Art Print Issues by Barney Davey

10 Questions about EBSQ Art ~ the Online Community for Self-representing Visual Artists

Having always been a strong supporter of visual artists being independent as possible, I became an instant fan of EBSQ Art upon learning about it years ago.

In Internet time, ideas, companies and online communities come and go in the blink of an eye. If you think back about how much has changed since 2000, EBSQ Art's longevity is simply amazing. It truly is a testament to its ability to evolve and add value to its members.

I recently had the opportunity to pose ten questions to Amie Gillingham, the site's CEO and guiding force behind its great success story. If you are an visual artist and not already part of this vibrant valuable community, I urge you to consider joining.

1.            What is EBSQ Art and where did it get the name?

EBSQ is an online artist community geared towards artists who sell or otherwise promote their work directly to the public. A lot of people wonder the heck what our acronym could possibly stand for. But actually, our name is a derivation of e-Basquiats which was what our earliest members were dubbed when they were selling on eBay at the turn of the century. EBSQ as a keyword became their calling card. Our artistic sensibilities have greatly expanded since our founding in 2000, but the name stuck.

2.            What is the mix of art available on your site?

Our site leans heavily toward traditional fine art, but we also have a nice smattering of digital artists, photographers, jewelers, glass artists, and all manner of artisans. You'll find everything from realism to contemporary cubism to fantasy and steampunk to Pysanky eggs!

3.            Creating and selling art is an obvious part of the community. How well are your members doing using the site to get their work to market?

EBSQ isn't a traditional e-commerce site. We're actually more of a hub for an artist's total online marketing strategy. We do allow members to make items available for sale either by providing contact information for the buyer or by using their preferred payment gateway on individual items, but we don't have a site-wide payment system in place. So a lot of our metrics come from what our customers have reported to us.

Back in November 2010, we upgraded a lot of our site code and our Certificate of Authenticity systems was temporarily unavailable. We were actually surprised by how many artists were coming to us, desperate for COAs because they had a backlog of sold artwork to ship to their customers. While we're quite sorry folks had to wait for us to get this feature back online, it was gratifying to know that both the service was so much in demand and how many artists were doing better sale-wise than they were the year before. Folks that are just starting out might have a rough time of it at first, but artists that have hung in there during the recession are seeing at least a small rebound in sales above and beyond the expected uptick during the holiday season.

We do see a shift in where our artists are making items available for sale beyond our website. EBSQ traffic has moved from being largely at eBay to largely at Etsy. Imagekind and CafePress have fallen out of favour and Zazzle has become the POD vendor of choice. And a lot of members are marketing their work directly on their blogs and Facebook pages. Our goal is to provide as much support as we can for our artists, regardless of their venue of choice.

4.            Besides having an established online venue to showcase their work, what other benefits do artists enjoy with their participation?

EBSQ has a lot of the tools you'd expect from an art site in this day and age: bulk uploads, unlimited portfolios, Google Analytics-powered stats, social sharing tools, and the like. One rather unique feature is our digital Certificate of Authenticity. Artists have the option to print or email our COAs to buyers, who are then able to "lock" their COA. They can even transfer COAs if the work is resold and the provenance of the work travels with it.

Our community is the biggest unexpected benefit cited by our members. Not every member makes it to our forums, but those that do tend to stick around and get a lot more out of their membership than those that don't. Especially in a down economy, it's helpful to stay immersed in an artistic environment.

Another benefit unique to EBSQ is our extensive exhibition schedule. Currently, we run 3 exhibits every month. This year includes several juried exhibits as well as our annual benefit for the Susan G Komen Foundation. Shows are a great way to get involved, challenge yourself, and get your work seen. You can check out our 2011 exhibition calendar here:

http://blog.ebsqart.com/2011/01/05/announcing-our-2011-exhibition-schedule/

5.            Do your members volunteer to help keep the site functioning? Are they compensated for their efforts, or is it pro bono for the good of the site?

