Art Print Issues by Barney Davey

Phony Prosperity Plummets - Chinese Oil Painting Biz Hits the Skids

Thomas Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and bestselling author of Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America had an December 20 Op-Ed piece in the NY Times that caught my eye. In China to the Rescue? Not!", he discusses how China is not in a position to stimulate its domestic demand and thus help lift the rest of the world's economies out of their collective downward spiral. In a nutshell, it's not going to happen. 

Phony Prosperity Too Good To Be True

In the phony prosperity propped up in great part due to our partnership with China, where we bought ever cheaper stuff we thought we needed, but really didn't, while they bought our deepening debt, it worked until it didn't. That's where we are today. Now Chinese workers are feeling the same pinch as are those in U.S.

Chinese Oil Painting Suppliers Feeling Economic Pinch

To illustrate his point, Friedman used the example of how the art village of Dafen, the world’s leading center for mass-produced artwork and knockoffs of masterpieces — had been devastated by the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble. Apparently what used to be said about our neighbors to the North and South is now a global phenomenon. That is, when the U.S. sneezes, they would catch a cold.

Art Business Has Sex Appeal

Friedman could have picked from any of thousands of other industries where low cost Chinese manufacturing has knocked the pins from under them. It proves that although relatively small by comparison to giant businesses making furniture, machinery, etc., the art market is intriguing. It will good to remember on the days when you have second thought about painting for a living you are in a sexy intriguing business. The kind a well known columnist will showcase in an Op-Ed piece.

Sex appeal aside, you have to instinctively realize that this news from China is as much a cause for concern as it is an opportunity to look up the meaning of schadenfreude. So, take a moment to feel some glee for knowing your knockoff nemesis has hit a very rough patch. Then take a breath and realize there is little upside for you in their downfall. 

Holiday Sales Hit Retail Businesses Hard

The news today on retail sales is it is alarmingly abominable. The deepest discounts and desperate bundling techniques failed to shake dollars from consumers wallets. Considering that we are in a business providing a product that is to most a completely dispensable luxury, none of this is good news.  

There has been a slew of articles from business pundits, art and otherwise, offering untold guidance on how to survive the current downturn. It ranges from the practical to plain pollyanish. There seems to be so much that if one were to digest and act upon all of it they would soon find themselves enveloped in a paroxysm of paralysis induced by a potent combination of overexposure to bad news and bland advice. Undaunted, yours truly weighs in with observation and opinion.

Consumers Have Spoken - Make Sure You Are Listening

The consumers have spoken; they get it. They are scared and not buying things they don't need any longer. Keeping up with Joneses has given way to keeping up with the mortgage. This puts artists in a bad position, especially those who have not yet developed both a strong dealer and collector base.

Anyone who would seek to soothe you now offering advice laced with few bars of "Everything's gonna be alright," or "Don't worry, be happy" is be taken skeptically. While it's not time to get a gun and head to the hills, it's surely not time to be laying out grand plans for major expenditures either. Certainly, it's not a time to take lightly that economic conditions are eroded nearly beyond comprehension or to be persuaded a turnaround will be measured in months. Here is the unvarnished truth. It's going to take years to fix the problems we are dealing with now. And, that is if we don't take more unexpected shocks on the economic, war or terrorism fronts.

What Can You Do?

Watts Wacker, the brilliant futurist, a subject of a previous post here, who along with co-author Jim Taylor wrote the 1997 international bestseller, The 500 Year Delta: What Happens After What Comes Next . Here is part of a review of it from the InnovationWatch.com Web site:

The 500-Year Delta ultimately is about the shifts of perception needed to prosper in a future that is fundamentally, unrecognizably different. It is about surviving and thriving in an economy inhabited by two kinds of workers: owners and temps -- in a marketplace where customers must literally be bought, one at a time, and where mass merchandising utterly ceases to exist. It is a world, in short, where borders -- political, economic, and technological -- simply disappear.

