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Art Inventory Part 2: Let’s Get Comprehensive

February 18, 2013 in Guest Blogging, Kate Renee, Local Artist Interview, Organization | 2 comments

Head on over to Local Artist Interviews to catch the Art Inventory Part 1 blog post. There you will learn the purpose and basic categories to include in your own art inventory. Once you have the basics compiled, walk though this blog post to boost up the content, quality and information your inventory provides.

Now that you have begun your own art inventory or have a basic framework of information to work with here are some ideas to build it into a better inventory.

A basic inventory will typically be one page. A thorough inventory can be a page or more. For my art work pictured above, I have three pages noting all important information. The first page has a more thorough list of information about the piece itself. In addition to date, size, price, location and image (as listed on the basic inventory blog article) I have included additional categories:

 

Series: Is the piece a diptych or triptych, is there a small series of related works?

Condition: Is the work framed, wired, ready to hang, is it signed? Is it in good or bad shape?

Labeled: Is the work labeled on the back with the title, artist and date?

Touchups: Any necessary changes or repairs needed?

Copyright: Is the work copyrighted? If so, what is the registration information and date?

Photographed: How is the work documented? Is it professionally or self-documented?

Permissions: When you submit or agree to certain exhibitions and opportunities, we often agree or allow people to have a limited access or permission to the work whether that is printing the information and image in a catalog, including the image in an online gallery or to release the image to a media or press resource. Log what you have allowed in the permissions section. This is important especially if you copyright your artwork.

Submissions: Use the submissions area to document shows, grants and opportunities you have applied to. This is where I tend to list shows I submitted to but did not participate in or was rejected from. If I am interested in the future to apply to the same show or opportunity, I know what work I used to apply to it.

You can also update the exhibition section as well. In addition to title of the show, venue, dates of the exhibition, commission and if a sale took place and any additional notes, consider adding the following sections below:

Type: Was the show group, juried, invitational, partner or solo?

Venue address: Where was the space or gallery located?

Website: What is the gallery or space web address?

Curator and Juror: Include anyone who you came in contact with during the exhibition process and also their contact information, phone number or email. Note if someone is a gallery director or other title rather than curator or juror so if you need to contact them again in the future, you properly address them.

Exhibition Documents: What documents or information do you have stored in your files in relation to the exhibition? This can also include saved emails in your inbox.

Award: Did you receive an award during the show?

Commission: What was the gallery’s commission percentage? Note if a sale took place and what cut of the sale you made.

I always leave a blank exhibition section so if I submit and show the piece during the year, I can pencil in the information into my inventory and update it later. I will write in changes to my inventory throughout the year, and then every January, I officially update my document on the computer and print off a fresh new copy.

The third page of my inventory includes press, promotions and comments from viewers. I also add installation notes and additional notes. 

View the Suction Cup Blog post next week to get the third and final post on making your own art inventory.

Extra Extra Read All About It: Beauties Behaving Badly Receives MN State Funding

January 21, 2013 in Accomplishing goals, Altered Esthetics, Bloomington Theatre and Art Center, Gamut Gallery, Imaginarium, Kate Renee, Local Artist Interview, Painting, Prairie Center of the Arts, Press and Promotions, Solo Exhibition Program | No comments

Below is the official press release announcing funding for Beauties Behaving Badly. Feel free to share, print or publish the material below as you wish.

Bloomington, Minnesota, January 9th 2013-The Minnesota State Arts Board posted their Artist Initiative Grant recipients and included emerging artist, Kate Renee. Kate plans to continue her acrylic series titled, “Beauties Behaving Badly,” which explores new views on the roles of traditional female characters.

These large graphic works interpret classic characters from childhood movies and literature in a misbehaving and non-conventional light. The paintings will challenge the comfortable views of classic youth and children’s media. While including a serious and feminist note, these works are large, bright and are also humorous in the visual manner they are created. One of Kate Renee’s finished works, created during her 2011 artist residency at the Prairie Center of the Arts in Peoria, Illinois, demonstrates her humor through a large chested Ariel from the Little Mermaid. With her small shell swimsuit and silicone implanted breasts, the title simply states, “They Help Me Float.”

Kate Renee will begin creating eleven new “Beauties Behaving Badly” paintings to complete her series and will be exhibiting them in a solo exhibition in the Twin Cities. In addition, she will be printing an exhibition specific catalogue to accompany the show. The grant funded project will begin on March 1st 2013 and conclude February 28th 2014.

