What has Meaning and therefore Value?

Anything has meaning - anything - that an individual gives meaning to - so if it is a refrigerator - or a jalapeno pepper that a person attributes meaning to or a medicine cabinet or a dead shark or a bunch of flies on the head of a dead cow - well then that has meaning- first to them and then it is for others to first give these items meaning and then acknowledge the meaning in these items as well - and then there you have it - the creation of an object of art - plain and simple - try it with a piano or a wooden spoon - it can work just as well - if and when a person with enough money is willing to put that money down in order to purchase that wooden spoon and then enough editors and critics become willing to write about the phenomenon that you made or declared the wooden spoon - found object a piece of art and that so and so decided that it was worth every bit of money that it took for him or her to win the item at auction or purchase it from you or a gallery somewhere in the great expanse of the Universe? Don't believe me? well then your life - your time and your efforts can go on forever wondering and pondering on all the questions of the Universe while others will continue on to make the rules and dictate what is what - and for you that has meaning!!! …………………………………………….
7-8-2012G by Walter Paul Bebirian

The Art Market vs The Stock Market

It is very interesting that the art market and auctions are continuously compared to the stock market while the two "markets" are totally unrelated entities and work on two totally different principles - ………………………………………………………..
1-15-2013F by Walter Paul Bebirian

My thought to Ben Lewis - Art Critic after viewing some of his videos on the High Prices of Art

I am wondering if the art critic world is opposed to business people dealing with art in the way that they know how - which is the way business people deal with things - for example I have watched over and over your interview with Mugrabi Jose - and how he describes his interest in Jackies and for some reason I don't seem to understand the concept that his propping up a market for something that he collects as something unusual for a business man to aspire to and accomplish if he has the money to do it - I also am wondering if the interview with Alberto Mugrabi and Aby Rosen - when you do this is there a discussion before hand of what you will cover during the interview? let's say I was to walk into your home - you are a collector of stamps or whatever because you like them - and then I tell you that I don't think you should collect too many from one country or another because their stamps are like cheese sandwiches *(which I actually am not sure what that means) - well of course if you value something and I don't or my opinion is that it is not worth what you paid for it - that may be the case but for whatever reason if you are a collector of whatever you value that on your own scale - I think that art - today's as well as yesterday's is worth much more than anyone has paid for any of it so far - that is my opinion and that is why I have spent my life creating it - but things are changing now because of technology and I own all of my entire collection of art that I have produced so far and if someone wants to buy a print or canvas they will have to pay the price - no longer does an artist (if they so choose) need to sell his last painting in order to afford to continue on to create - …………………………………………………..
10-13-2012N by Walter Paul Bebirian

What is Happening right in from of our eyes!

I think that both the Internet as well as the tools created in Social Media Marketing Platforms mean - encourage - facilitate and bring forth both Opportunities and great Potential for the Opportunities to flourish - and as these Opportunities flourish the Potential for even more Opportunities increases and expands exponentially - ………………………………………………..
11-10-2012AB by Walter Paul Bebirian

What I am looking for -

Most of the time - what I am looking for is right in front of me - but I do not always see it right away - it may be because I cannot believe that it is right there where I am looking and think that I have to search through much more than I actually do - or it may be because my thinking has me looking for what it is that I want in a different form than it exists in my environment - in either case if I go slowly and think to myself that there must be an answer and that what I am looking for must be right here somewhere - then I can usually and happily find it - ………………………………..
MONEY by Walter Paul Bebirian

Infinite Generation and Potential

I am in Infinite Generation and therefore my Potential is Unlimited - …………………………………………..
12-24-2012E by Walter Paul Bebirian

Thoughts on the business side of art and the high end sales prices -

well - if you are creative - then why not create the market - the desire the absolute craving for your art in the art buying collectors - so that they have to buy your work and pay what you want them to pay for it - the fact is that you own your work - until or unless you give it away for less than you want for it - if no one will pay for it - or can afford it at this point in time - then wait until they can - and then let them buy it - I remember someone wanting to buy a leather motorcycle jacket off my back when I was in college - and I actually began to take it off - the price was OK - but it was going to be a bit colder that night after class and so I thought about it - and told him I couldn't because I needed that jacket for later on that night - then I sold it to someone else who insisted on purchasing it at another time for even more money - how can you stop people from buying it when you want more money? simply don't sell it - and then figure out how much you really want for it - (hopefully not based on need of money on your part) and then sell it with no regrets - I certainly got my money's worth out of the leather jacket especially since I got it for nothing as a gift - second hand for that matter as well - it was used - and beat up and whatever - a real work of art - :-) ……………………………………………….
5-22-2013WABCDEFGHIJKLMNO by Walter Paul Bebirian

There is not an end to Creating!

Although there is a stop to my uploading of images to my galleries every time *(and there have been many over the years) there has been a technical problem that makes it impossible to add any images to my galleries - I still keep on creating and even at a faster pace than when I am working within the speed of the internet and the Imagekind website for my images to be uploaded - the full force of what I can do has never been matched or been kept up with by any website and I am not sure that it will be since I can create new images within a split second while there are always a great number of these split seconds needed to upload any particular image file - I must admit though that the ability for people from around the world to see anything that I create in such a fast manner after I have created it is still quite amazing from the technology and where we were at over 55 years ago when I first begin working with images - I can only imagine how much better things will be getting with the more improvements that will be made as time goes on - …………………………………
9-7-2012CABCDE by Walter Paul Bebirian

Everything can be improved upon~

No matter what has been created in the past - steel - food - art anything that has been created by the human mind and then made into reality is able to be improved upon and that is something that will just happen over time - movies will be remade - steel will be made stronger and new technologies will be developed to do more and more amazing things - and along with all of these improvements art will be remade to give a different perspective or a clearer picture or just some viewpoint that will bring a certain point into clearer focus - it all just happens over time in our world and is part of the progression of human development - ……………………………………..
4-8-2013BA by Walter Paul Bebirian

A brief note to Beth Waldman after today's conversation -

Hi Beth - Since I mentioned this during our conversation today - I thought that it might help to remember what it is that I was thinking - My Response to a discussion of the "Higher Prices" of Art Of course there are many people who will think that their art -or my art or anyone else's art that they know and have seen and that is of a contemporary nature is not the same as a Pollack or a Picasso or a Warhol - and then again - who is to say how other people will perceive what it is that is being presented to them - if you have even a little bit of imagination - you can perhaps see any one of my images being sold at auction for much higher prices than they are selling from my site for - why - how - wherefore? - there are many potential factors that might encourage such perception even maybe this latest technical mishap with Imagekind and their technical issues - are these 105,000 images lost to the public forever - will I ever be able to upload them again any time soon? these types of incidents may perhaps leave many questions and thoughts in people's minds about any image especially if they happen to love that particular image and even a slight chance of them not being able to view it again exists - How precious our moments on the phone were today - such a conversation is not something that I have every day or perhaps will ever have ever again - Walter …………………………………………….
10-29-2009YABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRTUVW by Walter Paul Bebirian

My response to a discussion of the "Higher Prices" of Art

This morning - in response to a comment about this particular article about a recent art auction: Christie’s Contemporary Art Auction Sets Record at $495 Million the comment that was made along with the posting of this article was: "I am always a little surprised when I read this type of news. It seems there is a disconnect between the high end and the 'rest' of the art market. So, I thought I would ask you how your art / design sales are doing" and my comment which is actually an expression of my feelings in this area of thought is the first time that I have been able to put my feelings into words in such a manner - here is what I responded with: I see the entire process from a different perspective - the way that I look at it - I own my entire collection and if someone wants to buy - purchase - own something from it they simply have to pay the price - in reality - the works that are being sold are in a rather low price range compared to where things will be going in the future - this is always just a matter of time - and how things continue on up as the art that is being dealt with becomes rarer and rarer and thus that much less available to the number of individuals interested and able to afford what is being bid on - (which is at the same time increasing in both numbers as well as buying power) - ………………………………………………… -
4-29-2050KA by Walter Paul Bebirian

