title

Digital Jury Resources

Hire me to Prepare your Digital Jury Images

FIXING JURY IMAGES

JURY SLIDE PHOTOGRAPHY

- I periodically send out a jury tips newsletter -
if you email: larry@bermanart.com with Jury Tips in the subject line, I'll add you to my mailing list

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July 2012 and from this point on, I'll be publishing my jury tips newsletter as a blog on the home page

Feb 2012 newsletter
I've created a new services and pricing page
My pricing hasn't changed but I'm trying to make it easier for people to understand the extent of what I can do and what it cost.

Two reviews of the St Louis Image Workshop Feb 25th
http://bermangraphics.com/artshows/st-louis-image-workshop2.htm
http://bermangraphics.com/artshows/st-louis-image-workshop.htm

Sausalito Juror
I just came across this podcast on itunes. It's an interview with Alla Tsank, a painter and one of the jurors for Sausalito in 2010. She's being interviewed about how she chose the photographers in the show.

On Creativity
I also came across this podcast interview with photographer Cali Hobgood-Lemme. Best in show at Sausalito in 2010. She discusses where her ideas come from.

Broad Ripple Jury Results
I just got my e-mail with my ID number and a link to download the PDF of everyone's jury results by ID number.
http://indplsartcenter.org/braf/brafscores2012.pdf

In case you're interested, my ID number is 605993 and I was juried second in the photography category. I was wait listed and it appears I'm real close to getting in.
What's interesting as was last year also, is the criticisms of the booth display images. By far, that's what the judges made mention of. Having a good booth picture has nothing to do with the quality of your art. It's about having a professional display that doesn't distract from the jurors from concentrating on your artwork images. Within the given time that the images are on screen, the less time the jurors look at your booth the more time they can look at your art. Plus, it's far easier to critique the booth picture than what the juror may subjectively feel about the artwork, which is a more personal decision. That's why the written critiques are easier to make about the booth. I didn't notice any "lousy art" comments but I did notice a lot of "lousy booth" comments.

Black Borders and ZAPP Images
Another artist confused by the wording on the ZAPP web site.

I was contacted by an artist for whom I prepared images a few years ago, asking me to remove the black borders on her images because she read on the ZAPP site that they were no longer necessary and that removing the black borders makes your presentation more uniform.

Please don't even think of removing the black borders from your images, and please make sure the new images you upload are formatted properly with black borders squaring them at 1920x1920 pixels. Otherwise if you apply to any of the better shows, ZAPP will add black borders to non square images, reducing the quality to make them under 2 megabytes. And if you have uploaded smaller than 1920 long dimension images, ZAPP will add wider black borders on all four sides making your images 1920x1920 when you apply to any of the better shows.

The statement that removing the black borders so you have a more uniform presentation is not true and was removed from the web site two years ago. Somehow the wording made it back, probably when an older backup was restored. The truth is that the jurors NEVER see the black borders because they see the images on a black page background when jurying.

And don't forget that most shows using Entrythingy ask for images 1920x1920.

The wording that ZAPP needs to remove is midway down on this page
http://www.zapplication.org/images.phtml

"Do I have to use the black masks on my images?
Black masks are no longer required. Removing the black masks from your current images, while not required, will create a cleaner look when images are viewed by jurors. For jury consistency we recommend not submitting an application with a mix of images that have and do not have black masks."


That entire question and answer should have been removed. The fact that it says that it creates a cleaner look is untrue because the jurors have never seen the black borders because they see the images on a black web page. And saying that you shouldn't mix images that have and do not have black borders is also untrue for the same reason.

Fort Worth iPhone App Updated
Main Street Fort Worth just updated their iPhone app to include all the artists who will be in the show this year. You can install the app on your iphone and ipad and browse the images of the accepted artists at your leisure.

I had previously written a review of all the art festival iphone apps last October:

Jan 2012 newsletter
CaFE™ sent out an e-mail blast announcing an upgrade. You can now upload any size image and CaFE™ will reduce it to 1920 pixels long dimension. Sounds like something I've been asking ZAPP to do for the past few years. If you're not familiar with CaFE™, it's ZAPP's sister web site and mainly used for grants and museum shows. It's https://www.callforentry.org

What does this mean for ZAPP? Currently you can upload images between 1400 and 1920 pixels without squaring them and ZAPP will add wider black borders to smaller images when you apply to a show. Ever since that started, some artists have been applying to the major shows with inferior images that were smaller than their competition's images. I predict that ZAPP will begin to allow you to upload any size image and they will make them 1920 long dimension. Taking that concept further, the quality of jury images will drop as artists will be able to take a picture of their artwork and immediately upload it without resizing or editing to make the picture look good or even accurate. That will be followed by more artists wondering why they can't get into the shows that they apply to. It's normal for me to receive a call or e-mail for help because an artist's images won't upload. But when I look at their images, aside from the incorrect size, the quality is poor because the image hasn't been cropped or color corrected yet. The future is to make it easier for artists to apply but more difficult for artists to get accepted. Remember that the most important asset artists have are the images of their art.

Open Juries
Krasl (St Joseph, MI) open jury February 3
Columbus Arts Festival open jury February 4-5
Broad Ripple (Indianapolis) open jury Wednesday February 8

It's well worth the effort to attend one to see what your and your competition's images look like. And you don't need to apply to attend an open jury. Please notify me if you know of any other open juries.

QR Codes and how you can use them to promote your web site and art

How to Photograph Art
I did a workshop in Orlando at the ACRE show January 20th
You can download my workshop prospectus and resource sheet

Facebook and Cell Phone Cameras
Shooting pictures of your artwork or display with a cell phone camera is hazardous to your art show career because of inconsistent image quality. And you can't download your images from Facebook for jurying. Facebook automatically reduces images to 720 pixels long dimension which would require almost a 300% increase in size for jurying. Even more if the image needs to be cropped, which most images do to be optimized for jurying. As for cell phone cameras, it's not only about the number of megapixels. Cell phone images tend to loose highlight detail, which I demonstrated at my Orlando workshop last week. Do yourself and your art a favor by using a real camera.

November 2011 newsletter
You'd be surprised how many art shows have apps in the iTunes store. I did a review of all the apps I could find and how well they display the artists jury images. If you have an iPad or iPhone, it's a great way of checking out your competition.

Apply early - if you intend on applying to a show. Finally a show has let the artists know that the jurors will see the images (by category) in the order the applications are received. Des Moines sent out an e-mail with lots of relevant information to artists who had applied. It would have been nice to know in advance about the image ordering, but they are one of the few shows and maybe the only show that let the artists know. Make sure to check the "jury details" of the show you are applying to. I wish ZAPP would make adding information there mandatory for the shows using the system. Not to get into an old issue, but the ZAPP shows have three options on ordering the images and we should applaud any show that does it the way that's most fair for artists.

My first iPhone After using an iPad for months, and with Sprint finally getting the iPhone, I finally made the leap and got an iPhone 4S. What made it easy for me was the familiarity of the interface from using the iPad. I would say that over 90% of the time I use a head set with my cell phone because it enables me to continue working and I'm now using a bluetooth headset with the iPhone.

Using the technology. I was working with an artist on their display picture. They set up their display and sent me a picture as a message through their iPhone. I was able to get the picture while walking my puppy at the park, enlarged it on my phone and gave them feedback on how to improve the booth for their jury image. And yes, they used a real camera to shoot the picture I eventually worked on.

And speaking of booth pictures. I spoke to an artist who had juried a major show where the jury instructions are not let the booth image effect the score. Well, having a good looking booth made the jurors take a closer look at the individual artwork images. And here's a tip I never considered. Because the booth is on the right when the images are projected, a booth picture showing mainly the back and right wall (and part of the left wall for a three walled booth) kept the jurors eyes centered in the presentation. That's compared to a booth picture showing the back and left wall which kept the jurors eyes moving to the right out of the presentation.

Not licensing photographs to a TV series on Sports Collectibles. What would you do if you are offered less than 5% of the usage value

October 2011 newsletter
Another Online Application System with a different image size requirement, just what the art show world needs. Wendy Rosen is using it for the Niche awards. I had to upload images for an artist today. 4x6 at 300PPI is the image size. That's 1200x1800 pixels if you have your editing program set to pixels, which it should be.

September 2011 newsletter
The care and feeding of your artwork images
Hopefully this will reinforce everything I've been saying for years.

Wordpress web sites for artists
I've learned how to build web sites using WordPress, the most popular blogging software. That means entire web sites can be built and updated in a browser, without the need of expensive and complicated web design software. I put up a sample web site at:
http://BrokenCookies.com

6 Booths in 3 Years
How long does it take you to get your booth to the point where it can get you into the shows you really want to do. I've been sent a half dozen booth pictures from the same artist over the past three years. It's interesting to see the progression as the booth became more professional looking, with a few minor setbacks.

ZAPP conference
I'll be working with individual artists at the upcoming ZAPP conference in Atlanta on September 19th and 20th. If you're planning on attending the conference and want to discuss how your jury images can be improved, give me a call to schedule a time.

The Job of Art
from the Sept 6th Robert Genn newsletter.
A study determined that it's in our genes
Recent research at the National University of Singapore suggests that feelings of job satisfaction may be built into our genes. Certain genes apparently determine how happy we will be at work--while other genes seem to be linked to lower job satisfaction. If our folks were grumpy about their jobs, we too are likely to be grumpy--and maybe even put in a poor performance. In a study of 1772 people, researchers found that two genetic markers--a dopamine receptor gene and a serotonin transporter gene--are more likely to be found in folks who like what they do.
read the newsletter here: http://clicks.robertgenn.com/art-job.php

Not loosing sight of what's important.
I'm working with an artist (handbag designer) who immigrated to this country and is living on a shoestring budget. She wanted to apply to a show on Juried Art Services and got my contact information from the JAS web site. The pictures she took of her own bags were not going to get her into any shows so I asked her to send me the five bags to photograph. Having a difficult time understanding English, she assumed I was asking her to send me the five images again. I was finally able to get her to understand that I was going to take the pictures of her bags and not charge her. The thank you e-mail I received from her made it all worth while, and prompted me to write this. No matter how much you need it, sometimes things are more important than money.

August 2011 newsletter
I've moved the Art Show Photo forum and opened it up to other mediums.
http://ArtShowForums.com
check it out and tell your friends about it.

A moral dilemma for a show director
A show has a rule that no reps are allowed. A sculptor wasn't allowed
in because last year he sent a relative while he did another show.
This year he was not accepted and told it was because he had sent
someone else with his work the year before. Personally I feel that's
like locking the barn door after the horse has already escaped. From
my point of view, he should have been denied admission on the year he
wasn't there, or the rep made to pack up and not be able to sell.
Then he should have been told that he could do the show again if he
were there personally. That would be fair but that's another story.

There was another booth at the same show this year without the artist
present. This artist always does the show sending reps while doing
other shows on the same weekend. When the committee was asked about
it, they said it was because this artist always gives a large piece
for the auction in exchange for being able to send reps and the show
has made a lot of money from the sale of this artist's work.

Like I've been saying. Art shows are about the money more than the
art.

Booths again
I cleaned up a "grab" booth shot for an artist the other day. When I uploaded it into his profile I noticed that the only three shows he had applied to were Cherry Creek, St Louis and the Plaza. You'd think an artist that only applied to the top shows would take more care in how they do their booth slide.

Two EZ-Up's trashed in one weekend
An artist tells the story of having two EZ-Up canopies trashed in one weekend and ends up purchasing a Trimline. Includes links to news clips of the storm damage.

Jury slide photographer paints out reflections on silver jewelry
This is really about telling artists the truth about their jury
images. I made a post about this on Art Fair Insiders, posting a picture of the painted on sliver jewelry. Because I couldn't name the photographer on a public forum for fear of getting into a law suit, I asked that if anyone was interested in knowing which photographer would do such an incompetent job to give me a call. Well, it seems that someone on the forum contacted one of the jury slide photographers, who took offense in my post. You can read the thread I started on Art Fair Insiders but understand that the photographer who responded was not the one who screwed up.

What I don't understand is why the artist's ability to get into art shows is not the primary goal of every one connected in even a peripheral way to the art show industry, especially the photographer you hire to take pictures of your artwork.

Google Image Search
Google has a new image search engine that's very accurate in finding out if any of your images are appearing on other peoples web sites. There's a good article about it on this web site.

Off topic
The story of the $100 Macy's gift card

June 2011 newsletter
Life Happened
Early May my wife broke her ankle while we were on the way home from picking up a new puppy to be Xena's younger brother. She won't be able to walk without a cast until the end of June, so I had to cancel the three shows (and attending the NAIA conference) I had scheduled for May. I've been so busy at home that I haven't had time to send out my newsletter.

I will be at Cain Park and Medina in July and will have my iPad with me to show artists examples of my imaging work and jury slide photography. I will also have hand outs of my tips on shooting a better booth picture. If you're doing those shows, stop by and say hello.

Pictures and video of our new puppy, Elvis, who's terrorizing Xena.

Pro Panel rental for Three Rivers
It took a year on my web site but my panels were rented for both weeks of Three Rivers. Last year I put the page up too close to the dates of the show for the page to bring me the results I wanted.

They are still available for Fair in the Park in September. If you're doing Howard Alan's Shadyside show, they will arrange for a canopy and panel rental.

Using an iPad for Standards Review at Art Shows

Summer shows are now going strong. Send me your booth pictures for review or to fix.

Three Booths
I had an artist at my house setting up their display for me to photograph. They needed three different booth pictures. One for the regular shows that they apply to, one for Howard Alan's "B" shows (they want a different booth picture for their "A" and "B" shows) and the third for applying to higher end shows. The problem is that they have a great looking colorful booth that is almost too distinctive. Sorry no pictures without the artist's permission.

The hoops we have to jump through to earn a living.

2009 Booth Picture not good in 2011
Don't you just hate when that happens.

In June 2009 I shot a booth picture for a mixed media artist. The artist used the picture for all the shows they applied to from the second half of 2009 until this past winter, where a show they had previously been accepted to using the same booth picture rejected the application, asking for a booth picture showing three walls. Yes, the booth picture only showed two walls, which was fine for booth pictures taken prior to September 2009 when booth picture requirements changed. And the artist has large pieces in the booth so it's not like there could be a table with buy/sell junk in the place of the missing third wall.

So the real issue is why should an artist be required to take new booth pictures if their style hasn't changed, only the pieces themselves. Especially since every piece in a display picture is usually sold by the time artists get to the shows they have applied to.

And I know that some artists are going to say just shoot another booth picture. Well, for some people that isn't the easiest answer because they understand their technical limitations and need a really good display picture.

New page of tips for artists that want to photograph their booth
23 tips on taking a better booth picture

April 2011 newsletter
For the first time in about four years I'm scheduled to do about a half dozen art shows starting the first weekend in May. Here's a link to my art show schedule page.

For the art shows I attend, I purchased an iPad to show artists a portfolio of my jury slide photography and examples of what I can do to improve their jury images. I also signed up with both Intuit GoPayment and the Square to take credit cards on my iPad while at art shows.

A good day at the post office
I've heard it from other artists for years, a lot of whom I've been able to help. But now I've experienced it myself. I just received two acceptances in the mail for shows not using online applications but asking for digital images. Cain Park and Medina. But up until now, I've received rejections or wait list for five shows I've applied to on ZAPP or JAS, with the jury still being out for a few more I haven't heard from yet. Not that it bothers me because it will be the first shows I've done in about four years and I don't know how much stamina I will have.

More examples of how important the quality of your jury images and booth image is. From the Broad Ripple application status e-mail
Overall the jury did not make many comments. They did mark down for low-quality images, missing booth shots and booth shots that failed to omit the artist's name. Finally, they tended to mark down applications that did not show a consistent body of work or match the booth shot.

Jurors' Comments
800 applications
64 applications had comments
35 comments were about the booth
6 comments were about artist name in file name or possibly on images

Besides the recommendations about applying in a more appropriate category, some of the other comments were:
should be larger to be more effective
work on booth slide
booth shot a bit crowded
take out business name
are the less costly items shown in booth shot?
booth slide differs a lot from work slides, booth slide wildly
different!
don't list names in statement
remove name from booth slide
work on booth slide
do not put self in booth slide
no name in booth slide please
remove name and people from booth shot
remove name from slides
do not use name in statement
booth shows many media
remove name from statement
booth shot does not match detail shots
best to not have people in the booth shot
need a much better booth slide; keep working
do not put self into booth shot
do not put name in title of booth slide
work on better images, need a better booth shot
work on better images
remove names from statement

Digital files, 35mm slides or prints - what to submit for jurying
when given a choice

Reading the Fine Print
From the Art & Air (the City of Webster Groves) application
"I hereby grant the Fair and Webster Community Arts Foundation (Foundation) a non-exclusive and royalty-free license to use any jury image that I have submitted or will in the future submit to the Fair or Foundation for their promotional, publicity and charitable fundraising purposes which include expressly, but are not limited to, reproduction on promotional and publicity materials for the Fair and charitable fundraising materials (including hats, t-shirts, coffee mugs and similar items that would be given away in exchange for a donation to the Foundation) for the Fair and Foundation."

I know artists never read the fine print on the application. I never have in over 30 years of doing shows. But it's surprising what you're actually giving away when you do read the application.

Feb 2011 newsletter
 
has juried Columbus, Cherry Creek, St Louis and more
How often do you create new work?
 
 
The impending degrading of the booth image

More on waiting lists
Disney closed their waiting list a month before the show. At that point they stopped taking people off the wait list. Disney ended up with empty spaces in their show. I wonder if they understand the concept of what a waiting list really is.

The age of the jurors
This is about a factor not talked about in the makeup of the jury. It's been discussed whether they are academics, gallery owners or others in related fields. But what hasn't been discussed yet is the age of the jurors and how their decisions change the way the show looks and who gets accepted.

I was talking to an artist recently who was the oldest of four jurors by what was probably at least twenty years. Because of the younger age of the jurors (who did have experience in the art world), the show they chose was more cutting edge and not at all traditional. A lot of artists who had previously done the show didn't get back in. Nor did anyone else that has spent years creating work that was saleable.

I'm not saying that this is a bad thing. But it is another factor that is potentially forcing older artists out of the shows and could be good for younger artists doing things differently.

How far will a top show go to fill all the spaces
I got a call the week before the Grove from an artist asking if there were any spaces available at the Coconut Grove show the following weekend. I was called because my name and phone number are on the Grove web site for artists that need help with their images or application. I explained to the artist that they needed to call the show and I asked if they were on the waiting list. I was told that they hadn't applied but had gotten in last year at the last minute without having applied then either. I don't doubt this because the last time I did the Grove myself about five years ago, another photographer who hadn't applied walked up on setup day and got the space next to me.

The 100 character artist statement
The 100 character artist statement works in the favor of the artist who does less work in the creation of their art work (read that as buy/sell) than the true artist. The less work artist has fewer points to make in their statement while the true artist can't create an accurate statement because there's not enough characters to describe what sets them apart from their lower quality competition.

Show directors should pay attention to this because you're abusing one of the best tools a true artist has in differentiating themselves from buy/sell.

Jan 2011 newsletter
Chris Maher and I recently completed a new interview for Shutterbug Magazine. Chase Jarvis is a new breed of commercial photographer. He's young, talented, successful and uses the social media sites to promote himself. He has over 38,000 followers on Facebook and over 56,000 followers on Twitter. It's a good read because he talks about new business models for generating assignments.
If you like it, click on the link at the top of the page and add the
interview to your Facebook wall.
 
Columbus open jury Feb 5th and 6th
Even if you haven't applied, this is one of the best things you can do to help your business. Understanding what the competition is submitting for jury images enables you to see just how strong your presentation is.

Something for Everyone or micro managing the art show application
The following e-mail was sent out by the St Louis Art Fair:
"2011 Saint Louis Art Fair Applicant.
Over the last two years it has been brought to our attention by the jurors that the work they see during the jury process is different from what they see on-site at the festival. We tried addressing this last year when we asked for a booth image from an outdoor show. When the question about your range of pricing is asked on the application we see ranges for example $25 - $5000. Yet the submitted images tend to be the more high priced work. We know it is not feasible to sell only your high priced work should you be accepted. Therefore we ask that you submit images that more accurately portray the work the jurors will see in your booth. This will help alleviate questions about what was actually juried in the show, our secret shoppers who will be vetting the show, and set the stage for what the jurors can expect to see at the festival. If you would like an opportunity to adjust your application please respond to this email. If you have questions please call."

Mainsail - You're out, no you're in, no you're out
I was forwarded a series of four e-mails from Mainsail that went out on January 14th within an hour. First e-mail was a rejection letter, then an acceptance letter than a rejection and finally a second rejection and apology for the confusion.

Is the Mainsail issue news that the public would be interested in? I received a call from a reporter for the St Petersburg Times about the Mainsail show sending out the incorrect e-mails. Anyone who's been doing art shows for more than a couple of years had a good laugh about it. But it appears that one artist called the newspaper and tried to embarrass the show by getting them to write an article about it but not allow them to use their name, for fear of retaliation by the show. The way it was explained to me is that when the acceptance was received, they immediately posted to their Facebook page about getting in, and then had to retract it, so they decided to take their embarrassment out on the show.

The reporter told me that this wouldn't have happened ten years ago because social networking sites didn't exist then. My reaction is this shouldn't happen now either, people living their lives on the internet, and if they do, mistakes like this are going to become more common place.

Reston pulls another non artist friendly move
In 2009, Reston juried the show from the images submitted for jurying and announced the awards prior to the show at the preview party. For 2011, For $100 per space ($200 for a double) they are offering accepted artists the ability to choose which block they want to be located on. This money grab would have never happened when Mary Saunders was director and Paul Germain, Ginny Herzog and I were the three artist advisors. I did call the show and, after listening to their explanation, suggested that there were better ways to word their space location request. It seems that they needed to generate more money for the art center because of government cuts in funding to the arts. Since it was too late to raise the booth fee since it had already been announced, they felt justified in offering a choice of locations for an additional fee. Hey, nobody wants to be set up on those windy side streets.

My Thoughts on Wait Lists
Different show handle wait lists differently. Living in Pittsburgh, I used to look forward to doing Three Rivers every year, but for some reason I was continually wait listed but never had a year go by where I didn't do the show. Turns out that when Harriet Mendlowitz passed away, I found out that that she was keeping a lot of local artists out of the show and calling them to fill in from the waiting list. Having a dedicated vehicle for doing shows meant that it was always packed and I could be at the festival site within fifteen minutes of a phone call. But smaller local shows are an unknown. There may have been personal reasons why you weren't accepted or maybe they like to keep artists in the wings for last minute cancellations.

The last time I applied, Sunfest in W. Palm Beach had a stupid waiting list policy. They told everyone on the wait list to show up on set up day to see if there were any open spaces. Though I did really well there, it wasn't worth the 1200 mile drive each way to see if a space may open up. Talk about an artist unfriendly attitude.

Top shows on the same weekend as other top shows are usually easy to get into off the waiting list. For example, a lot of artists apply to both State College and Madison (and maybe three or four other shows also) the weekend before Ann Arbor. There's a lot of movement between the two shows accepted list as artists choose which they would rather do. State College is four days and Madison only two days but if you live in the eastern part of the country, the time is the same because of a days drive and back from Madison.

I feel that you should call every show that you're wait listed for to find out your status and let them know you're still interested. I've always called as soon as I got the letter and then every week or so until right before the show, when I've called daily or let them know I would be there waiting to set up.

I've gotten into Coconut Grove by sleeping in my truck in front of the show office overnight the night before the show started. I've gotten into Port Clinton by sleeping overnight in a folding chair by the table where the artists check in. I've gotten into Oklahoma City by calling once a week even though they kept telling me not to call. The last time they told me not to call, they called me back in ten minutes with a space.

Dec 29, 2010 newsletter
Happy New Year - our New Years card

Artisphere jury review
It reinforces the importance of the booth image and includes a
response from the director

How to photograph your booth

Craigs List / eBay Auto Scam
Here's a new scam I came across while looking for a used minivan on Pittsburgh Craigs List. I did a search on Craigs List for a Honda
Odyssey to see what's available. I found a 2003 for $2950 and a 2004 for $3800. In both cases they had only an e-mail address and one had a clear description including the vin number. So I e-mailed both telling them I was interested in purchasing it. In both cases I heard back that they were leaving the country in 48 hours and wanted to sell it right away and one would set up a private eBay auction and the other a Google invoice. Then I looked on eBay for the 2003 Odyssey and found the exact same worded auction and pictures put up by a used car dealer in California that has a good track record of selling cars on eBay. One call to the car dealer confirmed my suspicions that the same vehicle was in two different locations and the Craigs List offer was for the price the vehicle was initially listed for on eBay to start the bidding. And in both cases they ignored my offer to pick up the vehicle at the local location it's supposed to be at and pay cash for it.

I did eventually find a really clean 2002 Honda Odyssey with only
52,000 miles on cars.com and took a four hour bus trip from
Pittsburgh to Harrisburg to pick it up. I'm now looking for a lightly
used Trimline canopy and mesh walls, or a set of six foot Pro Panels
to purchase or trade for my set of seven foot Pro Panels.

Still have 35mm jury slides you've been considering having scanned
for jury images or for your web site? I'm still scanning 35mm slides
for artists.

I've put up a new gallery of rock stars I photographed in the early 1970's

Nov 8, 2010 newsletter
Open Juries
Fort Worth open jury November 12
Artisphere open jury November 13
A short video from the open jury is on the Artisphere web site
Des Moines open jury November 17
Read the application statistics provided by the Des Moines show.
If you are notified of any other open juries, please let me know.

Walmart mugs from China that lead you to believe that they are hand
made. Or how about this iPad application that lets you create virtual
pottery. Another Youtube pottery movie; potter at the art fair

Full size ZAPP images on the web
Bayou City (Houston) put up a web gallery that opened the full size ZAPP (1920 pixel square) images when thumbnails were clicked on. As soon as I was notified about it, I posted to all the art show forums (power in numbers) and the accepted artists contacted the show and asked them to remove the full size images. Within a few hours, the gallery was taken down and the artists images were safe again. I've proposed to ZAPP that they a create web gallery template that limits the enlarged images to 500 pixels, but I doubt it will ever materialize. If any artist comes across an art show web site where the enlarged images are full ZAPP size (or close to or larger than your monitor) please contact the show and let them know that they are putting their artists copyright in jeopardy. If the show in question doesn't respond fast enough try posting about it to a few of the art show forums to get support from your fellow artists. Earlier this year someone who worked in the Uptown (Minneapolis) office uploaded the full size ZAPP images to Flickr where prints could be ordered. When contacted, the show couldn't do anything until the employee came to work the next day, twelve hours later. Too long to leave the full size images on the web where anyone could take them.

Fairhope Art Center Image Requirements - the math doesn't work
"Digital images should be saved in JPG format, 300 dpi, no more than seven inches (or 504 pixels) along the image's longest dimension. Problem is that 300 times 7 equals 2100, not 504. A call to the art center brought the response of just send them in large enough that we can see them when projected. My recommendation to both the artists and the show was to ask for or supply ZAPP images.

What's at the bottom of your booth
More about how to improve your display image.

A new form to keep track of shows you apply to

I've started using a program called ProShow Producer which is the
premiere program used by wedding photographers to create videos from
their photographs for their clients.
Artwork videos I've created and uploaded to Youtube

Sept 28, 2010 newsletter
Rent display equipment from fellow artists
I'm going to be setting up a web site that lists display equipment for sale or rental to help artists getting started. I started advertising renting my ProPanels on my web site and was able to earn $100 by renting a half dozen panels for a museum show for a weekend a few weeks ago. It's not necessarily for panels for 2D work. If you're a 3D artist and only do a few shows or have an older display, consider renting (or loaning) it to local artists who may have gotten into a show but don't have the display equipment yet. The web site will be http://ArtShowDisplay.com
Currently it's pointing to a page on one of my web sites that does have some display equipment for rent.

ZAPP Conference and Art Student program in St Louis
There were a few artists there. All the discussions were interesting this year as compared to last years snoozers, at least from an artist perspective.

There was an interesting discussion about the future of art fairs but I did one on one consultations in the lobby for most of the morning so I missed most of it. I think ZAPP had the audio recorded for most of the conference and I think that would be interesting if they make it available.

They projected the images at lunch on Tuesday but the artists that contributed to the projection thought that their images would be critiqued but there was no provision for that. Next year's conference should probably have an entire day for images and include a mock jury. Also, three hours is too short a time for both Bruce and myself. We each could have easily used up three hours.

The key note speaker was from Sotheby's and spoke about the difference between selling from a gallery vs. selling direct like we do at art shows. Larry Oliverson and Shary Brown spoke about the art show he did in Japan. The Japanese visited Ann Arbor and invited a number of artists. They arranged for transportation of the artwork and gave them a place to stay.

I hope ZAPP figures out that they need to charge the artists much less than what they charge show directors and staff if they want artists at their next conference.

The highlight of the weekend for me was the educational program that Les Slesnick put together for local art students. Instead of just having them do the physical work for artists, they were introduced to the entire concept of art shows. He asked me do a 90 minute presentation on what makes good and bad jury slides.

Open jury Ft Myers
From a post on the ArtFair Insiders blog.
September 30th starting about 9:00AM you can see the jury live in a video feed on the Fort Myers web site and if you're in South Florida, you can see the images projected on September 29th between 1:00 and 3:00. Prior arrangements need to be made so e-mail the show for more information. http://artfestfortmyers.com

If you hear of any other open juries, please let me know as early as
possible so I can notify artists.

Not at an Art Show
A good example of why you shouldn't shoot your booth picture at an art show.

The Shadow Knows
Images of artwork dropped into backgrounds with shadows that look as if it were photographed that way, or should have been photographed that way.

August 9, 2010 newsletter
The Repairman
How much do you know about the people who enjoy walking art shows and buying your art? A few months ago we had a repairman come to fix our dishwasher. I photographed him for my visitors project and sent him a print. Then one day we came home and there was a note on the door from the repairman, wanting me to come to his house and photograph his flowers.

Under the Canopy
An article with example images of how to photograph large or difficult to photograph artwork using your canopy as a diffused soft light source.

Art Presentations
Some tips on preparing images of your art for slide shows, print portfolio and maybe a short video of you creating a piece for your web site or YouTube.

From Passion to Survival
A look back over the past thirty years of doing art shows:

I've started shooting color infrared again.
The new gallery is on AlternatePhoto.

June 3, 2010 newsletter
4x6 isn't 1920
Another jury slide photographer doesn't understand cropping or color space.

Supporting local art shows
For the first time this year I'm sponsoring an award worth $250 of my services (either photography, image prep or booth photos} for each week of the Three Rivers Arts Festival. And if you're in town for Three Rivers, I can shoot your artwork at anytime during the show, even in the morning prior to the show opening. Just give me a call 412-401-8100 to make arrangements to come to my home studio.

Pro Panels for Rent in Pittsburgh

I'm still scratching my head over this one.
57th Street - information on ZAPP
Jury Procedure
A maximum of 250 artists will exhibit at the 2010 event. Each year, one quarter of the artists exhibiting in the previous year's 57th Street Art Fair is asked to participate in the jury process. For the 2010 fair, artists exhibiting in the following media will be re-screened: Ceramics, Fiber and Paper. Potentially 75 new exhibit
slots in all categories will be determined through the competitive jury process. Artists who exhibited in all other categories in the 2009 fair are invited to participate in the 2010 fair.

Between The Thirsty Whale and Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurants
Attached you will find the 2nd Annual Algonquin Commons Juried Art Fair application. This year all the artists will be located in an area of the center visible from Randall Road, located between The Thirsty Whale and Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurants. No city or state listed and a Google search was necessary if you hadn't heard of the location.

20,000 affluent fans - from Howard Alan's newsletter
The 3rd District Art Annual...Downtown Kansas City Art Fair
June 25, 26, & 27, 2010
On the Saturday night of this great show Michael Buble will be headlining a concert onsite bringing with him over 20,000 of his affluent fans right to the show. This is great news for this already busy event. The show will be the official Michael Buble pre event attracting not only concert goers but additional traffic to the area. We hope you are as excited to hear this news as we are to give it. This three day event has steadily become one of our most popular summer events and this great addition is giving it a huge push. Read below for additional event and application information!

Art Auctions
My feelings on auctioning art and why there should be a shared reward.

Inexpensive banners for your booth in under 24 hours
Both Sam's Club and Costco offer 20x30 inkjet prints for only $9. I've created a page of tips for using their inexpensive prints for banners for your booth. I'm also working with Frame Destination on an inexpensive way to display the banners in your booth. Pictures will be up on the article page by Monday June 7th

Would Picasso be accepted to Cherry Creek?
In 1979 someone submitted a script of one of Jerzy Kosinski's best selling books to fourteen publishers and twenty-six literary agents under a pseudonym, all of whom rejected it. What do you think would happen if someone sent a set of Picasso images to some of the top shows? Would it get past the jury? Would the booth image keep them out? Just food for thought.

Charitable Giving
Posted by Sarah Pollock to the Artfair Sourcebook forum
So there I was, looking at my business credit card account online and I noticed a recent ZAPP jury fee charge for a "long shot" show to which I faithfully apply each year, and each year get rejected. The credit card's automated online system had this particular expense categorized as "Charitable Giving."

Slideroom.com - another jury system
Please contact them and ask that they don't crop vertical images

April 8, 2010 newsletter
Visitors to my House
I've posted about this before. I photograph everyone who comes to my house with something they brought. I'm looking for artists who do shows in Pittsburgh or drive through Pittsburgh on the way to a show and invite everyone to stop at my house to have their picture taken. You can see the gallery here. A lot of the pictures in the gallery are artists who have brought their work for me to photograph.

Continuing the ZAPP Image Formatting Issue
I've been told that there will be another change of wording on the image formatting page of the ZAPP web site. And they intend to show a set of images letting you see what happens if you upload smaller images and how they will project compared to artists who upload 1920 pixel images. I still don't understand how they can let artists upload smaller images that put them in jeopardy in the jury room. This could have never happened with 35mm slides.

Bayou City Wait List
In a promotional partnership with a local radio station, the Bayou City show allowed the public to vote from ten wait list artists to fill a single space at the show. You could see the names and all five images of each artist up for selection. Additionally the images could be enlarged. I did a screen capture so you could see the unorthodox method of jurying first hand. My page is one large image file so you may have to wait for it to open and it may require scrolling to see the width. Some interesting statistics you'll see. From the ten artists, one had non square images which might have been smaller, one had white borders and two filled the frame with full square content.

Color Space and ZAPP Sizing Issue
Six years into the ZAPP system and there's still some photographers that don't get it. Within a few days of each other, I received two sets of images taken by the same photographer. One had the wrong color space and the other had square images that were 1856x1856 pixels. I won't name photographers in writing but if anyone calls....

Indoor Booth into an Outdoor Booth
Indoor booth into an outdoor booth images
Last month I showed an HDR booth example. This month I'm showing how I was able to drop an indoor booth shot into a canopy so that it's now an outdoor booth image.

Interview with an ACC juror
who discusses recent trends, which won't come as a surprise to anyone who has done Baltimore in the past two years:

March 15, 2010 newsletter
Continuing the ZAPP Image Formatting Issue
I came up with a solution and ran it by ZAPP. What they need to do is run a script on all the images in the system, resizing everything
smaller up to 1920 pixels. Otherwise shows that project the images are going to continue seeing unequal size images jurying unfairly. It's
actually the same script I use on my Jury Images web site when images are uploaded and formatted for ZAPP. By the way, I've made it entirely free for people who don't know how to format their images but think that they don't need them post processed.

The HDR Booth
HDR booth images
HDR stands for high dynamic range and it's a way of combining images taken at different exposures so as to keep detail in the shadow and highlight areas. That means the resulting picture is more what the human eye sees.

Computer Crashed but not Forgotten
Read the article here
Right in the middle of shooting a set of images and editing them for a jeweler, everything went blank.

Jan 18, 2010 newsletter
Changing your e-mail address
If you've changed your e-mail address, make sure your auto reply has your real name and old e-mail address that you're no longer using. Otherwise, when I send out my newsletter, I get these change of address replies and have no clue who they are from. So if you've changed your e-mail address you may not be reading this.

Columbus Open Jury February 6 - 7 in Upper Arlington
Call the show office for times. 614-224-2606. Last year they were able to give approximate times each medium was to be juried.

ACC Baltimore
I'll be hosting a discussion on digital photography as part of a series of round table discussions on February 24th at 8:15AM. I will be there all day on February 23rd and will do booth photographs for any artists that need them. Unfortunately I think it's during the wholesale days and not during the retail days. Last year I did some booth pictures and they came out really well. Let me know in advance if you need a booth photograph taken.

Copyright infringement notification
Most artists and photographers know who owns the copyright of all the images on their web site because it's their own work. But my web site has more than just galleries of my own photography. I also have a series of interviews with famous photographers and a few other interviews with people in photography related fields. In December I received a FedEx letter from the Masterfile stock agency (and an invoice for over $6,000) about an image on my web site. An interesting story that worked out well in the end.

1960x1960
I've started receiving calls about the Boston Mills application. They still don't want to use ZAPP. Where are the artists advisors when you need them. "Minimum long pixel dimension of 980 but it's recommended that you make your images 1960x1960 because that's what other show applications are requesting." Well, at least you don't have to purchase a ski lift pass to submit your application this year.

The "new" ZAPP image size
All artists need to read this article before uploading images into the ZAPP system that will put them at a disadvantage: Make sure to tell all your artist friends.

Dec 27, 2009 newsletter
Cherry Creek Jury Review
My trip to Denver was planned around my being able to spend the afternoon observing the Cherry Creek 2010 jury.

Consulting with ZAPP follow up
I created a PowerPoint presentation from the issues on my list. We spent over two hours going over the issues with my logically defending all my requests. For all the web site issues, I created before and after screen captured images where I added what was needed in Photoshop to prove my points. Look for a major upgrade to the ZAPP system coming next summer. Hopefully they'll keep their word and have me consult on the new system starting in January.

Social Networking
During some "free" time over Christmas, I signed up with Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter. I still don't really get it so I may make some mistakes along the way.

Dec 14, 2009 newsletter
Tips from Bruce Baker
My latest interview is with Bruce Baker who shares some jury and marketing observations. Bruce is considered the guru of the 3D art and fine craft world. I highly recommend his consulting services for artists.

Consulting with ZAPP
Westaf (ZAPP) is having me visit their offices this week to consult with them. I've spent weeks preparing a multi page document of suggestions on how things can be improved on the ZAPP web site and in the system. Everything on my list comes from my personal experience applying to shows myself and working with many of you to upload images and help you through the application process. Here's an outline of some of what I intend to discuss with them.

Identifying shows - all shows should have the city and state in parenthesis after their name on the ZAPP web site
Sorting shows to apply to - only shows still taking applications should be listed
Applying to shows - applications should be able to be tweaked until the deadline
Shows should list number of completed applications they've gotten
Shows should list number of spaces you are jurying for
Artist statement should be at least 250 characters
Server crashes - deadlines should automatically be extended 24 hours
My ZAPPlication page - check box to archive all applications with a single click
Contacting ZAPP - phone number (888-562-7232) clearly listed on the web site
Open (or video feed) juries - All artists should be notified in advance
Feedback from shows you've applied to
Order of images presented to the juries - should always be by application submission date and time
Increase the number of images allowed in your profile to 100
Signatures on artwork - artwork images shouldn't be looked at through a magnifying glass to look for identification, only technique.

The "new" ZAPP image size
I've been asked to not call attention to this but it's causing problems for artists. In August ZAPP started to allow 1400 pixel images without black borders to be uploaded. They originally had the new wording on everyone's image upload page but removed it within 48 hours at my request because it was confusing.

Because of the misleading wording on the image prep instruction page of the web site, it made artists think that removing the black borders would make their images more uniform. The wording from the image preparation page of the ZAPP web site is as follows; "Removing the black masks from your current images, while not required, will create a cleaner look when images are viewed by jurors."