Kate Renee has been a professional artist since 2008 and has focused on acrylics. She creates lowbrow paintings that feature characters, people, pop icons, and animals with big eyes and bright colors. She adds touches of humor through her sarcastic and ironic titles. Through her work, Kate seeks to explore character development and storytelling through art. She was recently seen exhibiting in the metro alongside artist, Brett Early at Gamut Gallery in November 2012. Both illustrative painters, the pair showed a variety of characters and creatures in the show, Imaginarium. Gamut comments, “Renee [and Early] represents a bourgeoning esthetic that is transitioning from books, media, pop iconography into the realm of galleries. [She] remains true to the wonderment and jovial perspective drawn from childhood…as well as bold use of color and line, trading texture and detail for contemporary design and eye grabbing imagery.”

Currently, Kate Renee is a protégé in the Women’s Art Resources of Minnesota (WARM) Mentor Program. She is working alongside artist and mentor Jill Waterhouse for two consecutive years to develop her arts career. Kate has worked with Altered Esthetics since 2010 and developed the Solo Exhibitions Program during her internship. For the following two years, she mentored and taught sixteen artists professional and business skills needed for the arts world. Kate has also worked for Michael McGraw’s blog, Local Artist Interviews. This blog site seeks to allow artists to promote their work through artist written interviews. Kate has worked alongside Local Artist Interviews to build gallery relationships. She has also written numerous blog articles on the site to further assist artists with promotional skills.

Kate Renee has been a volunteer for the American Swedish Institute, and has worked at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Larson Gallery and taught workshops at the Bloomington Theatre and Art Center.

Pictures include, “They Help Me Float,” and Kate’s recent exhibition, photographed by Marc James Imagery, at the Fine Line Music Café December 2012 for the Holiday RAWk! event. There she exhibited the six completed “Beauties Behaving Badly” works.

High resolution images available upon request. For more information, please contact Kate Renee at katerenee(at)katerenee.com

-END-

 

Kate Renee is a fiscal year 2013 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

To Watermark or Not To Watermark, That is the Question

September 17, 2012 in After School Specials, Copyright, Guest Blogging, Kate Renee, Local Artist Interview, SooVAC, Tips | 1 comment

Following the After School Special panel discussion at SooVAC, I had a woman ask me questions about how I protect my work and if watermarking was worthwhile. I wrote a guest blog on Local Artist Interview’s website all about options for protecting your work such as copyrighting. I wanted to further investigate watermarking and what real working professionals thought about using watermarking in their images.

I talked to Noelle Bakken, long time board member at Altered Esthetics gallery in Northeast Minneapolis. She is the current co-treasurer but has also been the artist liaison there. Noelle is a photographer and does photoshoots for engagements, weddings and more. I also had the chance to talk with Michael McGraw, founder of Local Artist Interviews. Mike is also a photographer. Both artists helped me by answering some of my questions on watermarking.

Watermark: A watermark is a visible mark on a digital photo or image consisting of text, a logo, or a copyright notice (c), which is used  identify the work and discourage its unauthorized use and theft.

Its a Fun Day When You’re a Sundae, 2012

Copyright symbol in right bottom corner

Kate: Hi Noelle and Mike! My first question is if you use watermarks in your work?

Mike: For my own photography, I used to add my name in the corner of each image when I posted images online for work that people were likely to buy or if I thought the photos might lead to more recognition, mainly my wedding photography and roller derby images. I preferred to use the copyright symbol and my name rather than a watermark because I think posting a degraded image online does the work a disservice. I dislike how it looks.

Noelle: While I generally dislike watermarks, I do use them regularly. I particularly like to use them on Facebook for marketing & branding purposes, so that when my photos are shared there, my name is still on them. Unfortunately, watermarks can only go so far – I can’t control whether clients will crop out the watermark if they use one of my images as a Facebook profile picture. Some photographers opt to place a watermark over or very near a critical part of the photo (covering part of a face, for example) so it can’t be cropped out as easily.

 

Kate: Mike, have you experienced getting images from artists submitting to Local Artist Interviews with watermarks or copyright symbols on them?

Mike McGraw: For LAI, I think only one person has given me any images that were watermarked– a photographer who had copyright symbol and his name at the bottom of the image.

 

Kate: Noelle, is there a way to make sure that images cannot be stolen even if there is a watermark on the image.

Noelle: Ultimately, if anther photographer (or would-be photographer) is bound and determined to plagiarize your work, it’s difficult to find a 100% fool-proof method to prevent them from doing so. If you have a watermark, they will attempt to clone it out. If you have disabled the right-click option from your site, they will screen capture the image. There’s one studio that has recently stolen work from nearly 40 photographers (examples here – http://stopstealingphotos.tumblr.com/post/29831962568/24-7-protography-benjamin-ramalho-photography), many of whom HAD watermarked their images.