Desire for Authentic Unique Goods On the Rise

Considering the book and review are a decade old, it is interesting how both now seem quite prescient in describing our current condition.  A point made in the book that to me is yet more poignant today, one that carries a lesson and offers a path for visual artists in this most difficult time is this: In an age where nearly everything is mass produced there will be a very strong yearning for products that are authentic. You may feel it yourself. Sites like Etsy, EBSQArt and The Artful Home and publications such as NEET Magazine all respond to this yearning. These are just a few of many serving the market as conduits between independent artists and consumers.

As a visual artist, you are in luck.

You have more control over what you produce and how. You have ways to easily stretch what you do and how you offer it. A recent segment on the Oprah program was titled Wallpaper Makes a Comeback. Hand-painted wallpaper is an example and inspiration of how you might stretch yourself and fill that need for an authentic one-of-a-kind product. Can you make wallpaper? Are their other ways to utilize your talent and training? I'm betting there are once you put your mind to what is possible.

You don't have to paint wallpaper to make authentic products. You don't have offer originals only either, although there is a movement for that notion with the painting-a-day phenomenon as one example. There are plenty of other ways to stretch yourself and find niches for your creativity.

Tap the Knowledge of Your Giclee Printer and Other Suppliers

Talk with your giclee printer, they see way more than you do. Ask what you can do to collaborate to use the technology to create reproductions of your original that are each unique in some demonstrable way. Consider everything including substrates, sizes, colors and graphic wraps, etc. Challenge yourself to think of what you can do. Test your theories about what you would never do. There are certain to be things among them that upon second review might just offer a new opportunity.

You Don't Have Make Your Own Canvas To Be Authentic

Authentic doesn't mean it has to be made from scratch. If you bake a pie with pumpkin filling you scrape from the pumpkin and use a store bought crust, is it enough to say made from scratch? Or would a purist say you had to grow the pumpkin, wheat and sugar cane to make it authentic? You already know the answer.

The point is consumers have become fickle and not inclined to buy stuff right now as the dismal Christmas retail season bears witness. What they are inclined to buy are things that offer meaning to them in their lives and that bear the mark of authenticity. Your challenge is to find ways to connect your images to your audience, to provide them with work that goes beyond decor. Work that resonates with them so they want to live with it in their home. That mission is really the same as it always has been. It's just today your focus needs to be more intense and in tune with your art buying public.

Slow Down, Produce Less, Make It Authentically Right, Charge More?

If might just be the time to make less, make what you make more pricey and more unique. Doing so could be an antidote to trying to mount a marketing scheme aimed at production run sales. In other words, just because the Chinese artists in Dafen are getting clobbered, it is still not a good time to attempt to go after their market share.

Visual Artist Entrepreneur Seizing Opportunity

Do you blog? Do you post frequently? If so, where do you get your ideas for topics? I don't have a method for finding topics,most of them find me.

I always try to stay open to opportunity. To do that, I read lots of things completely unrelated to the art business. My previous post about using the Ferrari model of selling limited editions of its $600,000 Enzo model is an example. It provided a spark of an idea that could just as easily be applied to the art print market despite the obvious price differences.

Besides finding inspiration in odd places, I usually have a few ideas for posts cogitating and rumbling around my brain and my other brain all of the time. Sometimes they are just waiting for the right stimulus to provoke the post. Such is the case today. My friend Mike Geraghty was one of the first to purchase my book. It was through the book and my newsletter that our friendship evolved into mutual admiration. Enough to survive agreeing to disagree about politics.

I have had the idea to write about Mike's intrepid adventure into another facet of the print market for some time. Alyson Stanfield's recent post, which mentioned a NYTimes.com story, Lucrative Art Careers, on her Art Biz Blog lit the fire for today's post. Alyson is having a BIG SALE on her I'd Rather Be In the Studio book with a whole bunch of freebies good only until December 21. Check out the image on the right sidebar for more details.

