Thursday, May 22, 2014

Grand Guiding Force

                                                   

                          5-2-2011BABCDEFGHIJ

But then some Divine Guiding Force puts it on a Path

Human Folly

                                4-25-2011FABCDE


And it is a queer human folly that drives us on this way

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Discussions about the Future in the Art World and in General

no matter what is said here or elsewhere in real life of virtual life here on LinkedIn or Facebook or twitter - nothing dictates what will be done by artists or the general public in the future and nothing can -

and what I mean by that is that no matter how much the artists of yesteryear bashed the photographer and what they were doing when they called the work - art - nothing changed the course of history actually incorporating photography into the world of art - and nothing will dictate what will be accepted art eventually in the future - 

my point is specifically that there will be surprising developments and experiments and people pushing boundaries all in the name of art and the concept of art will continue to expand -no matter what a purist wishes to happen to preserve the concept of this high art and that low art - 

writing with words is an art - and this is definitely a good arena to develop that art - "

Marketing - still nothing compares in power and value to my "Doubling Project" of handing out my Business Cards In the streets of Manhattan -

I did see an e-mail promotion which showed the results of a study that face to face is the most effective marketing still no matter what - even more effective than the e-mail marketing that they were promoting - so how could anyone go wrong until they try and make a success at what I am talking about - it is not easy - by no means - and although it sounds like - well a piece of cake for me to do - in the beginning I was - believe it or not - really really really shy - and although I had photographed people who had become famous and were in the acting and modeling profession - it was a totally different thing to go ahead - make such a business card back then (1992 was the start) go out in the streets of Manhattan and begin handing out those cards - and do you know what - in some ways it is still not easy and it takes me in a sense to pretty much force myself to do it - sort of like creates this over aggressiveness - but the things that I have learned - the people I have met - the connections that have come and the jobs that I have gotten - well they are all worth it - every last 1.2 cent card that I have handed out - in fact even people who have thrown the card right in the street have helped - since in one specific case another person picked up the card and hired me to photograph his son playing the viola - 

and then there was the lady who saw the card that was left on the edge of a public garbage container at Rockefeller Center - came running after me to ask me if I did weddings and who eventually hired me for her wedding - - and she was living in California at the time - just visiting her fiancĂ© and well she was one of the body guards for the governor or California at the time - 

believe me - there is no other way that I could have possibly every connected with the people that I have connected with so I am sorry -but to me this is still the most powerful - effective and by far the most cost effective means of marketing anything - and I am still in business since 1976 to prove that - 

and in addition - in relation to my art images - the last count on my images in my galleries - when the counter was still available shows that I had received a total of over 10 million image views with sometimes over 36,000 image views in one single day - and that occurred on numerous days

Friday, May 16, 2014

A Story About the Coming Future of Art

now Anthony - I am wondering if you have that same exclamation when you hear of the latest and the greatest prices that some of the current auctions are giving up for the works that are coming to block -(or however it is referred to) :

http://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-world-report-card-thursday-may-15-2014-20195?utm_campaign=artnetnews&utm_source=051514daily&utm_medium=email

from one perspective I can certainly understand your response - like who does he think he is - (and I would like to mention Richard that I am not sure what are these reproductions of and what do the hand embellishments look like - two very important points) but from the perspective of the future (and this goes for all artists living today creating substantial bodies of work both in volume and in quality) there is something that I would like to address -

and that is -

each artist has a virtual monopoly on the pieces that they create given to them by the fact that they each own all of the copyrights to the work that they create -

great - now do we understand that part?

that means that I can - if I so choose to - create as many or as little in number of copies of that original as I so choose and charge whatever I want for that copy - *(this is moving into a commercial realm which is the way things have to go --- in this world to make any sense of this) - but whether I made only one of something or ten or one hundred or thousands or millions or even perhaps billions - there will most likely (this part is a little speculative) be someway for the folks of the future (FOF) to find some way right or wrong - to capitalize on what you - I all of is have created - (people keep getting smarter and smarter - this we know for a fact) plus new and better tools continue to be created to do one thing or other)

anyway - the person who intelligently (somewhere else on LinkedIn I posted a video about creating a theory of the brain where the intelligence of mankind is defined as being able to predict the future - keep that in your mind for future reference) looks at the past creators of art - and how much most of them were compensated for the works that they produced that are at the same time commanding millions of dollars at auction (this might very well be including Van Gogh as well) and say - is there a way for me to even gain a fraction of this grand scheme of bolstered worth while I am still here on this earth and scrambling around to pay the credit card bills and the debts that I have?