Our site is a mixture of paid staff and volunteer members. Our handful of volunteers serve as topic hosts/moderators on our forums where they're already active participants and were already acting as unofficial community leaders. In some cases, we've had members serve as bloggers in exchange for membership. We think the knowledge and skill they bring to our blog is a huge asset and we're lucky to have them!

6.            How has online marketing changed since EBSQ Art was launched?

Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, YouTube, and blogging going mainstream have completely changed the rules of the game. Five years ago, these were optional venues an artist could use to gain a massive edge over the competition. Now, they're practically a requirement in the self-representing artist market if you want to stay in the game.

7.            How well do artists selling digital fine art reproductions do on the market?

I've found that artists who are well-established and sell their originals at a higher price point do MUCH better in the print market. When you can't afford or otherwise lost out on a sought-after original, the reproduction becomes more desirable.

That said, artists who actively and aggressively market their reproductions do much better than artists who simply post work for sale at sites like Imagekind and RedBubble and wait for something to happen. But more about that later!

8.            It has been a rocky road for many artists in the recent past, what is your vision or how do you feel about what will happen next?

I truly don't have a clue what the future holds. And that's kind of exciting! But I do know that artists who stay the course and keep creating and actively marketing their work through the bad times will have a leg up on those who packed in their dreams until it's no longer a rainy day. Carpe diem

9.            What advice do you give to artists for getting the most from their participation with EBSQ Art?

While this advice is true for EBSQ, I believe it also holds true for most, if not all, online venues, including personal websites. Don't post and pray. Be active. Participate and update regularly. Engage with your peers and potential customers. And above all, don't stop creating and posting new work.

Looking at stats for individual members, those that see the most traffic are active. They enter shows regularly. They're chatty on the forums. They're constantly on the front page because they're always creating and adding new work. When we added Google Analytics to our toolbox for artists, members were stunned to see how much of their traffic was a direct result of their activity, particularly show entries.

I've had artists leave EBSQ, complaining that the site didn't "work" for them. But more often than not, when I look at their portfolios, I see a lot of self-sabotage. In many cases, the artist uploaded a handful of pieces on their first day, didn't bother to give them titles, dates, or statements, didn't enter any shows, didn't even fully complete their profile, and never engaged with the site in any way. Of course they're not going to see success! It would be foolish to think otherwise. I don't care how amazing your artwork is. Post. And. Pray. Doesn't. Work. Period.

10.          What is your elevator speech for why artists should join EBSQ Art?

EBSQ is an online community for artists who want to take control of their own art careers. We're a hub where you can house your full portfolio, link to all of your online venues, easily establish the provenance of your work with our Digital Certificate of Authenticity tools, and connect with a global art community. We've been here for a decade, we've stayed small and kept a passionate focus on serving our community, and we still answer our own email. Our mantra remains the same since our founding in 2000: Support Living Artists!

-Amie Gillingham
CEO, EBSQ
web: http://www.ebsqart.com
blog: http://blog.ebsqart.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/ebsq
Get out of the vacuum and express yourself!

Art-Exchange.com Brouhaha Still Brewing

A four-year running discussion about Art-Exchange.com and its business practices has been raging on Wet Canvas, which is the largest artist discussion board on the Internet. A search for the term "art-exchange" there returns 21 results of different threads or discussions. Nearly all are started by artists asking for help, opinion and firsthand experience with the company.

The primary thread with "Art-Exchange.com...any opinions?" was started in June, 2005 and has more than 100 replies and 7500 views. This is an enormous amount of response and that it continues to stay lively nearly 4 years later shows the amount of interest and angst generated by the company's business tactics. The near universal response has been outrage and anger from the Wet Canvas art community. Discussion boards such as Wet Canvas serve a great need. The work as a communal watering hole where like-minded folks can gather and share their experiences, knowledge and shared interests.

The latest round of posts were started when a poster named David Miller, who introduced himself as the new president of Art-Exchange.com came on to try to defend the company. He was rightly disturbed by a comment that the employees there should be shot. We all know such talk is meaningless hyperbole attempting to portray the level of anger towards the company and its aggressive sales staff. But, on this point I think he has a right to be disturbed. Not so much, or not at all on reasoned explanations of how artists were treated and solicited by his sales staff.

Needless to say, the response was not pleasant to Mr. Miller's post. A request was put to him to provide artists who would come forth and tell about their positive experience with the company. A suspicious first-time newbie poster named Bill joined the conversation with a kind of passive-aggressive defense of the company. When challenged to prove he was not a shill by providing a Website or some evidence of a real art career, he lamely says he hasn't joined the 2000s yet and has no Internet exposure. He further says he is contemplating working with Art-Exchange.com. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

The discussion of this company is not isolated to just Wet Canvas. You can find strongly held opinions on www.artspan.com and www.artscuttlebutt.com. The later has unfortunately lost many of its older posts when its forum was hit with a hacker attack. It contained some lengthy posts and replies all pointing to artists who had poor experiences dealing with Art-Exchange.com.

There are lessons here. For artists, take the time to perform due diligence when being asked to put up front money for marketing assistance. For companies who have vocal constituents, don't wait years to try and correct a negative perception about the company. In this case for Art-Exchange.com, the ship has sailed and the cow left the barn. Perhaps Mr. Miller can turn the company around, but it will take a long time with an ongoing effort by the company to change its image with the artist community, especially those who participate regularly on discussion boards.

The final lesson is no matter how small or large your company may be, don't take for granted that customer satisfaction is paramount to your long term success. Caveat emptor.

No Time to Create - a Facebook Group Topic

Some readers here may recall I have blogged about the artist Valentina and her very successful Val's Art Diary Web site replete with regularly updated and always entertaining vlogs. Surf her site and you will also find useful information for artists in a section called Val's Art Tips.

Val's latest efforts to help artists and create a little buzz for herself in the process involves Facebook. She has started a group there called Artists who refuse to starve. Creative people share their business secrets. It has quickly grown to more than 1,300 members. It is just another example of the viral power of social marketing and how Facebook has become a dominant force in it.

It looks as if my November 2007 post titled Bet on Facebook -- It Could Be the One was accurate. It's not too late to get on Facebook now. Get on board, don't forget to friend me and join some groups like the one Val has started. Or start your own like artist Maya Green with her Art of Maya Green group.

Spend some time on the discussion boards on groups such as Val's mentioned above. You will make friends and admirers and learn some things too. I couldn't resist adding my thoughts to the "No Time to Create" topic started by Dan Monroe. He is lamenting there are so many sites and not enough time to join them all and participate in them. I couldn't agree more and offered this commentary to topic:

Pick something more than just the next big thing

This conversation strikes a chord with me. I believe there are plenty of reasons to have angst over not having enough time to do enough of the things that are truly important. It is quite easy to get carried away on the next best new thing to do. One can literally twitter (pun intended) away their time till nothing gets done.

FB offers promise, as do other online sites that can help get an artist gain awareness. I've always thought the best approach is a planned one. It seems the art that stands the test of time was rarely if ever impulsively put together. Same has to be true of great marketing.

Well executed smart moves make the most sense

Sure random strokes of genius can propel a piece or an artist, but it is the years of experience and raw talent that give the artist the ability to translate the lightning flash into real genius. Often the first stroke is carefully reworked until perfection. And, in retrospect, one can nearly always see it, the stroke of genius that is, actually is the culmination of hard work, dedication and talent and not just dumb luck.

Making a career work successfully is not unlike planning to create your best work. You wouldn't sit down with a willy nilly idea and think the result is going to a museum, or will quickly sell tons as a print. Likewise, it's hard to take seriously that a few blog posts or building a ginormous FB friend list, who mostly just want to see their own friends number climb, will make a big impact on a career.

Online communities are the bomb

Don't get me wrong. I think online communities are the bomb. We are just beginning to see the groundswell of where this is going. As such, I support anyone's efforts to make dent in the FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, etc. world. I just think it needs to be done as part of a much larger overall plan for nothing short of world domination. Well, okay, a little hyperbole there. But, at the very least, a marketing plan to become huge in your world.