SECRETS - Secrets - secrets

There are no secrets - only thoughts - ideas - facts - and other information pertinence to what you are interested in and want to know that other people want you to think are secrets and that they have the answers to - these thoughts - ideas - facts and other information are presented either as secrets and either given to the readers of them as free bonuses or entire elaborate stories - essays and different means of exacting a price for the person who - want to know - instead you within yourself have even better answers - insights and information that others are attempting to sell to you and so it would be a much better idea to hold onto your money and place your valuable thoughts - ideas - facts and other information pertinent to what others are interested in and want to know in the form of secrets to that you - in this world of the information age - can - if you so wish - benefit from that which you have - …………………………
11-13-2012EABCDEFGHIJKLMN by Walter Paul Bebirian

How and Why Does the Internet Effect My Behavior?

The Internet is like a giant mass audience - but unlike many other audiences there is no one direction at any point in time that the audience is facing and listening to or reacting with - well then perhaps I might look at the Internet instead as an audience at a fairground where there is a country fair going on - where there is instead a crowd and some of the people are at some booths and others are at other booths and they are all kind of shuffling from one booth to another - and well - because of what it is that is at each booth - some booths are very crowded at different times of the day and others may never get many visitors at all - and sometimes some of the booth owners or people manning the booths can leave where they are and become one of the crowd shuffling past all the other booths and likewise some individuals from the crowd may become people manning the booths in place of the other people who have left - that is pretty much an overall simple version of how I see it - so how the Internet effects me at any time of the day depends on whether I am a crowd member there to view and interact with the people manning the booths or I focus on my own booth or another person's booth as a person there to help serve the visitors as a person manning a booth - or perhaps a number of booths - oh and sometimes I might just be sort of a journalist writing about something that I saw at the country fair - …………………………………………
12-14-2012FA by Walter Paul Bebirian

How and why can I forget so well? -

A friend of mine - Krista Goon - wrote me a response to a request today and I am not sure what it was that I had originally written to her so I place it here to help me remember at least her kind and generous response: If you have sold your work, you must know the types of buyers most interested in your artwork. Where are these buyers congregating? Where are most likely to be found at (online and offline)? What compelling message can you craft to attract them? How can you find more of them? What conversations are they having? Why do they collect artwork? Why do they want to buy art? Art is often about the backstory. What's the backstory that you can share with your followers? Why do you do the work you do? Who's the best artist in your category or whom do you aspire to be? Model what he or she is doing. That could be one way to market your work. High prices are good but only if your buyers can be persuaded to see the value of your art. What makes your art different and unique? These are questions to set you off on a thinking path and really looking into what your product is and why someone would want to spend money to buy your product or art. Your pageviews might have dropped because your art was a curiosity of sorts for people. They might've visited your site to see what exactly makes your art priced at a premium. I have a suggestion for you. Search for this series of podcasts called "I Love Marketing" from iTunes. They're free. Start from episode 1. They have about 100+ episodes and I find them very good in terms of marketing advice. Practical, do-able marketing stuff. ……………………….
3-14-2010DABCDEFGHI by Walter Paul Bebirian …………………… and then comes my response: thank you Krista - this is a post I made just yesterday in reference to an article which gave me a good insight into my own thinking - (although I have forgotten most of the points) there is a tendency for me to forget most thinking that I have along the way in creating and even in clients as well - a lady came to me yesterday (who claims that I did work for her some 15 years ago) who I do not remember but only vaguely -- but as I began working together with her - the occurrence of her being at my studio came back only so slightly : http://waltersrandomthoughts.blogspot.com/2013/05/my-thoughts-on-art-of-hunt.html I am afraid that if I do any sort of reading as you suggest that I will most probably forget since the books that I have read just yesterday or a week before are pretty much wiped away now as well - Walter ………………………………
3-1-2013FABCDE by Walter Paul Bebirian …………………………………….. and although I understand the great value of what Krista is saying to me and how it might just help from a certain perspective if I would just answer the questions that she asks and do as she has suggested - I am also reminded of the unprecedented events taking place in the art markets every single day and the need to keep a forward looking view point towards an ever changing future that allows me or aids me or even forces me to forget that which has happened in the past - just as occurs in our stock market moves every single day - there is always a bigger wave and a stronger undertow afoot - : http://news.yahoo.com/richter-painting-breaks-record-living-artist-n-y-035208194.html …………………………………
7-19-2012BABCD by Walter Paul Bebirian

My thoughts on "The Art of The Hunt"

Really Early this morning I came across a post in a discussion of LinkedIn that was about an article called - The Art of The Hunt - after reading it and the discussion that followed I realized that I have the largest art collection possible ever and that I do not have to hunt for the pieces in my collection - I simply have to sit down and create them! …………………………………………
3-20-2010YABCDEFGHIJKLM by Walter Paul Bebirian

Exchange of Ideas - An Idea

If I give you and idea and you do the same with me - then we will both have two ideas - but instead if I take even just one of my ideas and make it a reality then I will really have something real to share with you! ……………………………………………………………………………………….
10-19-2012A by Walter Paul Bebirian

A Look from afar at what this technology has created -

When I step back for a moment and take a long look at what is happening with the enticements that google and social media are doing to the individuals in the world at large - I see an whole lot of distractions from actually doing the work that I am made to do - Instead of focusing on creating my work - which is what I am very proficient at - I am encourage to get involved with SEO and enticing people to view my art with different mental exercises to seek connections in their minds with other people's activity and looking towards making these connections in their own lives by association - this is all getting very ridiculous and unless there is some sense being made to me very soon I will drop out of this entire game altogether soon - and just let the clicks land where they may - if you or any of your friends need to be enticed to view my work with some tricks that I would create with the Internet and search engines and associations or me claiming to be some expert in one thing or another so that that would inspire you to view my images - forget it - I am simply at this point in time and artist - and I might add a very prolific one and I certainly don't intend to become or let me self become distracted by things that have nothing to do with my creating of my art - that is certainly something that I can always delegate to other people who may be very interested and enthusiastic about those activities - …………………………………………………….
4-22-2013LABCDE by Walter Paul Bebirian

my answer to the question - Is Social Media Advertising or PR?

Social Media does not have one or the other functions - in life or in business - How it is utilized - what results are gotten and how each and every individual or company utilizing the tools within each different Social Media platform perceives what they and everyone else is doing changes from one moment to the next - the entire process when looked at from afar is much more complicated that designating it to one task or another - from this point on there might be an entire discussion based on what I have said here - but that might not happen if enough people from enough different backgrounds do not participate in such a discussion as this - if the discussion is limited to individuals who are from either an advertising or pr background then yes - the choice will be answered from one or two of those two background with perhaps a few variable perspectives - but what if we have a dancer or a musician or a novelist - poet or journalist - each with a different perspective on life in general or even a number of journalists - we might discover a different point of view coming from each one of those journalists - so the question is asking about social media marketing - does a person simply getting on LinkedIn and telling others about their adventure yesterday in the streets of New York and how they received a free sample of one chocolate candy as opposed to another and how much they like it perhaps produce the results better than a specifically created ad to accomplish the same results? or does telling a long and drawn out story how one lady went to the Saint Patrick's gift store next to the Church on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue and purchased a Statue of a Saint to send to her sister-in-law in another state and the story of the resulting healing as a result of praying to that very statue every day ---- constitute PR for people to be getting more in touch with their religious roots - begin attending religious services more often and even maybe perhaps encourage them subconsciously to look into the possible healing qualities of praying to one saint or the other each with their own designated task to work healing in any specific area - ………………………………….
5-6-2013ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRTU by Walter Paul Bebirian

My Answer to - Is the Art of Printing Dead?

this is an interesting question which brings me back a ways - since I started photographing and creating art images over 55 years ago - now that I have immersed myself in the digital world I have had many different ways of doing things that I had not been able to imagine long ago - of course I cannot elaborate on each momentary thought running through my mind for each image that I have photographed over the years - but I certainly feel much more freer when shooting than I ever did previously and I am most positive that working with photoshop on a digital file adds to the greater flexibility that I have when I am shooting with digital - so much so - that I never even bother to imagine exactly what an image will come out as in a print - since once I get to photoshop there are an infinite directions that I can go in with any individual image and once I upload that image to my online galleries which are at the Imagekind site the clients there have a choice to order the print on one of seven paper types or canvas and all in different size choices and well each one of those choices will produce a miraculously different visual of the one original that I created - and the variations then keep coming as time goes on and there are more and more tools being made available in this photoshop as new versions are developed - so I would say that the art of printing is definitely not dead - it has just evolved and morphed and is ever expanding as well - ………………………………………………………………
5-6-2013GABCDEF by Walter Paul Bebirian

