My Interview with Sunshine Artist Magazine

Earlier this year, Sunshine Artist Magazine interviewed me for an article about how professional artists use computers.

Sunshine Artist is a business magazine for visual artists and crafts people who exhibit their work at outdoor art shows. The interview appears in print in their current October, 2011 edition.

The article, entitled "Computing the Art Show Equation: The Digital Revolution and Your Business," explores the pros and cons of the transition to computer and online technologies within the art show world and how this evolution affects working artists.

As you'll see from the excerpt provided here, I am firmly in the "pro" camp of computer technology. I use it for editing digital imagery, acquiring source material, and creating self promotional materials.

I'll post a PDF of the full article in the future when I obtain a copy from the magazine. In the meantime, here's the excerpt that features my thoughts:

Sarah Pollock, who creates soft pastel cityscapes and landscapes and lives in Port Matilda, Pennsylvania, takes the opposite view. "I have no problem with artwork that incorporates computers," she says. "Computers are just another tool for creation. To me, the stigma currently attached to computers is much like the skepticism that photographers encountered over a century ago. As more time passes, this stigma will fade, and then will all wonder what the big stink was about."

Pollock has a great many computer skills, which she credits to her experience in the workaday world. "I'm fortunate because prior to becoming a full-time artist, I worked as a webmaster for a large public university," she says. "I also worked for Walt Disney Feature Animation, where I used computers and their proprietary software to set the color on their animated feature films. So technology is not intimidating to me. It's another tool, like a Swiss army knife, and I regard it as both a cost-and time-saver for all aspects of what I do."

How exactly does Pollock's experience at Disney and the like help her in her art exhibitor life?

"Having digital fluency in techniques like color management and printer profiles saves me money," says Pollock, "because I can send files to online printing services for postcards, business cards, flyers, etc. that are all set to go. I do not need to pay someone to adjust contrast or color of the images, and I have a much greater degree of control over the final appearance of my publicity materials."

Familiarity with the digital world also helps Pollock to market herself online. "I've had a website for my business since Day One of my transition to being a full-time artist back in 2004," she says.

And that web site has been a great avenue to sales. "My collectors and interested patrons reference my website to see what I'm working on and to check out new works," she says. "Sometimes I've had collectors email me within hours of me posting a new piece online."

Still, these types of online connections are the exception. "The website is less of a sales tool for me than a way to show my collectors that I'm vibrant and that I'm continuing to grow artistically," she says. "For the price points of the artwork that I sell, customers usually still want to see things in person before committing to the purchase."

Memories of her mother's business make Pollock appreciate how a computer can save a small business time and money. "My mom was the sole proprietor of a flower shop throughout my childhood," she says. "After watching what she had to do manually...hand draft invoices and pay exorbitant sums to printers for small runs of labels, business cards, etc., I firmly believe that the efficiencies home computers offer to us small business people today allow us to do much more than what was possible just 10 or 20 years ago."

Among its many other assets, a computer's ability to store images is paramount to Pollock. "I keep images of all my artworks in digital format," she says. "I jettisoned slides and traditional film years ago and was almost giddy to do so because I find digital so much easier."