now enter the fact that there are a few folks with a few billions to splash or drop or throw or seep over towards his or her corner and well he makes a deal with them - in some very legal fashion - for them to take all of his current and future work off his hands for a modest sum and perhaps a few dollars flowing in constantly so that he or she does not have to concern themselves with how much a stick of butter costs or can I afford a drink of Coca Cola and so that no he or she can continue on creating and well not feel that they are being ripped off by the good FOF (folks of the future) when they do eventually figure out a way to capitalize and capitalize big on the work that is now being created with very meager means - 


now don't you think my fellow friends - that this type of story is a much better one for us to live with than the current - how can I possibly get some person to purchase one or two pieces at high enough prices so that I can live and sleep and well not wear too many rags out in the world? 

Antony - how true is what I am rambling on about here?

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Why I created the different Color Series in my art collection -

Hi Angel -

well I created the series concept because I could not choose one color after seeing all of the possibilities and I thought also that - well there just might be some people who like one color over another or the old couch story - their couch is one color and a different color would better match their couch so I thought - why not help them along

it appears to me that the entire concept of the POD systems and Imagekind more specifically is actually (whether we realize it or not or whether it is intentional or not I am not quite sure) to let the customer become part of the creative process - we on the other hand are giving the customer the right to adjust out images by deciding what paper or canvas type to have the image printed on and in what size - this is not that much of a deal but it is enough to actually claim that each person purchasing has in a sense made that print customer to their own personal tastes and requirements and to allow them to choose a hue for any of the images that we create in addition to everything else gives the purchaser even that more control and input into what the final product is - which is cool especially if it helps them make the choices to actually take the step and make a purchase - :-)

now - that you  have chosen a particular image and told me about it -that is interesting -do you know why you like that particular version of the image? how do you actually feel about the others that you have in a sense rejected (by choosing this one) and if this one did not exist could you live with any of the other possibilities?

Walter :-)

Human Failure


4-17-2010LABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRTUV

It is through basic human failure that we think we know anything

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

the Mathematics of Giving my Business Cards Out to People in the Streets of Manhattan

This is an excerpt from a post on LinkedIn:

Katherine - yes there are many people like yourself and I often think how much they are missing when they do the avoidance thing - I have to try and give a card to about 10 to 100 people sometimes before a person takes one but sometimes everyone takes one it is really an interesting sort of test or experiment sometimes - I remember after September 11 and then there was a heightened alert where Bin Laden claimed that he was going to ruin the financial system of the U.S. and so the police with helmets and machine guns were posted near the CitiCorp building at 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue - well that had been one of a number of spots that I spent a great deal of time at since the subway to and from Queens has an entrance/exit right there so I was there on one of those days and with a few of those guys and their helmets and their machine guns right there about 4 feet away - every single person no matter whether or not they would normally take a card ----- took a card - why? probably they felt compelled to do so with the authority of the police right there! - no one wanted to dare get out of line - ------during the same period it was extra difficult to give out cards because everyone was otherwise afraid!

Irena - I understand how difficult it would be for most people - when I first met my wife who was a teacher in High School here in New York - she was interested in creating a gift basket business and together with her and a special gift basket that she had designed -we did a beautiful post card and she would give it to some of the teachers and she got some business - but one day we were going into a specific neighborhood and I asked - since it was close to home - if she was interested in handing out he post cards with me on a corner under an elevated train stop - and well she came with me to meet the challenge - but after I started to give out my cards pretty quickly I looked up and saw that my wife (Antonia) was not able to even give out one card - It turns out that this young lady who had stood in front of countless college and then high school classes for many year now - with many of the students towering over her to say the least - was actually frozen with some type of fear - which I till this day still do not understand -

any way - back to where the question of money comes in -

for my very first ever colored picture business card I paid in 1992 a whopping $250.00 for a total of 3,000 business cards - that comes to $.083333333 per card

from that point on I have produced them in 50,000 quantities and the prices hovers around 1.2 cents each -

but at $.49 each (at today's current first class mail rate) that comes to $1,862,000.00 in today's postal environment - saved - not counting an envelope and letter paper for each of 3.8 million cards and then the typing and mailing list costs -

no sir re bob ---- nothing beats the direct hand it to them method - even the internet - and finding a niche - that is definitely easy - I hand my cards out to people who will take them - people who are open and most often kind and generous enough to extend their hand and say thank you for whatever it is that I am giving them - that is the niche market that I am focused on - :-)

Friday, May 9, 2014

The Most Important Lesson that I learned in High School!

