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.

Overload - What Digital Art Tells Us About the Future

It's been noted artists being aware, sensitive and demonstrative often have a way of portending the future through their work. I agree with this idea and have written about it here in posts such as, "Is the Next Big Thing About To Happen?" and Convergent Media - Stretching the Imagination.

If ever there were a piece of contemporary art that accurately describes the current human condition, it would be Rick Simpson's magnificent piece titled Overload and seen here.

The image is the perfect metaphor for the piling on of the global financial market gyrations on top of those of us interconnected through digital communications. As if we didn't already struggle with an overwhelming amount of useful, trivial and useless data being streamed through constantly improving gadgets.

Simpson's piece took home a well-deserved First Prize in the 8th Annual Donnie (Digital Art Contest) Awards presented by MOCA, the Museum of Computer Art. I think the judges were equally in tune with Simpson's view in foretelling our near future.

Digital art, in my humble opinion, is still in its nascent state. While there is an impressive body of important current work, I believe the best is yet to come. It might just be with equipment not yet invented, or brought to market.

It could be that futurist Watts Wacker's Next Big Thing theory as outlined in the above post may well come from the ranks of digital artists. Given we are nearly through the first decade of a new millennium, it would be a natural evolution.

Art is about expression, which is why it is an excellent harbinger of things to come. Artists seeking to express themselves will use whatever means available to forcefully and eloquently bring forth their vision. I'd say Rick Simpson's work shown here punctuates the notion.

Art Trends - Is Religious Art a Trend to Follow?

Last March, I published a post titled, The Next Big Thing. It prompted Watts Wacker, the futurist who was the subject of the post, to kindly sent me a copy of What's Your Story?: Storytelling to Move Markets, Audiences, People, and Brands, a book he co-authored with his long-time collaborator with Ryan Matthews. I've only begun to read it and already found it fascinating and I'm sure more ideas for posts will follow this one.

Books on Religion and Spirituality Fuel Bookstore Growth

To illustrate how things change, Wacker's book mentions the growth of certain sections within bookstores. In particular, the addition and expansion of books on religion and spirituality. These now important sections were non-existent or relegated to a few shelves just a few years ago. This caused me think about my own recognition of how religious art has grown in importance in the past few years. It coincides with a burgeoning Christian music and Christian bookstore movement and a general interest in secular spirituality of all sorts.

Cultural Trends Are Art Marketing Opportunities

Trends like these are strong indicators of interest and as such present opportunities for those artists who are personally motivated to tap into a movement. I can't imagine one attempting to make a foray here without personal interest and beliefs in what these things mean. To borrow a well-worn cliche, this is one where you need to walk the talk if you want to be taken seriously.

Interest in Non-traditional Spirituality Is Growing

It's not just traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs fueling interest. Alternative spirituality has never been more popular now than ever in the U.S. The popularity of the secular Website, Beliefnet, (Alexa traffic ranking 4,938)with features articles on God, faith, prayer, the nature of spirituality, society and ethics, with numerous resources and all religions respected, stands in testament to our desires to tap into, or explore some version of religion or spirituality.

My personal observation regarding the practice of religion is many people tend to take a little from here and there and few are dogmatic. That is, certain truths and customs can make sense to us even though they come from disparate systems of beliefs. For instance, Catholics who believe in the basic tenets of the Church, but don't abide by or believe in its stance on birth control. Or, an otherwise devout Lutheran who finds solace in the mysticism surrounding vortexes in Sedona, AZ.

These are not dichotomies, but realities we all live with and accept. Hidebound church leaders and purists may have difficulty when faced with such truths about their flocks, but the members rarely do. Certainly, the large number of those who have never attended regular church services, or do so sporadically on holidays, etc., realize religion and spirituality is both personal and complex. Many yearn for something to give meaning to their lives, but look for answers outside of organized religion. And, with our ever more closely knit world, it's ever more easy to understand and embrace beliefs from other cultures.

