Back to Work
I had been hoping to ease back into life this week but then reality hit. Missing a week of work when I was already behind didn’t make for a relaxed return to the cubes the last few days. I really needed to work tonight to try to catch up but instead I had to package my work for the two blogger shows and print out my pages for the gallery book.
Normally this job would take 2-3 hours but since I decided to no longer use the word quilt as the noun to describe my work it took some time to reword my artist statement and bio. I did a quick job of this but I need to revisit both of these docs and update them as it’s been a few years and they feel a bit boring. My bio certainly puts me to sleep. I need to think of something interesting to say other than “Lisa was in some shows in some cool places”.
Then I decided to spend a couple of hours creating new thumbnail pages to include (my old ones were very out of date and had a different header than the rest of my materials). First I tried to do it in photoshop but I don’t really know how to use photoshop so that didn’t make for quick work so I switched to microsoft publisher. I used to edit a newsletter and vaguely recalled how to use publisher and after a few false starts I remembered enough to hack something together. Publisher does some funky things with the colors but it looks pretty good.
One of the advantages of making textiles is the ability to roll up the artwork and ship it off in a tube. In theory this saves the artist a lot of money in shipping costs but now days I don’t think it’s possible to ship anything cheaply.
It cost me $14 each way to ship a small 15" square 1.1 pound piece to New York in a very small tube. Not exactly a bargain. Although it is only $24 each way to ship a 48" x 64" piece to Pennsylvania. I suppose a painting of that size would be considerably more to ship so I shouldn’t complain. Although $80 in shipping for these 2 shows - ouch.
Everything is finally packed up and ready to send tomorrow and I should have headed to bed but decided I could just go to work tired tomorrow since all of my coworkers came to work tired and grumpy today after staying up late to watch the Rockies win the National League Championship last night. I guess this means the Rockies are off to the superbowl World Series. I didn’t even know they were playing last night - something I probably should not admit.
The above photo is another plant photo from my dad’s yard in Arizona this last spring.
Posted by Lisa in: Art Marketing
Tagged: artist statements, colorado rockies, photoshop, shipping artwork, the blogger show
Daniel Sroka said,
October 17, 2007 @ 7:41 am
Who knew when you started out as an artist that so much of your life could be consumed with…. shipping. Ugh.
Stacey Peterson said,
October 17, 2007 @ 9:04 am
It’s amazing how much time we artists spend packing, shipping, printing, and writing. Did you find a way to spice up your bio? What if you made it more personal - tell a bit about who you are outside of your art accomplishments (software engineer, mother)? The bio I send out to galleries outlines my switch from engineering to painting, and I find that patrons really like to know that sort of thing - they’re not only buying your art, but a piece of who you are, and most of them want to know a bit about the real person who created the art.
If it makes you feel any better, I shipped three paintings to NY this spring - and 18×24″, a 16×20″, and an 18×36″. Grand total for shipping and insurance - $320!! Thank goodness they all sold!
cynthia said,
October 17, 2007 @ 10:44 am
Try shipping ceramic work! Talk about expensive and despite careful packaging, I lose a few a couple times a year.
In regards to your post below, your family sure has had a tough year. I don’t know how you manage to do as much as you do with a a full time job and being a single mom. It’s hard work.
I was just listening to a pod cast this morning about hiring people to do a lot of the jobs that just take up a lot of time for artists, like websites, shipping, marketing, taxes etc. It might be the controller in me, but I can’t imagine giving that work to someone else. I like to have a handle on it, even though it does take up time.
cynthia said,
October 17, 2007 @ 10:45 am
PS. I met some folks from NYC this weekend, who had no idea who the Rockies are. I think it was just a snide aside since the Yankees didn’t make it to the playoffs this year.
Diane Clancy said,
October 17, 2007 @ 1:03 pm
Hi Lisa,
It is amazing how much time it takes to put all that stuff together! I applied for my first ever grant and … boy was it a lot of work! And the shipping is through the roof! (not for the grant - I got to drop off the 1″ stack of materials, but in general). That is another way I don’t understand how people at Etsy can sell so cheaply and then have free shipping often. Glad to have you back!
~ Diane Clancy
http://www.dianeclancy.com/blog
Kim Hambric said,
October 17, 2007 @ 1:31 pm
I’m always curious about how people pack and ship their work. I actually changed my style of artwork based on shipping costs! I used to starch fabric, cut it small pieces, and mount these pieces onto stretched canvas. No sewing involved! Then I tried to ship these things to juried shows. I decided to actually make quilted wallhangings because they are so much cheaper to send. When I’m sending one way to a client, I use those fairly indestructible plastic-like envelopes and send them by FedEx ground. My last shipment of two small quilts, the largest one 22×28″ cost only $8.50. Unfortunately, I guess reusable boxes are required for shipping when the artwork must travel both ways.
jafabrit said,
October 17, 2007 @ 7:46 pm
I keep having people tell me I should have a show in new york and all I can think of is the headache of shipping it all YIKES, well not that anybody has asked me LOL!
Christine DeCamp said,
October 17, 2007 @ 11:08 pm
Lisa,
Have you ever tried the Jane Sauer Gallery on Canyon Rd in Santa Fe? It used to be called Thirteen Moons Gallery & was started by my friend and collector Mary Anhaltzer & her husband, Herb. In the beginning, it was all quilts (Mary was a quilt artist) They still deal in quilts, but now lots of other fiber arts. It might be worth an inquiry. I know when I spoke to Herb a year ago, they were doing quite well.
Christine
http://passionforpainting.blogspot.com
Martha Marshall said,
October 18, 2007 @ 4:32 am
Lisa, I agree that viewers and collectors want to see who you are as a person. It’s true that when they purchase your art they are thinking as much about you as they are about the art. And when their friends admire their treasured piece of art, they want to be able to tell their friends something about the artist.
I like to collect art (when I can afford it!) So recently I started analyzing the reasons I would buy a piece, and the reasons I still love the pieces that are on display in my house. I always have a picture in my mind of the artist who created the work. They are inseparable to me.
So when I started making those observations, I realized I needed to do some work on my own bio and artist’s statement.
PaMdora said,
October 18, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
Hey Lisa, just catching up after working and traveling too much. So sorry to learn of dad’s passing. I know you knew it was going to happen, but that doesn’t make it any easier, maybe even harder because you’ve been dealing with this for a long time. I’m glad that you’re easing back into work, take it easy on yourself. You’re a hard-driven woman I know ;)
Lisa Call said,
October 21, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
Thanks everyone for the bio suggestions. I will revisit my terribly boring bio next month.
And shipping - I knew you all could commiserate. The shipping is maybe the one part of being an artist that I enjoy the least. The marketing is hard and I don’t do it but it’s not nearly as bad and all the schlepping things about fitting them into the right sized container and blah, blah, blah…
Christine - thanks for the gallery recommendation.