For several years now, I have been using a great online tool to catalog my artwork. I don’t remember how I found this particular site, but it really was great and did all that I needed and more. When I started showing and selling my work, I quickly realised that I needed a reliable and easy way to record the information on each piece. I started by writing things in a notebook, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that that just wouldn’t do. Of course, having a computer background, I knew that what I needed was a database, not just a spreadsheet. Don’t get me wrong: I absolutely love spreadsheets, but they would not give me the features and flexibility of a database. Now those of you who have been following me for a while know that I strive to keep my costs down (I am basically cheap). So the solution I was looking for had to be inexpensive. You can’t get much more inexpensive than free, and the site that I found, in addition to being designed by artists who knew what they needed (a lot more than I did at the time!), had a free option that I couldn’t resist! Like everything else in life, it wasn’t perfect, but it was the closest thing for the price! So I happily used it for years and was pleased when they announced about a year ago that they would be rewriting the whole site, hoping they would use the opportunity to add the features that I (and surely others) found missing, which in my case was the ability to produce customized printouts, including, for example, price lists, show lists, or certificates of authenticity. I also wanted to create a printed catalog, and I still had not figured out how to easily do this with the present tools. Because of the value I was finding in the tool, I had even planned to start paying for it, but when they announced the rewrite, they also cut off the option to pay for a subscription. You probably can see where this is going. So for the last year, I have had the task to “Start paying for xxxxx” on my “to do” list, pushing it down month over month as I eagerly await news of the rewrite. Well, the news came this week, and it wasn’t good. Unfortunately, the developers have decided to throw in the towel, and will be shutting down the service completely in 6 months. Ouch! I can’t help but feel a bit guilty because if I (and many others) had been paying even a few dollars every month, maybe this would not have happened. Maybe some bigger company will step in and buy their operation, as it really is a good product, and it deserves to survive. But I can’t wait and see. I have to come up with an alternative. Rather than let this get me down, I am seeing it as an opportunity. I was already having to deal with the issue of having the information about my art stored in 3 different locations (my catalog, my website and my Square account). The fact that the original information was in this catalog and not easy to access or synchronize to other apps meant that it was easier for me to just repeat it (not the best way, I know, but the simplest in this case). This of course caused some inconsistencies, especially when I did my annual price adjustments. I turned to my artist community on Facebook and asked what tools, if any, they were using to catalog their work. The very first (and only, it turns out) person that answered said she used Airtable. I too use Airtable, but probably because I already had a solution for my catalog, never even thought of using it for that! But I use it for keeping track of just about everything else, so I am already familiar with many of its features. So although it will be quite a bit of work, I will be using Airtable to rebuild my catalog and to design the reports and printouts that I need, I will be able to import all the actual data from the existing catalog, and having started the designing part yesterday, I am reminded of why I loved databases when I was teaching them! Hopefully, my excitement will turn into usable tools! At worst, I will be no worse off than I am now! Wish me luck!
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I finally got to watch the HBO documentary “The Price of Everything” last night on Prime Video. It is about the manufactured world of modern art collecting, and how it came to be. I have always been curious about why people would pay millions of dollars for a piece of canvas with paint literally splashed on it, and the answer given in this film is not pretty. To sum it up for you: greed. The people in this film are so distant from the people that you and I likely know, it makes me think they aren’t even the same species. For example, talking about potential prices that art pieces will sell for in an upcoming auction as “230” or “250”, when they actually mean 230 THOUSAND dollars! And for what? The potential that the artist will become even more famous, not because their art is good, but strictly because their art sold for so much money, therefore giving them a “reputation” or “value” for resale! And so on, and so on! Several artists were interviewed in the film, and very few of them agreed with (but most of them went along with) this perverted system, where the revenue of so many people (dealers, auction houses, etc) depends on continuously inflating the prices. The artist who created the work will only have a chance at these outlandish amounts on its original sale, and does not benefit from the resale prices, except insomuch as now they will be able to charge more for future works! (Canada has actually proposed a change to the copyright law that would give the original artist (or their estate) a percentage of any resale of an art piece, for 75 years after its creation. This is still being studied, but hopefully for artists it will become law.) One artist in particular who was featured in the film was Larry Poons, who I must admit I had never heard of. He was quite popular in the 60s with his Dot paintings and could have made a lot of money by continuing to produce them, but he stayed true to himself and explored other forms of painting, more or less vanishing from