Saturday, March 24, 2007

The Potter's Shed

Jim and I recently appeared in the regional online publication "The Potter's Shed" (the clay section of the online newsletter "Art-to-Art Palette"). Jim was asked when he first got hooked on clay, and I was asked about how travel has affected my artwork. Other local and regional folks have made it in there as well. Check them out at the link below and enjoy!

4 comments:

AAP Digital Network said...

Dear Christine,

On behalf of Dr. Ralph Stuckman and our staff, I want to express my appreciation for sending those photos of Jim's works. It was obvious to me that you have mastered the art of photography in capturing the beauty of his work.

I have recently updated the Palette's brochure, and I am including the "About the Palette" text portion.

About the Palette . . .
In 1988, the Art-to-Art Palette began publishing and established its central objective:
"...to serve as a contributing media for the promotion and support of the arts, and advocate for continuing education, and for the organizations, groups, societies, and clubs within its local roots of Western Ohio and Eastern Indiana.
Over the years, on a national scale, the Palette's editorial content centrally focused on art and education with the reporting of the past, present, and future events on schools, teachers, and other partners-in-education in the Art-to-Art: Building Friendships Through Art, an Ohio-based non-profit 501c2 k-12 art-based program that also integrated the other learning of Geography, History, Reading, Writing, and Communications through Human Relations in its educational forum. The Art-to-Art program has been deemed a national art education success.
In the spring of 2004, the Palette began its decent back to its rural roots with its stories, features, Calendars, and general news on those within Western Ohio and Eastern Indiana. Its print edition is currently published during the Fall-Winter and Spring-Summer seasons, and is distributed to art organizations, groups, societies, clubs, libraries, individuals, and general businesses where journals/magazines retain a longevity because of its editorial content spans from one issue to the next--such as---The Paletteboard section that lists upcoming events, shows, performances, classes, and sport the reproductions of award-winning works as well as those creators who produced them. Coinciding with the latter, there is also the “talk” about the entities changing in the region. In addition, this section goes further by including the Calendars from the major museums within a few hours of driving distance.
The Palette is further divided among: Cover Section, Main Section, Paint Box Section, Potter's Shed Section, Bugle Section, Storybook Section, Artist Marketplace Section, Back Porch Section which also includes it various Departments, starting with an ’expose’ of the Contents, and continued to be subdivided with specific writings geared for the individual Sections.
Its print advertising rates have been geared "rurally affordable" because of its fiscal "paying forward" mode of operation. Additionally as a print media, it uses an in-house ’readership-exposure’ census as an advertising targeted guideline for distribution purposes, which had a 2006 year-end un-audited estimation of 7,500 per issue, based on the membership of the core organizations its serves.
Furthermore in 2006, the Palette slowly entered cyber land at www.arttoartpalette.com, and although it is still a work-in-progress, their pages have been accessed nearly 10,000 times. Small in a national comparison, however editorially, the Palette only served the Eastern quarter of Indiana and Western quarter of Ohio in 2006.
According to Ben Rayman, the publishing editor, beginning in March 2007, the Art-to-Art Palette’s cyber home and its Fall 2007 print edition, editorial coverage has been expanded to complete and include all counties in the Western and Eastern half regions of Ohio and Indiana.
In addition, the Art-to-Art Palette’s final editorial expansion has begun another phase in, to be completed by Summer 2008. This will include the southern quarter of Michigan to I-96, and northern part of Kentucky to Louisville-Lexington, and then looping back to Ohio’s Scioto County. “This forms the heart of the Palette,” said Rayman.

Lastly, I share with you the words by Joseph Addison: "The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for." Somehow, I believe you are on that high road!

Rich Regards,

Ben

Klinger Studios said...

Thanks for the kudos and info., Ben. Perhaps if artists reading this blog find your publications--they may enjoy them and contribute too.

jafabrit said...

That is cool. Enjoyed reading it.

Anonymous said...

Toot your own horn
by Bonnie Staffel

Are you taking charge of your career or just going to art fairs hoping to have a good sale? When I talk about tooting your own horn, you must realize that you are in important part of the economic health of your community. Everyone contributes in some way by the career one chooses. Have you received an award, created a special piece of work, held a workshop, presented a slide show, attended a conference, etc.? A press release should be sent to the local papers announcing such events. By doing so, you are being a role model for those other artists who want to be successful showing that you are pursuing your goals. Business people give these notices when they rise up in a company, or any other business when there is achievement of goals. Just don’t think that you are unimportant in what you do. Any publicity helps in your own business as well as to show newbies what they can achieve by following good business practices, including publicity. Newspapers like to write about the happenings in their area so that their readers become informed. Also some newspapers like to have the artists run an ad in their newspaper, but this is also beneficial.

There is a pattern to writing news releases by answering the questions: who, what, when, and where. If you write your press release answering these questions in line, voila! You have written your article. It isn’t hard. Then you can embellish the article with expanded information. Pictures taken during the event or where the event will take place are also a plus.

No business can succeed without advertising. Some use different methods of bringing attention to the business. That is where the “event” part comes into play. Galleries need events and they are publicized in the paper. Artists have events that publicize their activities. Just going to an art fair is not an event, as that is your way of doing business. However, if you win a prize at the fair, are accepted in a prestigious juried show and/or win a prize, if you did something that would bring notice to your studio or your work, that is publicity. It is all free! But you have to initiate the press release. If your newspaper doesn’t print your first releases, keep presenting them as they occur, pretty soon, they will start to notice that you are an accomplished dedicated artist.

This is what I am talking about when I suggest that you toot your own horn. You do have to start the process, otherwise the local papers do not know about the event. There are always new people in your town who do not know your history of being there, so it is a constant educational procedure. When I attend a social event, my work in pottery is almost always brought up, either by me or by someone in the group. I then talk about my latest work and my excitement about doing it, not bragging, just informing. I realized from the very first art fair I attended in 1949 that the public needed to be educated about pottery. This is still the case as new generations are coming up. Not many people know about pit firing, so I educate them about it just enough to inform them about the exciting part of the process. The same applies to the resurgence of interest in wood fired kilns. One doesn’t want to bore the person with insignificant details; you can tell from facial expressions if they are truly interested or not.

I hope you can get something good from these comments and change your attitude if it needs changing. You are important and are doing important things for the culture of your community, state or country. Pottery is one of the most lasting relics that tells the story of an era. So be a part of it. Think beyond your front gate. Makes for great personal growth.