World Printmakers Newsletter #32 November, 2004

On Artists' Self Promotion
A lot of editorial space in the art specialist media is devoted to artists' self promotion. I've written some of that copy myself. Obviously, artists have to promote themselves and their work. You've got your business cards, your website, your press releases--and don't forget your World Printmakers Gold Participation! All of that is to the good, certainly, but I'd like to discuss here a self-promotion strategy which I haven't seen mentioned before. And I know it works.

I don't know about other people's neighborhoods, but in our town the local artists, printmakers included, have traditionally played their cards very close to their chests. That is to say, not many of them are prepared to share their techniques, which they consider "trade secrets" with one another; nor are they inclined to divulge their sales outlets nor marketing strategies. The traditional wisdom here is "If my colleague/competitor sells a print, that's one less opportunity I have for selling one."

Sad to say, envy is rampant and skullduggery is the order of the day. Though Granada has a rich printmaking tradition and dozens of active printmakers, and there have been some attempts at forming groups for collaboration, most of them have disolved in virtual nitric acid baths of acrimony.

The Business of Strolling
A few years ago an etcher friend of ours--we'll call her Mariana--was strolling down one of Granada's many narrow shopping streets and she ran across a new fine-art-print boutique, the first of a few which were to spring up subsequently. It wasn't exactly a gallery, rather a very tasteful gift shop where all the gifts were of graphic art. The business was just starting up and they didn't have much work on their walls nor in their bins yet. Mariana asked Mari Angeles, the young woman who tended the shop, if she could bring in some of her work for consideration, and the answer was an enthusiastic "yes, please do."

When Mariana turned up a few days later with a portfolio of prints, she also took along her address book, with the names and phone numbers of practically all the printmakers in town, and left a copy of the list with Mari Angeles. It seemed reasonable enough that if the shop needed printmakers and the artists needed a place to see their work, it was common sense to introduce the former to the latter and vice versa. Within a couple of months the print boutique was full of attractive prints and selling well. Before long most of Granada's printmakers were making at least some sales there, some of the considerable amounts.

What Mariana didn't know when she so disinterestedly provided the boutique with her list of artists and their phone numbers was that the proprietors of the shop also owned a chain of hotels. The graphic art shop, as it turned out, was just a hobby for one of the partners. You can probably guess the rest of this story. For years afterwards, every time a hotel needed decorating or a new suite of conference rooms needed wall hangings, the print lover/hotelier would phone Mariana first. She also cemented a lot of friendships among her fellow artists. Good marketing, it seems, goes way beyond good marketing.

The moral to this story can be summed up in two Spanish aphorisms:

See you at ESTAMPA 2004, Madrid!

The World Printmakers / Grabadores Españoles stand at this year's edition of Madrid's annual fine-art-print fair, ESTAMPA (in the Crystal Pavillion of the Casa de Campo, Nov. 25-29, Stand D-17), will feature the work of three women artists from different parts of the globe: one from the South Pacific, another from the Pacific Northwest and the third from Spain, each one with her own personal take on printmaking. Joan Dubanoski, from Honolulu, will present her glamourous digital prints of exotic Hawaiian flora, Jennifer Waelti-Walters her fascinating monoprint studies of the world in motion and Maureen Booth her poetic musings on zinc and fancy paper.

We look forward to seeing you in Madrid at Europe's premier print fair. If you would like us to mail you an entrance pass, please drop us an email with your mailing address and we'll be happy to send you one.

An Email Reminder
We've been spammed into submission so we're changing our email addresses slightly: for "contact@worldprintmakers.com" please substitute "info" for "contact." And in "miguel@worldprintmakers.com" substitute "mike" for "miguel." We’ll leave the old addresses active for another month (till December 1, 2004) then close them down for good.

See you next month. Count your blessings and ¡Viva el grabado!

Mike & Maureen Booth
Editors & Publishers
World Printmakers
The Worldwide Showcase for
Contemporary Fine-Art Printmakers
URL: http://www.worldprintmakers.com
Email: contact@worldprintmakers.com

P.S. The gift giving season is upon us. Now is the perfect time to order prints and editions from World Printmakers, both for personal and company gifts. So drop us an email. Give us an idea of what you need, and we’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.