Museum of Paper

Art Money Faces Challenges

Jesper Vestergaard reports in the MetroXpress, the National Danish newspaper on June 15, 2006

The artist behind the art money phenomena has been denied permission to use the word “bank” on his web site. If Lars Kraemmer does not change the name, he risks four month in prison.

Make Money While You Sleep and other Get Rich Quick Schemes

Most professional artists are not normally rolling in money. And people who do art as a hobby spend their money on supplies, books and things that will be helpful in making art.

So we as a group are often the targets of people who want to sell us stuff or sign us up for something that will - you guessed it - bring in some extra dollars.

When it's someone selling us a blogging platform or a workshop designed to help us in some way that's one thing.

And though you likely won't get rich quick at least it's honest cash; and you don't have to keep changing your email address or blog URL to stay one step ahead of Interpol.

Mail Art Project : Immigration

Note the important words here:
"Works will be juried, and not returned"

-------------------------
Press release:

Sophie Blachet, director of Art Vitam and Valeria Pouza, independent curator, are seeking Mail Art works for an ongoing Mail Art Project book on the theme of immigration.

The Mail Art Project will proceed in two phases:

Phase One ______

The Mail Art Project will collect over a period of six months beginning in June 2006, a range of mail art works sent royalty free to be published in book form.  Only 100 works will be chosen for inclusion in the book entitled "Mail Art Project 31.12.06/Immigration".

Artists on LiveJournal and Blogger Should Jump Ship

Found in a piece about the system-wide Six Apart outage on 5/2/06

"Hope it stops soon though, a sustained livejournal outage is probably grounds for at least 4-5 suicides by distraught teenagers who can't blog about their day."

Well I guess this makes it official, even if insensitively put in the above quote. LJ is thought of by many as a bunch of fourteen year olds, which is a shame since so many creative people built their first blogs - then thought of as journals and by some still approached that way - on LJ.

This combined with the given that blogger/blogspot are flagged as being home to thousands of spammers and splogs seems like it just adds another log to the fire under multiple bloggers to build blogs on something other than the LJ or blogger/blogspot platforms - or move blogs already set up to another format.

Alice in Wonderland : Images and Trends in Paper Art

I visited Nancy Baumiller's blog and while looking at her hand lettered "Listen with your Heart" image I had an actual "Alice in Wonderland" moment, flashing back to freshman year in college during which i was required to take "lettering 101." It was painful then, but Nancy must have done better than I.

She wonders if she could put it on ebay. Um - yes - absolutely.

But you guys decide for yourself and give her advice in her comments area. Heck - make her an offer; it's a cute piece.

Looking through some of Nancy's other things, especially altered books, I was struck by the bold colors many artists are finding comfort with. And how they bravely strike out into fuchsias and bright yellows while I am so timid with some of the same - some of the time . . .

. . . and the topic of brave and new things sparked a memory from an artist's group conversation in the past couple of weeks, centering on trends.

Here's the question:

• Is use of items like wings and crown in images a trend with artists and art periodicals are picking up on it?
• Or is it a trend fostered by what some publications are showing?

Food for thought. Everything changes. Funky goes out and sleek comes in. Or bright goes out and muted rolls in. Is it the same for wings, dunce caps, crowns in collage? And what's next after clocks and wings have flown into the recesses of history?

• Will we have our images smiling enigmatically in honor of Mona Lisa's rumored 500Th birthday?

• Maybe we'll we see Sneakers? Hershey Kisses? Gloves? Handbags? Canes and walking sticks? Insect and animal populations?

• Will we get enmeshed in complex images like Cory Doctorow points out about currency in 1876? ( OK, so that would probably be only in my dreams. )

• Will mainstream paper art ever be making philosophical statements like some cartoonists do today?

And do you have suggestions about a theme you'd like to see in the paper art magazines as the current images fade into the background?

Are you doing work with other images or themes you'd be willing to share with us?

What do you think ; if a magazine or a group of magazines models certain creative behavior will it happen?

Print Your Own Money at Home!

BIAM, the International Bank of Art Money, which I spoke about in the newest Art Money story has issued some guidelines which can sometimes make my brain cells hurt when I read it. I'm pretty sure that it is only because he's not a native English speaker and so the thoughts come out a bit jostled about. In any case, I'm never quite sure that I've got it right.