Will you be looking back after 10 - 20 30 or 40 years and thinking - 
why did I do that on social media - 
why did I work so hard- 
why did I try so much - 
what made me turn so many people away 
when there was definitely an easier way - 
will you be sorry that you have not learned this very powerful lesson 
that I learned 50 years ago in high school? 
if you do not know this already - 
learn it immediately !!! 
Let the tools do the work - 
tools make us superior as beings on the planet 
use them!

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Online seems like the only way to go unless some gallery takes an interest in what I am doing and purchases some work -

After attempting to contact a number of galleries and really thinking about the responses I have gotten to the questions that I have asked without anyone knowing who I am or what my work looks like - it is becoming very clear to me that everything is headed towards the Internet - online - no questions  asked - 

this morning I called on gallery and they - like so many others  - do not look at artists work - because they have too many artists as well - and  - because they would get too many submissions if they did look at new work - simply suggested that I go online and create a presence there - meaning simply that they are looking for people - if they did need any new artists - for people who could thrive - and succeed on line and then perhaps if they did need to bolster their own group of artists - well then you might have a chance of them being interested in your work  - 

so my suggestion to myself if to focus with my online presence (which by the way does not mean that I cannot or should not to will not advertise and market offline only keep the presence of my art and availability for purchase online and work that as much with as many tools as possible   - and of course a reminder to myself is always - let the tools do the work 

letter to a friend about his repetitive quotes from the writings of ancient Greece - without any meaningful discussion about what he is writing -

the imperative is still -


let the tools do the work - no matter what you are doing -


that is what makes the human being far superior in ability to just about any animal on the planet -


we have the ability to create and then - if we remember - to use these tools in a certain way that allows them to do just about most of the work for us -


and remember - this simple fact -


that money is a tool and one of the greatest of the tools amongst all of the tools that has been created by human beings -


try in all your dealings not to forget that fact!


Dear Friend -


Above I have given you one of the most powerful facts that I know about the human being and his existence in the world today -


and while much of what you have written to me in the enclosed copy of the letter I received the other day - is of littel use to me - since in some ways there is only one tool that I have that may perhaps make use of such information and the tool that I might make use of with that information is a tool which in some ways been with the human race from a long time ago and the part of that tool that is being used to interpret or even simply recount what it is that was written has not changed nor is developed much in any way from the point in time when the concepts - ideas and thoughts that you have written down - were developed -


now what does this mean?


It means simply that unless the tools that were created such a long time ago (in ancient Greece - a place you are forever quoting from and spouting information from) have been updated and adjusted with the main tool that was utilized to create them (that tool being the mind in this particular case) then the information - ideas - thoughts and concepts that were made or created back in ancient Greece - may and most probably do not in most cases - actually apply to the mind that has since developed into what it is that we are using today (a much different - whether better or worse tool - but definitely different tool) -


this means - that when you write about things conceived of and created from such a long time ago - there may perhaps be noone or only a few rare individuals who in fact speak the language of which you are referring to and which you are attempting to communicate with - and therefore may - at least during a great part of the time - find yourself not necessarily being understood - honestly -


instead - you may (or may not depending on your perception of what is going on in the universe within which you are functioning) find yourself very often misundersood or not even remotely understood - or you may find yourself only slightly understood with only slight interest by different individuals with you whom you have constantly kept in contact with for many many years and with whom you have spent so many years attempting to introduce not new and ingenious concepts with which to dazzle or amaze or in any way shape or form improve or enhance or even remotely suggest a better way to live - but rather  - your introduction or injection or just plain forcing such thoughts that you tend to deal with into the mind of a person functioning in today’s world seem in some way simply to cause a disruption - a throwing some debris into the workings of a perfectly good engine  -


now this does not mean to say that there is no value in the intention that you have behind your reasoning for introducing the thoughts that you consistantly harp on and which you decidedly insist are so important for people to know


but - there is a lack of effort on your part - it would seem - to make cohesive what thoughts you have within that you wish to express to the person living in the world today such that you can make your concepts understandable to the person fuctioning in the world today -


IN A LANGUAGE THAT HE OR SHE CAN UNDERSTAND -


in order to do this - to make your thoughts of how what you are discussing relates to today’s world and how the person of today may in some way shape or form utilize the information which you are imparting to him or her in any type of productive way - you must first learn the language - the values and the very many concepts which the individuals living in today’s world are utilizing on a consistent basis in order to function today - and then in a skilled and artistic many describe to them in a way that is totally comprehensible to at least a much larger portion of the population that which you have a desire to make them understand - if at all possible -



without a great deal of effort on your part to do this learning of the worlds or universes that many people live in today (and not just the few individuals that you have come in contact during your short stay at the Indian River County jurisdiction where a great many people seem only to be high on one drug or another) your writings - your expressions - your being understood by many individuals at all will remain - rather obscure to most people that you make any attempt to share them with -