Your world can be being a star artist in your local community. It can be being well known in your state or region. It can be wanting nothing short of national and international recognition. None of those things just happen. Yes, some incredibly lucky people get monster breaks that propel their careers that in comparison just seems downright unfair to a hard working artist who is doing every thing right.

You can create your own luck

The thing is, one can't prepare for their future by banking on getting lucky. Might as well buy lottery tickets because the odds are about the same and will take much less work. So, the alternative is to construct the very best, most robust, most creative overall marketing strategy you can devise. It is an organic thing that will grow and morph on a regular basis, but having such a thing in place is the way to best create one's own luck.

Part of creating such a thing requires taking a brutally honest assessment of what one wants, really wants, and what one will do to get what they want. One thing you will find in virtually every successful person is ambition. It's a certainty without it one will fail. This assessment includes being as clear as possible where one wants to take a career and then realistically evaluating what resources are available to follow a plausible plan of action.

Look at the fearless leader of this pack, Val. She makes doing what she does seem effortless. It would be hard not to be more than a little jealous of her. She is photogenic, charismatic, self-deprecating, talented and funny. Those traits belie the fact she is driven to succeed.

Ambition will where talent will not

What Val does makes for a great presentation. But, guess what, there are tons of other artists who have all this going on and don't have her success. I'd say her desire to be successful is the fuel that makes her successful. Naturally, she has to produce work her collectors will willingly repeatedly buy, but it is the other things she does that gives her the channel or path that leads to those collectors.

Her collectors only found her because she set out to whatever she could to disrupt their lives and make them aware of her and her art. And, now today, she has a growing FB audience to add to her list of accomplishments. One should not be surprised at this at all. Kudos to her for her success here and with her art career. She finds the time to work the business and be creative. proving it can be done

I'll close this unexpectedly long missive by saying I think besides talent and ambition, the thing that makes the difference is a good plan that works all the angles, including publicity, advertising, shows, galleries, online presence, blogs and so forth. Don't just hang out online and hope for the best. Plot out what you can do. Work on creating systematic approach that strikes a balance between those long term things that seem somewhat frivolous now but show signs of future potential and those urgent important things that can impact a career now will both pay dividends. The result will be to lower the angst over feeling like there is not enough time and allow you one to avoid feeling guilty by enjoying some fun with new and old friends on FB and elsewhere. When discipline, desire and details intersect with talent and ambition, success ensues. 

Making time for and making money online requires an ongoing effort. But, let's face it, there has never been an easy quick way to building a business as an artist or for any small business. Customers and collectors are won one at a time. If you can spare a little time getting the hang of how having a Facebook following can help you, I think it will be worth the effort in the long run. It offers global exposure and great potential to help you reach and influence the right people.

Orphan Works Act 2008 Gets Squidoo Courtesy of Making a Mark

The abundance of information on the Orphan Works Act is enormous. It's a chore to try and get your arms around it. I recently posted some thoughts and links here to help you make sense of it.

Leave it to the inestimable and seemingly indefatiguable Katherine Tyrrell to come up with appears to be the ultimate resource for information on the Orphan Works Act. She has tackled the challenge of creating a viable repository of information regarding this festering worrisome bit of legislation. Plus, she has gone beyond the legislation and offers invaluable links to all manner of copyright issues for visual artists.

If you are new to the art business or have been spending too much time under a rock, you may have somehow missed reading her well trafficked Marking a Mark blog, her The Art Business - Resources for Visual Artists Squidoo Lens, or her frequent contributions on the Wet Canvas forums among other projects. I encourage you to review her work and know you will be happy you did. If you explore her blogs and lenses, you will encounter yet more of her contributions

Between maintaining all the above, she manages to have a career as an artist as well. I commend her for her efforts and energy. And, today she is to be commended for putting together the Copyright and Orphan Artworks - Resources for Artists Squidoo Lens. It is an exhaustive source of everything related to the Orphan Works Act. It is also a great example of how to use Squidoo to publish useful information with the residual effect of creating greater awareness for your business, blog and Web site. There is nothing wrong with that equation and no better example of how to do it than Katherine's efforts. You can't help but find inspiration for your art and your art business in her online contributions. 

