4th May 2008 - Who's made a mark this week?

A day in the life of Cosmo
12" x 16" pencil
copyright Katherine Tyrrell on behalf of Cosmo

It's my cat Cosmo's turn to have his art featured and he's now completed a cartoon record of a typical day. (Like Dermott he developed an opposable thumb!). He says he now has a LOT more admiration for artists who are illustrators and produce cartoons. If you click the picture you can see a much bigger version and will be able to read the captions for each of his drawings.

Art Blogs

• Luann Udell had a brilliant post on her blog (Luann Udell) last week - about IMP - 'ironic monitoring process'. In essence, IMP is our powerful tendency to recognize our own faults in others. It's an uncomfortable truth - but one which is very powerful.
  
• Andrea Joseph (Andrea Joseph's sketchblog) produced a wonderful 'composite' drawing over my shoulder. You can see all its component parts on her Flickr site
  
• I'm not sure if I've blogged about the moly_x: international moleskine exchange before. There are now 25 groups using the Japanese Fold Moleskine books for their sketchbook exchange. You need to long in to Yahoo to read more about the concept and guidelines but you can see individual contributions on the very first group on their associated blog Moly_x_1
  
• Anita Davies (Anita Davies) who lives in The Fens in East Anglia now has a column for her artwork diary in the Cambridgeshire Times
• Shiona Hamilton-Grant is a Scot living in Belgium who does realistic drawings in graphite of animals - you can see on her blog Sheona Hamilton-Grant's "Black on Grey on White." and her website.
• Ragged Cloth Cafe is a blog and discussion group for those interested in textile art. Kanti Jocelyn has done an excellent review on the blog about Alison Watt Alison Watt, by Kanti Jocelyn - whose enormous paintings of cloth are currently being exhibited showing at the National Gallery in London. Thanks to Alison in Canberra who sent me a link to this post.
• Pingmap is an online design magazine based in Tokyo writes about ideas and inspiration coming from both world class designers, and from the little store on the corner. You can read more about it here.
  
• I do prefer the Japanese attitude to construction sites - as shows in this article about Art on Tokyo's Construction Fences. Check out the huge Hiroshige images and their contemporary counterparts.
  
• Plus this article on the craft version of Pingmap about the man who flies with fishes
  

There are some brand new blogs from coloured pencil artists and one which has recently gone public. If you're a CP fan why don't you go and pay a call and say 'hello'.

• Linda Lucas Hardy CPSA - who won the top prize at the CPSA exhibition in 2007 - has a new blog for updates about her activities - Workshops, News and Other Great Stuff. Linda is another artist who has chosen to use a blog to highlight the type of work and activities which happen in one of her workshops - and it gives an overview of a recent workshop. Linda was selected by Southwest Art Magazine as being one of 10 artists to watch in 2008. I'm guessing that the new image on the splash page of Linda's website might be one of her entries entry for this year's CPSA exhibition.
• Kendra Ferreira (who also won a prize at the CPSA exhibition last year) is also a new blogger - see kjfdesign.
  
• Kendra also participates along with other members of CPSA Chapter 112 (New England) - such as webmaster Nicole Caulfield - in the branch's blog - Colored Pencil New England - the blog. This enables the chapter to communicate with other members (eg about chapter meetings), matters of interest to coloured pencil artists (eg experiements with different materials) and the activities of individual members.
• I'm going to be adding all branch blogs to my information site Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists. Do let me know if there are any more out there.
  

art business - orphan works (MUST READ)

An orphan work is a copyrighted work where it is difficult or impossible to contact the copyright holder. The proposed legislation for Orphan Works (see my earlier blog postOrphan Works and copyright: should you be worried (still)?) is causing much consternation amongst a lot of copyright holders at present. In response to my earlier question - the answer is 'Yes'. It seems to me from what I've read that some people are only looking at part of the bigger picture - and that there are a lot of issues which have not been adequately addressed.

Sites to keep an eyes on include:

• the Orphan Works Bills - this has blog posts which light light
• the Stock Artists Alliance (a trade alliance focused on the business of stock photography) - plus their commentary (dated 1st May 2008) on ophan works - which highlights why visual works are more suspectible to being orphaned - and a pdf file about meta data and its importance for all images on the net
• Stock Artist Alliance's blog - the Metadata Manifesto
  
• the Orphanworks blog - which has links to
  
  • the publication of Orhpan Works Bills 2008 Senate - Congress.
  • why orphan works are a global issue - affecting the UK.
• Editorial Photographers of England and Ireland are very clear about why the proposed bills are a bad idea Why the Orphan Works Act is Uncle Sam's thieves' charter

Imagine this: anyone in the USA can use your copyright work without asking, and should you somehow find out they’ve robbed you, they can escape all legal liability by claiming they didn’t know who they were stealing from, and then only paying you whatever they consider reasonable.