I do not mean to imply that I myself am any better at communicating with individuals functioning in the general population of today’s world any better than you do - since my focus is more directed towards communication in a different era than yours - since while you focus on ancient Greece and the folks who lived in the past - I tend to focus on the future and interstellar  - no more understandable to the folks of today unless or until I am able to remain constant with a fellow travelers who may - in the way of the disciples of yesterday spread throughout the populations of today and tomorrow - that which I have shared - explained and made understood by them today - with great and painstaking efforts -




Sincerely,


Walter


Sunday, May 4, 2014

a few thoughts on advertising of art

well then - there used to be at one time a specific advertising agency in Manhattan that was dedicated specifically to the advertising art - and whether your work was in a gallery or not you were able to advertise in the Gallery Guide - since I have not ventured into any galleries for quite some time I do not know if such a Gallery Guide publication still exists - but might that still be a viable means of advertising for artists now as it was back in the 1970's?

also - Katherine - there seems to be a very fine line moving south for the distinction between high value art (your term) and cheap reproduction art - not only because of the term reproduction art being applied to actual reproduction but also because the same method of production is utilized for creating original digital art - if my last statement is too much into a cul de sac as you refer to it - fine - but then why not simply head on over to an advertising agency and let them proceed with advertising your work or anyone's work - the real questions that you ask in the beginning of the discussion get lost somewhere in the entire discussion because - unlike the production of normal products by any of the companies producing the products - the artist is an individual producing a products (perhaps sometimes as a collaboration with one or a few other people as well ) unless he or she is Damien Hirst who has set up a team or company to produce his dots and whatever else is produced - (even he admits the name of the one person on the team producing the best dots paintings out of all of his workers) so in a sense he has formed a team of his friends and discovered a was to market THEIR work under his name where everyone benefits as does Coca Cola forms much larger teams to produce the soda syrup and the distributors throughout the world market the finished product and produce it and distribute it in their own designated areas - the parallels between art being marketed and general products become closer and closer as time goes on and social media becomes a way of life and yet they are there - the social media platforms to make money they cost money - but that does not mean that they are as effective as other means of advertising especially if many of the people attempting to utilize them actually ignore much of the knowledge about advertising and creating effective ads. 
this simply means that a great ad is comprised of either a short statement describing and boasting about a product or a long and detailed story about the benefits of a particular product - of course an image depicting someone utilizing the product is important - thus so many paid ads in the fashion magazines of people actually wearing clothing in environments where the type of garment might be worn - but in addition to that - now with the social media - can the environments be closer to the members of the general public wearing the same clothing as say a high net worth lady? 
In other words - create some ads with your art on the walls with people in them - not viewing the art in the museums (for that is where that art will stay) but on the walls of the potential customers in their homes in their own environments - like this: 
http://575488trillion.blogspot.com/2012/12/2-10-2010d.html 
or this: http://575488trillion.blogspot.com/2012/12/2-9-2010c.html so this all becomes very interesting when we look at the reversal of the role of the model in her outfit and the art on the wall - the problem of course that to create and then pay for the advertising through the different print media and now through social media then takes a great deal of money to get the word out - and if instead of thousands of the fashion outfit being sold there is only one piece of art? - well the cost for that piece becomes exorbitant and - who is going to absorb that cost - ---- the artist? no - so the prices of what people call unappealing art becomes exorbitant simply because of the costs to get the word out about this art is-

Saturday, May 3, 2014

viewers and purchasers vs traffic -

It makes a lot of sense to me to write my own posts on this and other blogs that I have started myself - why - because I would prefer to get viewers and purchasers - even only one - once in a while - than to get a zillion people passing by in traffic -

let me tell you where this happens - right there on Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street in Manhattan where I hand out my business cards -


you see there are a number of very exclusive stores right there on Fifth that only get a few people in to purchase - and all of the heavy traffic passes them by - but they don't need all of that traffic - they only need a few people to purchase the items that they are selling -


of course they might with time get more and more viewers and purchasers into their stores - but it is not traffic that they focus on but their quality merchandise -


so I hope that I - over time will be doing the same providing you with interesting and valuable information at least for a few viewers and purchasers rather than simply being one of the many people who are simply doing whatever they are doing to get -  well as much traffic as they can get and to then claim that they are doing well because of this traffic hunting or attracting that they are doing -



Friday, May 2, 2014

About Potential Clients for Purchasing Art

perhaps there is some other information that can be added to alleviate any misunderstandings at this point in time -

can we remain aware that many great artists have been or art collectors of other artists' work as well - ?