 

I’d Tap That, 2012,

Watermarked with artist’s name across art piece

Kate: In addition to watermarking, what are some other ways you protect your images?

Mike: I do not protect my work in any way, but I believe that in a dispute, my original files will show that I am the true owner of any images that might be stolen from me. A watermark would likely protect against someone using the image for any commercial endeavor since it seems pretty hard to photoshop out a watermark. Because it is a lot of work to watermark images, in my experience, I limit the size of the images that I put online. That’s my way to prevent against someone taking my image and making a print for their wall. There wouldn’t be enough data in my online jpgs to print anything larger than a 4×6.

Noelle: I have a line in my contract that indicates all images remain co-property of my studio and I may use them as I see fit for my website, advertising, etc. All clients must initial that line to indicate that they understand the terms. I also provide my clients with a print release (if they are receiving high resolution digital files and not ordering prints from me) that further specifies that the client may use and print the photos for personal purposes but may not use the image in any way that would result in personal gain (stock photography being one example).

I am moving away from using watermarks on my photos in blog posts, since ultimately I feel they distract the viewer from the images and the story I’m trying to tell. I am working on a new website behind the scenes where one new protective feature will prevent viewers from being able to right-click and save images from blog posts.

 

Kate: While this is only two perspectives from two professionals, as a working visual artist myself I believe that watermarking or other written and visual marking on images to prevent copyright infringement can provide a false sense of security. While some measures may prevent image theft, if someone is really intent on taking or using an image they will do so. That’s when additional eduation on what steps to take next are in order. Educate yourself on cease and decist letters. From experience, they work and tend to get people moving pretty quick when you throw some laws and statue numbers in front of them. Learn how to properly size images for website and internet use. Also teach yourself about the different ways to protect your art work, such as  registering copyright or using a Creative Commons license.

Feel free to add your comments and insights on watermarking and image theft prevention!

 

 

 

Guest Blogging on Local Artist Interviews

August 27, 2012 in Copyright, Guest Blogging, Kate Renee, Local Artist Interview, Tips | No comments

Interested in reading a guest blog post I did for Local Artist Interviews? Read along about copyrights, creative commons and trademarks through the link below!

http://www.local-artist-interviews.com/2012/08/the-artists-toolbox-copyright-creative.html

Special thanks to Mike McGraw who has offered me two guest posts with an additional post with my collaborative input. I appreciate the opportunity!

Contact Confusion

August 13, 2012 in Etsy, Kate Renee, Local Artist Interview, Social Networking, Websites | No comments



Contact information seems like its the easiest part of applications, artist webpages and blogs. But more often then not, artists do not have the proper contact information. I’ve come across this mainly on artist websites but also in gallery submission packets for example on resumes.

Necessities: 

  • Name (professional artist name or full name),
  • Email address
  • Phone number (optional but helpful)
  • Address to a studio space if available (but not your personal house address)
  • List or link your social networks including: Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Local Artist Interview, Etsy or Pinterest
  • Feel free to include studio hours if available
  • Other methods of contact

Forms: Forms are easy, its easy to upload them on your website and its easy to fill out. The message from your website visitors then pops up into your email account. The only problem is that people do not like to contact you through a form. In my experience, I have only had 2 people use the form I have on my website. Forms are extremely impersonal and widen that gap between someone trying to contact you and you receiving the message. If you have a form on your site, make sure there is another way for people to contact you as well. On my website, I specifically utilize my form to let people sign up for my newsletter.

Email: We are in an age of permission, You have to ask to be friends on Facebook, you can follow someone on Twitter but they dont have to follow you back. We have these emense filtering systems on our emails and we prevent all means of being spammed as possible. These protective measures also build a wall between us and the people, artist, buyers and admirers who are intersted in saying hello or who want to purchase a print . When you list your personal email do not make the link live. List it with out the @ symbol to help prevent spam messages and bots from filling your inbox with junk. This also allows people to directly connect with you when they wish to contact you. Stick your email address on everything!

Do: katerenee(at)katerenee.com

Do Not: katerenee@katerenee.com

While it seems like a no-brainer to list the proper contact information, it is one of those things that seems to get over looked especially when we are focusing on other aspects like linking our social networking sites or updating our latest works into the image gallery. Take the time to make sure people can get in touch with you!

