| Re-discovering
Onscreen Digital
The
Digital Art Society of Hawaii (DASH) group
show, Tropical Mosaic 2002, which features
on this month's World Printmakers homepage
has been an eye opener for me in more ways than one. Not least, we had the pleasure
of dealing with professionals like Arthur Nelander and Derrick Elfalan, whose
carefully ordered presentation of the material made putting together the exhibit
a joy instead of a drudge. After
laying out all the images on the pages I found myself stunned by the obvious:
these images look great on a computer monitor because they were created on a computer
monitor and that's their "natural habitat." After all, they've been
manipulated, tweaked and optimized to look good on screen, and they sure do, even
at a lowly 72 dpi. My
Kingdom for a Big Flat Monitor
Conclusion: We all need a big flat monitor (the bigger and flatter, the better)
hanging on the wall over our fireplaces for displaying digital imagery, an ongoing
rotating show, if you will. A few years ago this would have sounded like science
fiction but today, in view of advances in monitor technology and constantly dropping
prices, it's a perfectly feasible option for lots of people. Who's going to be
first? When you get it up, send us a photograph of it; we'll publish the first
couple on the site. Isn't this something that digital printmakers should be promoting
in the interest of widening the demand for their art? Not to mention the manufacturers
of flat monitors(!) Market
Trends
Speaking of digital, I ran across an interesting posting on the digital-fineart
e-mail list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital-fineart)
the other day. List moderator, Harald Johnson, summarized the current cover story
from Art Business News (http://www.artbusinessnews.com),
"Print Market Changes, Reacts to Tough Year." The highlights, based
on a survey of 414 U.S. galleries are, according to Johnson:
- Considering
the impact of 9/11 and the economy in general, print sales held their own in 2001
compared to 2000.
- Lithographs
remain the top-selling type of print, however, giclées have edged out serigraphs/silkscreens
for number two. Next are posters, then etchings.
- Giclées
continue to be the leading type of prints galleries have added to their inventories.
- 86%
of surveyed galleries also carry original paintings and drawings; 45% also carry
sculpture; 33% also carry photography.
- The
top-selling print subjects are, in order: (1) landscapes, (2) florals, (3) wildlife,
(4) figures, and (5) animals.
- All
the galleries surveyed carry the work of an average of 38 different artists. (!)
- U.S.
regional differences: Landscapes sell best in the Mountain/Pacific and Midwest
states; florals sell best in the South Atlantic states; wildlife sells best in
the Midwest; abstracts sell worst in the South.
Your
Chance to Get Even
We finally got round to publishing the World
Printmakers Readers' Survey on the site and we're hoping the information
it yields about our visitors' preferences and phobias will help us to make some
improvements. We've tried to keep it short and sweet, and there's even a prize
for the luckiest person who fills it out and sends it back. This is your chance
to tell us what we're doing wrong. Don't miss it! Champagne
Spam
In our ongoing campaign to increase print sales
we've just initiated a timid program of e-mail marketing. (I say "timid,"
as this is a strategy which one could not pursue in the U.S. due to the truculent
"anti-spam" postures prevalent there.) The first results of a mailing
to some 1,600 European companies, offering fine-art prints as corporative gifts,
has been encouraging. We received quite a few inquiries (and more are coming in
as I write this), along with fewer than half a dozen "unsubscribes."
In all fairness, we did send out a tasteful, attractive e-mailing. As well, Europeans
seem to be more tolerant of unsolicited e-mail communications. I trust the World
Printmakers artists won't object to selling their prints in Europe. Oncreeping
Commercialism
Let me sign off with a burst of five-second
commercial spots: See
you next month. Count
your blessings! Mike
& Maureen Booth
Editors & Publishers
World Printmakers
The
Worldwide Showcase for Contemporary Fine-Art Printmakers
URL: http://www.worldprintmakers.com
Email: miguel@worldprintmakers.com
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