Mike is an extraordinarily gifted painter. He is an avid sportsman as well. Hailing from the Baltimore area, site of the Triple Crown's famous Preakness, he gravitated to painting thoroughbreds. You can see his work at his www.ipaintchampions.com Web site. Some say faces or hands are the hardest to draw and paint. But, there is plenty of argument for the degree of difficulty in painting horses as being the hardest. Put them in motion if you want to up the ante. However you come down on that debate, there is no denying Mike's obvious talent.

To say Mike is a smart guy is a given. He did after all jump on my book early on. In the book, I talk about unsung artists who have managed to carve out a successful career selling a steady stream of art prints, but outside of the spotlight that shines on such artists as Thomas Kinkade, Wyland, Robert Bateman, et cetera. Mike is that quintessential artist. Turning out the work, finding his own markets and managing nearly every aspect of his business singlehandedly. My hat is off to him for his success and perseverance.

Mike is an artist entrepreneur who keeps an open mind and looks to seize opportunity when he sees it. A few years ago, he encountered Andy Moursund, who owned a bookstore in a nearby Washington DC suburb. As a hobby, Andy had built up a collection of vintage college football posters. He had a developed a sideline business of inexpensively reproducing them for his customers. When the two met, Mike knew what he was looking at...OPPORTUNITY.

These posters are works of art just as vintage posters are. They may not be of the same quality as a Norman Rockwell Satruday Evening Post cover, but they nevertheless carry great nostalgia and significance, which makes them ripe for the collectible market.

These posters came from a day when illustrators were abundant and worked cheap. It was not huge cost to have original art created for each game poster. Mike and Andy have worked diligently to turn this sideline into a thriving print business. They have secured a professional distribution company and gone about getting proper licensing for each image. This in itself was a huge undertaking. You can see the result of their efforts on their site: www.historicfootballposters.com.

The business continues to grow and I predict it will be a cash cow for them for years to come. When you think about it, it is a near mortal lock type of business. There is a constantly replenished built-in audience of sports fans who love their college football teams -- show this work to some of them and they are going to have to own it. What is great is there is no competition. The images are vintage, the licenses from the universities involved is very hard to achieve, so there will be no knockoffs of this art. I wish them good luck, but am convinced they have already earned it.

As another example of seizing this type of opportunity, I have another friend who has secured the artwork for hundreds of garden and flower seed packets, all vintage. I predict he won't do as well as Mike and Andy, but he's got a potential for doing his own licensing and creating a print catalog that still will be timeless.

Keep your own mind open to opportunity. You might just find a great blog topic. Or if you are really lucky and truly paying attention, you might just find a fun lucrative side business of your own that will help take the pressure off having your art sales carrying your entire overhead.

Selling Limited Edition Prints - Take a Clue from Ferrari

I have long championed against the idea of using limited editions as a marketing tool for digital fine art reproductions, aka Giclées, for a variety of reasons. If you are interested to learn why I have this position, reading these posts will tell you:

• Creating Collectible Value in Open Editions
• Cooking Ham and Limited Editions — Is it time to stop limiting editions of giclées and offset prints?
• The Double Entendre of the Artist Selling Out
• The Secondary Art Market - Bev Doolittle's Beyond Negotiations Sold Out & The Lunacy of Limited Edition Giclees

There are many facets to the idea of not limiting editions. In a nutshell, by artificially limiting something that can be easily, endlessly, perfectly and affordably reproduced makes the scarcity argument specious to some extent. When you see artists creating numerous limited editions of the same image, it begs the question of what is limited. Most importantly, why cap the income by limiting images that might otherwise potentially sell well for decades? It can, in the long term, be a very costly proposition for the entire distribution chain including artists, publishers, galleries, dealers and printers.

Having forcibly made that argument for many years, I find no dichotomy in saying there can be a place for limited editions. An example would be a small run of 100-150 prints offered only in one size and one substrate. This is, of course, my opinion and you are free and encouraged to challenge it hear.

The Early to Rise newsletter which, amongst its onslaught of marketing for its wide variety of "how-to" courses, occasionally offers real gems of insight and inspiration. Such was the case with its recent email newsletter titled, Why Scarcity Triggers Sales. 