If You Have the Right Stuff, This Market Is Waiting

An artist who can put such mixed feelings and sense of devotion into his or her own work in a way that touches people may inadvertently create a subset within a growing market trend. Can you manipulate work within this context purely for profit? I seriously doubt it. One thing the overexposure to mass marketing and media has done is to give us all very effective b.s. detectors. When we smell or spot a phony, we walk away. When it involves those attempting to cash in on something like religion, we run away.

Creating With a Personal Vision - Getting Behind What You Feel Is Real

Given the growing interest often deeply held personal feelings and beliefs of many towards religion and spirituality, it seems those artists whose own beliefs and feelings align with these trends ought to be able to serve their own needs to be fulfilled as an artist and perhaps to satisfy a desire to express their own feelings in a way that might help or inspire others.

It may not always work this way, but certainly in this is a case, contributing to or building a body of work around a growing trend when the artist is personally involved would make for a natural believable fit for collectors interested in the genre. When you create what you are passionate about, the greatest reward may be in the doing.

By tying your talent, your heart, your head and your religious beliefs together, you create a formula sure to benefit you on multiple levels. If you are moved by these thoughts, then exploring religion and spirituality as a contextual concept for your creative output should be an easy step to take.

Shift Happens - Slideshare is Way Cool, Use It Freely!

Recently, I republished a post from the fertile mind of futurist Watts Wacker wrting in his monthly newsletter, First Matter. In his Keep Your Eyes Open I'm Convinced It's About to Happen article, W2, as he playfully signs his emails, explains the enormous impact Peter Max had on the art market in the 20th Century, and how The Beatles played a part in it too.

Watts postulates THE NEXT BIG THING in the art market will come from China. Agreeing with him, I added a comment on his Web site. It notes how things are vastly different from 40 years ago when The Beatles and Peter Max changed the world. I suggest some musical muse might come from the Caribbean or Africa in a collaboration with a Chinese artist that could shake things up in ways we haven't seen since the 60s. It often seems to me the more unlikely a thing one can imagine today makes it more likely to occur. The slideshow below, courtesy of Slideshare, sheds light on Watt's basis for his prediction.

Futurism is not based on crystal ball gazing, but rather distills the future from what is obvious. You just need to know where to look and how to interpret your results. This, being more difficult than it sounds, is why W2 gets the big bucks. The above Shifthappens slideshow illustrates how in the new millennium we are on the precipice of a historic shift where by sheer numbers in our now close knit digital global age, China and India are poised to dominate the way Western Europe and the U.S. respectively did in the early and second half of the 20th Century.

I can't portend exactly what such a monumental shift will mean to your career as a visual artist. But, I can tell you changes you cannot foresee will impact it as the Shifthappens presentation implies. You can judge by your own experiences that technology has changed and shaped how you inform yourself, create, reproduce, market and sell your art today. I encourage you to be open to change, to embrace it, to productively use it however you can.

In 2005, how many thought artists would use blogging for significant learning and marketing experiences? I opened an account with my blogging software, Typepad, in 2005, but didn't quit my PDF style newsletter until a year ago, making me in some ways a poster child for the poignant Kelly Ruger quote below.

A way cool Web 2.0 program you can employ now is SlideShare. Both presentations embedded in this post are from its Web site. SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations & slideshows. You can upload your PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Keynote or PDF files, tag them, embed them into your blog or website, browse others' presentations, and comment on individual slides. What's more, the transcripts of your presentation will be indexed by Internet search engines and show up in search results. It's a great way to share your ideas with others, or to learn from other people. And it's completely free and you choose whether to make your presentations public or private.

To further stimulate your creativity, review the terrific presentation below, which is also found on Slideshare: Visual and Creative Thinking: What We Learned from Peter Pan and Willie Wonka. Here is just one quote from the presentation which I hope will encourage you to review it:

Sometimes an idea loses its meaning over time, but isn't abandoned because of the investment in the past. These ideals are often so immune to criticism that those who challenge them are ignored or marginalized.- Kelly Ruger

View the Visual and Creative Thinking Slideshare presentation

I've suggested here a couple of time to use The Personal Brain, which is a wonderful mind mapping brainstorming tool. If you are beginning to see a pattern here of encouraging creative thinking and tools, you'd be right. Enjoy!