He first says:

"Any artist may apply for registration in BIAM in order to issue art money. BIAM will excersise censurship and reserve the right to reject an artist based on viewing the three art money recieved. It is up to the individual applicant to define “artist”, and any medium will do."

I'm OK up to this point.

1. Only certified BIAM artists may issue art money.
2. The quantity of art money issued by a single artist must not exceed the value of art or services provided by this artist.
3. Each art money must be original art. Measure 12x18 cm. Clearly show serial number, year of production, artist nationality, artist name, artist original signature, and BIAM web address: www.art-money.org .

Money for YOU Means Money for Them

The Bank of International Art Money has been joined by an African artist.

Otto Mlanda from Tanzania creates his fascinating art money from banana leaves collected during his stay as a tour guide in the African bush.

If the Bank of International Art money is successful in selling the Otto Mlanda collection quickly, BIAM can transfer the money to his fathers account before Otto he returns from his present bush tour.

Then this 24 year old will be able to open his own bank account for the first time, and enjoy the sudden financial freedom as the first art money artist of the third world.

It is the sincere hope of all of us at the Artsy Asylum and in the community of Art Money Artists that art money can help artists in the Third World access the same purchasing ability as citizens of the industrial countries. Let this first African artist be an example for others.

You can find Otto Mlanda’s art money here

If you're interested in creating your own line of Art Money, stay tuned and look for the Topic: Art Money BIAM

Explosive Outbreak in the Information World

I haven't harped on this in awhile - so just let me pass on one thing quickly before you stop reading.

"...you cannot afford to close your eyes to them [blogs], because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself.  And they're going to shake up just about every business - including yours.

                  -- Business Week Magazine, May 2, 2005

Notice that this quote is from nearly a year ago. Can you imagine how much truer this is today?

Clue: the graphic from technorati -
click image to see it enlarged.

The bloggosphere has more than doubled in the eleven months since this was written.

Yes, the group who write blogs - and more who read them at least three times a week includes: grandmothers, writers, teachers, musicians, lawyers, classrooms full of your kids, decorators, TV actresses, football players, the corner grocer, my vet, and people who would either like to buy your work, exhibit your work, write about your work or take a class on how to do what you do.

In short, what Business Week said does too apply to you, me, your aunt Hattie and your kids' soccer coach. And it applies now even more than when they said it in 2005.

IMPORTANT: Help Support a Special Need in the Arts Community

It's very infrequently that I post the same message in two blogs, but I thought it was important to get this information out to the largest possible audience. If you've alrealy read it in the Asylum blog feel free to skip it here - or may be let seeing it again encourage you to pass the information on to someone else.

Sara Hopp is a young woman, mom to two cute pups, a whirling dervish of ideas and energy, and an online supplier of the stuff that mixed media artists, rubber stampers and collagists crave.

Here's where the "Support Needed" thing comes in -

Sara's husband, Dante, was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. His surgery took place on Thursday morning of this past week and he is now in ICU. A long recovery period - plus lots of medical bills - looms ahead.

 
 

Prizes if We Design Tessel What?

Pedagoguery Software has been producing intuitive, unique, useful software programs since 1988, including Tess 1.69 a classic way to explore tessellations and other symmetric illustrations (more info)

Once a year, Pedagoguery runs a Tessellation contest.

For non math-geeks that have never heard of Tesselations, there's a lot to help you see the light (or the patterns) all over the web, notably at Wikipedia
or at http://www.tessellations.org

One prize-winning entry from each year is shown on the right of the website linked here.

Click on one image to see all from that year.

You can use their software to prepare your entry - which is a cool way to get a free trial out of them.  Beyond that, they say . . .

We are now accepting entries for our 2006 contest! To enter download and install Tess, register Tess (if unregistered) using “Contest” for both name and code, explore and experiment, and send in your entries and accompanying information by email to peda@peda.com. No purchase necessary. T I P S Use Tess’s Help menu to learn more about the program. Tool tips are available there—and here, in PDF. Consider non-white backgrounds. Try using Set Background from the View menu.