That is absolute nonsense. The jurors never saw the black borders because they viewed the jury images on a black page background. I get up to ten calls or e-mails a day asking about it and explain the misleading information. And if you apply to a show using projectors,

ZAPP will add black borders (changing and resaving your JPEGs) to square your images so they can project properly. I've even called a number of other jury slide photographers and explained why changing the format they prepare for their clients will cost them in the future.

Please do not even think about removing the black borders from your images. They will always present the best when prepared in the original ZAPP 1920x1920 format. Staying with the original format will also allow you to use those images for most of the non ZAPP shows asking for digital images. In fact, most shows asking for digital images consider the ZAPP format to be the standard. Just like 35mm slides that when rotated keep the horizontal and vertical opening exactly the same. The original ZAPP 1920x1920 format displays horizontals and verticals exactly the same size. If the square format goes away, horizontal jury images will have a significant advantage because the width of a monitor is much greater than the height and getting even more so as wide screen becomes the norm in new monitors.

Nov 9, 2009 newsletter
An extremely insightful conversation with Chris Coffey, juror for 2009
Columbus, Long's Park and Boston Mills. Chris goes into a lot of detail about why he thinks the booth slide is the weakest slide and things you can do to improve it both for jurying and when you set up at a show.

ArtiGras 2010 Open ZAPP Jury
First posted to Connie Metler's Art Fair Insider's Forum
Sherry Wilson offers insight into what the jewelry category projection
looked like


The New Booth Slide Requirement
It's time for everyone to start reading the details, especially if you've been taking applications for granted over the years. I created an account with the Belleville show to read their image requirements to help an artist apply. Their new booth image requirements are long and detailed. Could this be the future? Shows defining the booth slide so clearly that artists will need a few different booth slides. The upper case is actually copied from their prospectus.

EVERYTHING THAT IS VISIBLE IN YOUR BOOTH FROM THE FRONT OF THE BOOTH AT THE FAIR MUST BE SEEN IN THE BOOTH SLIDE. YOUR ENTIRE BOOTH, FROM CORNER TO CORNER, MUST BE VISIBLE TO THE JURY. Chairs and other types of seating are the only exception.

BROWSE BOXES, FLIP BINS, CASH CARTS, AND THE LIKE MUST APPEAR IN THE BOOTH SLIDE SHOULD THEY BE VISIBLE FROM THE FRONT OF THE BOOTH AT THE FAIR.

The booth submitted in your booth slide must be EQUIVALENT to the booth you intend to use at our fair. Setups typically intended for indoor use are generally not appropriate for outdoor venues. ALL BOOTHS AND INSTALLATIONS MUST BE REASONABLY ABLE TO WITHSTAND INCLEMENT WEATHER, this must include adequate weights at all four corners.

THE ENTIRE BOOTH MUST BE SEEN BY THE JURY. SHOWING ONLY ONE CORNER OR JUST TWO PANELS OF A THREE-PANEL BOOTH IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. The jury must see the entire space from corner to corner.

ALL WORK TO BE SHOWN AT THE FAIR MUST BE REPRESENTATIVE OF WORK SHOWN IN THE BOOTH SLIDE. Work not representative of the juried work appearing in the booth slide will not be permitted at the fair.

PANEL RISERS OR EXTENDERS THAT INCREASE WALL HEIGHT AND/OR EXTRA PANELS THAT EXTEND LATERALLY BEYOND THE LIMITS OF THE SPACE WILL NOT BE PERMITTED AT THE FAIR nor will infringement on a neighboring artist's space or public spaces. Attachment of any kind, the primary intent of which is to attract attention, must be approved by the Standards and Compliance committee, or be removed..

When approached about the new booth slide regulations, Belleville stated that they would relax them for this year knowing that it's too difficult for artists to reshoot their booth now that the outdoor season is over but they would by in place next year.

From the Bayou City Booth Slide Description
"The amount of inventory that you intend to display or otherwise present at the show must be clearly evident in the booth slide, and within a margin of variation of approximately 20%. For example: If you jury with five framed pieces, then we expect that only five or six framed pieces will be hung in your booth at any one time for the duration of the show.

The use of panel risers or extenders to increase height is not permitted, unless your booth slide at jury has included them. The use of "appendages" i.e., extra display panels that do not appear in your booth slide at jury and those which encroach upon public and/or artists' spaces, will not be permitted. The only signages permitted at the show without prior approval are: The booth/artist identification sign provided by the festival; artist's statement provided by the festival; and price and title tags. Artists whose names and/or studio names are permanently affixed to the tent or booth must obtain prior approval immediately upon acceptance. Unacceptable signage includes, but is not limited to, magazine and/or newspaper articles; banners of any type; ribbons or other documentation of past accolades and/or awards.

Exceptions to any of the above may be requested after acceptance of invitation. All exceptions must be in place at least 30 days prior to the festival and will be documented by festival staff with approval by the Festival Director."

When asked about the new regulations, the Bayou City director stated that it bothers her to see one booth sticking up 5' higher than the others.

Out of touch with reality show rules
Springfield Illinois Old Capitol Art Fair has these antiquated rules for photography and digital.
"Photography should be processed by the artist. Acceptance or rejection of commercially processed photography is at the discretion of the jury committee whose decision is final. Inkjet/giclees are allowed only under the digital artwork category and must be high-quality limited editions produced on archival stock."

The (not so) funny part of this is that to print your own photography means using an inkjet printer and non inkjet photographs are printed using commercial printers.

Oct 11, 2009 newsletter
The mock jury at Peoria was a success. I projected the images, and with the help of Les Slesnick and everyone else in the room, we spent the time analyzing and critiquing the images of all the artists who wanted to participate. I can't begin to stress how important it is for artists to see their images, as well as their competitor's images projected. Every time I project images for a group of artists, everyone learns from the experience. In fact, one artist whose booth slide was critiqued, made changes in their display over the weekend and photographed it again from a different camera angle. On Monday morning when they e-mailed me the new images, I was able to improve their booth image based on the suggestion given at the mock jury.

Olympics warns man about sharing photos on website
A story about a man who posted pictures from his trip to China to see the Olympics in his Flickr account with a creative commons license that allowed anyone to do as they wished with them, and an image was used commercially in England. The back of the purchased ticket does not say no photography, just no commercial use of the photographs taken.

So how does this effect artists who do art shows. There have been many threads and discussions about how people come into a booth with their camera and the justified paranoia on the part of the artist on whether their designs or artwork will be outright copied. But what if some of those pictures are put into Flickr accounts with a license that gives someone the rights to use the image of your artwork commercially. A model release would be necessary for any identifiable people in the image but what about photographs of your art?

And what's worse than the person who posted the images against the rights specified on the back of the purchased ticket was the comments from the multitude of idiots who think that just because they take a picture, they have complete freedom to do as they wish with it. I've even had an argument with someone who wanted to purchase a print of one of my sports photographs and then reproduce it to sell posters. I tried to explain the difference between purchasing a a fine art print to hang on the wall and having to get a signed release from the basketball player before actually licensing the image from me for commercial use. In the end he still didn't get it, literally. Because I refused to sell him a print.

Anyone ever check Flickr to see if there are photographs taken at any art shows with a creative commons license for others to use the content commercially?

This could be a good follow up to Diane French's presentation at the NAIA conference where she discovered that a painting she had sold years ago was photographed and used to promote an art show she had never applied to. And they even went as far as to use it on the t-shirts and posters.

Stories like these make you wonder if people actually understand and respect what we do. They know we make the art, but do they actually understand that it's our intellectual property.

Sept 8, 2009 newsletter
Updated information on ZAPP Projection Jurying
It includes a list of shows using digital projectors to view the images. I suggest contacting the shows doing projection jurying and ask if they are having an open jury, or at least allow artists a chance to see the images projected the day or evening before the jury. If you know if any other shows using projectors or having an open jury, please let me know so I can update the information.

Photography too light.
I received images from an artist that were substantially lighter than they should have been. The photographs were taken by the same professional photographer that the artist had used the previous year. When I spoke to the photographer, I asked if he had compared this years images to last years. I was told that he doesn't save the files, and that it's only copy work anyway. So I put up an example web page comparing last years images and this years. He acknowledges that the image from this year comes across much lighter. But he also said that he checked the histogram (graph of the exposure) for both and they both had the correct exposure. This is where the brainless (photographer) camera comes into play. It never occurred to him that the camera doesn't take pictures, the photographer does. And though camera equipment has gotten more sophisticated, it still requires a brain to compose and choose what the correct exposure is for a particular subject. His verbal response to me was; "All I can do is what my equipment tells me to do." All I can say is he's just a amateur with a very expensive point and shoot camera calling himself a professional.

Traveling in England - Wallet Stolen - Send Money
I recently received an e-mail from an artist that contained something similar to the above message. Inadvertently the artist had clicked on a link in a fraudulent e-mail to log into their hotmail account and the account was immediately hijacked (password changed) and that message sent out to all the names in the address book.

NEVER click on a link in an e-mail that supposedly takes you to any account you need to log into with a username and password. That includes bank accounts, e-mail services, eBay, PayPal and any web site
you may have purchased things from. If you have any question about the validity of the message. Shut down your e-mail program and log into the account the same way you always do, and consider changing your password just to be sure.

Did I mention that the artist had to cancel all credit cards because without access to the e-mail account, the artist didn't know what sensitive information the e-mails might have contained.

July 18, 2009 newsletter
Manayunk Art Show favors sponsors over artists
When will they learn that the public doesn't attend an art show because businesses with bull horns stand in the street and hawk their products. There was a recent review of the show posted to one of the art show forums. Here's a condensed version:
"I Just did the Manayunk Art Festival in Philadelphia. NO MORE. Crowds were huge, that is the only positive point. Everything else was negative. The Manayunk Development Corp. which runs this show has probably given space to every sponsor who applied. So, every 6th-8th booth on each side of the road was a sponsor booth. They created a major distraction by being loud and noisy, and at least one using a bullhorn to hawk their products. The same problem with the food. Every 10th booth was either a food booth or one of the restaurants that expanded into the show perimeter. Again, this is where most of the money went from visitors. They also created noise and played loud music. It was reported that when one of the artists complained to the show staff about the sponsor using a loud bullhorn, they were told that the show wouldn't do anything about it. In addition to all this, young kids vandalized a few booths at night and broke some windows of a few shops. Music was very loud, coming from all direction, which was extremely annoying. There were at least 70 low end flea market type jewelry booths, about 25% of all exhibitors. So, Manayunk is no longer an art festival. It's a food plus sponsor plus music festival."

A little personal perspective here. I used to do the Manayunk show. Of all the shows I've done, it was the only show where I could hang the outside wall of my booth with my 1970's basketball photos and feel like I fit right in.

On the positive side of the art show news
This year the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh (my local show) changed the length from three weeks to two weeks this year for the first time. I walked the show both weeks and spoke to over a hundred artists. Most artists said that they were doing well. An additional layout change was to move the Friday, Saturday, Sunday spaces down to the point and they turned the food booths around to face the forty booth spaces that were located there. Everyone's first impression was that the spaces wouldn't work do to the separation from the rest of the show in Gateway Center on the other side of the Hilton. But it turned out that most of the artists in the new location did well there and some first weekend artists even requested to come back for the second weekend if space became available due to cancellations. It's exciting to see that kind of change in an arts festival that's been around so long. I hope they keep the length of the show to two weeks from now on.

June 22, 2009 newsletter
Art Show charging $100 over the booth fee to let artists in off the waiting list
On one of the art show forums, an artist told of being called off the waiting list for the Virginia Highlands show in Atlanta and being offered a space for $100 more than the original booth fee.

When are images of art worth more than the art itself
Reston juried for awards using the images uploaded to JAS months before the show. They had a preview party the night before the show and featured the award winners.

Great video of a photographer setting up his booth
Josh Trefethen set his camera to capture one frame every 15 seconds for the three hours it took to set his display up at a show in Texas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIlOLjBUnZw

Summer booth slide opportunities
Now that the summer shows have started, a lot of artists have been sending me their booth slide to tweak. If you're going to shoot a booth slide at a show, please set it up for the booth slide and take the photograph before setting it up to sell. Take down your name banner and pricing cards. There can be no identification in the booth. Make sure there are no people in the picture. Roll down the sides of your canopy so nothing distracting can be seen through the booth. Be careful of streaks of harsh sunlight. Overcast or cloudy is better. Don't forget to use a tripod and make sure to set your camera properly:

Shoot slightly wider than your booth if you're sending me the images to work on and let me do the cropping and squaring up of the booth sides in Photoshop. If you're having a problem with reflections, I have the ability to change the work in the frames in a 2D booth if you provide properly taken images of the individual pieces.

Throwing Away Art
I've been cleaning out my garage and throwing away older photographs going back 20 years. There's even a humorous photograph of my dumpster overflowing with old photographs and frames.

Mar 24, 2009 newsletter
Improved Booth Slide
I've worked with dozens of artists helping them improve their product photography or walking them through taking a better booth slide. With the permission of the artist, I've put up a web page with a before and after example.

Brookside 2009 Juror Interview 
With ZAPP's new monitor jury format, even projection juries are clicking to enlarge the thumbnails they see on the laptops they use for scoring because that's the only way to read the individual artwork descriptions. And the words are very important.

Juror's Bias Possibly Influencing Other Jurors
You'll read in the Brookside article about how a juror pointed out the some of the photography might have been purchased from a stock agency. I used this as a basis for a thread on a few different art show forums about how one jurors comments can influence other jurors.