the “in crowd”. Now aged 85, he continues to paint what he wants to paint, and at one point in the film, he states that he probably wouldn’t be still alive if he had gotten rich. Words to ponder! It is a harsh film, quite depressing really, especially if you are an artist. It makes you realize, if you hadn’t already, that there is no chance in hell that you will ever become remotely famous if you can’t or won’t “play the game” of the art dealers and galleries. It makes you realize that it doesn’t really matter if your art is any good, just so long as you have someone who pushes it and makes enough people believe that it is worth buying. It is a sad film also, in that art, which should be a thing of beauty, comes out of this feeling dirty and used, nothing more than a commodity in the pursuit of greed. I am glad I saw the film. I am also glad I am taking my own route. Would I like to be famous? Probably, but at what cost? I am glad I don’t have to make the choice between making art and making money. I have already made the choice, I guess, as I continue to use what time I have left to explore, discover and create. I encourage you to see the film, which you can find out more about here. It will not make you like the “art scene”, but it may make you appreciate what art you have, and might even make you go out and seek local artists, and support them any way you can. Let me know what you think in the comments below. I spent a lot of time over the last 10 days learning about and exploring lacto-fermentation. Last week I explained what that was and my first steps. This week I will give you a brief update and a suggestion as to why I am enjoying this new (to me) discovery. So far I have fermented cucumber (very good, almost all gone and will definitely make again), cherry tomatoes (pretty to look at but very soft, not my favorite), salsa (a few beginner problems with vague recipe directions, but delicious and really easy to make), sauerkraut (a very messy first few days but tastes good so far), limes (looks like slow progress and haven’t tasted them yet), carrots (easy but slow going, not much happening yet), and turnip (I am trying to replicate those pink sticks that you get with Lebanese food, but without the beet that provides (only, I hope!) the color). I was concerned that I wouldn’t like the taste of the fermented food, but so far, except for the cherry tomatoes, that hasn’t been the case. Lacto-fermentation is pretty easy to do once you understand the principles, but because I am still learning, it does take a significant chunk out of my days, time that I should probably be using to get ready for my next art show at the end of the month. It’s not like I have huge quantities of garden produce that need preserving, so why am I doing this? Besides the fact that I like to learn new things, and that I let myself get distracted by things that look fun, in order to avoid things that do not (some would call this procrastination), I read something this morning that could explain it, or at least that my ego will more readily accept as the reason! In my search for learning materials, the name Sandor Katz was mentioned in a YouTube video. I looked up his books, thinking I would buy a used copy (of course). But even used, his books are expensive, and considering that I don’t really know how long this new rabbit hole exploration will be, I am hesitant to buy yet another book! There are a lot of videos of him on YouTube, including interviews, workshops and demonstrations, and usually I would go that route, listening while I do other things. But I honestly have never heard anyone say "You know" so often, so much so that it makes him impossible for me to listen to for more than 10 minutes. So books sound like a better option. Reading reviews made me hesitate between his “The Art of Fermentation”, which seems to be more of a “bible” of fermentation history and practices around the world, and “Wild Fermentation”, which seems to be more of a recipe book and guide. One of the reviews to “The Art of Fermentation” on Goodreads had the potential answer to my “why I am doing this?”! As the book title says, fermenting is an art! It is creating something new from something else, not being quite sure of what the result will be. Just like art, there are no clear steps, just guidelines. Each person follows them with their own interpretation, and the results are not always predictable, and not always “edible”. This really goes against my controlling nature, and it’s probably good for me. Hopefully it will transpire in my own art. In the meantime, I continue to scour the Internet for a one-page sheet summarizing those guidelines that I can put inside a cupboard door, or an app to help me track my various experiments. It’s not easy to let go!! What about you? Do you have control issues? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below! Here I go again! Another squirrel moment! But this time it isn’t about art. It’s about another of my passions: food. If you have ever seen me, you know that food and I have a “special” relationship! I enjoy eating. I also enjoy cooking, as well as discovering new foods. And just like with my exploration of art, some of these discoveries stick with me, some don’t. So this time it’s fermentation. More precisely lacto-fermentation. Possibly some of you know all about this, but my bet is that most of you don’t. You may have heard of it, but like me, you probably think it has something to do with milk. Fermenting in milk? Actually, no. Lacto-fermentation gets its name from the lactobacillus, a bacteria that occurs naturally in almost all fruits and vegetables, and the lactic acid that is produced in the fermentation process. Yogurt, sourdough bread, kimchi, and sauerkraut are some lacto-fermented foods that you probably know and may have consumed. Lactobacilli are very useful for human digestion. Some think that advances in food processing in the past few centuries have led to a reduction in the number and types of “good bacteria” living in our digestive tract, and that may have negative impacts on our health. Those products being pushed as “pro-biotics” are cashing in on this belief. Although I care about my “gut health”, that is not the main reason why I am trying this. I just like to try things!! Humans survived for millennia before pasteurization and refrigeration, and at some point they figured out ways to preserve food for leaner times. One of the preservation methods they discovered was fermentation. I am sure that not all their preservation efforts were successful, but fermentation has existed in various forms since at least 6000 B.C. As you probably know by now if you have been following me at all, I am not interested in spending a lot of money on “experiments”. That is the beauty of lacto-fermentation. You only need a few jars, and brine (water and salt)! And something to ferment. You also need the more difficult to find something-to-hold-the-food-under-the-brine, and something-to-keep-oxygen-out of your fermentation vessel (bad bacteria and mold like oxygen, whereas lactobacillus does not). But I also like to shop at second-hand stores for stuff that I can reuse in creative ways. Unfortunately, my treasure hunt for this particular project wasn't too successful, so I did have to buy some “pickle pipes” (those colored lids that look like baby bottle tops) to get started. And wouldn’t you know it, we gave away all our large mason jars some months ago, so I had to go out and buy new ones (none to be found in second-hand shops!) With the help of many people on YouTube, I did my “research” and decided to try cucumbers, salsa, cherry tomatoes, and limes (I found a bag at the grocery store for a ridiculously low price). And this being the season of abundant and slightly-more-affordable-than-normal produce, this was the perfect time to try this out! In a few days, I should be able to try the cucumbers. The salsa already smells wonderful, and I can’t wait to see how the limes turn out. I have read mixed reviews on the cherry tomatoes, so I am curious to find out if I like them or not. And once some of these jars are ready and transferred to the fridge, some of the pickle pipes will be freed up so I can try fermenting sauerkraut! What about you? Have you tried lacto-fermentation? Did you like it? What do you like best? Let me know in the comments! It is not always easy to come up with a blog topic every week. If I didn’t like to write anyway, I would probably have stopped busting my brain and abandoned this blog long ago. I had collected some lists here and there of suggestions published by supposed blog gurus, and although I did use quite a few of those suggestions, I now rely on the inspiration du jour. I usually feel a slight panic on Wednesday that sounds like “oh dear, what will I write about this week!!” but something usually crosses my path before Thursday morning, whispering “how about me?” This week I want to recognize two people who I have never met, but that feel to me like old friends. One is a printmaker, the other is an author. They have both taught me a lot, and I hope you will look them up after reading about them. Laura Boswell is a British printmaker. It seems that most printmakers are. British, that is! She has a YouTube channel where she very generously shares her vast knowledge about printmaking. I have watched most of her videos, and she does an extraordinary job of showing and explaining every single step of printmaking, warning about the possible pitfalls along the way. If ever you want to get into printmaking or just learn about it out of curiosity, I highly recommend her, both for her knowledge and sense of humor. Now that I have actually some experience with printing, I am re-watching her videos as I can get more out of them. Some aspects which had no or little meaning when I first watched them now seem to make perfect sense! I can’t imagine how much time I have saved by tapping into her knowledge, compared say to reading about printmaking or even taking a course. It is almost like having a private tutor. And for free! She has also written a couple of books on printmaking, but honestly, other than perhaps being easier to find, I can’t imagine what information would be in the books that isn’t in the videos. She also sells some of her work on her website. The other person I want to pay tribute to is Danny Gregory. I came across him also on YouTube (yes, I do spend a lot of time on YouTube - it’s where I learn most of my art “stuff”). He first came up as a “suggestion” in June (thanks, YouTube Watch History!) with the ominous video thumbnail title “How much time do you have left?”. I am glad I took the bait. He is a bit of a philosopher (which I definitely am not) and I like the things he leads me to think about. His musings are usually at least tangentially about art, but they are always on point. For me at least. Such as why do I procrastinate (and how to overcome it) and why is it important to draw every day (which I really struggle with). His videos are short, relaxing, and most importantly thought-provoking. I highly recommend them, even if you are not an artist. Danny Gregory also publishes a free email newsletter, which he calls essays, every Friday. They too are short and thought-provoking. Just what I need. I highly recommend it. And he also hosts a "Draw with me" live session every Thursday at noon eastern time. I will join that for the first time today. So thank you Laura and Danny, for generously sharing your talents. The world is a better, prettier and more caring place because of people like you. I know I will never meet you in person, but know that you have certainly made my life, and potentially the lives of my collectors, better. If ever I get as knowledgeable or wise as you, maybe I will share it on YouTube too! What about you? Any special “strangers” in your life? What do they help you with? Tell me about them in the comments and I promise to check them out! Thanks! |
AuthorMy name is Claire Bureau. Archives
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