Before you jump to a conclusion on the strength of the title that it champions the idea of limited edition giclées, read this portion of the article:

I think verisimilitude - the appearance of truth - is the key to making scarcity work for your business. E-books don’t have it. You can say you’ll sell only 500 copies of your e-book, but there’s no "appearance of truth" in that. An e-book is just bits and bytes, so why would it be truly limited? I’ve seen some marketers use scarcity ploys that had me wondering if they really expected their customers to believe what they were saying. If your customers question your credibility… you’re done for.  

Yes, I agree giclée in nearly all cases will have more intrinsic value than ebooks are are far more complicated to create. But, today's informed consumers know they are digital artifacts made with bits and bytes, and as such making the argument for them being scarce is difficult at best. At the end of the day, I believe those predisposed to buy giclées are willing to purchase the work at fair prices based on purely on they want to live with it and enjoy it in their homes or businesses and the fact a piece is limited would be far down the list on their criteria for buying.

Still, Yanik Silver's ETR article offers an intriguing idea. In talking about the $600,000 Enzo, which is rarest of rare Ferraris, and which also is admittedly a very long stretch to digital prints. Silver points out the vehicles are strictly limited to a very small number (399) which automatically makes them rare. By only offering the cars to those buyers with a history of owning 3 or more Ferraris, it creates an exclusive club of potential buyers. Those who have the means and love Ferraris undoubtedly and eagerly lined up to be chosen to purchase an Enzo.

The suggestion here is to create a truly limited low number edition of a desirable piece not previously offered in print. Make the requirement that in order to have a chance to purchase the limited edition a buyer would have to have previously purchased three other pieces from your line. Many successful print artists have established collector societies that offer perks to loyal customers. A well executed plan around this idea just might be the start of something like that for your career.

I'm not going to make this post a tome with all kinds of suggestions on how to implement the idea. It's merely a suggestion for your consider how you might incorporate such a successful concept into your marketing. I realize with multiple distribution channels such as galleries, online sites, shows, direct sales and your own e-commerce efforts, it will be a challenge. But, I nevertheless believe if you are intrigued and motivated by the idea, you'll find a great creative way to make use of it.

How to Sell Art Prints - a reader question answered

Occasionally, I get questions from readers that are good sources for blog posts. That is, they are general enough in context to help most who read this blog regularly. If you have specific questions, I also offer consulting in the form of hour sessions by phone or via email.

In either of these consulting cases, I urge you to first read my book because it may have the exact answer you need, or it will avoid you spending time in consulting on what you could have easily and more afford ably learned by reading it first. And, should we proceed from that point, you'll be better informed to ask better questions and get more from the experience.

I do have a day job and find it stimulating

Because I also work an 8-5 gig in the marketing department of a high tech firm to help with benefits and retirement income, (and because I like the diversity and the fun of working with a talented group of creative individuals.), I have limited availability for consulting, especially phone sessions. Accordingly, I don't actively market my consulting services. But, if it is important to you, I will find time for you.

Here is a great question posed to me via email:

My name is Kasie Sallee and I'm a young artist and mother. In the past year I've been focusing very seriously on my art with the hopes of building a career. I recently bought and read your book "How to Profit from the Art Print Market" and I truly want to thank you for writing it. The book is a treasure trove of information that I will be referring to over and over again.

In the past year I've begun a series of work, promoted my art through a blog, and very recently have set up a website. I have a question about the best path forward and was wondering if you had some advice.

My ultimate goal for the future is to license my work or to work with a publisher. My question is:

If this is my ultimate intention, will selling prints on my own, say through a site like Etsy, cause publishing companies to not want my work? I guess what I'm trying to say is will publishing companies want to work with images that I have already printed and sold?

Thank you so much for your time. I'm a long-time reader of your blog and I sincerely respect your advice.