Is the Next Big Thing About to Happen?

I've been a huge fan of futurist Watts Wacker since I first heard him speak to a group of tourism executives circa 1999. His presentation was fascinating and full of compelling information.

He was as riveting a speaker as any I've heard. That he managed to mesmerize his audience of business executives while wearing long hair, shorts, sockless loafers and a rumpled button down shirt made him more interesting. It was a rare encounter where I found myself thinking, "How fun it must be to be that smart, that cool, that self-confident and worthy of having organizations fly a person in and pay them thousands to hear their ideas for a mere 90 minutes?"

At the time, his international bestselling book, co-authored with Jim Taylor, The 500 Year Delta: What Happens After What Happens Next was riding high on the charts. And, his subsequent books, Visionary's Hand, and The Deviant's Advantage plus his latest, What's Your Story?: Storytelling to Move Markets, Audiences, People, and Brands provide more profound and practical insight from this informative oracle.

Finding a Way to Fill the Yearning for Authenticity Can Drive Your Art Career

A key fact I landed on from The 500 Year Delta was in the monumental changes we are living through, there is a societal yearning for authenticity. Today's digital world, including giclees, doesn't allow much for it. If you can figure out how to create true authenticity in your art career and properly promote it, you will reap great rewards.

Wacker's always thought provoking monthly newsletter is penned by him and published by his company, First Matter LLC. The essay most apropos to this blog is from the February 2008 issue. It does not disappoint. With permission, here it is:

Keep Your Eyes Open I’m Convinced it’s About to Happen by Watts Wacker

I can’t help but keep thinking about this being the 40th anniversary of the ’68 Chicago convention and the tragedies of both Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Especially now that so many have suggested that we are at the same, or at least, similar crossroads today, I just keep thinking about it.

I actually disagree with the assessment of similarity to the two periods of time. In 1968 the social mood was much more “down with authority” ... today? ... it’s much more like “are you prepared? ... and is there such a thing as being an authority?” We want our institutions to be prepared for the future and we’ve not so sure they are so.

There was an artist who captured the ‘60’s, Peter Max. Peter’s an amazing man. Philanthropist, humanitarian, environmentalist and philosopher ... he is the most successful living artist in the world. He truly was the catalyst for connecting art and business. Max was the first person ever to have his work placed upon everything from bed sheets to sneakers. His product was out-licensed to the tune of $1 billion (yes, billion) before 1970.

While he would likely refer to himself as a neo-expressionist today, he has traveled from realist to pop artist (maybe archetype on this one) to his latest definition. His prescience in seeing how “the poster” was on the cusp of unprecedented ranges and intensities of color (all at inexpensive and high quality) allowed him to connect romantic, playful and psychedelic. He created the yellow submarine for the Beatles. Toulouse-Lautrec would have been proud. Peter readily says that his love of the cosmos and childhood expectation of becoming an astronomer was a major source of inspiration for the art of the 60’s. He captured a period of time.

Today, we should be looking for “that look”. What I mean is, what is the look for today? We’re far enough “in” to the 21st century. And, like Peter, I believe it will be somebody born in Europe ... developing years in Asia ... than blossom in the USA. However, in the 2010’s it will be some other order and more than likely an artist who blossoms in Asia. Keep your eyes open ... I’m convinced it’s about to happen.

I'm in agreement with Watt's observations and predictions. If you want to read my TalkBack comments on his site and peruse some very interesting links related to Watts' commentary, go here.

This post comes on the close of the 30th Annual ArtExpo New York show where in its heyday none other than Peter Max used the venue to further his career. Wouldn't it be great if the artist whose talent will rise to grab our collective consciousness as Watts' envisions was exhibiting there this year? That fantasy aside, given the changing dynamics of the art market, I wouldn't bet on such a notion. It's far more likely the art print market and its primary venue will undergo untold major changes before the next big thing comes calling. Just as The Beatles and Peter Max helped revolutionize music and art by being different and not of the status quo, I believe the next big thing will break out of some yet unknown venue or channel.