 

Interested in contacting me?

Name: Kate Renee

Website: www.katerenee.com

Email: katerenee@katerenee.com

Phone: For arts related business calls only (952) 769 – 7159

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/KateJohnsonsArt

Twitter: KateReneesArt

Etsy Shop: https://www.facebook.com/#!/KateJohnsonsArt

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/katereneesart/

Local Artist Interest: http://www.local-artist-interviews.com/2011/04/kate-johnson-painter.html

 

 

 

Mission Possible: July Filing

July 16, 2012 in Guest Blogging, Kate Renee, Local Artist Interview, Mission Possible, Organization, Tips | 1 comment

If you already have not made your way over to Local Artist Interviews to read my guest blog, then begin here.

I wrote a guest blog about how to become an organized artist! In the post, I wrote a basic month-to-month list on how an artist can easily work on becoming more organized throughout an entire year. For each month, I am writing a blog post on my blog site, The Suction Cup, to offer more guidance and tips on becoming more organized.

July is filing!

Its time to tackle the growing paper pile monster. I always try to keep as much paperwork and documents possible so I have an accurate paper trail, but that leads to a lot of papers to maintain. One of my favorite organizing books, One Year to an Organized Work Life by Regina Leeds, has a great method for trying to sort the paper pile up: eliminate, categorize, and organize. Begin with eliminating. Throw out the trash and get rid of everything that you no longer need. Ask yourself is it worth holding on too? Can you afford the space, time and money to file it and store it? Will you be needing this in the future or for reference? If you answer no, then toss it! Eliminating it will make you feel good. Once you have the papers that you must keep, sort them into large categories such as finance, exhibitions, goals, resumes, grants and more. Take care when going through materials you wish to keep nice and archive such as newspaper clippings, photos and prints of work.

Organizing is the last step. Some categories of paperwork and information are still extremely large after you have thrown out the unnecessary trash. At this point you need to sub sort these categories. Use envelopes to break grant proposals or exhibition submissions into years or by project. Feel free to stick smaller envelopes and folders inside your files or your containers for each art category you have. I have my “Past Exhibitions” folder in my filing cabinet broken down into numerous folders labeled by year. This helps keep everything neat, organized and easy to find. This also prevents your files and folder from bulging out of control.

Binders or Folders: Three ring binders are great for quick access. If you use the clear plastic sleeves, you can protect important paperwork from tearing or getting damaged. I tend to put materials I need and use frequently in binder and store other papers I may need later or for reference away in my filing cabinet. I keep my binders in my bookcase right next to my desk so I can grab them right away. Above is my inventory, workshop notes and blog archive stored in three ring binders.

Filing Cabinet: If you don’t already have a filing cabinet, consider their benefit to you. They do take up space but will safely house your paperwork. If you have a lot to save and file, its a good investment. If you have a small maintainable stack of papers, stick to something smaller or even buy one of those small plastic filing boxes or use one of those wire holders that will store loose hanging files. I use series of colored folders to help organize my filing cabinet. I have finance paperwork in green folders, exhibitions papers in blue folders and so on. This allows me to have multiple exhibition filing folders for various shows, years or projects I am working on.

Desk: Some desks are built with a drawer that holds hanging files, but consider using each drawer or shelf for different papers. Keep them neat by placing them in large manilla folders, or using a paper tray.

Bookcases: Use a bookcase or cabinet to hold your paperwork as well.

Don’t let lack of storage furniture impede your creative paper filing, I found my filing cabinet next to a dumpster. Completely free! Use old or extra furniture that would store your papers in a dry safe manner if you can. Who wants to spend a couple hundred dollars on a brand new filing cabinet when you can invest that money into your creative work?

Once you dedicate a lot of time and effort into managing your paperwork, keep up with it. Its easy to go back to old habits and begin to throw items, documents, notes and mail back on to your desk. Make sure before you are done in your studio or work space that you leave it clean. Clear off the papers and put them where they go, put it away or put it in the trash.

 

Goals for this month:

1. Locate or invest in some form of office organization method: folder, binders, drawers, boxes, filing cabinets, bookcases or more.

2. Start tackling your paper piles and begin by throwing out the trash, junk mail, and papers that you no longer need to keep or reference.

3. Take your remaining papers and sort them into large categories.

4. Take each individual category and decide how you need to store the information. Do you use and refer to these papers often?

5. Sub sort any large categories.

6. Reward your filing and sorting endeavor.

7. Do not forget to maintain your paperwork, clean up after yourself and keep your desk clear.

 

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