ART
PUBLICATION
RESULTS

At ArtAndArtDeadlines.com, I spend a lot of time preaching about the benefits of Art Publication and why you should enter art shows.  So, it only seems fitting that I publish my occasional results that address both.

In June, ArtAndArtDeadlines.com posted a blog about The Flaneur, an Independent Art & Culture Newspaper.  I followed my own advice and submitted one of my favorite pieces called Pieces of Me: Fat.  Below is the front page of the latest edition of The Flaneur along with the page on which my piece appears.  Click the image below to go to The Flaneur!

The Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority (McGhee Tyson Airport) and the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville are pleased to present “Arts in the Airport Spring 2010,” a new exhibition featuring selected artwork. “Arts in the Airport” was developed to allow regional artists to compete and display work in the most visited site in the area.

The selected art features contemporary 2-dimensional artwork and will be exhibited in the secured area behind McGhee Tyson Airport’s security gate checkpoint.

This call for entry was featured on ArtAndArtDeadlines.com and had NO ENTRY FEE!  Get to work–No excuses!

He said, “Sure.” 

I replied, “Thanks.  I will make sure it is small enough that it can’t be reproduced and stolen and…”

He interrupted laughing and said, “Clearly I’m not worried about that, or I would make a better effort to protect the artwork on the website.  I figure if someone can figure out how to steal it and make a million bucks, I’ll steal it back and make the second million.”

Folks, to put it in perspective, I am talking about an internationally-known artist whose work on canvas, paper and bronze is very well editioned and supports more than one generation of his family.

So my question is, why are artists so paranoid that we’re watermarking tiny digital images of our work online? 

If you’re a stock photographer–I get it.  Corporations using your images for logos and not paying–I get it.  But otherwise folks, let’s all loosen up.  Can’t we all just remember that theft–regardless of how wrong–is still a back-handed compliment?

The ones that really kill me are the images you right-click and they say “This image protected.”  Really?  I have yet to find an image protected from my PRT SCRN key.  Maybe what we should be doing is encouraging people to cut and paste our work so their audience is prompted to say, “Wow!  Who did that?”  

Optimism, folks…catch the wave.

Have you ever had a piece of artwork stolen? Me too…more than once. Within the past two weeks, “Sally,” part of a triptych called “Sue . Sally . Sara .” was stolen off a gallery wall.

I received both a phone message and an email from the Director of the organization and the Director of the gallery–frought with professionalism and concern. My response? “Stuff happens,” and “Hey, I take it as a compliment…I’m theft-worthy.”

For me, the theft poses questions like…“What was wrong with the other pieces in the triptych”…not “How could this happen.”

As a gallery owner and then director for many years, please take my advice on this one. Do not have a hysterical fit that reinforces the idea that all artists are crazy and irrational.

Yes, I understand that you may be attached to the artwork. “Sally” is a part of my masthead at RLGibson.com, but you’ve got to let it go. Galleries and their owners and directors do the best they can; do me a favor, and give them a break. Most of them are insured.

Do you have a story of art theft and intrigue to share? Send me an email or leave a comment on this post. Have Happy Holidays!

I recently posted an update about my being juried into the Arts in the Airport show.  On Thursday November 5th, I got to attend my first show opening and reception located in an airport.  Click Here to see all of the work in the Arts in the Airport show.

First, my kudos go out to the Knoxville Airport Authority’s devotion to the arts and willingness to put their money where their mouths are by offering $1000 in awards and NO ENTRY FEE.  Secondly, I want to applaud how well the reception and viewing were handled considering all the security issues surrounding any event held in the airport.

My husband, son Oscar and I drove approximately 1.5 hours to attend, and I had a great time.  Here are some pictures of the event:

Don’t forget to send your artwork and result to www.ArtandArtDeadlines.com.

The media in which I work is Xerography.  And I’ve spent years trying to find the technique that works best for me.  SC Artist Kim Lemasters introduced me to Xerography and showed me his method.  His method didn’t work for me…my first methods didn’t work for me.  Years later, I’m comfortable with my own process and find that it is still changing.  As my aptitude increases, my results change in unexpected ways.

For years, I worked on wood.  And honestly, I still prefer to work on wood.  However, I had work on wood that in my gut I knew was good that I couldn’t get shown.  I reworked some of the pieces on canvas and sent them to the same galleries as juried entries for different shows…and voila!  They were juried into the same galleries where they had previously been rejected.  It was at that point that I had to confront the issues of satisfying the marketing and realizing that it was not all about my process. 

I began producing ALL of my work for show on canvas while producing a few pieces on wood here and there because I loved them.  The result was a long resume of national shows and a secret belief (held by all artists I suspect) that some galleries and jurors simply have better taste and fewer biases about what constitutes “art” than others.

I decided to enter the Arts & Culture Alliance National Juried Exhibit of 2009 featured on the September Deadlines Post of ArtAndArtDeadlines.com.  As an experiment, I entered two pieces on canvas and a triptych on wood…just as a last hurrah for my sadly rejected wood pieces.  Only one piece could be juried into the show.  Wouldn’t you know… the wood triptych (pictured below) made the cut.

So, the moral of the story?  Oh hell, I don’t know…never give up on a piece you believe in?  have faith that eventually a juror will get it?  there’s no rhyme or reason to taste? 

Pick one.  Your guess is as good as mine.