Big Question

So what's the most common question I get at art shows. If you guessed "Do you use digital?" then you win a prize (not really ... about the prize part that is). I guess people may be genuinely interested in the answer, but I have a hard time believing that it really makes that much of a difference one way or the other. Art can be created with a multitude of raw materials, and which kind of camera I am using is just one of many variables. No one (or almost no one) asks me "What brand of computer do you use?" or "What kind of paper are the prints made from?" or any number of more interesting and meaningful questions.

Maybe I'm just getting tired of hearing the question. I thought by now that "digital" was so pervasive that nobody thought about it any more - but they do.

On a side note I had one guy approach me at Newtown Welcome Day and ask me this question, and then proceeded to explain why he thought digital was "junk" (to paraphrase him) compared to film. Of course after I got home my wife pointed out the irony that if he had to ask me the question then he couldn't tell if my work was digital or film-based, and thus his argument was pointless.

I'm sure I'll have to weather that question for years to come. Maybe I'll start coming up with novel answers, like "Which do you think it is?" or "Could be either" or "Does it really matter?".

Second Thoughts

Second post .. second thoughts. Even the most established artists go through periods of self-doubt. And I, being quite un-established, have my share. Just last weekend I spent a third of my Memorial Day holiday sitting for hours in a hot tent, mainly watching people walk by with their families and dogs, enjoying the nice day. The sales were hard to come by, although the conversations I have with customers and almost-customers sometimes makes it worthwhile. In the end there were periods of second-thoughts ... I could have spent that day with my own family, by our recently-installed pool.

But I realize that for every really good show I have there will be a poor one to balance it out, and that every show is a learning experience. I was able to meet a few other artists (since they were free to roam the show with the foot traffic tailing off) and get some good information. And I also learned a little bit about the "art" of picking good shows (e.g. demographics do matter).

My First Thoughts

It's been about three years since I made the fateful decision to take my on and off hobby and become much more serious with it. It has been a long road for me since I took a few of my better images at the time and made some prints and offered them for sale. There's a lot of risk involved in such an enterprise - not just the monetary risk, but also the risk of rejection and disappointment. The first year or so was replete with rejection and disappointment, but somehow I barely avoided throwing in the towel. I'll be touching on some of that history in future posts.

I created this blog to allow me to open up a little and present my thoughts about photography, art, business, and life. Hopefully you'll stop by often to see what I've written - and of course you can add my blog to your favorite newsfeed aggregators (e.g. mine is bloglines.com).