaluating Software for Running an Art Business

Well, I've been busily at work in preparation for evaluating the different software packages for running a business marketing and selling my art. So I've set up a computer in the basement, and have installed demos for each of the products below:

Art Affair
Art and Craft Business Organizer
Art Look
Artful Butler
eArtist
Flick
Museografic for Art World
My Art Collection
Working Artist

So far each has their idiosyncrasies, some seem to have advantages in specific niches, and a couple stand out for my purposes. One thing that each has in common is the capacity to track a portfolio and add additional information about each work, but beyond this are many differences. I've been working on a matrix in order to evaluate each of them individually.

There are three other products which I won't be reviewing. One, Marketing Artist, is a web application that seems to be shutting down. This would have been my principal reservation in using their service-- that the company might cease operations and I would lose access to their system.

Two others, Gyst and Artworks Pro, don't have demos. I looked over their sites to get some idea of their products.

The Gyst site is intriguing. The product supports both Mac and Windows PCs, and the comprehensive features read like a syllabus for a course in marketing art-- press releases, inventory management, goal setting, checklists, contracts. In fact, the company also seems to run seminars on selling art. However, when talking about the software, they don't actually show any screen captures or program details. This makes me a little suspicious whether it is a well integrated product or a set of unconnected document templates. Under support information they indicate that they have identified a compatibility problem with Intel-based Macs that could be corrected by recompiling on the new platform, but they haven't fixed it. This is strangely casual. This could be a great program, but I remain uneasy about some of the loose ends.

The Windows application Artworks Pro has gotten some great word-of-mouth from art forums, and the product has a low "promotional" price. Their site has a lame video and minimal specifics about the product, but there is one thing I really dislike about them. They crow the misleading claim of being Mac compatible on their site, when this compatibility would require a big investment in emulation software, Windows license, and knowledge of Windows. All of these products are Mac compatible under those terms. I have a big trust issue with this company for using that kind of deceptive marketing, and there just isn't enough information on their site to counteract that reaction.

Will Draw for Links Card 4

Demonstrating that I haven't shut down postcard production altogether, here is a "Will Draw for Links" postcard for Johann. I kind of like the crazed look. If I still owe someone a postcard, please let me know... I'm not terribly well organized as these things go.

Plexiglas Misadventure

I was framing yesterday for a show, and went to use a set of 1/8" Plexiglas pieces in my frames. These were normal inexpensive pieces of Lucite ES purchased from the local hardware store. I wasn't looking for anything glareproof, so figured this would suffice.

Most artists know that Plexiglas has advantages over glass because it is lightweight and shatterproof, but is much more prone to scratching. What I hadn't realized was that the stuff from the hardware store would have so many imperfections-- little black flecks embedded in the plastic that make it look like there is dirt trapped inside the frame. I'm no perfectionist, in fact I'm barely an adequatist, and I could only use one of the six pieces I had purchased. I guess I'm going to have to investigate whether there are different grades of Plexiglas, because Lucite ES isn't going to cut the mustard.

The Parts of My Dog 11 (2007)

I have today off to finish up some framing to enter a juried show tomorrow, and to recover from going to a late night Redskins game Thursday (and here's a big shout out to all the other football fans out there in the art community, both of you). I finished this up this morning, and I like it well enough to make it one of the entries for the show. It's a little loud for me, but I'm experimenting a bit for a trendier audience.

More on Business Software for Artists

Since my posting of a couple of days ago on business applications for artists, I've started getting contacts from some of the mentioned companies inviting me to review their software. I've already noted that there are no web reviews I have been able to find, and I can imagine it is probably difficult for these niche developers to get independent evaluations. I'm kind of psyched to do some reviews; with few exceptions most of these art management applications have trial versions, and I can imagine people are looking for advice in this area.

Hopefully I'm not getting in way over my head with this. From a technical standpoint, I have a lot of career experience that would help me judge whether each is a well considered, well implemented piece of software. From an art professional standpoint, I unfortunately have limited experience with the business processes of marketing art-- I'm a fairly smart guy, so hopefully I can bridge this gap with some good sense. Another limitation of mine is, having spent a twenty year span working in Information Technology, I probably have a slightly higher than average tolerance for complexity and ugly interfaces. But I am also a "the glass is half empty" kind of guy, which should help compensate. Rest assured, if I see warts you'll know about them.