Here is my reply

Dear Kasie:

Thanks for your kind words and question. You are on the right path in setting up a Web site and accompanying blog. They are both integral components of a solid marketing plan for an emerging artist. Both are works in progress and investments in your future. That is, neither are likely to immediately begin to return a substantial income right away. However, if both are properly maintained they will be invaluable components of your marketing efforts for years to come.

Your goal of licensing with a publisher is a good one. If you are thinking posters or open edition prints, you have to realize the income from such a situation is likely going to be minimal, especially at first. If you are thinking about giclees, your income could be more substantial as price points are far greater. 

As a way to broaden their lines, many poster publishers are now also offering POD print-on-demand reproductions. These are usually open edition and lower priced than limited edition publishers. Overall, it is a most challenging time for poster publishers with no real relief in sight. I think it will take more than time to revive the market.

Many poster publishers are also active in the third party licensing arena as represented by such tradeshows as Surtex and The Licensing Show. Surtex is where one would primarily find find companies seeking images for stationery, wallpaper, linens and so on. The Licensing Show tends to run to the animated and action figure images and less to fine art, but both can be important as sources of tertiary passive income for artists. The royalties are small and it can take a few years to make it worthwhile, but for artists with the right look, it can turn lucrative over time.

To be successful in getting a contract from publishers, you need to determine where your prints fit into the market, then determine which publishers are the best fit and most likely candidates for you to contact. It takes researching time, but it is just part of what you need to do to pursue appropriate publishing opportunities. Regardless of the outcome, the education will serve you well throughout your career. I think it was Yogi Berra who said, "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." This is true of all of us. You have to make an informed conscious decision about what you want from your career and use it as a North Star to guide your underlying decisions.

To answer your questions about being on Etsy, or other online sites that can sell your work, I will say no, in general, it does not affect your ability to land a publishing deal. If anything, if you have some demonstrable success with online art sales, you will give most publishers more confidence they can move your images to their customers. That said, publishers are not going to accept you competing directly with them for the same images, if at all.

There are some high-end publishers you would expcect to look down their noses at artists doing business on Etsy, but if your research is effective, you would have ruled them out as unlikely candidates to approach anyway.

Some publishers will want an exclusive on the images they want to run. Others may want more exclusivity. You have to be aware of the quid pro quo to make a good deal for yourself. This means making negotiations with publishers. I recommend you read at least one book on negotiating, such as Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. A little studying now will help you to make better deals for yourself in every aspect of and all throughout your career.

A couple of caveats here. If you paint slowly, it could be a problem for you if you have to create a new line for a publisher who in most cases will expect to be fed a steady stream of images. The other is if in your researching, you find the publishers most desirable to you frown upon seeing your work online, you may need to reassess your online strategies and marketing efforts.

The best situation for artists working with publishers would be the publishers immediately finding a bevy of repeat buyers for your line. The more likely scenario is you have to grow into your role with a publisher learning along the way what its needs are and what its buyers needs are. Conversely, a good publisher will seek to understand how to best work with you.

I would hope you get a publisher that will allow you to publish your own work. In some cases, artists use a Nom de Brusse (alias) to avoid having a conflict with their publisher. There is no hard fast rule regarding any of these situations. You must keep in mind you need to do what is best for you. You have to know whatever you are going to invest your time, talent and energy into that you stand a decent chance of getting a reasonable return for your investment.

With that in mind, do what you can to further your career, to sell more work regardless of the source. In the end, it's up to you to make it work. Having a great publisher to help you get started is wonderful advantage and great learning experience. As with many, if not most, things in life it is not where you start, it is where you end up. That is, did you fulfill your dreams and talent potential? Making the right choices for yourself is a key to your future success and your own self-satsifaction.

You see examples of this all the time. The music industry is easier to relate with this concept because much of what happens is on a national or international scale. Think about song choices and how that affects an artist. No matter how talented, ultimate success requires making good choices for content, style and ability. It's the same with visual artists even if it is harder to judge how things are going for visual artists. They don't have the equivalent of Billboard Top 100 list to let us know who is moving up the charts and who is just treading water. Nevertheless, if you consistently find some artists tapping the zeitgeist and getting great results with a steady stream of print sales over the years, you can be certain they have not only an eye for art, but an instinct for what their buyers will want to own and display in their homes and businesses.