Thirteen Sure-Fire Rules to Create Success for the Emerging Artist - Part One

1. Don't paint or photograph with the preconceived view of becoming known for a look or style when you have so much to offer on a wide platform of personal interests.
2. Don't have any concerns whether galleries or collectors will have a clue as to what to expect from you when you jump from painting portraits to ponies. With your abundant talent, it doesn't matter because it's only time before the whole world is beckoning to it.
3. Don't submit to any of the multitude of regularly available columns, features, special sections and other FREE publicity opportunities. After all, why go for the filler copy when the cover stories are just around the corner?
4. Don't go out of your way to have any valuable contact with the media when you just know they will be courting you once you are rich and famous.
5. Don't ask any reps, whether they be advertising, tradeshow, framing, paper, printer or art reps, who call on you to tell you what is happening in the business; you wouldn't want to benefit from someone who sees the business from 30,000 feet when you can stay grounded in your studio.
6. Don't bother investing extra money to get the best digital scan possible for your reproductions. If less than the best is acceptable for you, by golly it ought to be good enough for your collectors and would be collectors.
7. Don't ever access the wealth of great information so freely shared by Alyson Stanfield, Robert Genn, Paul Dorrell, Dan's Empty Easel, Charley Parker, Katherine Tyrrell, Clint Watson, Dick Harrison and Barney Davey to name just a few because you suppose you can't trust anyone who is not another starving artist. Surely, they are a bunch of self-serving types just angling to retire once they glom on to a huge chunk of your awesome marketing budget.
8. Don't go to art tradeshows such as ArtExpo or Decor Expo when you can't afford to exhibit. Why would you waste your time seeing how your competitors are doing when none of it matches the masterpieces coming from your easel?
9. Don't waste your time reading a trade magazine like Art World News, Art Business News or Decor. You can't afford to have your creativity be informed by what the most successful artists and publishers in the business are doing.
10. Don't participate in artist discussion boards such as Wet Canvas, Digital Painting Forum, Art Scuttlebutt and Online Visual Artists when you could be watching reruns of Desperate Housewives instead. What could you possibly learn there you don't already know?
11. Don't use the Internet to market yourself and your business. Why would you spend your time with a Web site or one of those trendy Blog things? For heaven's sake, don't even think of whiling away precious hours starting a Squidoo lens or figuring out how the likes of Boing Boing might help jumpstart your career.
12. Don't succumb to the siren song of shameless self-promotion. Stay humble and know that hope alone will bring you all the sales, notice, fame and glory you surely deserve. Let the money grubbers have their time now, your lasting fame and legacy after you are long gone will be the best revenge.
13. Don't go to the extra expense of using a professional printer, or at least carefully follow all the procedures they employ to create lasting art, when you can bang out almost archival reproductions right on your desktop. After all, a giclee is a giclee is a giclee; right?.

BONUS POINTS

1. Don't take the snarky tongue-in-cheek comments personally and keep in mind that controversy sparks more interest than milquetoast commentary.
2. Keep in mind the timeless advice to Wear Sunscreen, which is the common name of a column titled Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune on June, 1 1997. The most popular and well-known form of the essay is the successful music single released in 1999, accredited to Baz Luhrmann.
   

Is the Art.com IPO for Real?

Art.com is not acting like a company in pre-IPO mode, or at least that's how it appears to this observer. The company recently announced changes to its contract with self-representing artists only to get a loud, rancorous response as typified by a month long 13-page thread on the Online Visual Artists board titled AR & Sistino firings. Apparently, many staff members of Art.com subsidiary sites, Sistino and Artist Rising were fired en masse on May 10, 2007. These firings might be construed belt tightening as the company moved closer to its IPO. But, in concert with other goings on, it seems less likely the case.

The company bumped the commission on art from 10% to 15% at the same time it took away the lucrative 10% it formerly paid for framing sales. Anyone who has been around the print business, or had a print custom framed for that matter, knows the larger portion of the cost is in the framing. The change has the net effect of cutting artist's income from Art.com.

