Marketing Article 7

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="05bfd5a3.jpg"> <div> <B>Marketing Article  7</B></div> <div> <B>347-LOVE-ART  (347-568-3278)   Toll Free 1-877-512-3333</B><B> Toll Free 1-877-512-3333    Email: </B><A HREF="mailto:mike@mikealbin.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:mike@mikealbin.com"><U><B>mike@mikealbin.com</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="05cd2043.jpg"> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mike Albin.Com "><U>Mike Albin.Com </U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="wd.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Web design"><U>Web design</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="ma.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marketing Articles"><U>Marketing Articles</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="sr.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Show Reviews"><U>Show Reviews</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mt.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marketing Tools"><U>Marketing Tools</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="l.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U>Links</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#777777" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> What You Need to Know to Get into the Best Art Shows.</div> <bR> <div> I recently interviewed the directors of Coconut Grove, Naples National, St.</div> <div> Stephen's and Miami's Beaux Arts, as well as promoter Amy Amdur, to find out</div> <div> what keeps artists out of the top shows. I also sat in on the jury for the</div> <div> Naples Show and interviewed the jurors. I want to thank Naples National Art</div> <div> Show Director Richard Sullivan for this amazing opportunity.</div> <div> This was an incredible learning experience for me. I know we all, as</div> <div> artists, have walked around art shows, wondering what the heck the jury was</div> <div> thinking. We've also been perplexed by rejection letters from great shows</div> <div> that we got into the previous year.</div> <div> By interviewing jurors and learning about the difficult job they do, I</div> <div> gained a newfound respect for these people's efforts. It's a long day,</div> <div> sometimes two, sitting and looking at groups of slides, one right after the</div> <div> other, trying to remain focused and unbiased. Jurors also have to make sure</div> <div> they are assigning the correct scores to the correct artist number on a</div> <div> sheet filled with data.</div> <div> At the Naples show, about 1,000 applications were received for only 265</div> <div> spaces. Jurors, therefore, had to look at more than 3,000 slides, three for</div> <div> each applicant. The process was completed in just one day, over the course</div> <div> of slightly more than six hours. An artist's three slides were projected all</div> <div> at once through three different projectors - a pretty standard jury process.</div> <div> They were viewed for an average of about 10-15 seconds and scored, and then</div> <div> it was on to the next set.</div> <div> You do not have a lot of time to impress the jury! If your slides are not in</div> <div> focus or properly and evenly lit with contrasting shadows to show depth,</div> <div> your scores suffer, and you probably will not get in.</div> <bR> <div> Avoiding simple mistakes</div> <bR> <div> Before giving specific details on how to get the best possible slides, here</div> <div> are six common mistakes that keep artists out of shows. Some sound so</div> <div> simple, but all the show directors I spoke with said they deal with the same</div> <div> problems every year.</div> <div> 1) Turn your application in on time. If it's late, you're out - end of</div> <div> story. They don't care if you've done the show 10 years in a row.</div> <div> 2) Write legibly and fill out the application so that someone can read it.</div> <div> 3) Provide everything the application asks for. Show directors differ</div> <div> greatly on their polices regarding incomplete forms, as some will call you</div> <div> if something is missing, and some will not.</div> <div> 4) Apply under the correct medium. Some of us, myself included, create art</div> <div> that can qualify under more than one medium. Some shows will automatically</div> <div> put you in the medium they think you belong in, while others will disqualify</div> <div> your application on the spot if you apply in the wrong category. If you have</div> <div> a question about a show's guidelines regarding mediums, ask the director.</div> <div> And here's another hint: Do not call the week before the deadline, as show</div> <div> directors are extremely busy then. Instead, call a month or more before the</div> <div> deadline, and you'll find a much friendlier director.</div> <div> 5) Make sure your work is appropriate for the show. I don't mean to offend</div> <div> black-light artists who paint dogs playing poker on black velvet, but you</div> <div> probably won't get into most fine art shows with that type of work. Also,</div> <div> some shows reject nude painting, photography and sculpture.</div> <div> 6) Finally, use plain cardboard or plastic-mounted slides - no glass, gecko</div> <div> or GEBE slide mounts, as they are thicker and will not fit into a 140-slide</div> <div> carousel. If your slides don't fit, you won't even get the chance to be</div> <div> juried. In addition, to keep slides from being damaged in the mail, send</div> <div> them in protective plastic sleeves with pockets. You should be able to buy</div> <div> sleeves where you get your slides. Most art-supply stores carry them, and</div> <div> you can also order them from companies such as Get Smart Products.</div> <bR> <div> Producing the best, consistent slides</div> <bR> <div> So, how do you come up with slides that will get you into the best shows?</div> <div> First and foremost, if you are not a studio photographer, you should find</div> <div> one. If you're taking slides of your work yourself, you need an expensive</div> <div> camera with an expensive lens, a tripod, a professional background drape,</div> <div> studio strobe lights on tripods, a light meter, and the knowledge and</div> <div> experience to use all of this equipment. If you think you can get even close</div> <div> to the same quality shots without all this, you're wrong. It was very easy</div> <div> for the jurors to tell who had professional slides and who had amateur ones.</div> <div> I am a professional photographer with expensive camera equipment. However, I</div> <div> do landscape photography, so I do not own studio equipment. I, therefore,</div> <div> pay a professional photographer $125 an hour to do my slides. Studio</div> <div> photographers usually charge between $75 and $150 an hour, and if you know</div> <div> an artist in your area who gets into top shows on a regular basis, ask who</div> <div> does their slides. If you want to know what great slides look like, go to a</div> <div> top show that prints a full-color brochure of all artists in the show. (Two</div> <div> shows in Florida that do so are Coconut Grove and the Winter Park Sidewalk</div> <div> Art Festival.) The photos of work in those brochures are printed from the</div> <div> color slides sent in by the artists.