Adding over 40 images to a ZAPP Profile
ZAPP profiles have a limit of 40 images and if you're like most artists, you're rapidly reaching that limit or already there. The way to reduce the number of images is to "archive" all the shows you've applied to that are completed and that frees up the images that were used for those applications to be modified or removed. But in rare cases, you may need to upload an additional image when you already have 40 images in your profile but have found that the upload image button is no longer there. I've discovered two ways to add over 40 images to a ZAPP profile. The first way is to start with 39 or fewer images. Then after uploading each additional image use your browser's back button to return to the upload image page where you browse for the image. The second way is to choose an image that can be modified, then without doing anything to that image, click on the "modify image" button and then when the page of information opens up, click on the "modify image" button at the bottom of the page. That brings you to the completed page for that image and gives you back your "upload image" button at the top. Of course, none of this is necessary if I work on your images because I do the uploading also.

ZAPP does the right thing. Couture Jewelry Awards 2008
Hopefully it will balance some of that negativity we hear about ZAPP. This was forwarded to me by a jeweler who had applied to the Couture Jewelry Awards 2008 show, which never happened.

From: Lara Turner I am writing to you because you used the ZAPP™ system to apply to the 2008 "Couture Jewelry Awards" show. Unfortunately, we have learned from some of you that the event did not take place. Subsequently, we have not been able to contact, or even locate, the event administrator. In five years of operation serving hundreds of events, this is the first and only time we have experienced this kind of problem. Though ZAPP™ is not liable for the fees submitted to this now apparently canceled show (we sent the show your application fees that were collected through ZAPP™ long ago), ZAPP™ will refund id in full the application fee of each artist. This refund will be credited to your credit card in the next 30 days. This refund is being made because the ZAPP™ staff, the ZAPP™ Artist Advisory Committee and th the ZAPP™ Oversight Committee all believe that, in a situation such as this, if at all possible, artists should not be asked to carry the financial burden for the failure of a show. With today's economy providing major challenges to artists, now especially is not the time to hinder artists in any way. In the future, we will continue to work to limit the possibility for this kind of situation. Our hope is that this one time will be the only time we have this experience. Thank you for your patience. If you have questions about this refund, please contact the ZAPP™ team and one of us will be happy to respond to your questions. Lara Turner, Manager for ZAPP™

Feb 28, 2009 newsletter

No Cancellation Refund from Under the Oaks
An artist had to cancel the Under the Oaks show due to double booking that weekend. According the Art Fair Source Book, there was a refund deadline of January 30th which he cancelled by. But the artist was told that though they are sorry he cannot make it to the show, he will not receive a refund of his booth fee. The contract signed on the application and also in the body of the application rules states that once juried and accepted, the booth fee will not be refunded because of cancellations or inclement weather despite what the Art Fair Sourcebook says. So how many shows have arcane refund/cancellation policies, and how many artists give them money each year? It also makes you appreciate how with ZAPP you don't have to pay for a booth until accepted.

Trust your own judgment
An artist gets a telephone call from a show director who's logged into the artist's Juried Art Services profile changing the images used for the show's application. The show director tells the artist that the new images work better as a cohesive grouping and recommends leaving the order though telling the artist that they are free to change the images back to the original chosen grouping. Because the artist trusts the show director who even runs "boot camps" for artists, the application was submitted with the changed images and the result was, drum roll please, rejection. In all fairness, I spoke to Paul Fisher about the incident and was told that because of the JAS computer crash, show directors were allowed access to artist profiles to check for incomplete applications. This can be related to being at a show and having the director of another show come by and ask you to apply because they love your work. The usual response is that I've applied to your show multiple times and have never been accepted.

Are shows getting their application numbers or are artists getting smarter
Besides the shows that extend their deadlines, there are now some shows that have extended their deadlines a second time. I still recommend calling shows a week (or few days) before to see if there are any empty spaces they want to fill.

I'm constantly surprised how often artists ignore what could be the most important thing they can do to improve their ability to get into shows, attend an open jury to see what theirs and their competitor's images look like when projected. I attended the Columbus open jury on February 7-8 and saw fewer than a dozen artists during the two days. Enough lecturing. I sat there for two day taking notes and compiling tips for this article:

Columbus Open Jury Review and Image Tips

Interview with artist/juror Les Slesnick

Limited Editions nonsense
Springfield Old Capitol suggests (not requires) that printmakers and photographers limit their editions to 15 or less. It reinforces that each art show is an entity onto itself with no recognition that artists do shows other than theirs, or actually do this for a living.

Excerpt from the December 05, 2007 Tucson Citizen Newspaper
If you notice a lot of new faces at the Fourth Avenue Street Fair, you can thank the Computer Age. The Fourth Avenue Merchants Association went to an online application process for the first time for this weekend's fair - the 38th annual - which resulted in some 85 new artists. "We have about 356 artists in the show. Twenty-four percent of those artists have never shown in our show before," said Kurt Tallis, marketing and events director with the merchants' association. By comparison, Tempe's Festival of the Arts last weekend, which also used Zapplication for the first time, went with 70 percent new artists, said Kate Hastings, vice president of marketing and business development with Downtown Tempe Community Inc. For the 2007 Winter Street Fair here, 576 artists applied, compared to 360 last year, Tallis said.
If the link is still available

Sometimes even the best get confused
For years Uptown has been previewing the images upon submission and zooming in to see if there is a signature on the art work. If they can see what they think is an artist name, they set your application back to incomplete and notify you to remove your name from the images. This usually happens with paintings, but has also happened with work in other mediums, especially if the artist has a branding logo anywhere on the work. This has become a hardship for artists not especially skilled in Photoshop or those who have hired someone like me to work on their images. In fact, each year I have to remove signatures from paintings for at least a half dozen artists. I now automatically take signatures off artwork as I've always done with booth slides. You'd think that there would be notification sent out by ZAPP at the show's request prior to the show taking applications. Or why not accept the same images that all the other ZAPP shows do.

Old Town Jury
All jurors had new MAC laptops with the resolution set so low that they had to scroll to see the bottoms of the images. Well, at least all the jurors were in the same room, and they don't have a midnight New Years Eve closing date anymore.

Do we really need another Ann Arbor show
I first read about it in the Michigan Guild newsletter and then saw a thread on my own photography forum about it. Seems that with the ailing economy in the Detroit area, someone thinks that another Ann Arbor art show is a smart idea. Someone intends on putting on a show in the Briarwood Mall parking lot. For those of you who have never done Ann Arbor, over 30,000 people park there to ride the shuttle buses to the Ann Arbor shows over the four day period. Ann Arbor is already filled with thousands of squatter spaces in every nook and cranny you can fit a 10x10 canopy in. One of the reasons posted to my forum was to give artists who couldn't get into the real shows a chance. The problem with that logic is that some of the shows are actually reducing the amount of spaces. The State Street show has fire lane changes that may reduce the number of booths, the Original show is reducing their spaces from 174 to 137, and the Guild reduced their number of spaces on State Street a few years ago by going to 10x10's where they used to have 6x10's. What comes next, setting up on the interstate in the hopes that someone will get a flat tire and pull over and purchase a work of art?

Artful Home
Artful Home no longer wants to do the image prep in house. If you need your images prepared to submit to Artful Home, tell me when you send me stuff to work on and I can provide their required format in it's own folder on your CD, or even e-mail the images to Artful Home for you. Same goes with images I've previously worked on.

Jan 25th, 2009 Newsletter
State Street Ann Arbor and Arts, Beats and Eats, Peoria
The State Street Area show is now doing digital jurying with a
deadline of March 1st. They've joined the Michigan Guild and the South University show using Juried Art Services, as has Arts, Beats and Eats with an April 7th deadline and Peoria with a March 18th deadline. Do you have a JAS profile or want to know how they jurors see the images. With more and more shows using Juried Art Services, everyone should have a profile.
Here's a link to my JAS simulation.

Juried Art Services crash
Speaking of JAS, they had a five day outage from Jan 12 - 17 due to an overload of last minute applications to the twelve Amy Amdur shows. The deadline for those shows has now been extended until Jan 28th with no late fees. If you've applied to any Juried Art Services shows or even uploaded images since December 24th, you will have to upload images and complete your applications again. And if I've uploaded any images for you, please let me know so I can upload those images again - at no additional charge. Here's an excerpt from their next press release:
"On January 12th Juried Art Services experienced a server crash. All systems have been restored but some data was lost. We have taken the necessary actions to prevent this kind of occurrence in the future. We have now brought a new server system online to ensure future security. We have switched hosting companies, upgraded our services, added load balancing services to address both traffic fluctuations and hardware failures and now have an offsite backup server in place."

Three Rivers in Pittsburgh
Three Rivers is using ZAPP for the first time this year. But what's really interesting is that they've reduced the number of days of the show from seventeen to ten. Between the full and weekend sections, they've gone from six periods down to four and have probably reduced the number of available spaces by about a third. I predict tighter jurying and a higher quality show.

Art Show Application rights grab or just poor wording
From the Raleigh Artsplosure application. "All CDs submitted will become the property of the producer and will not be returned." Now I don't care that they don't return the CDs and would expect them to be shredded, but they should never become the property of whoever "the producers" are. I wonder if they ran their application wording by a lawyer before printing it. Photographers run from photo contests that use similar wording. What could be better wording is that images submitted by accepted artists may be used to promote the show. I called the show and addressed the issue and was told that the show would never attempt to violate artists copyright and they only use images of accepted artists to advertise the show. The wording was a result of them not wanting to go through the hassle of returning the CDs, which I fully understand, and the CDs will be properly disposed of. So how many artists actually read the fine print on applications? Don't laugh but I've done over 1,000 art shows and have never completely read an application.

December 30th, 2008 Newsletter

Columbus Open ZAPP Jury Feb 7-8, 2009
If you've never seen your images (or your competition's images) projected, this is a worthwhile experience. The jury is scheduled for February 7-8 and will be held in Upper Arlington at the City Manager's office:
3600 Tremont Rd. Upper Arlington Ohio 43221

For more information you can call the Columbus Arts Festival office at
614-224-2606
I'll be attending at least one day and am looking to share a hotel room. Sharing a hotel room during an open jury gives artists a lot of time to analyze how the images look when projected.

Looking for Jurors to be Interviewed
If you've juried a show in the past year or will be jurying a show this year, I'd like to do a short telephone interview with you to add to my juror interviews. Artists need all the information they can get when it comes to preparing their images for jurying. The interview can be anonymous if you choose. I'm especially looking to talk to jurors that have juried shows using Juried Art Services.
Here's a link to my previous juror interviews

Baltimore ACC - How to Photograph Art - Booth Slides
I've been asked to host a round table discussion on photographing art during the wholesale days at the Baltimore ACC show. Tentative date is Wednesday morning February 25th. Look for more information in a future newsletter. I've been asked by a few artists to shoot their booth pictures so I'll be bringing a camera and tripod. If you want me to shoot your booth, call me.

If you need something photographed in time to meet any of the deadlines, give me a call at 800-350-9289.

There are over 35 shows closing in January. Here's a list of shows and closing dates for the next month, most on ZAPP and some on JAS.

Other Shows Asking for Digital Images
If you've hired me to work on your images, I've always provided a CD of 1920x1920 ZAPP images. You'll need those images for other shows that are asking for either images submitted on a CD or to be e-mailed. Most shows that ask for digital images are clueless, only asking for resolution (300DPI) and not actual images which requires specifying height and width or at the very least long pixel dimension. If you need help getting images together for these shows, please call me as early as possible so I'll have time to prepare your images, burn a CD and mail it to you. If a show doesn't specify size, I recommend sending your ZAPP images. Make sure to copy the images to your computer and rename them according to the show application specifications. Usually that means something like lastname-firstname-image01.jpg

December 16th, 2008 Newsletter
Happy Holidays
Our 2008 Christmas card featuring our puppy Xena:

Des Moines live video feed and what we learned by watching it.
A few weeks ago, the Des Moines Art Festival had a live video feed of the ZAPP projection jury on the home page of their web site. Granted, the video quality was pretty poor and there was no sound, but it still was interesting to watch for the two and a half days it was happening. I did receive a few calls from artists who weren't happy with the way their images looked and wanted me to evaluate them. I don't think that any images seen in that video feed should have been judged for quality for a number of reasons. There were artifacts from the poor quality feed. There was a slight angle of the outer screens to the camera. And there seemed to be slight screen movement, and if it wasn't screen movement the artifacts were even worse. But you could judge how your body of work compared to everyone else's. You could judge how well backgrounds matched and individual pieces balanced each other. I certainly hope they do it again next year and this time let everyone know in advance, not just the artists who had applied. I happened to catch a post about it on the Art Fair SourceBook forum just before the jury started.

And speaking of the Art Fair SourceBook forum
Here's an interesting post by Sheree Sorrells (used with permission) about how the economy is affecting shows and what one artist is doing to prepare for the changes.

"I have just finished up a series of shows, 5 in 7 weeks. Four of them were in NC. One in Sarasota FL. 2 shows, both ACC (American Craft Council) shows were better than last year by as much as 40%. The NC shows held even with last year on one, the others were down about 60% from last years figures. Ironically, one of the better shows was an ACC show, also in NC.

I was very concerned about the effect of the economy going into this series, and even posted a question about slashing prices on this forum. We did not cut our prices. But we did do some other things. 1)We redesigned our booth display to focus on higher end pieces. And we tried to lessen the confusion overall of our product line. This worked. 2)We spent a large amount of time beforehand producing smaller items, that retailed at a lower price point. At our worst shows, it was the lower priced items that saved us. 3) We did a mailer for every show. And I didn't use the mailing piece provided by the promoter. I designed my own, showing multiple shots of items we would have, and offered a "value" coupon for $25. savings on a large item purchased. We could only tell any effect from the mailer at all, at one show. One of the better ones. It brought in (to my specific knowledge) about $1000. in sales, and we only ended up giving one $25. discount. Overall, we mailed about 500 first class pieces so I'm not sure it was worth it.