Further exacerbating the situation are new policies governing which art gets shown on Art.com. When artists originally signed up for paid galleries, it was with the assumption their art would be seen on Art.com. Now the company is saying it will move some art and artists exclusively to the ArtistRising.com site. Also, traffic to the Sistino.com will be integrated into the ArtistRising.com site making it easier for buyers to find art on either site. But, for artists it's a blow to be moved to ArtistRising.com's site when they have come to rely on the visibility from the heavily trafficked Art.com site.

There are also reports of artists whose rankings on the Art.com Web site to have been relegated well off the top. This has the effect of chilling sales for those artists. There are reports of artists receiving favoritism, which while perhaps not democratic or maybe even the best way to operate, is the company's choice to make. Whatever right the company has to rank artist's work, it can be said it's not good public relations to do so in a way to anger artists and without explanation of why some are treated better than others when all are paying the same gallery subscription fees. You can only imagine the reaction this Non-Disparagement clause that has been added to the artist's contract:

You shall not make any negative or disparaging statements (orally or in writing or in any medium, including the internet) about us, the Website or the Program.

Dan, the intrepid erudite blogger who pens Empty Easel offers insightful commentary on the changes in these posts: Is Artist Rising Dead? and Changes in the Works for Artist Rising. If this weren't enough bad press, there are a couple of notable ongoing threads on Wet Canvas: Changes at Art.com/Sistino/ArtistRising and, An analysis of Web sites selling art online that delve into the changes going on at Art.com. Stirring up this much animus and angst is not what most would consider smart action for a pre-IPO company.

Paint Outside the Frame - Digital Painting Comes of Age

If you have been reading along with this blog, you've seen posts questioning whether the term giclée is passé, rhetorically asking "What Is a Giclée?" and suggesting the term, "Convergent Media" is more appropriate than digital art. The situation is that digital media and communication continues to take a larger role in our lives. The blog you are reading now is a cool by-product of digital media and Web development. The picture below is the work of Convergent Media Artist, Steven Friedman and is featured on the home page of the Digital Painting Forum.

To those born soon enough that life without Game Boys, text messaging and DVRs is inconcievable, I predict the notion digitally rendered art can be construed as fine art will go without question. The rest of us have, or will catch up in due time or let it pass as something we never got. Me, I've had maybe four text messages in my life and don't feel a need for any more any sooner...but don't think about asking me to give up my blog or Internet connection. And, don't tell me exquisite art can't be created from bits and bytes.

Convergent Media - Is It Time to Bury Digital Art?

Convergent Media

(I'm not big on double posting, but I'm going to with this one. This post was originally published on the Wet Canvas in the Digital Art forum. I present it here because it dovetails with my previous Is Giclee Passe? post. Apologies to those who have previously read this on Wet Canvas.)

---

The term giclee was coined into usage as marketing jargon. It successfully allowed printers, publishers and artists get away from using the term digital art and digital printing at a time when using either was certain to cool the ardor of potential buyers of this new media.

To keep things in context, in 1990 there was no Internet to speak of, the desktop computer revolution spawned by Windows 95 was five long years into the future. Cell phones and digital cameras weren't the norm as with today. Fax machines exemplified the cutting edge of instant communication technology. (For those of us who worked in an office then, standing around waiting to send or receive a fax was the modern day equivalent of the proverbial water cooler.) So, using digital to describe anything related to art was not going to warm the hearts of any buyer and as such the usage of giclee was brilliantly, if no luckily, conceived, received and passed into the vernacular.

New Owner Announced for WetCanvas.com

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss - We Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who

Usually when you see those lyrics, you expect a bit of cynicism to follow, which would not be surprising, the song carries much of that sentiment. In this case, however, let's hope the lyrics can by literally applied.

An announcement on the site came a few days ago that Wet Canvas has a new owner. F+W Publications, a huge media company with books and magazine titles in lots of fields, including the art patch where it publishes The Artist's Magazine, Watercolor Magic and Pastel Journal, is the buyer. It also owns the North Light Book Club for artists. I was honored to have my book, How to Profit from the Art Print Market, included in its Spring catalog last year and pleased to have a reorder for it late last year.