I hope these thoughts help others as well as you Kasie!  All the best to you,

Cheers,

Barney

Creating Collectible Value in Open Editions

Regular readers know I am a frequent guest blogger Absolute Arts, one of the most heavily trafficked fine art sites on the Internet. My current post there is titled, "The Dichotomy of Rare and Plentiful."   The essay discusses the seeming dichotomy of things that are simultaneously plentiful and still some in the abundance of varied items turn out to have great collectible value. If it can happen with books and license plates, why not open edition, sequentially numbered art? 

Can such occurrences be manufactured by clever art marketing techniques? Or, do they just have to happen naturally as the outcome of publishing art that is popular? I have a framed vintage print of Maxfield Parrish's "Daybreak."  The image continues to sell well on Art.com and elsewhere for about $75.00 framed. My copy, is older, probably a bit faded and is worth anywhere from $400 - $750. It is the exact same image, something that has been reproduced thousands of time, and still in its abundance, the older vintage pieces are worth 5-10 times more.

My point is if you are using limited editions as a selling technique for a medium such as giclee that you can endlessly reproduce in any size or substrate, you may be leaving yourself and your heirs at a huge loss for the potential with no guarantee of a possible greater price point and cash flow. Imagine what a loss it would be if giants like Parrish or Ansel Adams had chosen to only sell their images in relatively small editions. Conversely, what would it look like if they had sequentially numbered their open editons? Let me know what you think.

Can Art & Marketing co-exist?

In addition to my blogging here, I am honored to be frequent guest blogger on the Absolute Arts Web site. It is one of the Internet's most heavily trafficked sites. Since most other regular bloggers there are artists, I add a different perspective. You can read my most recent post, Art vs. Marketing - Making Hazel Dooney Cringe on Absolute Arts now.

I don't wish to reiterate the post here. In a nutshell, it discusses how all art is creative expression. And, expression is not complete without those to be impressed. In other words, artists seek to further their vision by expressing themselves through their art. And, in the end, it becomes a business to make that happen and the business end of putting art and collectors together is marketing. Read the post to find out how and why I made Australian artist Hazel Dooney cringe.

I'm not seeking to pick a fight with her, but merely to say, despite her apparent angst in even considering giving free downloads of images as marketing, that no matter your noble intentions, you can't dismiss marketing is part of the equation.

Making Art & Money in the Digital World - Meet Me in Atlanta

I'm honored to be giving a presentation titled Making Art & Money in the Digital World at the Digital Arts Studio in Atlanta next month. The company is an industry leading premier digital printmaker. The talk is slated for Wednesday, August 13 at 6:30 pm at company headquarters. The address is: 1082 Huff Rd NW, Atlanta, Georgia  Phone: 404-352-9779 Toll-free: 866-352-9779. Space is limited. RSVP via email by August 8.

Here is a synopsis:

Any artist wishing to improve their business will benefit from attending. In a fast-paced hour, you will discover new perspectives on art marketing for visual artists and photographers. Q & A to follow.

Tips on marketing, advertising, publicity, blogging, Web sites, social marketing and gallery alternatives will be provided. Artists will learn unique ways to market themselves and about attributes shared by successful artists. An extensive resource list will be included with the presentation handout.

The presentation will shed light on the rapid changes in traditional art print market and what it means to visual artists and photographers. You will gain insight to help decide to self-publish, seek a publisher or do both. The talk will include the attributes on every art publisher's dream artist list and the merits and pitfalls of both self-publishing and working with a publisher.

A discussion will be provided on how visual artists and photographers can use the print market and digital printing to:

•    Grow awareness for themselves and their art
•    Increase sales
•    Diversify their price points and consumer mix

I'm looking forward to it and promise to do my best to make it fun, informative and worth your time!  