Relating to Art and Familiarity

Do you like this art that I am showing you here? Have you ever seen this image before? Have you ever seen anything that looks like it before? Chances are you might not necessarily like this image that you see here - it may seem odd to you - it may not be something that you can relate to but if you look at it for a while - if you read what I am saying here a few times - and come back and view this image on a different day -when you are in a different mood - and perhaps over time when you are in different states of mind or in many different moods - over time you may begin at least to recognize this image when you first see it - something about it will slowly become familiar to you and you will start to become familiar with different aspects of the image - perhaps a line or two or maybe the image that is collaged onto it - and after you become familiar with it - within a few more viewings you may start to like this image and you will eventually look upon it like an old friend - and then if you give it a chance that liking of this image may just turn into love of this image and eventually to love of many of the images that I have created that are already in my collection and others that will be in my collection in the future and then many of the images in my collection will also become familiar to you - and eventually the art images that I create - these images which you may not necessarily be able to relate to upon first glance right now - not right away - and perhaps not for a long while afterwards - eventually will be a family of images that you will definitely be able to relate to - enjoy!!! :-) ……………………………………………
3-15-2013CABCDEF by Walter Paul Bebirian

The Perception of Art!

When Viewing Art it is important for any individual to understand and remember that no two people perceive anything in the same exact way because each individual is different from every other individual - Too often a person's perception is interrupted by the opinions and ideas of another person and therefore is not allowed to make his or her own judgment as to how he or she feels about what they are observing because of this distraction - leading to a total distaste for art in general and more importantly to the art of any particular artist more specifically - but this does not have to happen and I would suggest that just as with the movies - there are any number of critics whose evaluations of movies are totally opposite of the opinions of the general public so the individual is better off not listening to any critic but simply going and enjoying whatever is being shown in the way of a movie and in the way of a work of art and do the judging for yourself! …………………………………………………………………………..
3-7-2013GABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRTUVW by Walter Paul Bebirian

The Truth About Art -

Many times I recall hearing or reading different criticisms about art which attribute the style - the subjects and the thoughts expressed in the art that is being examined to the times and life styles and the preferences as well as the cultures of the times that the art has been created in - but I think that art is much much simpler than that - In the case of many of the art pieces that I have seen and studied and looked at over the years - the art that has been produced by both the most famous artists as well as the lesser known and often obscure artists is simply a reflection of their individual world - both visible as well as their inner worlds and to see art as anything more or less than that I believe is truly a mistake - ………………………………………………………
5-1-2013Z by Walter Paul Bebirian

MY RESPONSE TO: Is anyone out there as irritated as much as I am by interminable, pretentious and self-aggrandising artists' statements?

far out - finally someone got effected by the irritation today - I was waiting and waiting and waiting - and finally - the fact is that there an unlimited or maybe perhaps an infinite number of different ways of seeing this issue as either a hindrance - unnecessary or a great opportunity to communicate with viewers of any piece of art out into the future - and depending on which approach or point of view a person takes - that will determine how much energy and effort and whatever else it takes to make such a statement worthwhile - perhaps a person just throws together something short and trite and does not even begin to examine how what he or she is saying now may perhaps be interpreted way on into the future - maybe a century or two from this point on - Van Gogh was in a sense extremely lucky in this regard since he had his brother Theo to write to and this may have helped him express himself and the concept of writing to a brother or sister - or a close friend - father or mother may do well to at least make things understandable and perhaps keep the high minded un understandable art speak to a bare minimum if you have it in your statement at all - VAN GOGH In his own words! ……………………………………………
1-9-2012FABCDEFGH by Walter Paul Bebirian