Art Print Issues by Barney Davey

Artist Drew Friedman Launches Fine Art Print Publishing Company

Dean Martin - by Drew Friedman 

Renowned illustrator Drew Friedman, in collaboration with Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon, has launched a new Web site at: DrewFriedman.net. The site is the exclusive source of fine art prints featuring new works by the iconic illustrator.

The art, much like the artist's career, is exceptional and eclectic. In our age of celebrity worship, e.g., 3 million Twitter followers for Ashton Kutcher, (no offense AK, I get you are riding the wave, but really, who cares and who are those people?), it's refreshing to find an artist who chooses mostly offbeat, anti-celebrity subjects to immortalize in his unique style.

Many who have followed this blog for the past three years know I am not a fan of limited editions for digitally printed art. That is, with the exception of very low numbers. It's arbitrary, but I have put the number at 100. Otherwise, it's just a marketing gimmick in my humble opinion.

Friedman and his experienced art professional partners have launched the site and the publishing business on a model of using the extremely low number of 30 in their editions. Now, if you are an artist who creates slowly, this can be a financial problem. On the other hand, if you can turn out the work quickly enough, a low-numbered edition model puts you in a league of your own. Friedman's achievements and oeuvre already put him in such a league. Following up with this daring and unique idea of very small edition sizes is sure to create devoted collectors for his work.

The flip side of low numbers is unlimited numbers. I'm not necessarily suggesting the idea for Drew Friedman and company, although I think it could work for them with the right image. As always, I feel the way to make unlimited editions have value is to number them sequentially. If the artist sells thousands of an image, everyone in the distribution channel, including buyers, gets to enjoy the art.

With nothing but brave conjecture to back up the theory, I go out on limb to say the low numbers of a sequentially numbered edition would have more value than higher numbers. In other words, they would be collectible despite freshly minted reproductions being available. Perhaps some other numbers would be valuable as well. If a date was painted in the picture, or perhaps the number correlating with subject's birth, death or debut date would have more value. Collectors tend to make up their own rules about what aspects make an item dear to them.

Best wishes to Drew, Irwin and Barbara for tremendous success in their new art publishing venture!

Three Art Marketing & Art Publishing Links to Make You Think!

It goes without saying, there is a great amount of very good information for visual artists to be found on the Internet. That so many put forth the effort to share what they know is remarkable. These folks, all of whom have full lives, are to be commended for their efforts.

We'll start with post from Myron Arndt. He has been a publisher in the art print market for many years. Long enough to have observed the many twists and turns this market segment has taken. I'm sure he's like me and would not have predicted a few years back how much the open edition print market has changed. Undaunted, he provides some straightforward advice in his Art Business Thoughts blog post titled: 10 Simple Things Artists Should Know About Reproductions. As the title implies, the information is simple, but knowing and paying attention to it can make a big difference when you are gearing up for the print market.

The art market is full of terms that have multiple meanings. For instance, ask 10 people what is a print and you get my drift. This next link, Getting Your Artwork Published, is from gifted pen of Lori Woodward Simons. Now, when I hear getting art published, I go straight to thinking about someone like Myron Arndt at his Island Art Publishers taking on an artist's work.

Not so fast, Lori's article is all about getting your work published in a print magazine. The same term takes a different meaning under her tutelage. Her article, published on Clint Watson's splendid Fine Art Views blog, where she is a regular contributor, gives great insight borne from years of her personal experience and observation.

I've long been a proponent of getting publicity wherever possible. Lori's advice on how to go about it should be must reading for any artist seeking to get wider exposure via traditional media. Good publicity is worth its weight in gold. You just can't buy the credibility that comes with the strong implied third-party endorsement of a well placed media piece.

Now that you have some ideas for making prints and how to go about getting recognition for your work, you need some ideas on how to get it to market. Who better to give you a unique twist, one you probably haven't given much thought, than Alyson Stanfield, in her Art Marketing Action newsletter? Recently, she published a piece titled, Get People to Sell Your Art for You. The article has great ideas and links to dig further into affiliate marketing.

True to form, after hearing from her readers, she followed up with more thoughts in her Art Biz Blog to offer more clarity on the subject. You can read Is Affiliate Marketing for You? there. It asks and answers the questions about whether such marketing techniques are useful for everyone. The answer, is of course, no. As with any serious undertaking, you have to judge your fitness and desire to take on projects no matter how promising they seem. One thing is for certain, getting good solid advice from art industry veterans such as the fine folks featured here can only help your cause.

