Using Facebook

I am now on facebook and having great fun with it. I have contacted many friends and future friends. Its a lot of fun, the best is looking at the work of other artists that I know and am beginning to know. I am also making contacts with many organizations and they keep me up to date with their events. Its great and everyone should do it.

An upcoming Corporate Exhibition

Curator visit to select work for a new exhibition It is interesting when a curator comes to visit your studio. In my case the studio is all over the place, my home in Teaneck, a friend's home in Harlem and in a storage unit located in Englewood. When the curator arrived I had all of my portfolios out and ready for her review. I made cinnamon coffee to make the home welcoming. The reason I have the portfolios is so she can get a feeling of what she wants before we actually look at the paintings. After looking at the portfolios we went down to the lower level to take a look at the actual work. She quickly got a feel for what she wants to express in the exhibition. Then slowly she pick out seven paintings from my Keyhole Series. Then we jump into my car and drive to my studio where she select another 5 smaller paintings. Later I make an appointment to take her to my friend's home to see another nineteen paintings. I have a huge inventory of paintings and am working on paper now because storage space is short in supply. This is a big discussion point with many of my artist friends, what happens to the work when we're gone. My answer is there will be no work when I'm gone. I hope I'm right!

Belskie Museum - The Selection

I brought my work from Hudson Opera House directly to the Belskie Museum. I didn’t want to store them in my house or studio and have to drag them out again. The Museum was closed for the summer and the curator of painting and sculpture, Anita Duquette was nice enough to open the museum to allow me to bring the paintings in a few weeks earlier. The idea was to let them select the works they wanted for the show from that group and then visit the studio to select others later. That visit was a few days before the hanging of the show. I am nervous because this is the first time a curator is coming to my studio. I’ve read about it but what should I do? Well I spruced the place up a bit so it looked presentable, hung my new paintings on the walls of the gallery space and in the studio. I turned unfinished paintings to the wall. I didn’t have time to use the art putty but the paintings were not crooked. I worried about the light but except for the far corner of the gallery which was dark the light was fine. Now I know where to put lighting if someone comes at night. I never thought about people coming at night. I thought days and weekends, now I know I need to be more flexible. The three curators came and once in the studio began the slow paced process of absorbing the paintings. They kind of stood around and looked and looked and looked. There were about thirty paintings in the studio 2 unfinished, 13 new and 15 from other series. Some I had stacked away but they were pulled out and examined, the unfinished were examined also. Then they just stood around, the silence was heavy in the room. I didn’t know what to think or do, so I just kept busy doing I don’t know what. I hear a few words here and there, a nod and a decision was in the making. They selected nine paintings, two from the new series and seven from a fun series I’m working on and one from an old series. They also wanted a painting from another series and one from my flower series, these were at home. I was a little concerned to say the least, for those of you who know me know I would never put all of these works from different series together. I wondered how this was going to look. I would have to wait because I was not involved in the hanging of the show. The curators excitment about their selections reinforced what I have always believed about my work. I have no idea what makes a person excited about a piece of my work, it sometimes surprise me what people fall in love with. Which means you can never paint to sell because how do you know what a person will want in their lives. Ten o’clock the morning of the hanging I show up promptly with all of the requested paintings. I also brought an updated inventory list of the paintings in the show. They gave me three paintings to take home which I deleted from their list. They had already laid out the painting in the way they thought they would hang them; I was skeptical but keep my mouth shut. It was my job to make the paintings and theirs to hang them; I believed that they knew better than I. I did ask that they place at least a foot between each painting. I think my paintings need breathing room, some space between their stories. The strength of their color requires that. What I learned from this is, remember all of the packages that you sent to the gallery or exhibition space over the years. They will make their selection for the show from all of them and it their choice not yours. Save all of your statements and bios digitally because they take a lot of information from your packages. If you are like me you have a different statement for each series that you do. Who remembers them all or what you sent?

Persistence!

Persistence pays if you keep after it. I say this because I sent my first package to the Belskie Museum back in late ‘02. My show there ran from September 7th - 28th 2008.

I sent them invitations to my shows; I went to their receptions and published all of my shows in the local papers. Gradually I got to know the members of the exhibition committee so that at some point and time they began to recognize me and my work. It took about five years maybe longer but my work hung in that museum for a month.

As I write this it comes to mind that all I have read or heard from artists who have had some success, say these same things. What took me so long to get it? Well I’ve gotten it. Overtime I have selected galleries and exhibition spaces where I would like to exhibit. I know now that I have to keep after them also, it’s a lot of work.

Hudson Opera House, Center Gallery - Exhibition

Joe Herrick, curator and Cassandra Jennings Hall , artist in front of her painting 'Whales' in the Center Hall gallery at the Hudson Opera House in Hudson NY Hopefully you are lucky enough to have an exhibition at a space that does everything for you, hang the show, publicity, reception, etc. including giving you honoraria for your show. These places are great because you just have to bring the paintings and you have a check afterward. You don’t feel so bad if you didn’t sell a painting. I had such an opportunity at the Hudson Opera House (HOH) in Hudson NY, July-August 2008. The director there is a wonderful man named Joe Herrick who really has it together! I helped him hang the show which used the rail system. I don’t usually like the rail system, I like the hammer and nail system. But he was great and we had the show up in less than two and half hour and it looked wonderful. Here are a few things I learned from him, forget fish line when using the rail system, use the picture frame hanging wire. Now you might say, “How does that look?” Steel gray lines against white walls, I had my doubts too but it looked great and it’s easier to handle than fish line. It used to be that I was always trying different ways of making wall labels for my paintings. I finally settled on business cards, the ones you get from Staples when you make your own. But I found that tape sometime left a mark on the wall or could take paint off if left on too long. Joe used the scotch double sided tape; it goes on and off of the wall as easy as 1, 2, and 3. The other thing that’s always a pain in my neck is seeing my paintings on the wall crooked when I come to the reception. Joe used art putty also made by scotch. After we leveled or rather he leveled the paintings he put a blob of white putty in each lower corner of the painting as I held it in place. Results no crooked paintings and no damage to the walls. On the day of the reception after driving 2 hours with some friends to Hudson I noticed that the traffic lights were out as I approached the main drag which is Warren Street. Wondering what was wrong I turn the corner and found a parking spot right in front of a darken Hudson Opera House. The doors were wide open and people were inside trying to look at the Art. The reception was starting at 6:00pm so I came early to have lunch and to see artists from a nearby artist colony discuss their work which was on the HOH schedule of events before my reception. Needless to say there was no discussion that day and I had to trot up to the 500 block to find a restaurant with lights for lunch. We found Mexico Radio which is also located in lower Manhattan, great food! At six we returned to the opening reception at the Hudson Opera House, still no lights but people were coming and going. It was thrilling to have people come to a show just to see you and your work. Artists know what I mean, you have a show and the people who come are friends and relatives. But this show, people came in and asked for me ‘the Artist’, it was a big deal for them to meet me and discuss my work. Did I say the Joe did an excellent job on publicity? Well that’s what brought all of the folks in. I suggest that you have your elevator speech prepared before you get to your reception particularly when the attendees are first seeing your work. I am still perfecting mine and think my presentation is a little clumsy but I’m working on it. I would also review my statement and my bio next time because people ask questions based on what they have read about you. Up until now I’m sure I looked shocked when asked questions that are based on certain knowledge of who I am. I would think, how do they know that? They read the bio and artist statement. The other thing that floored me is when someone would walk right up to me and use my name while introducing themselves. Usually it’s because they went to my website and saw a picture of me. I have had a lot of shows each year of my career; look at the resume page of my website. I have learned how to make great work and present it well. I have learned how to market it so that people know who I am and what my work is, at least in my community. Now the challenge is to present myself and my work to probable collectors in a way that encourages them to become purchasers. Any hints?

Rejection

This image is my work in the Center Hall Gallery at the Hudson Opera House The day I went up to Hudson to view the exhibition space I took my portfolio and a CD of my work with me. There was a gallery there that I thought might be interested in my work. So after viewing the space which felt smaller than the plans they sent me I walked up the hill to http://www.carriehaddadgallery.com/. I went in and introduced myself, told the owner that I saw her ad in Art News and thought I might be a good fit for her gallery (so where do you think I got this idea from?). Of course the first thing out of her mouth was, ‘I'm not adding artist at this time.’ No shock there! But she was very pleasant about it and offered to look at my portfolio since I had it with me. We chatted a few minutes as she made comments about the work. I told her about my show at the Hudson Opera House (HOH) and invited her to the reception, to which she said with a smile, ‘I don’t do receptions I hate them but I’ll drop by and see your work after the reception. As the conversation began to wind down I asked for her business card, she in turn asked for mine. I passed her my CD with all of my information on the label and said ‘if you ever decide to add another artist please consider me.’ (Where did I get this from?) We shook hands; I left and returned to HOH very pleased with what I had accomplished. Now you might say ‘Accomplished! What? She rejected you!!’ Yes! She did! But this was the first time I ever in my artistic career went into a gallery and made the pitch. It felt good, I thought it went well and I congratulated myself of the success of the practice. I have to do more, the more I do the better I will get at it. You have to know that I would have fainted if she actually offered me a spot in her gallery. But for practice I thought it went well. That was two weeks ago, this past Sunday I get a telephone call from Carrie, no she didn’t offer me a show but she saw my HOH show and took a look at the CD. She liked the work but was calling to tell me that she was reducing the amount of artists she was currently representing and would not be adding me to her gallery. I was flabbergasted because I thought this was all settled when I first met her. With a smile on my face I thanked her for considering me and taking the time to call me. I suggested that when she was ready to expand her gallery’s representation again I would come to mind. Now I have sent out many packages with examples of my work and the usual requirements in the hope of getting a show. Maybe out of fifteen packages I get back 10 rejections, four no responses and if I’m lucky one show. But no one has ever called with an explanation of why they were rejecting my work. This is one classy woman; I hope to work with her sometime in the future. Rejection is not a personal issue; its just part of the job.

Get your name out there (2)

Balance 16x24 *AoC $1000

Invest in yourself, get a website!

I cannot stress this enough, galleries and clients are starting to ask for your website link. Have one to email to them. Buy your own domain name, it looks more professional. Join every free website you can find. Create a blog with your thoughts about art and your work.

Have several portfolios: One with an inventory of all your work One for your car One to present at shows or exhibitions One to take to galleries. Put digital images on your PDA, IPod or IPhone to show to anyone who may ask, 'What kind of work do you do?' If you have a PDA with zap technology create a business card that you can easily zap to someone’s PDA when asked. Post Cards and Business Cards are old school but have them anyway. I use post card size business cards also because they don’t get lost quickly. Put an image on the back, name, buzzword about your art, website, email, blog, telephone, and fax on the front. Put the same information on a regular size business card Carry about a dozen postcards with you all the time and several regular business cards for backup Put your name on every piece of correspondence including your email, use the same format all the time on everything.

*AoC means Acrylic on Canvas