Keeping Track of Art

OK, true confessions. I have never kept an inventory of my art work, submissions, sales or what is where. Never. This is pretty sad for an artist who has been making work, selling, showing and submitting (professionally) for the past 15 years.

Sure I have "sort of" records scattered about the internet and in my computer and photo files. But it certainly is not in one place. I even tried a few times to use some art inventory software and never found satisfaction. First of all, if you are an artist you don't want to use an ugly inventory. That's what I think anyway. If I can't stand the way it looks, I really have a hard time logging in to use it. That was the problem with several software packages I looked at, and even tried. Even my iPad app store couldn't come up with something I liked (if you must try one, the best seems to be Artwork Track -- it's ok but doesn't give you forms for all the data I wanted to include -- and you can only use it on the iPad, not on the desktop, and that much typing is not much fun for me on the tablet.)

Second, they never did everything I needed an inventory to do. Maybe you could add work and details and galleries and sales, but I never found one (until today) that would also track and integrate submissions to exhibits. Since much of the textile (art quilt, per se) world is visible and active through juried exhibits, submissions seemed to be a key need for me.

Third, some programs I tried crashed and burned, were painfully slow or over complicated in their entry formats, or seemed awfully expensive for what you got -- an ugly data base with either too little or too much customization necessary or available.

Thanks to artist friend Lisa Kerpoe, who posted a query on our Google Fiber Arts Community about needing such an inventory, and to my renewed sense of wanting to "get things done."  I reopened my search. First, the reviews I read,  (thanks, Lisa McShane) jived with my experiences. THEN, a link to a cloud based newish inventory system. http://www.artworkarchive.com/ (also on Lisa M's blog).

(Screen shot of an art piece page -- partial)

See the introductory video here

John Feustal was my guardian angel as I set up my site, and had prompt replies to my questions in an online chat. That was nice, too. 

We've had the site up and running for almost 2 years but have really seen a
lot growth in the past 6 months. The best thing our artists can do is to
tell others about Artwork Archive, so I really appreciate you writing a
blog post!

We try to keep things as simple and elegant as possible while still being
powerful enough to do everything our artists need. I think starting with
your most current work is a great approach, and just adding older pieces as
you get time.

There is a limited free trial, and two tiers of annual subscriptions. You can access on the web. Maybe next he'll make an iPad app!

Do you Know Ze?

Ze (pronounced zeh) Frank is an amazing man, magician, imagineer on the net. His work (conceptual, comical, social, compassionate) is that of a true original, out-of-the-box thinker. He uses social media, the internet, software games and interactions as his media, and comes up with kindness. 

This 2010 TED Talk is a great introduction to Ze if you have 20 minutes now - or later -- well worth the watch. (TED also has other talks by Ze, Chris likes him a lot!)

I've long used Scribbler, one of his online tools, to make interesting sketches, cards, and, lately I'm trying it out in a new-to-me version that includes color and more user controls than the original tool did. A collaborator Mario Klingemann, added the enhancements to the original, and looking at the website, I see that there are iPhone and iPad versions as well. 

Since I am working on my Joggles online class (an on an upcoming iPad online workshop series) I played around last night with Scribbler and text images. If you want to play, head over to this site. And take some time to explore the rest of Ze's site, too! You'll find answers to questions you never thought to ask. 

Growing a Garment and Self-Assembly

How about this approach to art-to-wear? Suzanne Lee is using bacteria to grow cellulose fabric.

“What I’m looking for is a way to give material the qualities that I need. So what I want to do is say to a future [insect], ‘Spin me a thread. Align it in this direction. Make it hydrophobic. And while you’re at it, just form it around this 3D shape.’”

Here's a blog with a complex discussion about bioengineering and replicating nature's self-assembly between Lee and Skylar Tibbits, both TED Fellows.

And Tibbits' YouTube videos.

Traveling with Text

With my aquisition (thanks to birthday bonanza from Linda) of a NEW iPad with the camera, I am afire with digital imaginings. Here are some of my most recent experiments using several iPad apps one on top of another, as well as a few text-based Mixel collages.

The one above was a "physical" collage made with text cut from magazines (one of the exercises in my Text on Textiles courses, like that I am teaching on Joggles right -- and in the summer semester, too). I then photograhed it with the smart phone, sent it to the Cloud and my iPad and altered the colors with an app called PhotoPad (free, and a good photo editing tool). Then I drew on top of that saved image with some other tools and also erased part of the  image -- it looks to me like "Pollock takes on text."

Below is another physical collage that was altered, first with an iPad app called ArtistaHaikuHD that gives one a variety of watercolor effects/filters to use on photos.  Then I loaded that saved image into the PhotoPad App and played around with the colors. Que Cool!

Here's the watercolor versions in ArtistaHaikuHD:

How did I start? You can see the original here. 

 Or, rather the intermediate stage that was done on Mixel. The first product was actually this little 4 by 6 collage (shown here with two copies taped together):

WOW! It's amazing how these tools can morph one image SO MANY ways. I love to play with the possiblilities -- so the challenge is not in fluency, it's in when to quit and put my hands back on the wheel, so to speak. Where does what I can do only with hands happen?

Here's one way:

Print it with inkjet transfers on an old piece of tablelinen: