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December 30, 2004
Happy 2005!
Wishing everyone a better 2005 and Happy Birthday Sketchblog...one year old now!
December 22, 2004
Comments Closed Temporarily
Due to the amazing amount of spam being generated to this blog from online gaming websites I have decided to close the comment section of this website until I can figure out how to block spam more effectively. Always feel free to email me your comments directly.
thanks,
Michael
December 18, 2004
Ho Ho Ho!
Mr Cookie Man says "Merry Christmas to all...Ho Ho Ho and a better 2005"!
December 16, 2004
Paintings in progress 3
New collection of paintings for the upcoming solo show in Palm Springs, California.
Greek Vase 3
Large terra cotta vase in progress with silk screened imagery
December 12, 2004
GR Press Article on Visualpump.com
New Web-based gallery is wave of future
Sunday, December 12, 2004
By Gail Philbin
The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- Contemporary art prices at auction houses like Sotheby's have set records lately, as in the case of the Nov. 9 sale of a Mark Rothko painting for $17.4 million. Meanwhile, eBay boasts that an artwork is sold every 14 seconds on its Web site, 190,000 works are available on any given day, and its 2003 gross worldwide art merchandise volume totaled $160 million.
Add to this the fact people increasingly are replacing their computer dialup service with faster broadband Internet access, and you have the recipe for a revolution in the way local artists sell their work. You also have the rationale for Grand Rapids' newest art venue.
Visualpump.com, an Internet gallery launched last month by local artist Susan Bonner and her husband, Kendall College of Art and Design Professor Bill Fischer, aims to help artists find larger audiences by aggressively promoting them in cyberspace. Their eGallery, as they call it, emphasizes affordable "art you can live with" in the form of giclee (high-resolution) digital prints of the work of nine local artists.
"It's exciting for the artists," says Bonner, who admits the value of promoting digital prints and not original works was hard for artists to understand at first. "An artist like Patti Hendricks has flooded this market with her work and anyone who is going to buy it has done that by now. This gives her a national audience, and it's not a big expense to do it."
Artists pay VisualPump from $240-$1,000 to create and manage a digital inventory of 6-10 images based on photographs of their original, two-dimensional creations. The gallery collaborates with the artists to alter the image of their original by changing the color of the inks and upping the contrast.
"We really manipulate the image, so it's very strong and powerful .... The piece has its own aesthetic," Bonner said. When a customer orders a print, the final product is generated on canvas or watercolor paper by Color Incorporated Digital Imaging in Grandville.
Local potter Phil Wilson, who owns Lots O' Pots Gallery, originally hoped to beef up sales of his ceramic creations through VisualPump, which is selling a limited quantity of his pottery, but Bonner had greater interest in his black-and-white paintings of vases. Wilson was skeptical when she added color to them for the giclee process but said he accepted it as necessary to market his work to a broader audience.
Bonner believes online art shoppers are more likely to take a chance on a reasonably priced, high-resolution digital print than a more expensive original artwork they can't see. Michael Pfleghaar, a local painter and sculptor represented by three brick-and-mortar galleries, agrees.
"The price points of my originals would prevent people from purchasing my art only from a photo on a Web site ... but the prints are an inexpensive alternative," said Pfleghaar, who sold one medium-sized print on canvas for $350 in VisualPump's first month of operation.
"Their Web site with the shopping cart system will make it easy for buyers all over the world," Pfleghaar said. "My Web site is a tool to showcase my artwork, but there isn't a simple click method to purchase work from me."
VisualPump received 30 percent of Pfleghaar's sale, a much better deal than the 50 percent taken by most galleries, he said.
Without a physical gallery space to manage, VisualPump's owners have more time than conventional galleries to spend researching the Internet and promoting its artists, Bonner said. Beyond selling works on the Web site, this means buying ads on the search engines Google and Froogle, for which artists pay $40 a month, she said.
VisualPump hopes to recruit more artists with the eventual goal of having a national roster of about 30, Bonner said. And in the near future, it will join the ranks of eBay art sellers, "because that's where everyone goes," she said. "It's THE site where people buy."
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/grpress/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1102850218178220.xml
December 08, 2004
Purchase Award
This oil on paper entitled "Plant Stand (Green House Party)" has been chosen in this year's RAY AND NANCY LOESCHNER ANNUAL ART COMPETITION for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. A media announcement will follow in early 2005.
December 05, 2004
Man Vase
Terra cotta vase with silk screened imagery produced during a seminar with Israel Davis at UICA
December 02, 2004
UICA Artists' Market
This weekend at the UICA I will be exhibiting downstairs in the Urban Clay Studio with 6 other clay artists. A portion of the sales will benefit the UICA programing and also there will be a selection of "pottery seconds" with all proceeds going to the Urban Clay Studio fund.
Hours are Friday, Dec 3, 5-9pm and Saturday, Dec 4, noon to 5pm...more info at www.uica.org