I'd like to get feedback from readers concerning the features they think are most important in a business application for artists. I find myself a bit torn about whether it is better to have advanced accounting, invoicing, and inventory management in the art management application, or if it is better to have a simpler application that focuses on cataloging art and managing client lists with a dedicated accounting application. A couple of these applications even incorporate calendars and goal setting tools, and I am curious to find out whether these really add value or are just gilding the lily. I hope to develop a features matrix and have some reviews by later this month.

Picking Out The Pieces

I'm busily preparing frames and mats for my application to a local juried show for this Saturday. I have to pick from several of the dog paintings. Sadly, I used two of my favorites in an application for a different show, and I haven't done many I am as excited about in recent weeks. I am picking from PoMD 2, PoMD 3(the left hand half), PoMD 8, PoMD 9, PoMD 10, and would welcome any feedback on your top selections. I am trying to finish two others this week, but with framing I am rapidly running out of time.

Over the past weeks I've been reading several art marketing books, currently Caroll Michel's How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist. As I was reading last night, she takes a fairly dim view of the benefits of juried shows. The idea that they both collect entry fees from all applicants rather than just the selected entrants, and additionally may take a commission of any sales could rub an artist the wrong way. It's a fairly expensive way to get a bullet on your resume, and there will be minimal publicity for the individual artists.

In the case of the show I am applying to, I am a little (just a little) sympathetic with this gallery since they are an artist's coop gallery in downtown DC, and I am sure they have big rent bills and tight margins. Plus I'm at a point where I'm happy enough to apply just to give me some goals for my work.

The Parts of My Dog 8 (2007)

This one might look familiar... it is a a variation on the seventh painting in the series.

Back to Business, Art Business That Is

The ugly secret of being successful in selling art is that you have to undertake all of the drudgery of any entrepreneur. To avert financial disaster, you have to manage risk, get organized, keep records, and know law, just like any working droog. But I just wanted to paint!

For those of you who don't know, my goal is to lay the groundwork for selling my art as a second career. My current job is in Information Technology, so when faced with the daunting task of tracking art and accounts, I immediately wonder how a computer can make this easy. Of course this is always a fallacy. If you wander off looking for computer packages to automate something you don't know how to do, you're going to spend a lot of money without much success. It's always best to understand the process the direct way, generally the manual way, before you venture to automate and "simplify". I've seen a million people fail by buying software and systems before they understand a process, but, hey, maybe I'll get lucky.

So I have been looking for niche software designed for the working artist. I came across Carol Cooper's site where she has a basic list of many different packages. I don't know much yet, but most of them seem to focus on maintaining a catalog of your work and a mailing list of clients. They also generally seem to have a means of tracking the current disposition of your work-- who has it and where it is. Some have invoicing features, but don't seem to have all the tax reporting features of an accounting program. In other words, you might still have need for a small business accounting package like Quickbooks or Peachtree. Maybe you could get by with a simpler personal accounting package like Quicken Home & Business, but the books I'm reading strongly recommend greater separation between your personal and business finances. The biggest worry I have is that there is no way to integrate the art management software with the accounting software, requiring that I double-enter all the contact and inventory information from the other program. Yech.

In addition to lacking sufficient accounting, the art management programs all deny that they cover the ins and outs of legal contracts. I keep reading the importance of eliminating any ambiguity in your business dealings over art with the appropriate contract agreements, even when you are dealing with friends. It protects them and it protects you from the kind of misunderstandings that make you stop being friendly. Many of the art management programs seem to have some interface allowing you to merge data with a contract form, but they are careful to say that you need appropriate legal guidance in preparing contracts and related documents. The most widely recommended book I've seen on the subject of Art Law is the one by Tad Crawford, and he also has a separate compilation of business and legal forms for artists. There is a more comprehensive list of books with legal advice for artists here, and an addition collection of sample forms in this book.

So, having blathered all that, I'd like to assure you that I have no expertise and am just communicating my thoughts while trying to wrap my head around the subject of selling art. Here are the art management software packages I have found so far. I'll try and add links to any reviews I find as I research further. Most of these seem to be primarily Windows products, with a couple having Mac versions or hosted web applications. I can't remember where I read it, but someone once commented that it was amazing how clunky and ugly these programs for artists are, and so far I can't disagree.

Art Affair
Art and Craft Business Organizer
Art Look
Artworks Pro
eArtist
Flick
Marketing Artist
Museografic for Art World
My Art Collection
Working Artist

Update (12/4): I have to say that reviews of all these packages are hard to find apart from a few vague mentions on the forum at wetcanvas.com. I hear that Marketing Artist, the online web application, is no longer creating accounts. I found two more packages listed over on the Art Biz Blog:
Artful Butler
Gyst