Folks, I’m jurying an upcoming show for the Parklane Gallery, located near Seattle, Washington. It’s an exhibition aimed at animal artists:
Parklane Gallery in Kirkland, Washington, invites all animal-loving fine art artists to
participate in Parklane Gallery’s second annual juried show this
October. Gandhi said “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress
can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” In these tough
economic times animals are being abandoned in record numbers. It is a
privilege for both the artists and Parklane Gallery to take this
opportunity to exhibit animal themed fine art and also support a varied
list of local animal rescue organizations. The prospectus can be downloaded at http://www.parklanegallery.com/downloads/Prospectus-0910.pdfParklane Gallery is very fortunate to have the nationally recognized
artist Julie T. Chapman of Montana as our juror.The important dates for this show are:
Entries Due Friday, 8/14/09
Acceptance Letters Mailed Friday, 9/4/09
Artwork Due at Parklane 9/29 - 10/1/09
Show Runs 10/6 - 10/31/09
Artist Reception Saturday, 10/10/09
Pick up Artwork 11/2 - 11/4/09
Artwork will be shipped Wed. 11/4/09
I’ve asked them to be sure that painting images are submitted without signatures so I can jury blind.
Entries (RSS)
July 30th, 2009 at 6:12 am
If an artist can not afford to travel to Washington - may the artist still enter?
July 30th, 2009 at 7:57 am
Congratulations! What an honor!
Do you like being a juror?
Sadly they are not accepting 3-D applications. I run into that quite a bit.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Julie, you will make an excellent judge for this show!
As for the images without signatures - it can be troublesome if those images without signatures are then put on the Gallery’s website - something to do with NOTICE of copyright, yada yada. Perhaps they could request a SIGNED image from the winners if they intend to use them on their website (???)
July 30th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
“they are not accepting 3-D applications”
Darned Flat Earthers!
They’re everywhere — especially in the (flat) world of art.
July 30th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
The photos I would apply are flat. That’s gotta count for something.
July 30th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
It’s pretty ridiculous, really.
The art that is most representative of the actual world we live in (and undoubtedly the most difficult to do, for that very reason) is least represented in art shows.
There’s more than a little elitism involved..
I bet they wouldn’t accept 1-D art either. (I’ve got lots of that in my fishing tackle box, but nowhere to exhibit it)
July 30th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Nah….it doesn’t really bother me. Many times they just don’t have the space available and from a money making stand point sculpture is a slower sale and bronze even more so due to its high overhead. As far as being more or less difficult I think it just depends on the gift one is given. Painting is most definitely not my gift and therefore much more difficult for me than sculpting.
I’m sure the fish love your 1-D art but they are a fickle bunch one minute loving it the next minute completely ignoring it………such art critics ;o)
July 30th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
I am trying to get myself into more of these types of shows rather than the “fine art fairs” I’ve been doing - some of which turned out to be little more than a flea market. But the thought of shipping paintings across country knowing what I know about the handling of those shipments by FedEx and UPS scares my socks off! Rarely does a package I ordered that is shipped FedEx arrive without some damage to the packaging and even the contents. I ordered display panels which were shipped FedEx - four big flat boxes - two of which had holes where the fork lift tongs went through them!
Can’t imagine having to ship a piece of sculpture!
July 31st, 2009 at 8:49 am
Suzanne - I believe so…no need to actually attend the show in person. (Most shows I’m in I don’t attend, or I’d spend waaayyy too much on travel costs).
Christy - I’m sorry! I didn’t realize it was flatwork only. Being a judge is nerve-wracking, to say the least. Obviously, there’s a lot of subjectivity - but I try to bring to it the same foundation critique principles that I talk about in my workshop. I’ve judged shows in the past which included sculpture - and each piece needs at least 2, if not 3, images to represent it fairly (IMHO).
Marti, if it’s a problem to submit w/o signature, don’t worry about it - submit anyway. I basically try to make sure I DON’T look at the signature (unless I happen to recognize the style, then I’ll check to confirm my assumption).
As far as shipping: that’s part of doing business. 100% of the work from my studio gets shipped someplace. Whether I ship FedEx or UPS depends on size and value - UPS allows me to insure the piece, FedEx Ground does not insure above $500 (I rarely ship FedEx Express). So whether it’s a show or a gallery, I’m gonna wrap, box, and ship everything.
July 31st, 2009 at 10:16 am
Julie - re my comment about the signatures - I understand Art for the Parks ran into some difficulties putting images online without them. Paint the Parks changed that requirement.
Shipping - yes - definitely NOT Fed Ex - my son worked in the local FedEx distribution center and WOW - what horror stories he came home with!
