Saturday, May 31, 2008



I can't wait until next Saturday - My Art Fair debut.  I've been scrambling.  I thought I had a fair number of works framed, but of course I needed twice to make a display.  Then I thought people may not be interested in framed work. So I started to just mat and shrink wrap. I thought the worst years of my life were spent at Brewster Gallery in NYC as the framer, but now I'm cutting my own mats and building my own frames.  So, you never know.  Despite my initial reservations, this seems to be a good exercise. Yet I have one mental obstacle.  Help me think this though.  It concerns limited editions.  On the one hand these types of shows demand limited editions if you are in the "graphics" media - yet digital imagery is new enough to wonder if an artist should limit his/her best efforts to an edition of 100 or whatever.  Plus - you will see elements of my art repeating in works in years to come.  The way I work is to compile a digital library of sky, textures, plants, people, writing and everything I can imagine.  I combine these, and if you compare the works you will see similar elements reappear.  So any comments on the idea of limited edition prints?

6 comments:

Gwen Buchanan said...

Anticipation!!! You are so fortunate to have had the experience of matt cutting and framing ( is that called paying your dues?)so it comes to you now like an old friend...

I believe your images are you or how you see the world... and you are the sum of your experiences and they are your language...you should use them at will...

although sorry, I have no experience with prints or creating a particular number of editions... although I have contemplated it as many people do not want or cannot afford to pay the price of originals and it is certainly a way of gaining more exposure...

I am excited to hear about your adventure... and I know how busy you will be preparing for the show...
Bill, I truly wish you all the best, gwen

laura said...

Let me say I know absolutely nothing about this: but it seems to me "limited edition" is purely a sales concept--people will pay higher prices for rarer/limited commodities--and so it's a trade off: higher prices or retention of rights to rework the image ... (But then, if the image is "reworked" would that be a violation of a limited edition?)
Anyhow ... you make your own frames?! I would love to be able to do that (along with about half a dozen other things!).
Good luck at the fair--I hope it's FUN. Can't wait to hear about it.

sandy said...

Wondering how your debut went!

sandy

William Evertson said...

Gwen - Thanks for your commentary. Lately cutting mats, moldings and plex puts me right back in NYC, working for the Brewster Gallery. I've framed work by Diego Rivera, Francisco Zuniga, Frieda Kahlo as well as many artists who started with promise only to decorate hotel rooms. I still cut mats the old way with just a Dexter hand held mat cutter. Now I have a shop so I can mill and cut my own moldings, glass or plex.

Laura - I think that the idea of 'limited' is a sales concept. I'm not sure of the origination - I need to research how this convention came to be. Despite my hesitation to try this, I am focused on presentation and marketing like I should have been doing back in my NYC days - had some shows but never had the follow through. Got discouraged but finally returned.

Sandy - I'll post this Sunday when It's all done - right now I'm OCD trying to learn this never before form of getting it out there.

jafabrit said...

I wish I had some ideas to offer on the limited edition thing, but arg, I don't have experience with it.

Look forward to hearing how the art fair goes!

all the best
Corrine

Sandra T said...

If you want to sell, then I guess the more copies of a limited edition print the less desirable for the buyer. So over to you on that one. Regarding your imagery and reusing images, but in changed ways, nothing wrong with that - we have our own shapes and symbols that we work with and if it's not a printed copy of an artwork then it is an original...right? Tis what I think anyway.