We will cut back next year too. If a show has an "iffy" record, we will probably sit it out. We are going to continue offering the lower end items, but we are also going to add some even higher end items. It is the middle range that we may cut back on. The shows that are most far away will have to earn its existence on our schedule on a newer, more stringent level."

ZAPP image descriptions are now more important. I've been given a series of monitor jurying screen captures to update the simulation on my web site. With the new format, there will no longer be scrolling to see the bottoms of verticals and squares. And when the juror hovers the mouse over an image, an "I" (for Information) appears. When clicking on it, they will see the image description in an overlay. Interesting that they chose that format from iPhoto, the MAC image viewing program. If I were to design it, I would have the information appear just by hovering the mouse over the image and eliminate the two middle steps. You can see a simulation of the new format on this page of my web site.

More artists taken advantage of by clueless photographers.
If you can get 20 (or more) photographs of your work for $300, please be certain the photographer understands what jury slides are and how to photograph your work properly. Twice in the past month I was asked to fix too many images that were photographed incorrectly because the artist thought they were getting a deal. If the price seems too good, it probably is too good, and fixing the images usually cost more than the photography.

I've been asked to host a round table discussion on photographing art during the wholesale days at the Baltimore ACC show. Tentative date is Wednesday morning February 25th. Look for more information in a future newsletter.

November 17, 2008 Newsletter

Main Street Fort Worth gives back to the artists
Jay Downie, director of the Fort Worth show, sent out an e-mail to everyone who had applied explaining that their expenses are budgeted for 1,100 applications and since they went over 1,100, the difference will be reduced from the booth fees of accepted artists. Last year he reduced the booth fee by $15 and this year by $20. For the record, they received 1,310 applications this year for 200 spaces plus 14 emerging artist spaces. The emerging artist spaces will not be reduced because they already are less than the standard booth fee.

The Relationship between an Artist and Photographer
Most artists only have five or six pieces photographed when they hire a photographer. Fused glass artist Nina Falk has sent me over 50 pieces of glass to photograph in the past year, and as a result, she has great images for jurying, her two new web sites, gallery submissions, and magazine ads. The article with some example photographs

Juried Art Services has expanded it's show list with the Amy Amdur shows. Port Clinton in Highland Park Illinois is Amy's top show and is one of those rare shows where anything is possible because expensive work has a reputation for selling well in the neighborhood that the show is located in.

Be careful of other digital image format requests
- old information but it continues to be relevant -
As more and more shows are asking for digital images (usually on a CD) we're seeing some ridiculous image size requests, or worse, no image size request at all. Image size request should be in height and width in pixels. And as I've been saying for the past four years, the 1920x1920 format should be considered the standard with over 200 art shows on ZAPP and over 20,000 artists with that size images on their computer. Any time you get an application asking for a non standard image size, please contact the show and ask if they'll take 1920x1920 ZAPP formatted images. And if you (or your friends) have hired someone other than me to work on your images, make sure to get your ZAPP images on a CD so you can use them to apply to shows not using ZAPP.

October 20, 2008 Newsletter
Too many Artfests or is it Artsfests
I recently had to help a friend complete an application on ZAPP. The show she was applying to was "ArtsFest". Or should I say ArtsFest period. Nowhere in the name was a mention of location of the show on ZAPP. And clicking on the name which brought me to the page which listed the information and "apply to this show" link. It took reading through six paragraphs before there was mention of Stuart Florida where the art center was located. Makes me wonder why the show wasn't called "ArtsFest Stuart" or something logical like that. That's what I call a ZAPPism.

Deadline Approaching - Do You Know Where Your Pixels Are
Nothing makes me more upset than a jury slide photographer that takes advantage of an artist. I was contacted by a jeweler that had hired a photographer to shoot a few pieces of jewelry. The photographer provided TIF's on a CD that were only sized to 1800 pixels long dimension, too small for ZAPP. To compound the situation he photographed all the vertical pieces of jewelry HORIZONTALLY making them even smaller, and when all the dead space was cropped off, some were around 900 pixels long dimension. And in a really stupid move, he had provided ZAPP images that squished the jewelry to make some of the pieces look square. I have a real hard time with jury slide photographers who purposely give artists digital images that are too small for ZAPP. It would't surprise me if this photographer charges by the pixel, screwing artists that are technology challenged by offering them something they don't need at a reduced rate. Make sure that if you hire a photographer, you get what you need without having to pay extra for it. If you want to know the name of the photographer, call me on the phone at 412-767-8644. I'm always happy to both recommend or tell you way I don't recommend a particular photographer.
The article with some example photographs

Virtual Jury
For artists who want their artwork evaluated by an experienced juror, I recommend Bruce Baker. You can sign up for a virtual jury on the Art Fair SourceBook web site. I've been given permission to reproduce the jury feedback from a ceramicist who had Bruce Baker evaluate their jury images.

Getting into Shows you've been Rejected from
I've been hearing from artists who have been successful in getting into some ZAPP shows after they've gotten their rejection notice. Since ZAPP has widened the geographic demographics of artists applying to shows, with the economy and gas prices being what they are, the number of artists canceling has increased over what it was a year or two ago. This has created prime opportunities for (local) artists to call and see if there are any spaces available because shows are going through their waiting lists faster.

September 23, 2008 Newsletter
Too many images
ZAPP profiles are filling up. Recently I've had to contact a few artists to delete old images in their profiles to make room for new images. If you need to delete images and find that they are committed, go back to your "my ZAPPlication" page and "archive" all shows that give you that option. That will free up images connected to those applications so they can be deleted. Another alternative is to create an additional ZAPP profile for your new work and apply through that for future shows. Just make sure to upload a display image to the new profile. I can do all of that for you if you need help.

JAS and truncated artist statement
I've been contacted by a few artists who have had their artist statement truncated in an application. The one common denominator is that they are on a MAC. If you are having this problem, I can help submit your application properly if you give me a call. I have spoken to the Juried Art Services people about it so it may be fixed by the time you read this.

AOL not digital jury friendly
It was recently posted on the ZAPP forum by an administrator that there were problems with AOL and sometimes clicking on a link would get the artist bumped out of what they were working on. This has been a problem for the past four years and it seems to have escalated with the new interface. If AOL is giving you problems, after logging in, minimize the AOL screen and start a different browser. Here are links to download the two most popular browsers (both are free and available for PC and MAC) besides Internet Explorer, which hasn't been supported on the MAC for at least four years. Firefox and Opera. Opera has been my default browser for the past five or six years.

Howard Alan on ZAPP
You may have noticed that the latest weekly notification about ZAPP shows have a ton of new shows listed. Howard Alan is now on ZAPP. Either you love him or hate him but most artists have done at least one Howard Alan show in their art show career. His fine art shows are now listed with ZAPP. That ought to shake up the art show industry a little. In Howard's words, ZAPP is where the artists go to look for shows to do. And like Sugarloaf, currently his shows can be applied to either the conventional way with slides and a paper application or through ZAPP.

And a word to the wise.
With Howard Alan's shows listed on ZAPP, there will be several shows with similar names. Make sure you read the information very carefully about the show you are about to apply to. And you may also want to check out the show web site for more information

Show Deadlines I no longer have closing dates listed on my home page due to the now much larger number of shows that have signed on with ZAPP. I suggest all artists contact ZAPP and ask them to list the shows with closing dates on the home page of the ZAPP web site, like Juried Art Services does. I've put contact information for ZAPP on this page of my web site.

Shows Extending Deadlines Illogically
I'm using Winter Park as an example because this just happened a few days ago. I recently noticed that Winter park extended it's deadline. Every Wednesday ZAPP sends out a list of shows closing in the next week. They had Winter Park listed as closing on September 19th. But in logging in I noticed that the deadline was extended until the 21st. The problem is that no one knew that the deadline was extended because the next ZAPP notice was not scheduled until September 24th. This is a perfect example of why ZAPP needs to list the shows with closing dates on their home page.

August 13, 2008 Newsletter

Where did the "Apply" button go?
Within the past few months, ZAPP changed the size of the center white area of all their web pages. This change has made the page too wide for anyone on an 800x600 resolution monitor and requires horizontal scrolling to see the rest of the page content. In other words, if you use an older computer or a small monitor, you may not see the right side of the page where the "apply to this show" button is when you're trying to apply to a show. As of July 2006, 17% still used 800x600 resolution monitors. And as of February 2008, only 7% of viewers used 800x600 screens. But the real question is how many artists use that size because they either have older computers or have scrimped when purchase a computer because they really weren't that interested in the technology when they chose a monitor. In the past week, I received calls from three artists who couldn't see the "apply" button and I walked them through horizontal scrolling to see what was on the right side of their screen.

Comcast search brings in too many results
In a non art show related poor usability example, Comcast cable just changed their menu configuration. Formally when you did a search for movies, you only saw movies starting within the half hour time period that you did your search for, making it easy to decide what to watch. Now each time you do a search for all movies, Comcast shows you eight screens of seven channels each and it's no longer easy to see what's starting, forcing you to take unnecessary time reading through a list of movies, some ending within the next five minutes. Working at home I enjoy watching movies and have been paying for all the pay channels. I no longer can figure out what's starting so they've lost my monthly pay channel fees. The sad part is that they let you choose search parameters for types of movies but don't let you choose only movies yet to start.
http://bermangraphics.com/problems/comcast.htm

I received a call from an artist whose images I had worked on. Betsy Kube of the Crafts America Shows wanted to use the images to promote a show but the jury images on Juried Art Services weren't large enough. I called Betsy to discuss image requirements so I could provide images at the correct size for her needs. In the ensuing conversation we discussed the best way to get artists to supply high resolution images. Providing high resolution images to shows gives the artist a much better chance of the show using those images for promotional material, which in turn also benefits the artist by giving them more exposure to the buying public. My suggestion was for each artist to prepare a "press kit" consisting of a bio or artist statement and a set of high resolution images of their art. You can read more about my press kit suggestions:

New addition to the Berman family.
On July 25th we picked up a puppy. What's more appropriate than some ZAPP formatted puppy pictures.

July 13, 2008 Newsletter
Jury Details Revisited
In a recent thread on the NAIA forum, there was discussion of a ZAPP show that was offering to jury exempt artists for next year if they paid a substantial amount at this years show. I think it's time for artists to put pressure on any show not divulging how many spaces they have open for jurying along with other show particulars. All of this information is supposed to be on the "jury details" of their ZAPP profile which (at this point) isn't mandatory to fill out. What I suggest doing is sending an e-mail to (or calling) each show stating you are considering applying but will only do so if you know how many spaces are available and how many applications the show received last year so you can judge what your odds are. Expenses are too high and shows will have to become more interested in artist's welfare if they want to continue to get our hard earned money.

Severe storms rock the art shows two weeks ago. Evanston and Omaha reported really bad storms that damaged a lot of artist's booths. Don Ament provided these cell phone pictures from the Omaha show.

Everyone's an Expert
A wise artist once told me that you have to be careful when looking for help with your images because most people you ask seem to think that they know everything, but in reality, they only know what they know and that usually isn't enough. A furniture maker needed pictures of his work to apply to art shows. Unfortunately, the photographer he hired told him that he had experience working with artists but then did a really poor job. Read more about the story.

June 26, 2008 Newsletter

A reminder that ACC applications deadline is the end of July. Contrary to the way they've juried in the past, they will now have their jurors stay at home and jury on their computer monitors instead of seeing the images projected. What this means for the artists is that the three over two template is no longer relevant and is going to be changed to five across, if it hasn't already. The way the ZAPP monitor jurying is set up is that the jurors see each image individually one after another. That means your strongest images might be better at the beginning and end of the presentation for a good first and last impression. Look at these pages for an example of how the ZAPP monitor jurying currently looks.

It's not too late to have me work on new images for the ACC or any other show, and I can also photograph your artwork.

Waiting lists. I've been hearing rumors that some shows have not been honoring their wait lists and just calling local artists at the last minute. I don't have any specific information but I do recommend keeping in close contact with any show you happen to be on the wait list for if you really want to do the show. Though a show may say not to call, I recommend calling once a week to keep it in their mind that you are serious about doing the show. And if it's convenient and not too expensive, tell them you intend to be their waiting on set up day. I've personally gotten into a lot of major shows over the years doing that.

May 2, 2008 Newsletter
My latest juror interview is up. A jeweler who was a Mount Gretna juror shares her thoughts about the process and offers some tips.

What's a Booth Shot?
Prior to Cherry Creek closing last November, I received an e-mail from someone asking me to define a booth shot. He had 40 photographs in a newly created profile on ZAPP and wanted to apply to Cherry Creek. I explained that it was a picture of your display set up at an art show and if there was no booth slide available, he could still apply in the emerging artist category. His response was that he had just graduated from art school and would change his application to the emerging artist category. As a follow up, he just e-mailed me the other day asking about which canopy to buy. It seems that he did get into a show (not Cherry Creek) and now needed to purchase display equipment.

ZAPPism
definition - anything that doesn't make sense relative to digital jurying. I've now included a few ZAPPisms in my seminar.