Keep It Small - Keep It All - Sage Advice from a Smart Art Marketer

Back in the day, as the well-worn phrase goes, I repped Decor magazine. At its peak, it was a huge success with a fully paid circulation and producing monthly issues with tons of advertising. In many ways, its success mirrored what can easily be considered the Golden Years of the art print market. The business boomed along with so many others that fed off the Baby Boomers coming of age who appreciated art and wanted to decorate their homes with it.

One of my advertising clients was Edward Weston. No, not the famous photographer, but another person who shared the same name. He was an entrepreneur, art aficionado, art publisher and secondary art market broker and dealer. He published works by famous people, including actress Elke Sommer, one of the most stunning blondes to ever grace the big screen. Ed was perhaps best known as having one of the best collections of Marilyn Monroe photography. Sadly, he passed away last year. I miss him still. But, he lived a good life and to the hilt as well.                     

He ran the smallest size ad, a 1/8th page unit, every month in Decor for decades. With his budget and income, he could have gone bigger. He could have done a lot of things bigger. I once asked him why he didn't publish more and have a larger staff. He looked at me and said, "Barney, I keep it small and I keep it all."

There is great wisdom in that little rhyme. It is something to consider when you are trying to decide what direction you want to take your art business, especially your art print business. In the current unsure economic client we are in today, it makes a lot of sense to heed Ed's sage advice. That is, the more you control the distribution of your work, the fewer hands it passes through, the more you will keep. It would be a good exercise to work out different scenarios so you can understand how the power of Ed's suggestion can work for you.

If you sell direct, you keep 100% less the cost of production and marketing. Any other intermediary in the chain has to be compensated. These would be galleries, online sites, publishers, dealers and art reps. I decided to self-publish my book, How to Profit from the Art Print Market, because it looked like the best deal for me. The spread between my net wholesale self-publishing and what I would get from net wholesale from a publisher was a ratio of more than 16:1.

I was confident no publisher could sell that many more books than I could on my own. Plus, I get paid much quicker than if I were with a publisher. This is assuming I would have been successful in finding one who wanted to take on the book. I believe I would have, but for me it just didn't seem to make sense to do the work of seeking representation and then get paid less as a result. So, in my own way, I've followed the advice I give artists, which is to self-publish if you have the means and marketing know-how. And, I've followed Edward Weston's advice too; both with no regrets.

Wild Wings at 40 & Wildlife Art Genre Both Going Strong!

Congrats to Wild Wings on its 40th year in the art print market!

My colleague of many years in the art print market, Larry Richardson, recently sent the interesting informative newsletter seen below. It is a bright reminder the wildlife art field is one that remains vibrant.  It was this genre that led the way to the print market's greatest sales figures in the heyday of limited edition reproductions. Artists such as Bev Doolittle, Robert Bateman and Carl Brenders, to name just a few,  became superstars in the field.

Numerous art print publishing companies such as these: Wild Wings Art, Mill Pond Press, Greenwich Workshop, Somerset House, Hadley House Publishing, Applejack Art and many others flourished alongside their superstar artists in the golden era of limited edition art prints. Though market conditions have changed, these publishers continue to produce successful print editions and introduce new artists as well.

The genre spawned two publications to serve it, Wildlife Art Magazine, which remains a stalwart in the field and USArt, which met its unfortunate demise as the mania surrounding large number limited editions lost luster in a market that ultimately became over saturated.

Here are Larry's observations and thoughts on the wildlife market:

The art of wildlife and outdoor scenes that sprang to its zenith in popularity over three decades ago is still a viable fundraising tool with organizations made up mostly of hunters and fishermen.  But even those who are not "joiners" want to decorate and daydream by looking at a beautiful, realistic scene.  Yes, realism and more so photo-realism has been kept alive by this avid group of conservation-minded individuals who in most part are not art aficionados, but nevertheless, support a segment of artists who otherwise might not pursue their chosen career. 

Like other artistic pursuits, the majority of the very successful wildlife artists made their early living in an associated field if they were lucky.  Waiting tables as a second job helped support their dreams.  The elements to become successful as a wildlife artist are found in other vocations as well. First is artistic talent that is recognized by a particular public and, yes, even exploited (read--take it to the bank).  Perseverance and initiative must be present. You don't have to be an extrovert, but having a little ability to relate to people sure helps.

HDExpo Puts Art in the Hospitality Picture

Changes in the tradeshow scene regarding the art business have been frequently reported here. The traditional industry shows such as ArtExpo and Decor Expo are well off their peak years in size, as are the publications that support them. And, the total number of shows serving the industry are at lows not seen in decades. No matter what factors you use to account for the downward trend, they are sadly there and showing no signs of resurgence.