..........consult this Copyright Office report of early 2007 which concluded ‘While corporate copyright owners were generally in favor of a reasonable compensation approach, individual authors like photographers, illustrators and graphic artists noted that under current conditions, obtaining a lawyer to even file an infringement case is prohibitively expensive, so much so that only where statutory damages are available is it possible to file a case. If compensation were limited to only a reasonable royalty, they fear that it will likewise be practically impossible even to recover that compensation given the cost of litigation.’
Why the Orphan Works Act is Uncle Sam's thieves' charter

• A lot of this seems to be being driven by libraries in relation to the preservation of digital images - see the Digital Preservation site of the Library of Congress. It looks like preservation is up against current commercial interests - and livelihoods.
  

Art competitions

Two new developments in relation to the Threadneedle Figurative Prize

• The Threadneedle Figurative Prize website now has a blog written by Jack Harris. Click the entries to read them in full plus the comments.
  
• Answers have been provided - to all those who have registered to a number of the questions which were frequently asked at the recent open day. These should be appearing on the website sometime soon but in the meantime these are the important points
• They want to attract the best figurative work being produced in the UK. You don't need to be a UK citizen and are welcome to enter the competition as long as you're currently living and working in the UK. (My guess is that probably includes those who maintain an address here and live here for part of the year)
  
• works started before 1 January 2007 are eligible so long as they were finished after that date
• it's not just another portrait prize - see below for extract from the feedback
  

It’s a competition that we hope will attract every form of representational art: still life studies, landscapes, figure studies as well as portraits. It’s about real object sources that motivate us, excite us or move us, conveyed in a range of different media. Our definition of ‘figurative’ art was lifted from the Tate’s own definition about ‘any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world and particularly to the human figure’ Therefore, the human figure may play an important part in your representation, but it’s not essential. To make this point clearer we’ve made a small amendment to the rules online (rule 3) by excluding: ‘and, in particular, to the human figure’
Threadneedle e-mail: The TFP Open Day - and some Q&A feedback

• all representational themes are welcome

All representational themes are welcome, whether traditional or contemporary. However, the reason why we’ve encouraged artists to use this show to highlight contemporary issues is because commentaries on topical issues by figurative artists have tended to be sidelined. ‘Conceptual’ artists have enjoyed a free run. We want to provide a platform where figurative artists can use their work to speak loudly on subjects that are important to them. Unlike the national collections, we don’t have the constraints that might lead to certain ‘difficult’ themes being excluded.
Threadneedle e-mail: The TFP Open Day - and some Q&A feedback

Art exhibitions

• 'Take One Picture' is the National Gallery's countrywide scheme for primary schools. Each year the Gallery focuses on one painting from the collection to inspire cross-curricular work in primary classrooms. An exhibition of work by primary schools inspired by Rubens’s ‘A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning’, 28 April - 13 July 2008, Room 1, admission free.
• The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme Connecticut is the first venue for Impressionist Giverny: Americans Painters in France, 1885–1915, an exhibition of over fifty works organized by the Musée d’Art Américain, Giverny. The exhibition tells the story of the expatriate colony founded by American artists in the village of Impressionist master Claude Monet.

Art Marketing

• For those who want to see where visitors go when they visit their website or blog - check out the service offerered by Crazy Egg.
  

Art Studios/Offices

I hope you're not drinking or eating before you read this next link.

• When was the last time you cleaned your keyboard? The BBC news carried a news item about keyboards last week about research which has suggested that some computer keyboards harbour more harmful bacteria than a toilet seat. It had an item earlier in the year about deep cleaning for work stations. OK - hands up who eats and uses the keyboard at the same time? I confess to a leisurely breakfast at mine while reading e-mails and Bloglines!
  

Blogging and website

• Last week I carried an item about people being locked out of their Blogger blogs. People who use Blogger may not be aware of the useful FAQs page which you can find here - Frequently Asked Questions in the Blogger Help Group.

........and finally

I'm taking a week off from blogging for a Spring Clean of home, writing associated with another project and a break - plus outings if the weather is any good!

I'll be back next Sunday with a new 'who's made a mark this week'? It might be quite a bit shorter than usual - it'll depend on how successful I've been at staying away from the computer!

In the meantime for all Anglophiles - take a look at this - pictures of Britain in colour for the first time.