Hey, there sports fans, Al here with the latest;
What are the things about artwork? It's the presentation and validation.
You can get away from that ultimately. But there is also the production of work. For example, you can be a great artist but work incredibly slow, OR you can be a fast artist and turn out volumes of material. So each artist needs to figure out the best way to make money off of their artwork and how to present it.
In my small Homebase in the PDX area, I have two bars that I like to showcase my artwork in. I've gotten a good indication of what other artists usually showcase for their work, how they present it, and how much. Those kinds of artists have representation setting up shows and hanging. For other artists, it's just the fact that they actually have the artwork up is all it matters. That's one way of doing it, but to me, that's kind of like selling your work at a yard sale as opposed to an actual establishment.
Over the last 10 years, I have been in shows around the Portland area doing my scratchboard work and making prints. I have learned that "presentation presentation presentation" that these three termed words have always come to mind when it comes to showcasing artwork. It's a different kind of setup for me personally because the difference between comic book illustration versus traditional illustration for a show or two different things they share the same family of illustration and rendering, but one is to tell a story the other is to invoke a mood. I think that's where I've been leaning into recently is the mood of something.
Update: as I was writing this particular blog, something happened that was unexpected. Quite frankly, I didn't think it was going to happen at all. I have a show starting this next week, August 2, formally known as NWIPA, now known as Northwest Indian Pale Ale. N.W.I.P.A. beer | Only the tastiest of IPAs (nwipa.beer)
I got a call from the curator of the place name Richard Melloy. I've worked with Richard many times over the years and have always had an excellent working experience with him. That, quite frankly, was the last time I actually had a show. But like I mentioned before, several other blogs that the pandemic really put a hamper on everything for about two years. And I hadn't actually shown anything for a year before that, so probably maybe it's been as much as three possibly. Even four years? But I have work to go up on the wall.
At last count, I think I have 39 pieces of individual pieces of artwork that I can hang right now. It should be a good show. I am excited! Some parts need a little bit of fixing because of the multitude of moves I've had between the time I showed them last and the present day. I've got one day to get everything priced and ready to go. I've got my materials for hanging stuff.
SO with that excitement, I guess I feel validated, which I find rather unique because I was writing something about validation. But with that validation now comes the presentation, kind of the reverse. But with any amount of pieces, I have to do a quick game plan of how this place will look and post the images because there are many different sizes that I have to account for. They have to be spread and placed in several other places in the building. It's a good thing I took measurements of these buildings a while back, so I'm gonna start with that and go from there. Keep a lookout; I have another posting here with images and everything; as far as the end location, my guess is that the show will be up for longer than one month.
And I am outta, got a show to work on!