Tradeshow Woes Are a Problem Across Many Industries

It's not just art and picture framing shows that are on their heels. You needn't look hard to find evidence of contraction in all kinds of industries. Given such a multi-industry trend is surely a cause to wonder if there are alternative shows worth either attending or exhibiting for artists and publishers.

There Are Bright Spots To Be Found

One growing show growing increasingly important to many art publishers and self-representing artists is the HDExpo. It is the sister tradeshow to Hospitality Design magazine, which also is growing in size. These entities primarily serve complete design needs for hotels, restaurants and corporate centers.

Gaining traction in this market is a way to create a steady cash flow from a distribution source outside the gallery and online channels that are top of mind for most artists. Not to say the field isn't competitive. It is, but I have always maintained there is ample room in the most crowded fields for artists who bring a fresh perspective to the scene.

Hospitality Design Magazine Publishes Largest Issue Ever

As a former trade magazine rep, I drooled with lust when I saw the most recent at-show copy of Hospitality Design. At 448-pages plus cover, it resembles a mid-size city phone book. I hadn't seen a trade pub that size since the heyday of Decor magazine's show issues for New York or Atlanta many moons ago. The combination of growing importance of the HDExpo show and the size of the magazine puts an exclamation point on their momentum and the market they represent.

Las Vegas Is a Boom Town for Home Furnishings & Hospitality Design Shows

Las Vegas is also home to the World Market Center. It is the host site of the Las Vegas Market, which also is bucking the downward trend as a huge fast growing international home furnishing marketplace. The common wisdom for decades was no venue could successfully compete against the IHFC show and the concurrent shows in High Point, NC for the home furnishings market.  In just a few short years, the Las Vegas Market has proven there can be a viable alternative to the IHFC.

To Be An Effective Marketer in an Industry, You Must Be a Student of It

Effective marketing is a multi-year strategy. The first stage is to become educated about potentially lucrative markets important and new to your business. If you have your own designs on seeing your originals and reproductions used in the hospitality industry, learn all you can about the shows mentioned here and the markets they represent. You likely don't have the budget to tackle them all. But spending time studying them is a great first step towards getting your foot in the door at one of them at the appropriate time.

On the HDExpo Web site, go to Expo/Exhibitor List/Product Category Search. Start with the Artwork: Prints/Reproductions/Photography category and work your way through all the other appropriate categories for ideas on companies to approach, or to see what those exhibiting are doing on their on Web sites. It will be time well spent to study this terrific resource. And, of course, if you can actually go there, all the better. This year's May 14-17 conference and May 15 -17 exhibition dates are upon us. If it's too quick for this year, tickle it as a must for 2009.

Surtex Offers Artists Yet Another Alternative to Galleries and Selling Online

The Surtex show runs May 18 - 20 at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. Surtex bills itself as a licensing show for original art and design and offers a different kind of distribution and income from the hospitality business. Surtex is a terrific venue for artists who want to license their work. It's a show to walk the first year and then to decide if paying for exhibit space makes sense. Many artists are able to make connections there by respectfully and tactfully approaching publishers and licensors when they are not otherwise busy in their booths. The better you prepare for these shows, the better your experience will be.

Something Old Something New Meet Myron Arndt & Sue C. Smith

SOMETHING NEW

A long time art print indutry veteran recently joined the ranks of art business bloggers. His name is Myron Arndt. With his list of accomplishments and breadth of knowledge, he is sure to add value to the conversation about how to help the art market, prints in particular, navigate the choppy waters surrounding it today.

An example of the valuable information Myron is publishing on his Art Business Thoughts blog is his recent post titled, Art Submission Tips. It provides insights for artists on how to properly present themselves to a publisher. One of his ventures is Island Art Publishers. From this vantage point he offers firsthand knowledge, wisdom and tips for artists considering working with a a publisher. Check him out, you'll be glad you did.

I would love to see more art print publishers join the ranks of bloggers. It would be good for them and great for the industry and artists to have them publishing their thoughts and sharing their treasure trove of experience as Myron has chosen to do. If you have contact with any publishers, let them know about Myron and suggest to them the notion of starting a blog for themselves. Tell them to contact me for ideas, guidance and resources to get started.

SOMETHING OLD

Sue C. Smith launched her Ancient Artist blog in May 2007. I love the concept; the subtitle is: On creating art in Oregon, starting a second career in art instead of retiring, developing an art marketing strategy, and philosophical discussions about art.

How many artists does that describe? A whole bunch is the answer. Boomers are shedding their past and searching for their futures in droves. The number turning 60 every day is astounding.

