Praeterita

While thinking ahead recently to what I want to achieve in 2019, I remembered something that I did in 2005 -- very much the internet era, but just before the advent of social media. In order to generate some interest in my work at the time, I had a tri-fold brochure printed, and physically mailed a copy plus cover letter to dozens of galleries and university museums around the United States. The results, as far as I can recall, were something like the following: Reply rate 16% (the average is much lower than that for a mailer). One Chicago gallery took some big pieces of art on consignment. It led to three exhibitions at small museums in Maryland, Illinois, and Wisconsin. With that in mind, I've had a simpler glossy handout printed up. It's 9 inches by 6 inches, printed both sides on glossy card stock: The text is in English and French, because I intend to leave it with some galleries in Paris during my teaching trip there.  I'll do a follow up blog post...

If you want to be an artist (a writer, say, or a painter), the first step is to write or paint as often as you can—no excuses. Before showing your work to a publisher or gallery owner, make sure that they publish or show your kind of work. Before showing your work to a publisher or gallery owner, make sure that the work is as good as it can be. In other words, revise, rework, refine. The old cliché is true: who you know is just as important as what you know. So get out and meet people. When you approach people sincerely to ask advice (as opposed to thrusting your manuscript/slides on them when you’ve never met them before), most people will be willing to talk  to you. Having well-made publicity materials—a postcard or a brochure with some images and information on it—makes you stand out from the pack. Being with people who are more talented than you is helpful, not hurtful. Before I went to art college, I tried to do all of the above things on my own, without help from ...

Thinking about my post the other day about Albee et al , I dug out this information which is closer to the usual subjects of this blog: Q: What do these ten artists have in common? Rembrandt van Rijn. Frans Hals. Edgar Degas. Claude Monet. Auguste Renoir. Vincent Van Gogh. Paul Cezanne. Henri Matisse. Pablo Picasso. Amadeo Modigliani. A: Paintings by these artists are owned or have been owned by Elizabeth Taylor.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader