Blog

Greetings,

 

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa, where we are in the last stages of preparation for the Iowa Bicycle Festival.  Pray for a beautiful sunny May 25th in our corner of the world.

But the main push of this post is about art.  (isn't it always?)  Tied to the Iowa Bicycle Festival is an exhibit we fondly call Celebrate The Bicycle.  Bicycle art.  Yup, a juried art show of and about the bicycle.  And I am ever so pleased to tell you we have some amazing art work coming in this year.  Way cool.

But here's the interesting thing, I am seeing an art exhibit come together from the backside this time, the working/organizing side of the exhibit.  NOT the jury/send in your art side.  Whew!  What a different perspective.

I'm learning that it's quite possibly true that artists don't read anything.  Or at least not to the end of the page.  And artists seem to have an abundance of email addresses, and like to pick and choose which one to respond to.  And communication styles are all over the place.  Shew!  And the really annoying part is, I've made all these mistakes from the artist side of the equation myself.  Henceforth, let's agree on a few rules of conduct for entering/participating in an art exhibit.  No, this won't be an all inclusive list, just the pertinent tidbits I've run into the last 48-72 hours!

 

1.  Read the rules of entry page, clear to the bottom.  Boring yes, but they do hold helpful tidbits, like where to send the painting to, when you do get accepted.  Just a thought, possibly art calls should be pictorial, artists seem to do better with images, than text  :)

 

2.  Keep a calendar!  Entry deadline, jury date & notification, art arrival dates, opening reception, and exhibit dates.  That's a lot of dates.  Do you really think you can commit them to memory?  Seriously?  What about if you've entered two events?  That'd be double the dates.  Nah, you'd better use a calendar.  And regarding the jury date & notification date, yes, do keep tabs on that one.  If you don't hear results in an appropriate amount of time, it's perfectly okay to email or call.  Hey, they got your jury fee check, didn't they?

 

3.  Use one (1) (ONE!!!) email address.  How do you expect to read about your acceptance into the show, when the notification email was sent to the inbox that you only open twice a year??  (your truly performed this crime last year, caught it just in time)

 

4.  Communication is your friend.  Use it.  When you receive that blessing of an acceptance letter, respond with a thank you AND when/how your art will get there.  Crisis is so much easier to fix early in the game, instead of last minute.

 

There you have it.  Rules to make sending a painting off to the public, just a little easier.  I thought you'd like to know.

 

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

 

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.   On Tuesday's post we talked  about art fair etiquette.  An article came to my inbox today that was a close echo to what I'd written.  I don't always read ArtBistro's newsletter--it's filled with a lot of ads and other clutter--but I did today, so I guess it was meant to be.

 

Their post for today is written a little tongue-in-cheek--as in slightly goofy, but here it is anyway:

 

http://artbistro.monster.com/careers/articles/8948-what-creative-professionals-should-never-ever-wear?page=26

 

I'm including it because of an experience I had a while back.  A group of artists were meeting to discuss an upcoming exhibit.  It was a studio tour type of event, where there would be maps to guide patrons from one studio to the next, along a well planned route. 

 

What happened at that meeting was a case study for the validity of the art bistro article.  A few of the artists came dressed in business casual, and the rest--well, let's just say pretty nasty would have covered most of them.  If you read the art bistro article, they have an image of a pair of paint splattered jeans as one thing you should never wear.  Yup, you KNOW there were several wearing those.  There were also a few pair of sweat pants, along with a few cases of too much bare skin, both included as NO'S in the article.

 

Do I hear someone saying, "oh come on, what does it really matter?!"  Let me explain: 

 

Everyone there immediately turned to the few dressed in business casual, assuming they were the voices of wisdom that should lead the group.  Were we acquainted well enough to know each other's leadership qualities?  No.  For many, it was a first time meeting.  But it really underscores the point of the article from ArtBistro, doesn't it?  If we want to be taken seriously, treated like a professional, the easiest way is to appear as one.

 

Should clothes be a deciding factor in judging someone's qualities?  I wish that question came with a no answer.  But it happens.  Will I immediately change my wardrobe to reflect the newest and latest?  Nope, not going to happen, AND I don't think that's required for dressing professionally, either.

 

But on those days when we leave the studio and go out into the world, I think it's a good idea to lose the paint splattered clothes, and put on something that says "mainstream" instead of "recluse".  There's a phrase "living under a rock".  Yeah, dress like you don't belong to their club.

 

If you say "the paint spattered clothes tells the world you are an artist", well then, I reply "that's what your business card and your elevator speech are for".

 

Have a lovely day.

 

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio on a balmy Monday afternoon.  It's one of those kind of days where we have been discussing if it's possible for the dust woolies to grow mold and mildew.  Everything else certainly seems to be suceptable to the dilemma.  We have also been contemplating a giant squeegee.  Hmm.

But look at that---off subject already.  Did you see the title of this post?  "Call Me.  Oh,Wait!"  Guess what that means?  My trustworthy and reliable cell phone has been reduced to NO NETWORK COVERAGE.

When we moved to Jefferson, Iowa, last August, we decided to do what everybody else was doing:  no land line telephone.  After all, why do we need three telephones?  Now we know, because one of them might suddenly go off duty. 

The day has been filled with utterly ridiculous telephone events.  I discovered that if I stand in the middle of the street, facing southwest, that 3 of every 7 calls placed to my cell phone company service department will connect.  2 of those will disconnect before I can completely give them my name and phone number.  The 7th call, yup, even though I had to repeat everything three times, she understood I was having problems.  You're going to love her response:  "we'll check into it, and I'll call you with the results"  Isn't that precious?  She'll call me.  Does she expect me to stand out there in the middle of my street waiting for her call? 

Then I decided to change tactics.  There is that little note down at the bottom of their webpage:  "contact us by email".  And so I did.  Jacob gave me an 800 number to call, as that is really the only way they can help.  How special is that?  Thank you so very much, Jacob, you are too kind.

I emailed my husband and he was kind enough to call the 800 number.  "I am so sorry for your inconvenience.  It will be 3-5 days to get that fixed"  Dios mio.  Did a tower get struck by lightening?  Did someone steal it?  Did it succomb to the current mold and mildew onslaught, and become disfunctional?  Wow.  A communication company that won't communicate, what IS this world coming to?

So back to the middle of the street I went.  I sure am glad that it's not raining in Jefferson today.  Now that I have my street coordinates finessed, I connect with the service department on the first try.  But guess what?  Way back when we set up this account, my husband was on household business duty, and the account has his name on it.  This very helpful service desk person politely informed me that she could not divulge any information to me, because I was unofficial.  Does she not know that because I am currently manning the station of household business duty, that I will be the one to fill out the little form requesting that the account profile be changed to include both of us?  And surely they realize that they are making me cheat and pretend I am my husband, just to get the little form filled out, because I am the one currently on duty?  I guess I still have the option of calling her back and dropping my voice a level or so----

Anyway, the bottom line is, please just send me an email---click on "contact Karen" over there at the left.  I'll let you know when I am back to fully communicable.  Tomorrow is a painting day, thanks be for that!

Later, Cooper