Cruise Ship Art Auctions FAR from Smooth Sailing

In April 2007, I posted this item: Class Action Swells Hit Cruise Line Art Auctions. More than a year later it gets regularly read from Internet searches and commented upon. In the ensuing months, the furor over art auctions on cruise ships has not abated. If anything, it appears to be growing. 

Since my post, Fine Art Registry™ , which bills itself as The World's 1st Online Permanent Registry and Marketplace for Fine Art and Collectibles, has become embroiled with the largest company selling via auctions on the high seas, Michigan-based Park West Gallery. Admittedly, I don't have firsthand experience with FAR, but so far as I can tell, it appears to be doing a credible job of trying to effect real positive change in this sticky area of authenticity and provenance. Over the years, there have been other companies with a similar mission, but none have created a sustainable business. 

A problem for FAR and companies like it has been trying to amass enough artists and collectors as users in order to create a critical mass where not participating is not an option. Given the wide open independent nature of the art business where both artists and collectors seek pay less to create, market and collect art, respectively, it is a tough chore. FAR seems positioned to stick around and make a go of it. Its tenacity and willingness to go toe-to-toe with Park West Gallery is indicative of the commitment from its owners to the art business and its business model in particular.

Certainly, the public outcry over the tactics of cruise line auctioneers has to help FAR's cause in bringing more artists and collectors into its fold. Because there is a void in the market and legal system for cruise ship auction art buyers to find redress, FAR has found itself as a repository of pleas for help. It dutifully took up the cause and began to do its own investigation and report its results. Park West Gallery, its litigious chief nemesis, bore the brunt of those reports. And, not surprisingly it launched a lawsuit against FAR claiming slander. A countersuit has been filed as both sides seem to have dug in for the battle.

As a result of many Fine Art Registry™ members contacting it for help and information on the persistent problems that affect art industry, it dedicated a portion of its Web site to what it calls Fine Art Advocacy.  The mission for it is to report on all interesting advocacy issues and includes a forum where participants can share their experiences.

Recently, there have been a spate of articles about cruise line art auctions, including a story in the New York Times:

Art Auctions on Cruise Ships Lead to Anger, Accusations and Lawsuits  - NY Times

Cruise Ship Art Auction Controversy - Cruisemates, an online cruise guide community - includes a video of an auctioneer reading (mumbling) the rules of an auction and a copy of a Park West invoice. (Thanks to Gary Kerr of Fine Art Giclee for the head's up on this article.)

The American Bar Association ran this story: Unhappy Art Buyers File Lawsuits Over Cruise Ship Art Auctions

There are other articles and reports you can find, but these cover most of the important issues surrounding the controversy of cruise line art auctions. Whenever the art market is sullied with questionable sales tactics or worse, it hurts the efforts of the vast honest majority who only wish to make a living and have their art appreciated by collectors. Not all the problems occur at sea. There are plenty of examples of fraud, forgery and deceit foisted on unsuspecting art buyers on dry land. Wherever it happens, FAR has taken some bold steps to try and intervene where it sees serious problems and to offer a solution. I wish it well.

Hope & Inspiration on the Cover of a Magazine

There is too much buzz kill in the air and every where!

These days, you don't have to look far to find information telling you how to survive the economic downturn, what to do about the Orphan Works Act, and other assorted downer material. Talk about harshing one's mellow...sheesh...enough already!

Was Spiro Agnew actually right about something?

Not that some of this information is not valuable, and admittedly this blog has contributed or post or two to the cacophony of hand-wringing over conditions much out of our control. I think I finally know what disgraced former Nixon Vice-President, Spiro Agnew, meant when he used the phrase, "Nattering nabobs of negativity." Okay, that may too harsh too, but the point is we should all take a collective moment to deeply breathe in the good and forcefully exhale the bad.

The art print market owes a debt of gratitude to Art World News for its contributions

Just in time to rescue us from our summer doldrums the May issue of Art World News arrives. Without looking further than the front page news items, it is totally possible to gain a new fresh positive perspective about the art print market. There are headers for two stories in the magazine detailing the launch of new art publishing operations. Kudos and bravo to the David O'Keefe Studios and Legacy Fine Art Publishing for launching their businesses in the teeth of arguably the worst economic times the business has seen in most people's memory.

Getting started is more important than when to get started

In the days I sold tradeshow space, there were always those newbies who fretted in anxiety over when to get started or that they were missing an important show, such as the Atlanta Decor Expo as it is now known. I counseled them in the long run it was important they got started and not when. In other words, if you have a good plan, adequate finances and art that sells when seen, it's where you will be in 5 or 10 years that matters and your start date would be of near zero importance. The same could be said for these new publishing operations. They are starting now in tough times, but today's economic times won't determine their ultimate success.

Take a tip from Time magazine founder, Henry Luce

The main story in AWN's May issue is about a gallery owner in the St. Augustine, Florida area. Len Cutter has not one, but five galleries. He says the only businesses that are suffering are those not working hard enough. I would add to that smart enough. But, it brings to mind that Henry Luce, the great publishing entrepreneur who brought us Time and Life magazines. He audaciously launched Fortune magazine in 1932. This was right in the heart of the Great Depression. Inarguably, this was the worst economic times the U.S. has ever seen. At the then princely sum of $1 per copy, he was not giving it away either. Nearly 75 years later, Fortune remains one of the most important business magazines in the country, if not worldwide.

Conceive it, believe it achieve it!

If you have been feeling down about your prospects or anything else for that matter, let these examples raise your spirits and enthusiasm for your business. We only have what we have to work with. What we do with it rests largely on our perceptions of our prospects. The adage, "Seeing is believing" holds true here. A quote from sculptor Constantin Brancusi is apropos, "To see far is one thing, to get there is another." Art World News brings us real life examples of those who are getting there. You don't have to look far to find inspiration to change your attitude from doom to zoom. See you at the top!

Wired Art Marketing Idea

About a year ago, Wired, a leading tech publication, offered its readers, anyone actually, the chance to create their own personalized cover, like the one pictured here, in a promotion sponsored by Xerox.

Good Ideas Never Go Away

Then as now, I thought it was a great idea. But, I put it away in lieu of other blog post concepts. It's stayed with me and I present it to you today as a way to stimulate your own thoughts on how you might think of creative ways to interact with your collectors and prospects.

The promotion was done as a creative way to show off the Xerox XMPie™ product line, which it had acquired in 2006. Specifically, it allows users to implement its Image Personalization tool to create the personalized headline and illustrate the versatility and ease-of-use of the program. I'm not sure what the price is for the program. It doesn't say on the product's Website. For those of you who own Adobe Creative Suite 2 or 3, you can download a free 30 day trial.

Employ Creative Borrowing to Invent Your Personalized Promotion Ideas

What's more important than the technology to readers of this blog is the concept behind the use of the technology. That is, borrowing on the concept to help you use whatever means, technology or otherwise, available to you, get in gear to think how to personalize your art for your collectors is what is important.

Giclées Are Just One Way to Personalize

The giclée process with its variable size capabilities is just one way you can personalize art for your collectors. I think this alone is underutilized as a way to truly serve customers' specific needs. Substrates are another way to personalize your work. New products are frequently being announced. These are but two examples of how technology can be used to personalize art. Can you imagine collectors willing to pay a nice premium for something personalized for them? I can.

Personalizing on a Small Scale Is an Advantage

If you are able to use the XMPie program to let your collectors and prospects have fun with your art and create a personalized printable product like the one pictured here, wouldn't that be way cool? How much good will, promotion and publcity you can generate with an ideal like this? In the right hands, the possibilities offer great promise on multiple levels.

Dont' Sweat the Small Stuff

Don't stress if you lack the tools or budget to use this program. The idea behind how to reach and influence your customers is the important thing. With a bit of creativity, you can come up with your own unique ways to get personal with those important to your career.