ZAPPism Example
I received a call from an artist who is a painter who paints on porcelain, not canvas or paper. He is very clear about the process in his artist statement and individual art image descriptions. He had applied to a show in the painting category and the show moved his application to the ceramics category, and he was wait listed. Problem is that if he does the show in ceramics category he would be considered buy/sell. A follow up. The artist contacted the show and explained that if he were called off the wait list it wouldn't be fair to an artist who actually worked in ceramics. He feels that he did the right thing. What do you think?

NAIA Coconut Grove Sales Survey
The artist survey about their sales is now available to download (as a PDF) from the NAIA web site. It also includes a lot of quotes from artists about the show:
http://naia-artists.org/work/surveys.htm?

A Great Art Show Success Story
Mark Zurek, photographer/digital artist had the show of a lifetime at Fort Worth last month. You can read about his experience, including his list of five things he did wrong when he started out doing shows just three short years ago:

Art Show Deadlines
Connie Mettler, director of Arts Beats and Eats has extended her deadline for submission. Here are her thoughts on the subject of art show deadlines.
"Most of you have been in this business for some time, but I've got to say, that for many, many years I believed that the DEADLINE on an application was strictly a "drop dead deadline," miss the deadline, you were out of luck. I am sure this is true still for only a handful of shows. More and more I hear from show directors that the deadline isn't the deadline until the projectors (or the rokus) are rolling. In addition, these days many shows are not filling their events by the time of the jurying and often have spaces long past jury time. So, in case you have never heard this before, if you missed a deadline make a phone call. Artists are the constituency of art fairs, without you they do not exist. Most art fair organizers are glad to talk to you."
http://www.artsbeatseats.com

EZUp in the Snow
Emmett Hollander provided a few pictures from the Tulip Festival Street Fair in Mount Vernon, WA

My next Seminar will be in Greenville SC on May 22nd for the Artisphere show. Call 864-271-9355 for more information.

April 10, 2008 Newsletter
The case of the missing ZAPP images
From time to time, I get a frantic telephone call or e-mail from an artist who logged into their ZAPP profile and can't find any images. There has never been a case where images are missing from a ZAPP profile. It's always that the artist has an additional profile they may have never used and they logged into the wrong one by mistake. If you want to find out if you have additional profiles, click on the "Forgot Password" link under where you would enter your username and password. Then enter your e-mail address on the page it brings you to. ZAPP will then send you all your usernames and passwords connected to your e-mail address.

What does ZAPP and College Applications have in common?
In a parallel to what's happening with ZAPP with the art shows getting more applications, online applications are making admissions into Colleges more difficult. Someone posted about this to my Photography forum recently. Because of a universal online application used by over 300 schools called "Common Application," High School students are now applying to up to 20 universities, where they may have only applied to about five to eight in the past. Here's an article about it:
http://www.collegeboard.com/parents/apply/narrow-college-list/150489.html

Here's a quote from a 2006 USA Today article:
"Admissions deans say the ease of applying online, along with the growing popularity of the Common Application — a standardized form now used even by many brand-name institutions — are fueling the increase. The number of Common Applications filed online has skyrocketed from just under 41,000 in 2000-01 to a predicted 700,000 this year." Can that be where art show applications are headed?

More Juror Interviews
I have three more juror interviews on my web site. Two from artists and one from a gallery owner. They are now listed on this page with the newest interviews at the top:

Improving the System
Suggestions on improving the digital jury systems. I have a page of suggestions I've made to ZAPP on how to improve the system. If you're interested in my thoughts on the process, you can read it on this page.

Cherry Creek Statistics
For the 2008 festival. 231 juried artists and 8 "Emerging Artists" were chosen from 2,231 artist applications. 13 artists are from the state of Colorado. 89 are first-time-ever CCAF exhibitors, and 67 artists exhibited in 2006 or prior; this means nearly 70% (156 artists) artists are new for 2008.

March 10, 2008 Newsletter
Closing deadlines There are over 20 shows closing in the next week on ZAPP and JAS.

Juried Art Services image update follow up
The image requirement wording change for Juried Art Services I mentioned last month shouldn't make anyone run out and change their images, which some artists have contacted me about. No matter what size is uploaded (between 1400 and 2000 pixels long dimension) the jurors only will see the images at 700 pixels long dimension, exactly the same as they've always done since the Smithsonian Craft Show started using JAS years ago.

Coconut Grove sales figures
Coconut Grove reported to the Miami Herald that between six and eight million dollars worth of art was sold at the 2008 show, which they claim was about the same as was sold in 2007. At 325 booths, that would be an average of about $18,000 per booth at the low end. The problem with this number is that a great many artists reported not making any sales or just barely making expenses. To counter this claim of artists riches, NAIA has created an anonymous survey and sent out an e-mail to all artists who have done the show since 2006. If you've exhibited at the Grove in the past three years and have not received the e-mail about the survey, please let me know and I'll provide a link. This is an important survey because if shows think that the artists are really making that much money, they feel justified in continuing to raise their booth fee. The booth fee for Coconut Grove went up $100 in 2008 from the year before.

ZAPP web site off line
On Sunday evening March 2nd, the ZAPP web site was unavailable. If you tried to visit the site that evening your browser may have "cached" the page saying it was down for maintenance and for the next few days it kept showing you the same down for maintenance page each time you went back. The way a browser works is that it downloads web pages (files and images) to a folder called "cache" on your computer and loads the page from your local folder to save bandwidth and time. A number of artists contacted me during that week saying that they were still unable to access the ZAPP site. The solution was to reload or refresh the page or to clear your temporary internet files. Both would force your browser to go to the server and reload the page again. A third solution would be to try an alternate browser.

Modifying a ZAPP application after submission
Most artists know that Juried Art Services lets you tinker endlessly with your application up until the closing date. There is also a way to make changes in a ZAPP application once submitted but it's a little more complicated. You need to contact the show (I suggest telephone) and ask them to set your application back to incomplete so you can make changes before submitting it again without having to pay an additional jury fee. This only works up until the deadline and you are at the mercy of the show, but I've never heard of a show turning down an artist's request to make changes.

More from Broad Ripple.
They received 764 applications their first year with ZAPP, which is up 200 from last year. But the most interesting statistic is that 42% of the applications were from artists who had never applied before.

Open Jury
St James Court will be holding an open jury on March 29-30. Call 502-635-1842 for more information. If you hear of any other shows holding open juries, please let me know.

Bethesda Row
Though they have not signed up with ZAPP, they've created an online application where you can upload your ZAPP formatted images:
http://www.bethesdarowarts.org/application

February 17, 2008 Newsletter
We're in the middle of the Winter madness with over 30 shows closing each month through March. I wonder how many artists are applying to more shows now with digital applications being so much easier than preparing slides and checks and running to the post office each time a deadline approaches.

Tips from a La Quinta juror
Another in my continuing series of interviews with jurors. I was fortunate to be able to speak to a Juror from La Quinta. It's interesting to read about how the jurors juried only one category, at home, and are given three days to complete their scoring. Could this be the future of ZAPP?

Juried Art Services new image requirement wording Nothing to worry about. Though they raised the upper limit (to 2000 pixels) of what size can be submitted, they are going to continue accepting images prepared at 1400 pixels long dimension as they've been accepting for the past few years. The wording has been simplified at my request. "Select an image file: JPG Files Only (.jpg or .jpeg). Images should be between 1400 pixels and 2000 pixels longest dimension at 300PPI (pixels per inch). 1920x1920 pixel images are also acceptable."

When previewing your image choices on a Juried Art Services application, make sure to pay attention to the position of the images on the preview screen. I started an application for Sausalito to do screen captures for my web site and noticed that it's two over two with the booth image on a separate page. Click here to see how the jurors for shows using Juried Art Services see the images

Does your booth slide look like it works with your individual art images.
From an artist who observed the Broad Ripple jury: During the Photography category there was a good deal of confusion because one applicant had submitted three black and white landscape photos and a booth image with European color photos. In the initial run through, the staff even flipped around to another booth shot that seemed to "fit". But when they did the second round where they actually scored, they realized the color booth went with the black and white landscapes. Something to keep in mind: make sure your booth image fits with your submitted artwork!

Shows posting images of accepted artists To add to the list I previously sent out, Coconut Grove includes one image for each artist:

On a (not so) humorous note. The Corn Hill show juries by holding the slide sleeve up to the light. They even specify that slides in frosted vinyl sleeves may not be juried. Maybe things aren't so bad for the artists on ZAPP...

January 22, 2008 Newsletter

Listing of shows on ZAPP
Finally ZAPP listened to my complaints about the ways shows list themselves. They are now listed by the actual name of the show. No more 5th annual whatever festival following 57th Street. With over 150 shows, it's now easier to find a specific show on the page.

Ever wonder what it's like to be a juror? Mary Jane Cross was a juror for the 2007 Long's Park show and she offers some insight into what a juror thinks about:
Interview with a Long's Park juror
Two things she stressed were the amount of time they had to look at the images and the short (100 character) artist statement.

Shows posting images of accepted artists
Lafayette Round the Fountain posts the entire set of images (including the booth) of accepted artists:
http://www.roundthefountain.org/2007_preview.htm

Here are a few more:
Smithsonian Craft Show
http://smithsoniancraftshow.org/indexmain.asp
Philadelphia Craft Show
http://pmacraftshow.org/artists

If you know of an art show web site that allows you to view the images of the accepted artists, please send me a link.

Jury details and grandfathered shows continued
Bayou City sent out an e-mail to all artists that applied: "In addition to representatives from the Art Colony Board, we are please to inform you that your work will be reviewed by our invited panel", and then listed the jurors names. I wonder if they give their board members the same scoring weight as their jurors. Well, at least they tell you what's going on.

The St Louis Art Fair lists available spaces as 139 plus 26 reinvited artists for a total of 165 booths. They normally receive 1200 applications. No wonder I've never been able to get in....

December 28, 2007 Newsletter
Happy holidays.
A short newsletter this month and a reminder to check the deadlines of the shows you plan on applying to. There are over 30 shows on ZAPP and Juried Art Services closing between now and the beginning of February.

Sausalito, one of the top rated art shows in the country, is now taking applications through Juried Art Services.

Defining the booth slide.
I've created a web page that helps artists understand what a booth slide is. I'm looking for examples of booth slides in all different mediums (except photography) to be used as examples. Names will not be used. If you would be willing to let me use your booth picture, or even have an old booth jury slide you can send me, please let me know.

Jury details and grandfathered shows continued.
57th Street - "Approximately 75 new artists will be invited to exhibit. The remaining 200 spots are filled by returning artists." Old Town - 20% of the spaces will be filled by new artists

Last chance.
If you might be interested in exhibiting at Ann Arbor, now would be the time to join the Michigan Guild. Exhibiting members of The Guild are tenured, and only need to jury once every three years to maintain their space in the Ann Arbor show. In the past that meant that it took many years for new associate members to rise to exhibiting status. Now that is all changing. Starting in January 2008 Associate Members will no longer be allowed to join, and the new Artist Members will not be given spaces in the show until all the Associate Members have been offered exhibiting status. I know this may sound complicated, but the bottom line is that if you join now there is an excellent chance that you will be a tenured member in a few years. After the first of the year that opportunity will be lost. And being able to count on being in a show like the Ann Arbor Summer Art Show is worth a lot. For a sign up form and more information go to the Guild’s web site: http://theguild.org

Look for the Michigan Guild to start jurying through Juried Art Services in 2008.

Interested in doing your own jury slide photography continued. I've added a page of lighting diagrams to my "do your own photography" resource section. And I've consolidated all the relevant information by creating a single page of links:

November 29, 2007 Newsletter
It seems that as soon as I send out one of these newsletters, new information is made available to me worth passing on to you.

I spoke to Kat Bauer at the La Quinta show a few days after the jury results went out. For those of you who applied and didn't get in, they are giving out the jury scores if you call the show. A quote from Kat; "La Quinta believes that everyone that pays to apply deserves to know their score." She also told me that they have different jurors for each medium. La Quinta may be the only show I'm aware of where the jurors have some knowledge of the medium they are jurying.

Blame it on semantics. Gasparilla sent out their jury results e-mail with the words "pre-jury" in the subject line. I received calls and e-mails from both accepted and rejected artists asking if I know whether there were to be two juries. Turns out that Gasparilla has always considered the slide (and now ZAPP) jury as a pre-jury and the real jury is the first day of the show for the award money. I've done the show about a half dozen times over the years and never knew that. But then like most artists, I never read applications further than the deadline, amount of slides, check amounts and whether an artist statement is asked for.

The Fort Worth open jury was held over the November 10-11 weekend. I received an e-mail from a digital artist who had applied in the emerging artist category. He described his experience observing the ZAPP jury and how much he learned by being able see his images projected and how he was able to ask questions of the jurors when it was over: Read the article here

How to sort the list of shows on ZAPP.
Do not use the link on "Participating Shows" the left. Use the "Apply to Shows" link on the top of the page. Then using the drop down box, if you sort by "application deadlines", it will bring up the entire list of shows in the order of their deadlines, actually showing the deadline date in the list. Then click on "View More Info" for the show you wish to apply to. In the past, if you have used the "participating shows" list on the left, using the "apply to shows" will make finding the show you want to apply to much easier.