and that being collectors of other artists' work they also can be considered potential clients -

so this being the case it might actually be possible to consider every other artist (whether they do become a collector of your work) a potential client as well?

with this type of thinking there is no need to exclude or segment anyone out of any group at all -

the real question might actually be - how can we all work in harmony (perhaps everyone here in this group) to maximize our understanding of both sides of the equation -

one thing that I can add to the equation (whether or not any individual here accepts my work as art that we are talking about or not) is that the system upon which I am more or less reliant on for expanding the awareness of my collection and which has the greatest possibility of helping me spread the word about my collection and perhaps stimulate sales (other than my own personal "Doubling Project" which I place here for anyone to read about in case you have any questions as to what that is:

http://575488trillion.com/files/38880100.pdf

is an affiliate program run by the company that hosts my art - which is run through a general affiliate company - share a sale which runs affiliate programs for many companies throughout the Internet -

my only seemingly responsibility in order to make this system work for me - seems to be to encourage - guide and assist different individuals throughout the world who might not otherwise know about this affiliate program and to after introducing this program to potential affiliates - make them aware that they have to potential of not only representing or sharing my collection of so far 175,000 images to the people that they market to and earning monies from any sales that are made of my work - but that they have the potential of earning monies also from the representation and sharing the works of the other over 55,000 artists who have placed their work on the same exact system -

this - quite amazingly is a very powerful networking effect that is able when utilized properly to take place and that leaves pretty much any individual artist with an entire support system that could not exist or be created without many many individuals working in harmony (knowingly or unknowingly) towards the exact same ends - *more or less like the affiliate program that works for the Amazon company - which has experience great strides of growth and expansion with a similar affiliate marketing program -

___________________________________________________________________________________________


Irena - 


I am sorry for the misunderstanding - 

The "Doubling Project" to which I have given you a link to is my own personal marketing project which I have bee working steadily since 1992 and during which I have given out over 3.8 million business cards and which has along with that brought me many unbelievably wonderful clients for my photography business and which until only recently has grown to include also my art collection (available now online) as well as marketing tools and business opportunities - 

my posting it here was not a proposal - as you called it - for anyone else to do the same - this I do myself only and usually am in Manhattan at Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street or at various other strategic locations in Manhattan where there is such a heavy foot traffic that I can and do give out the thousands of business cards each day - or when I am not in Manhattan - I give my cards out to just about anyone anywhere - and I know for a fact that this brings me clients which in turn brings in money and - potential purchasers for my art collection prints and canvases - 

if you or anyone here is willing to sell prints and canvases of your work (and perhaps even retain ownership of your originals) then you can if you would like join the Imagekind System where my art is hosted and get three free galleries and avail yourself of the networking effect that exists their to gain viewership from some of the visitors that come to that system from all over the world as well as potential purchasers from the affiliates that already exist and work to bring in new viewers all of the time - 

I agree with you that many times the most unlikely people will appreciate art - original or otherwise - and that leaves a great many people in the category of potential purchasers - 

I am not able to discuss original or not about my art since that type of discussion usually ends up in heated debate - but I can only say since every image that I create is totally digital - that prints and canvases for me means that they are original while I at the same time do understand that a print or canvas of an original painting is not an original in that case -

__________________________________________________________________________________________


Glad you understand my thinking Arthur - I never ever want to stop giving out my cards - there are so many things to learn being out there amongst the people


of course there are some days that are better and sometimes things are just simply unbelievable - and the most difficult times are say - in 8 degree temperatures when it is windy - I can only stay our for about a half an hour on days like that - and the hot sunny days pretty much never ever bother me - I just imagine that I am on the beach - technically Manhattan is an island - and it is my island - no matter what anyone else says - I can go anywhere I want and give out my cards - there - and just think - there are say 20 million people living on the island and it's surrounding areas - but there are over 47 million visitors here every single year who all come to get one of my business cards - and go home and view my art -

I sometimes tell people that they do not have to pay the air fare or the hotel room fees next time - just simply sit at home and enjoy my art -

today I was headed to Manhattan and the subway got derailed so there was no service in or out - so I simply stayed in my neighborhood - Forest Hills and gave out cards there - there were plenty of people who were turned away from the subways and so they had not much to do but to come by and take a cards - :-)

where I stand in Manhattan - there is no selling of anything but I think of it as being much more productive simply giving out the cards and letting people find whatever they want at my sites -

here is my giving talking about giving out the cards a few years ago in the area where I mostly stay :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMqlMQZldxo