Ginny Herzog, a long time customer, just ordered some frames for 6 original artworks that are being sent to Malaysia. I thought it would be interesting to learn more about how she made the connections and how she markets her work. In addition, I asked her what advice she could share with other artists that enable her to do projects such as this one. She has generously agreed to share the information on this project as well as some of the ways she has learned to market her work. Before we start the interview the following gives some background on Ginny and her work.

Artist’s statement Architecture has been the inspiration for my art for over twenty years. I photograph architecture, both interiors and exteriors, manipulate the photos in Photoshop, frequently eliminating objects or distorting the context of the original image. By piecing portions of different architectural elements that are unrelated to each other, I construct new, intriguing, familiar, yet unfamiliar architectural forms in my paintings. Compositions are constructed for a fusion of multiple perspectives. My application of oils mixed with cold wax medium sometimes suggest fresco walls; linear detail with graphite, crayons, oil sticks and pencils provides a visual pathway throughout the painting and may imply elements of an architectural drawing. I work on archival Claybord panels from Ampersand, using several of their surfaces, depending on the results that I wish to achieve.

Metroframe
I’m sure our readers would be interested in learning how you made the connection to market your work in Malaysia. Can you give us some background on this project?

Herzog
An architect/collector of mine was working on the creative team for a project by Brunsfield the developer of the Brunsfield North Loop apartments in Minneapolis.  Brunsfield International is a global development, management, engineering construction and real estate investment company. A meeting was set up in my studio so they could see the process of how my work is created and to discuss how I might create work specific for their project in the lobby. Initially, six large paintings were created, but as the project was nearing completion, more of my work was added to the other public spaces as well as the models. Because they needed a large number of pieces and I was also in the middle of my busy exhibition schedule, I was creative in putting together additional inventory for them to use in the form of reproductions, or leased originals from my collection. Currently, about 34 of my paintings are hanging at BNL. At the time of installation of the final pieces in the lobby, the Managing Director of Brunsfield International in Malaysia was here in Minneapolis with members of his corporate team. They visited my studio to see my work and purchased the six original paintings for their corporate office as well as several others for their projects.

Metroframe
I know that you use our custom boxes to ship your artwork within the states. As you know, UPS, Fedex, or DHL will not ensure artwork, but  since you carry your own insurance this has not proven to be a problem for you. Since this original work was being shipped internationally, which would require going through customs, we recommended using Museum Services,  a fine art shipper with international shipping experience. Did you learn anything new  in shipping internationally?

Herzog
I called my insurance agent who informed me that my policy did not cover international shipping. My insurance policy for my business covers my art at all times – in my studio, van, shows, shipping and galleries – all in the U.S. Therefore I told Musuem Services that they would need to make arrangements for the insurance for the full value of the work with the selected shipper. The payment and shipping address were provided by the client . They paid directly, since in this case, my billing of the client did not include shipping and insurance.

Metroframe
I know you do originals and giclee reproductions. Can you tell us a little bit about the work flow from making originals, making reproductions? What vendors do you use? Any tips for other artists.

Herzog
I have been reproducing my paintings as fine art giclées for nearly twenty years, but this summer I began working with Vongsouvan, in north Minneapolis. They do outstanding work. They scan my paintings on a flatbed scanner (even while in the float frame). The high resolution scan is then proofed for color and I do the final proofing, to remove any “debris” from the image. The work is printed either on paper or canvas. If on canvas, they are sprayed with a protective UVLS varnish and they will stretch the canvas, if needed.

Metroframe
What online sources have you found useful in marketing your work?

Herzog
Recently, I’ve invested in some online sources to the trade. I thought that CODAworx would be a good fit for my work because I specialize in site specific commissions. CODAworx is an online community for artists and design professionals to showcase their work, collaborate with one another, and earn recognition for their projects. Founded in January 2012 by Toni Sikes and Terry Maxwell as The Art Commission, CODAworx launched in November 2013 to celebrate global architecture and design projects that incorporate commissioned art. Through the codaworx.com website, the monthly CODAmagazine, and the annual CODAawards, they champion the importance of design + art collaborations in our built environment. The other company I just invested in is TÖDL – Trade Only Design Library. This website is a catalog resource that acts as a specifier for interior designers and architects when designing their projects. Art is one category on the website. It is on this website that I have listed all my reproductions.

Metroframe
How do you primarily market your work?

Herzog
I have been an independent artist for about 35 years and most of my sales have been from art fairs around the country. I exhibit at about ten shows per year. It is at these shows that I often meet potential clients for my commissions. After discussion about my process and their needs or interest in my work, I provide them with my artist statement, resume and commission information. I get their contact info and make notes for follow-up after the show. Often, I go to the site where the project will be installed and to discuss details. A 50% deposit secures the next available slot in my schedule. The client receives photos of the work in progress and when the commission is completed, the client pays the balance due and the work is shipped.

Most of my marketing is done to my email list of interested clients that are organized according to geographical location. Announcements are sent out for my exhibitions via Constant Contact approximately eight times per year. The announcements include the names of the shows, dates, location, my booth number, images of some of the work available at the exhibition and links to the show’s website as well as my website. I’m in the process of redesigning my website that will include a blog. You can visit my website to see my original paintings, reproductions, exhibition schedule, as well as other information about my work. Herzogart.com

Metroframe
Do you use social marketing?

Herzog
I use Facebook for announcing projects that I’m working on or  for my exhibitions. Also, I use it for sharing work from my studio. I’m on Linked In but don’t find it as valuable since I’m independent and self-employed. I am starting to work on a blog which will be accessible from my new website, currently under construction.

Metroframe
Can you tell us more about the forums on facebook. Can anyone join? What kind of information is shared? What do you find valuable about them?

Herzog
There are several forums on Facebook that helps the artists to network and have current information in all aspects of their business. Some of these forums are open to the public and others are closed. One of the most active open forums is Art Fair Insiders. https://www.facebook.com/artfairinsiders.
Some of the forums are open to only art fair artists so that they can discuss topics among themselves, like details about the shows or the artists.

There are also some excellent Facebook pages that are linked to blogs of artist business consultants.
http://artlicensingblog.com/tag/artsy-shark
http://www.artsyshark.com
http://www.artsbusinessinstitute.org

In addition, I highly recommend these art business coaches –
http://www.idratherbeinthestudio.com
http://www.artbizcoach.com
http://smartistcareerblog.com
http://www.copyblogger.com/art-marketing/ 

Metroframe
What advice do you have for artists that want to sell their work nationally or internationally?

Herzog
There are many ways to market your work. Be sure to take some business courses like marketing and accounting. Nearly all the artists I know do their own marketing. Many artists use art fairs to self promote their work. Many artists are also represented in galleries, some exclusively. Some of the bigger galleries do the big art fairs like Art Basel, SOFA, etc.  There are corporate art consultants in many cities – I’ve worked with several around the country. There are shows on the east coast that primarily deal with fine crafts. http://smithsoniancraftshow.org/indexmain.asp and the http://shows.craftcouncil.org/baltimore Contemporary Craft Show in Philadelphia http://pmacraftshow.org/ In addition, there are buyer markets for wholesale to stock galleries and gift shops – http://americanmadeshow.com/ and the http://craftcouncil.org/shows which also has a retail component. Other big art fairs are for the reproductions. http://artbusinessnews.com/category/feature-articles/.  Art licensing can also be considered. –  http://www.surtex.com/

Several artists I know have exciting careers, giving workshops and exhibiting here and abroad. I haven’t really sought out the international market but I’m excited about working with Brunsfield International. Keep in touch with your friends and collectors. They can be one of your best resources for marketing your product.

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With a career spanning 35 years, Christopher Williams (born 1956) now stands as one of the leading contemporary artists engaged in photography. Deeply invested in the techniques and history of photography, Williams is just as profoundly committed to contemporary art as a forum for intellectual inquiry and thoughtful opposition—resisting, for example, a capitalist society in which photographs typically act as agents of consumer spectacle. Through exacting mimicry—and stunningly beautiful images—Williams’s work has subtly questioned the conventions of photojournalism, picture archives, fashion, and commercial imaging. This exhibition—a multipart installation conceived by the artist that spans three gallery spaces on three floors of the museum—is Williams’s first retrospective. It also marks a homecoming for the artist, who had his first-ever museum showing in 1982 at the Art Institute.

The survey begins with films from Williams’s studies at the California Institute of the Arts, where he earned his MFA in 1981 and took classes with John Baldessari and Michael Asher. Alongside the films and SOURCE (1981), Williams’s first mature work, is a classic early piece, Angola to Vietnam* (1989), shown in its 27-part entirety, as well as works of the 1990s, mainly from For Example: Die Welt ist schön (1993–2001), an eight-year project inspired in part by the 1920s photographs of Albert Renger-Patzsch. This part of the exhibition is presented in the photography galleries in the historic building, which the artist is transforming through interventions to the modular wall system.

The Modern Wing’s Bucksbaum Gallery for Photography displays a single photograph, a key piece in which Williams first made clear his conception of photographs as a form of installation art, Bouquet for Bas Jan Ader and Christopher d’Arcangelo (1991). Extensive selections from Williams’s ongoing project, For Example: Dix-huit Leçons sur la société industrielle (begun in 2004), are presented in the architecture and design galleries on the second floor of the Modern Wing.

After its debut at the Art Institute, the exhibition will travel to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Whitechapel Gallery, London.

Fachhochschule Aachen, Fachbereich Gestaltung, Studiengang: Visuelle Kommunikation, Fotolabor für Studenten, Boxgraben 100, Aachen, November 8, 2010, 2010. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Committee on Photography Fund. © Christopher Williams.

Bergische Bauernscheune, Junkersholz, Leichlingen, September 29, 2009. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Committee on Photography Fund. © Christopher Williams.

Christopher Williams. Pacific Sea Nettle, Chrysaora Melanaster, Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, 100 Aquarium Way, Long Beach California, July 9, 2008. Collection of Constance R. Caplan. © Christopher Williams.

Bouquet for Bas Jan Ader & Christopher D’Arcangelo, 1991. Lorrin and Deane Wong Family Trust, Los Angeles. © Christopher Williams.

Christopher Williams: The Production Line of Happiness
January 25, 2014 – May 18, 2014
The Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL

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Observing Vermont Architecture features some one hundred photographs by Curtis B. Johnson selected to accompany the newly published Buildings of Vermont co-authored by Johnson and Glenn M. Andres. Curated by the authors, the exhibition celebrates an architectural heritage that has made Vermont the only state in the Union to be designated in its entirety as a national treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Beyond Vermont’s famously wonderful and evocative meeting houses and barns, its villages, cities, and landscapes present a remarkably intact and comprehensive  microcosm of the American building experience from revolutionary times to the present. Major national and regional architects and talented master builders have drawn upon the state’s abundant building materials—wood, stone, brick, marble, slate, and granite—to create structures in high style as well as regional vernaculars. The buildings may be more modest in scale and pretension than those found elsewhere, but they are of no lesser quality, and they and their settings  are often better preserved. They represent technical limitations and innovations, and they chronicle social and economic developments. Mainstream or idiosyncratic, they also embody a story of Vermont’s regional values, cultural imagery and  local ambitions.

The study from which they have been drawn is part of a national series, The Buildings of the United States, sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians. Twenty years in the making, it represents a culling of some forty thousand buildings on the State and National Registers to arrive at approximately six hundred and fifty examples that can tell the built story of the state from its earliest days to the present.  They have been selected to represent Vermont’s every region, historic period, and genre of building—from the grand to the humble.

Chittenden Roller Mills, 1856—1885, Jericho village. (Photo: Curtis Johnson)	Crossett Library, 1957—59, Pietro Belluschi with Carl Koch and Associates; Sasaki Associates, landscape, North Bennington. (Photo: Curtis Johnson)
Immaculate Heart of Mary, 1892, George Guernsey, City of Rutland. (Photo: Curtis Johnson)	Grassemount, 1804, John Johnson and Abram Stevens; 1824, 1856 additions, Burlington. (Photo: Curtis Johnson)
Downtown City of Rutland, 1852—1930. (Photo: Curtis Johnson)	Hewett Barn, 1859, Justin Bugbee (builder), Pomfret. (Photo: Curtis Johnson)

“Observing Vermont Architecture”
January 7, 2014 – March 23, 2014
Middlebury College Museum Of Art
Middlebury, VT

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Photographer Rob Hornstra and journalist Arnold van Bruggen are documenting the rapidly-changing region around Sochi, a former Soviet resort on the Black Sea, which is preparing to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. The exhibition at the DePaul Art Museum shows extraordinary photos, together with interviews and films, recording a complicated mix of parallel realities as a massive but temporary international event descends and disappears.

Sochi is the Florida of Russia, but cheaper. It is famous for its subtropical vegetation, hotels and sanatoria. People from all over the Soviet Union associate the coastal city with beach holidays and first loves. The smell of sunscreen, sweat, alcohol and roasting meat pervades the air. Nothing happens here in the winter. But that’s about to change. The Winter Games are coming to town.

The ice skating venues in the old summer capital of Sochi resemble spaceships that have landed on the coast. The most expensive road in the world now links these venues with the ski resorts in the mountains. The Games in Sochi are the most expensive ever organised. But the workers at the bottom of the food chain are rarely paid. Local residents are sceptical.

More than five years have passed since Abkhazia officially gained independence in 2008, but almost nothing in the country has changed. The Olympics have had no impact on tourism and the leadership appears to want to do little about it. A few new houses, roads, schools and amenities have been built, but otherwise Abkhazia seems to stand still – as Sochi 2014 approaches.

In the run-up to the Olympic Games, security forces have been given a free hand in the North Caucasus. An attack in Sochi has to be avoided at all cost. Human rights organisations and lawyers are working overtime. Young men in particular are kidnapped, disappear or are thrown in jail on trumped-up charges. Terrorists commit seemingly random attacks on police and civilians.

All the test events and championships in Sochi have been declared successful. The stadiums are finished. Let the Games begin! But with only months to go before the opening ceremony, reports have surfaced that North Caucasian militants in Syria are being urged to return home and continue fighting in Russia and Sochi. Campaigns have been launched around the world in protest against Putin’s repressive government. Human rights activists are calling for demonstrations at the Olympics themselves to protest new Russian laws on homosexuality. Cracks are beginning to appear in Putin’s prestige project.

“The Sochi Project: An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus”
January 9, 2014 – March 23, 2014
DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL

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