I think Sue is on to something with her approach. Her blog topics are wide ranging, but are all nonetheless interesting. Much of her Ten Things You Can Do Now dovetails perfectly with my own philosophy of developing an art career.

Best wishes to both these bloggers to keep adding to the art business and art marketing blogging conversation.

ArtExpo Las Vegas & Decor Expo Atlanta Shows Mirror the Market - Part Two

The New Millennium Brings Change and New Challenges to the Industry

The early years of the 21st century set the stage for major changes within the industry. For example, against a trend of declining trade magazine ad pages, the industry witnessed the largest shows ever. There was the demise of the PPFA (Professional Picture Framers Association) shows as stand alone entities, and the rise and success of the industry’s only regional framing and art show in the form of the West Coast Art & Frame show. 1999 brought the sale of the Commerce Publishing Company's ABC (Art Buyer's Caravan), Galeria and Frame-o-rama show and DECOR magazine to Pfingsten Publishing LLC.

The Commerce Publishing Company sale to Pfingsten Publishing LLC led to its acquisition of Advanstar Communications' ArtExpo shows, Art Business News magazine and other related media and show properties. The Pfingsten's ownership also brought the end of CPC’s regional art & framing tradeshows. Deemed marginally profitable and contracting in size, the new investment firm owner cancelled shows in California, Orlando, Dallas, Louisville and rotating shows elsewhere. The closing of these shows was an early indication of both changing market conditions and different management philosophy.

ArtExpo Las Vegas & Decor Expo Atlanta Shows Mirror the Market - Part One

The September art & framing shows, Decor Expo Atlanta and ArtExpo Las Vegas concluded with a thud. Reports from both shows were not unlike results from any casino surrounding the Vegas show. They included a small number of exhibitors who came away winners, and more whose results ran the gamut from okay to dismal. Further reflecting the state of the art print market, neither packed the punch that exciting shows get from word-of-mouth. It is an interesting dichotomy in our age of instant electronic communications and marketing that, just as with motion pictures, old-fashioned word of mouth is the chief driver to fill exhibit halls and pack movie theatres.

The Atlanta show continued its decline in size again this year, which can be construed as a direct reflection of the industry mirroring the contraction in the numbers of individually owned galleries and picture frame shops in North America. The one growing segment of exhibitors in Atlanta is Chinese oil painting companies. This is problematic for the show organizers. As these cheap oil painting outfits expand their space, they become more important to the financial health of the show making the decision to ban them altogether difficult from a bottom line perspective. Not to forget the show needs to be a certain size to warrant getting favorable dates at the Georgia World Congress Center. It's a crappy no-win Sophie's Choice situation for the show management. Keep taking the money of these oil painting companies and the problems they present, or ban them and risk losing the show's dates and venue.

Unfortunately, another distasteful aspect is the manner in which the oil painting operations show their product. Often they spread pieces on the ground, put there from the top of undraped tables which gives the show a cheap rug bazaar flea market feel. It's a far cry from the magnificent ornate booths put up by the top moulding manufacturers who want an visually stimulating upscale ambience for their art & framing tradeshow experience. As with dirt cheap imports of products in other industries, the effect is to devalue the work of American artists and publishers. It is especially egregious in this instance because it undermines a population of small businesses with few resources to fight back against cheap prices and copyright infringement.

Oil Painting Knockoffs Reach New Heights and Lows

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.

Painting is Art, Publishing is Business

The Buzz, Balls & Hype blog recently got my attention with a multi-part series of posts titled, Writing is Art, Publishing is Business. The blog author, M.J. Rose, is a successful author of eight books and numerous magazine articles. She has a program called Author Buzz that helps authors get noticed and find readers. Wouldn't it be great to have a service like that for painters and self-represented print artists?

Wishful thinking aside, my admittedly creatively borrowed title (with homage and apologies to M.J. Rose) applies equally as well to the art biz as it does the book biz. The more authors and artists come to grips with the fact that getting work sold requires a business approach that has little do with the creative product being promoted, the sooner they understand their success quotient. I've said it too many times to have counted, "Artists who have attained success in the print market are not in the art business. They are in the business of building, nourishing and replenishing a dealer network."

It goes without saying the art must resonate or the book be a compelling read, but beyond the likability factor, there has to be buzz, balls & hype. There has to be the three Ds: Discipline, Desire and Details. When these factors are in place with an adequate budget and persistent smart marketing, success ensues. Go forth and paint. But also go forth and build ye an awesome dealer network that will love to sell your work.