</div> <div> If you can't find a show that does this in your area, Amy Amdur Productions</div> <div> prints a book with color slides. It is available by calling their office at</div> <div> 1-847-444-9600. Simply take the book or a show brochure to a professional</div> <div> photographer and say, "Make my slides look this good!"</div> <div> Here are the main stylistic issues to remember when having slides taken of</div> <div> your work:</div> <div> 1) Don't use light backgrounds. When you project them onto a white screen,</div> <div> your work is surrounded by white light, which washes out the color. Your</div> <div> background can be any color you want as long as it's pretty dark.</div> <div> Also, use the same background for each set of slides. If you have one black</div> <div> background and two gray, the jurors may wonder if the slide with the one odd</div> <div> background is your work or someone else's that got mixed in. Be consistent.</div> <div> Graduated backgrounds work very well with 3-D work, and backgrounds that</div> <div> show texture work well too.</div> <div> 2) Lighting is crucial. Your work should generally be photographed using at</div> <div> least two different strobes and sometimes as many as four. You don't want</div> <div> any washed-out areas, and shadows placed just right can really show depth.</div> <div> You need strobe lights made for photography. If you use florescent or</div> <div> incandescent lights, your images will appear very yellow, and halogen bulbs</div> <div> will make your work appear blue. You can use filters to compensate for the</div> <div> bulbs, but they will also change the colors in the art itself. And</div> <div> photographing your work in direct sunlight is not a good idea either, as</div> <div> it's almost impossible to avoid glare or washed-out colors. At least half</div> <div> the slides I saw were obviously taken by the artists themselves, and because</div> <div> they did not follow the aforementioned suggestions regarding color, white</div> <div> often appeared as dingy yellows and browns. (For more information on slides</div> <div> and the use of lighting, see page 14 of the January 2004 issue of Sunshine</div> <div> Artist.)</div> <div> 3) A tight body of work is important, according to most show directors. Do</div> <div> NOT show how versatile you are by sending in slides of different types of</div> <div> work. Have just one theme. Furthermore, keep your materials, techniques,</div> <div> style and medium the same. Do not show some oil paintings and some</div> <div> watercolors. However, if you show up with oils and watercolors at the show,</div> <div> and you've been juried in for only oils, every director I spoke with said</div> <div> that, as long as the watercolors are done with the same quality, they would</div> <div> not have a problem with them being in the show. And if you do sculpture,</div> <div> send in all shots of vases, or all people, or all animals - but not all</div> <div> three at the same time.</div> <div> This was the hardest concept for me to grasp, as I always thought jurors</div> <div> wanted variety in my work. Although they do want variety from artist to</div> <div> artist, the work featured in your slides should be similar.</div> <div> 4) Be unique. The benefits of distinctive work were clear at the Naples</div> <div> show. At this festival, there were 175 entries in the oil-and-acrylic</div> <div> category and another 57 watercolors. I lost count of the number of artists</div> <div> that sent in slides of palm trees and beaches. Naples Director Richard</div> <div> Sullivan explained that artists thought they had a better chance of getting</div> <div> into a Florida show if their work featured scenes of Florida. On the</div> <div> contrary, the top score in painting at the most recent show went to an</div> <div> artist that exhibited paintings of old, rusty trucks.</div> <div> 5) Finally, to make life easier for your photographer, choose art of the</div> <div> same size. Instead of using your best-selling pieces, which, believe it or</div> <div> not, might not impress the jury, you may have to make four new pieces - all</div> <div> similar in size and theme. They should also be photographed with the same</div> <div> backgrounds. The work is easier to shoot when all the pieces are similar in</div> <div> size, as this allows the photographer to set up the tripod and strobes only</div> <div> once.</div> <bR> <div> Don't forget your booth slide</div> <bR> <div> After the photographer finishes shooting your art, the pieces featured in</div> <div> your slides now need to be included in a booth shot, along with your other</div> <div> work. So, are you going to take these pieces to your next show and hang them</div> <div> in your booth to get a new booth slide? Don't even think about it! Instead,</div> <div> you need to set your booth up in your driveway, your backyard or somewhere</div> <div> away from all the confusion of a show. Find a nice rug or some type of</div> <div> flooring that goes well with your work and arrange your artwork so that your</div> <div> booth looks like a gallery.</div> <div> Some shows consider your booth shot only if there is a tie. However, others</div> <div> project your booth shot alongside the slides of your work, and it actually</div> <div> carries as much weight as your other slides combined. Many artists fail to</div> <div> get into top shows simply because the booth shot pulls their score down.</div> <div> Keep in mind that you don't have to show your entire booth. All jurors want</div> <div> to see is how large your work is and how you display it. Show two full</div> <div> panels and your beautiful new floor, and decorate the whole thing with</div> <div> flowers or drapes. To help you visualize I have included an example of my booth slide</div> <div>  taken in a friend's driveway. </div> <div> (The floor in the driveway version is simply a piece of cheap linoleum from Lowe's.) </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="344" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 281 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="06148130.jpg" border=0 width="328" height="275" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> Good luck, and I hope these suggestions help. I know they sound like a lot</div> <div> of work, but the artists that follow them consistently get into top shows.</div> <div> To make the process even more demanding, you have to repeat it every two</div> <div> years, because most top shows want slides of recent work. It's expensive and</div> <div> time consuming, but the rewards are well worth it.</div> <div> Get your mind completely away from what sells best and focus on what you do</div> <div> best. You may never sell the pieces featured in your slides, but if they get</div> <div> you into shows, the work is worth it.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>