Sunday, February 01, 2009

1st February 2009 - Who's made a mark this week?

Sherrie York - a selection from RioSalidaArt - her Etsy Store
copyright Sherrie York

The focus on printing grows and the theme of selling art online continues - and they're both combined in the selections from the Etsy Stores of artists Sherrie York and Amie Roman.

Printing and linocutting - the links are multiplying!
The interest grows! Here's just a few of them.
Amie Roman - a selection from the Ploverwing Etsy Store
copyright Amie Roman
Art blogs
Art business and marketing
Etsy (top) versus Saatchi Gallery(bottom)



Art collecting
  • Tina Mammoser posted a really good idea on her blog this week - Art Upgrade it's about a marketing tool and a way to upgrade your art collection.
  • The Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre BergĂ© collection is on view to the public until 4 February at Christie's London, with the sale taking place on 23-25 February at the Grand Palais, see For sale: the £270m designer collection from Yves Saint Laurent). The Guardian has a slideshow of some of the work
art economy
The rise of art fairs and middle class art consumerism, which actually has only happened in this decade, long after the Hirst generation broke the ice for British art, will now prove damaging. Money will drag art down with it, irrationally, because if galleries close, this will be seen as a mark of failure by those who were shallow enough to simply have respected art's fashionable status. Art need not sink with the market but it will, because of what the markets call "sentiment".
The splendid news is that auctions are at last reverting to a natural balance that seemed lost forever as a result of speculation that spiralled ever faster out of control.
Art exhibitions, galleries and museums
Books and book reviews
  • Gayle Mason (Fur in the Paint) has been watching my close encounters with the local birds - which I think may have prompted her review of Drawing Birds by John Busby
  • Those who are fans of Richard Schmid's books might want to keep an eye out for a new three-volume series. The first volume, on landscape paintings is due to be published later this year. All the books will focus on being 'picture book' rather than instructional. For more information visit www.richardschmid.com.
Tips and techniques
Websites and blogging
  • I posted How often do you post to your blog? - RESULTS of the January MAM Poll earlier today. Over 80% of us post to our blogs at least once a week with over 10% posting virtually every day. The most popular option (45%) is to blog consistently and regularly 2-3 times each week. A new poll will be posted tomorrow.
  • The techonology sector is not immune to the recession. It's worth bearing in mind if you MUST buy new technology. It appears that the general strategy is to cut back all costs to the most basic essentials. Nobody is expecting this to be over in 2009. This quote from Steve Ballmer (CEO of Microsoft) is a classic!
I'm thinking the bottom is deep, but less deep than the 1929 bottom, for example
  • I hope the technology sites get their act together BEFORE they start losing more staff. What is it with these major technology sites/service providers at the moment? Getting the basics right doesn't appear to be their strong suit right now.
    • Upload from your desktop — more better! NOT!!! Flickr has messed up YET AGAIN with its new Flickr Uploadr 3.1.3 (DO NOT USE!). Not only does it not work properly for an awful lot of people, but it has also managed to mess up reverting back to the old uploadr (2.5.0.15) for quite a few of us as well. So that means right now I can't upload anything to Flickr - and probably won't be able too for quite a while (judging by their track record on how long it takes to get these sort of things sorted). I wonder if they know that Carol Bartz the new CEO at Yahoo is nicknamed the "buzzsaw".
    • Google blacklists entire internet How many of you were online when Google decided to characterise every site on the internet as malware? Well I was one - and it was scary for all of two minutes until I realised it had to be a great big Google 'gone fishing' disaster! It got them huge press coverage though for a very basic mistake.
and finally.............

For those of you are in work outside art, you may be interested to read about the latest way of really getting on on top of your email inbox. Take a look at Nielsen Deletes Reply-To-All Button

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the links & the nod, Katherine!!

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  2. Thanks for the warning about the Flickr upgrade. It is so frustrating when something that is mean to help just causes a giant headache.

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  3. Katherine,
    Thank you for the POD write up this week. I've purchased 2 POD books but decided to try it myself.

    I received a sweet love letter last year and decided to print it in a book via blurb with the new paper-for his valentine's day gift.

    I used photos from various trips we've taken(some were very dark and moody) on a black background. I will let you know how it turns out once they arrive.

    I'm pretty excited about it since I am not the most sentimental or romantic person out there and I think he will get teary-eyed when he see it :)

    PS I am posting this as anon just in case he follows the link from my blog to yours.

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  4. Thank you, Katherine, for the very nice mention. The linocut craze is wonderful! I want to join, but that will have to wait until I get painting in hand again---can't wait to see what you come up with. I've enjoyed Robyn's and Vivien's forays into the medium very much. And the woman whose work you mention at the top of today's post does fantastic stuff!!
    PS Do you ever sleep?
    L.

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