If you might be interested in exhibiting at Ann Arbor, now would be the time to join the Michigan Guild. Exhibiting members of The Guild are tenured, and only need to jury once every three years to maintain their space in the Ann Arbor show. In the past that meant that it took many years for new associate members to rise to exhibiting status. Now that is all changing. Starting in January 2008 Associate Members will no longer be allowed to join, and the new Artist Members will not be given spaces in the show until all the Associate Members have been offered exhibiting status. I know this may sound complicated, but the bottom line is that if you join now there is an excellent chance that you will be a tenured member in a few years. After the first of the year that opportunity will be lost. And being able to count on being in a show like the Ann Arbor Summer Art Show is worth a lot. For a sign up form and more information go to the Guild’s web site: http://theguild.org

Jury details and grandfathered shows. Someone pointed out an inaccuracy in the 57th Street listing. In researching the closing date in their ZAPP information, I came across the sentence that specifies how many spaces are actually open for jurying:
"Approximately 75 new artists will be invited to exhibit. The remaining 200 spots are filled by returning artists."
I wonder how many artists have actually read the fine print of any show they are applying to. Not that 57th Street is doing anything wrong. In fact, they are probably one of the few shows that is giving us the odds in advance of getting accepted.

Interested in doing your own jury slide photography.
I don't have to reinforce how competitive jurying is and recommend against it unless you have really have a handle on lighting and how to use a digital camera. I've been working with a few products that use daylight florescent bulbs and make it (relatively) easy to get good exposure and color while lessening chances of hot spots on 3D work.
A list of the products and links to examples taken with them

The key to using any of these products is the light from the bulbs is diffused through white Plexiglas or white nylon.
My relevant companion article on how to set and use your digital camera

A final note here. Every image needs post processing. No matter how good you are with lighting or a digital camera, the images still need to be post processed to look their best.

November 2, 2007 Newsletter
The big news this month is that The Michigan Guild has signed with Juried Art Services for 2008. If you're a Guild member, look for information about it in their January newsletter. Let me know if you need help getting set up on Juried Art Services. That makes two Ann Arbor shows using Juried Art Services, the South University merchants show and the Guild.

You may have applied to Rittenhouse Square last year using Juried Art Services. This year they are doing their own digital jurying and are asking for ZAPP formatted images on a CD with a postmark deadline of January 4th. You can download their application in PDF format from:
http://www.rittenhousesquarefineartshow.org

If I had known about it, I would have written about it sooner. Coconut Grove has an open jury each year around the end of September. I've been told that they jury two dimensional and three dimensional work on separate days with different jurors, and for those artists attending, they allow you to speak to the jurors on the day their work isn't being shown.

If you know of any other shows that have open juries, please let me know so I can write about it here.

Jury Slide Photography
If you're in a bind and need to have work photographed to meet a deadline, give me a call. 800-350-9289. Here are a few examples of jury slide photography I've done recently.

October 14, 2007 Newsletter

ZAPP tip
Since art shows started using ZAPP, artists have wondered about the order their images were seen by the jurors within their medium. In the course of a recent discussion about image order on the ZAPP forum, this reply was posted by Lara Turner: The ZAPP software enables three distinct options for show administrators to "order" artist submissions in their panel process: (1) by the date that the application was received (changing an application from received to incomplete will not change the application received date as that is logged when the show first receives the application), (2) by the artist's last name or (3) by artist ID. The first two options are self-explanatory; the artist ID option presents submissions to the jury in a completely random order (the software uses the ID number to "randomize" the ordering of results). In response to your specific question about whether there is a default setting, a show must choose one of these options; we prefer not to have any "defaults". So from my perspective, all shows should use application received date for the order to be fairest.

Watching a ZAPP Jury
I've previously posted about how important it is to see your images projected in a jury room. I received this e-mail from an artist client the other day: I was invited to view the preliminary run through for Ft Myers the day before the jury started. All I can say is it was amazing. As long as your images are done right using all the image area and color punch they are incredible to see. Much better than what a slide projector does. My images look exactly like my artwork and jumped right off the wall. If anyone has a chance to see their art work projected like the judges do, you do learn a lot!!! Thanks for all your help, it's much appreciated!!!

Reminder.
Fort Worth is having an open jury with a preview Friday night cocktail party on November 9th - 11th. If you're interested in attending, I'm looking for a (male) roommate. I did it last year with two other photographers and we spent the entire time analyzing the jury process and how the images looked.

Another open jury.
I just did a seminar at the Indianapolis Art center. Broad Ripple will be holding an open ZAPP jury and you'll be able to see all the images projected. Look for their jury dates to be held early next year when they announce that their application is open. And though they're going to be using ZAPP, they've also said that they want to give the artists their jury scores like they've done in the past.

20-30% more applications
The latest issue of Sunshine Artist quoted the director of the Broad Ripple Art Show saying that they were told that they would get 20-30% more applications. I have yet to find out who gave them that figure, but it confirms everything we've suspected. Therefore I can't stress how important the quality of your jury images are.

Deadlines
I now have only the current month's closing dates on my home page and have moved the long list of art show closing dates to an internal page.

Jury Slide Photography
If you're in a bind and need to have work photographed to meet a deadline, give me a call. 800-350-9289. Here are a few examples of jury slide photography I've done recently.

Seminar Information
If you've attended one of my digital jury image seminars, I have a page of downloads and links for most of the information I speak about:

September 5, 2007 Newsletter
We're now into September. Over 15 shows have deadlines this month, including lots of the Florida ZAPP deadlines, and the Smithsonian Craft Show using Juried Art Services. I maintain a list of shows application deadlines.

ZAPP Jury Tip
The majority of the ZAPP shows are using monitors instead of digital projectors. I've set up a simulation of ZAPP monitor jurying on my web site showing how a horizontal image, vertical image and square image look to the jurors. You can experience ZAPP monitor jurying starting on this page.

ZAPP Jury Tip
Main Street Fort Worth is having an open jury on November 9th through the 11th. Friday evening is a preview party where all the images are shown and then you can spend an extended period of time looking at your own images. The two day jury starts Saturday morning and is also open for artists to observe. Even if you're not applying to the Fort Worth show, it's an amazing experience seeing five ZAPP images projected across a twenty foot wall. I'll be attending. I attended last years Fort Worth open jury and wrote about it for my web site

ZAPP Jury Tip
St James Court. Last week at the NAIA show directors conference, I spoke to Margue Esrock, director of the St James Court art show about the number of spaces they have open for jurying. I was told that they have an onsite jury that invites back 45% of the show and have 55% of the spaces open for jurying through ZAPP. I suggested that she make that information available on the show's jury details page.

I'll be doing an all day seminar at the Indianapolis Art Center on October 6th for the Broad Ripple show which will be using ZAPP next year. The morning portion will be my seminar on preparing accurate digital jury images of artwork and the afternoon session will be a new seminar I've prepared on marketing for artists.

I send these ZAPP Tips out through an online service called Vertical Response. Please, if you reply, do not send picture attachments as I won't receive them. Send them to my regular e-mail address at larry@bermanart.com

July 27, 2007 Newsletter
ACC exhibitors, it's not too late to get me new images to work on. Even those I get on August 1st or 2nd, I can have completed and uploaded for you.

A reminder. More Florida shows have gone with ZAPP and the Florida jury deadlines start September 1st. Marco Island, Mount Dora and Gasparilla just recently announced that they are using ZAPP.

For those artists who normally do Ann Arbor, the South University show has signed up with Juried Art Services. Now there are two major art shows (Reston was the first) using JAS. If you need to have your ZAPP images formatted for JAS, give me a call. I maintain an archive of the full size color corrected files.

Two important tips worth revisiting.

ZAPP Jury Tip
Since I posted about the ZAPP shows using monitors, I became aware of a way to find out the jury details of most of the ZAPP shows. On the information page for each show where you begin your application, there is a "jury details" link. I've created an instruction page on how to access that information:

Additionally, if the show is using monitors, they are viewing the images that you see when you click on the small thumbnails in your ZAPP profile. Those 700 pixel square images are seen one at a time which is different than the full set seen simultaneously if they are being projected using multiple projectors. That means your should consider using your strongest images first and last in your presentation.

Tips from a Cherry Creek Juror
Robert Stadnycki is an art show director (Harrisburg Arts Festival) and an exhibiting artist. He was one of the five jurors for the 2007 Cherry Creek Arts Festival. I had a conversation with him where he provided some insight and image tips:

June 25, 2007 Newsletter
ZAPP Jury Tip
Since I posted about the ZAPP shows using monitors, I became aware of a way to find out the jury details of most of the ZAPP shows. On the information page for each show where you begin your application, there is a "jury details" link. I've created an instruction page on how to access that information:

Tips from a Cherry Creek Juror
Robert Stadnycki is an art show director (Harrisburg Arts Festival) and an exhibiting artist. He was one of the five jurors for the 2007 Cherry Creek Arts Festival. I had a conversation with him where he provided some insight and image tips:

A reminder
It's now nearing the end of June and the ACC deadline will be coming up in just over a month. Then the winter Florida show deadlines will be starting in September. If you have any new images that you would like me to work on, I'm free throughout the entire month of July and most of August.

Additional Digital Services and Web Site Design
I can prepare color correct images and layouts for any use, including postcards and catalog sheets. And I've built web sites (working with Chris Maher) for well over 150 artists and other small businesses. A partial list of my web design clients can be seen on this page of my web site:

Digital Image Seminars
I just did a seminar at the Pensacola Museum of Art with Bruce Baker. If you know of an arts organization or artist group that can benefit by my seminar on preparing accurate digital images of artwork, please have them contact me:
http://bermangraphics.com/seminars/digitaljury.htm

March 24, 2007 Newsletter
ZAPP Jury Tip
Are you aware that more than half the shows that have signed up with ZAPP are now using monitors to jury? The viewing format that they are using is that the jurors see each image enlarged one after another before viewing a page of the small thumbnails where they enter the scores. Because of this sequence, the most important images are now the first and last, instead of how they relate together. First impressions and last impressions need to be your strongest images. Not all shows are divulging their jurying methods so it's important to contact the shows you are not sure of and ask how they will be jurying, monitors or projection.

ZAPP Jury Tip
ZAPP waiting lists are better than a waiting list for a show still using slides. A top 20 show in it's first year with ZAPP went through more than half it's 50 artist waiting list on the day the acceptances were sent out. By the time the show came around, they had expired their waiting list and were calling local artists who had scored high but had not made the waiting list.

ZAPP Jury Tip
In October I went to the Fort Worth ZAPP jury to see how the images projected five across. I wrote about it for my web site

ZAPP Jury Tip
I try to keep an updated list of closing dates for all shows using either ZAPP or JAS on the home page of my web site:

Last week I was the key note speaker for the Best of Missouri Hands annual artist conference. My next seminar will be at the Pensacola Museum of Art in June. If you know of an art show or artist organization that can benefit from the information I share, please ask them to have me do a seminar.

Art Shows asking for digital images not using ZAPP or Juried Art Services. There is an ongoing trend for shows to create their own digital jury system, asking for non standard image requirements. When I hear about shows asking for digital images, I make an effort to contact the show and ask them to please accept ZAPP formatted images because it's now considered a standard size (1920x1920) that most artists already have. I have an article about it with image viewing suggestions on my web site:

Please contact any show asking for non standard size images and suggest they read the information. This is especially true for any show not asking for square images, which is fair for artists because it shows both horizontal and vertical images equal in size. If I've worked on your images, I've provided a CD of the files I've prepared. You may need those image files now to apply to shows asking for digital submissions like I've mentioned above. If you can't find that CD or need a duplicate, contact me and I'll provide one again for a minimal fee from my back up files. Also, for those shows not asking for ZAPP format images, I can easily prepare your images to meet any show requirement and provide a CD.

Don't forget the April 1st deadlines for the high end fine craft shows on Juried Art Services

April 30, 2006 Newsletter

The past year has brought a number of changes to the art shows, especially those that have started jurying digitally. More artists have been applying because of the ease of the online application, which is making for more competition. My position has always been that it's about the images. Just because it's easy to apply doesn't make it any easier to get accepted. The images of your artwork are all you have that sets you apart from the other applicants.

What's better than a great jury image? A set of great jury images that work well together in your overall presentation. To that end, I'm offering a new service for three-dimensional artists. High end retouching to take out hot spots on highly reflective surfaces and dropping the images onto a neutral background that accents all the pieces uniformly. This can take your presentation to a new level. Examples can be seen on this page of my web site.

A new service I'm offering two-dimensional artists is the ability to scan oversize art up to 12x17 inches, at high enough resolution to have more detailed digital jury images than if the work had been photographed either digitally or with film. This is great for scanning etchings, 11x14 photographs or small paintings. There is a testimonial on my digital imaging services page:

Customer service. If you've worked with me, you know the level of customer service that I provide. I've helped hundreds of artists get through the online application process for both ZAPP and Juried Art Services. Here's an interesting antidote. A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from an artist client at 4:45 on a Friday afternoon, asking if she could get 35mm slides from her digital files for a Monday postmark deadline. I immediately called IPrintFromHome to see if they were working on Saturday, formatted her full size digital files for 35mm slides and uploaded them. The artist had the 35mm slides in her hand by 3:00 Monday afternoon.

This is a service I've been offering since I started scanning jury slides. If you need 35mm slides from your improved digital files, I can format them for you and upload the files. If you want to contact IPrintFromHome, there is a link on my digital files to 35mm slides instruction page:

Because of the depth of information on BermanGraphics, I've created a new web site called www.ZAPPhelp.com where you can easily find links to all the digital jury information on BermanGraphics.

The American Craft Council has moved their deadline up by a month to the end of July. Don't wait until the last minute if you have new images you want me to work on, or want to use my high end retouching services to improve your jury presentation.

I can prepare your digital jury images for ZAPP, Juried Art Services, 35mm slides and any other image format requirement, including preparing a CD for you to submit for those few shows asking for one.

And a reminder. Working with Chris Maher, we build web sites for artists. A list of our artist clients can be found on this web page

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