July 31st, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Julie, For sure two or three photos of sculpture just to get the point of the piece across. There was one show I tried to apply my “Second Look” piece to. The show required a person not to send more than one slide per piece applied. Well the “Second Look” is a mountain man on one side and an Indian on the other. I tried to fudge the rules by putting a split frame of it on one slide but they just sent it back saying it was not even considered because I did not follow the rules. Makes me wonder if I had sent just one angle say the Indian side and they had accepted it how they would have felt once it arrived.
Marti, Shipping bronze is an adventure. I ALWAYS insure and track. I had a friend who packed one of his bronzes in bubble wrap then in a rubber maid container which he put in another rubber maid container duct taped shut and shipped it USPS NOT insured and sure enough it showed up one of the legs on the horse was broken. Believe me you have to try pretty hard to break a bronze. I do think any of the shipping places take extra care with a package when it is insured. So far I have had mostly good experiences shipping stuff except for the expense.
August 1st, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Marti- (oh, and hi everyone, I’m back from Mongolia. Had a fabulous time, of course). The only way to ship framed originals is in AirFloat boxes or the equivalent. Some shows even require them now. I’ve had them come back with holes punched in the top layer of cardboard and corners pretty mangled, but the contents were fine. Next time, who knows, but so far so good. I get a good six uses out of each one and duct tape the corners if necessary to extend their life since they’re expensive.
If you are going to build your career by entering juried shows, shipping the art just goes with the territory. If you get into a gallery not in your town, you have to ship. If you do a show like SEWE that you can’t drive to, you have to ship.
I use AirFloat boxes, ship FedEx Ground so I’ll have tracking (my horror stories involve UPS) and cultivate a sense of fatalism. The alternative is to never show anywhere meaningful.
And……..I would like to share the news (nice homecoming present) that, on my second try, I have had a painting accepted into the Fall Open Juried Exhibition of the American Academy of Equine Art. I’ve posted the image on my blog. This is especially satisfying since the image is one of a Mongol horse (domestic, not wild) I saw last Sept.
August 1st, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Susan - welcome home! and congratulations! Always nice to get such good news!
I have shipped to shows before and have used the airfloat boxes. Had a hellofatime getting that foam out to fit the framed work. Must be a trick to it cause I made a mess of it!
I suppose there are pros and cons to shipping with either FedEx or UPS. I shipped my work to Colorado for a show via FedEx. Held it at the FedEx office there and picked it up when I arrived via airline. Everything came through fine and they even stored my shipping boxes FREE for me for a whole month. I returned to Colorado to ship the work home (to be held at local airport for my pickup) and had no problems. (Don’t ask why I had to do the return shipping! Whole ‘nuther nightmare!) Other times it has been an awful experience.
One thing I did learn - don’t ship using online shipper - it is MUCH cheaper to just go there and have them measure and weigh.
August 3rd, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Susan, welcome home! I’m sure you’re full of stories and perhaps culture shock. And CONGRATULATIONS on getting into the AAEA’s fall show! Very cool.
The Airfloat boxes are superb, but superbly expensive - I can’t justify them most of the time. The only damage claims I’ve ever had were with UPS, when frames arrived at galleries sprung (but artwork fine). UPS gave me a helluva runaround on those, even though I insure everything out the wazoo when I ship - it was only reimbursement for the frames, fercriminysake.
One of my galleries will only ship FedEx now, due to similar bad experiences. The main lesson here: INSURE, early and often.
August 4th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Uline is also making them now. Still not cheap, but I bought one to check it out and it’s equally well-made.
So, Julie, what do you ship your work in?
I think one of the reasons the shows are requiring AirFloats or the equivalent is that they are tired of opening a box and having all kinds of miscellaneous bits fall out. With a traveling show, it would be a real pain. The AirFloat-type system makes it easy for the recipients to unpack and repack paintings quickly and securely. I’ve seen some really scary, careless packing. It’s worth it to me to make it as easy as possible for my work to be securely repacked for shipment.
August 5th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Susan, for traveling shows in particular the Airfloat thing makes sense. The majority of what I ship is to galleries, of course, and I usually re-use the box the frame came in - generally, they have heavy cardboard and sometimes a sheet or two of styrofoam to protect everything. I then bubble-wrap the snot out of the piece and make sure everything is wedged tightly so there’s NO movement in the box.
August 5th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Thanks! I’ll keep all of that in mind. I do hang on to the good boxes that my frames come in and if it’s, hopefull, a one way trip, that would be the way to go.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Ooooo, just Googled “Airfloat.” Hmmm, I’ll have to think about shipping now! Thanks, everyone!
August 6th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Julie, does Parklane keep the boxes in which the pieces are shipped? Having never done this before…!
August 7th, 2009 at 7:14 am
IME, if your piece doesn’t sell, exhibitions send your work back to you in the box in which you shipped it. If it does sell, you won’t see your box again. Airfloats don’t make much sense for me because 95% of my shipping is one-way: to a gallery, or to an exhibition at which the piece sells…so my Airfloat investment is a loss. (Not to discourage you from using them! just explaining why I don’t…).