Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Book or portfolio?



Inside the images are a good size and
the printer did a great job reproducing them.
The stock is high quality and has a nice feel to it.




The cover -- just my name
on heavy semi-gloss stock

Sometimes a leap forward in how you present
yourself can happen almost by accident. I
was rushing to get ready to go to the Florence
Biennale, working from a huge checklist
propped up in the kitchen that I'll show you
sometime when I overheard the word book.
A friend of mine had printed a book for the show.
Yikes! This was Monday, I was leaving Wednesday
night. How could I get a book?

The answer was my wonderful local printer,
who I just adore. I phoned and asked if he
could make me a book on Monday afternoon.
He said bring me a disk. I did, and by Tuesday
evening I had the "books" in hand. They are
just over 8 1/2 x 11 inches, and there are
32 images inside. I did not title my work,
or print sizes, because there wasn't time.
I did include my artist's statement and blurb
in English and Italian, plus all of my contact
information. On the front cover I used my
name, on the back my blog address.

Pow! That book (and I've had more copies
made since I returned) impresses people
in a way no portfolio ever did. They believe
in me because I'm in a book. Which is a
bit crazy, but hey -- it's also true.

By the way Liza Hirst has just put out her
second volume of her paintings. I own the
first one, and fully intend to get the second.
I treasure her little book, which has 100
fantastic paintings in it.

I guess that's next.

Have an aren't-you-worth-a-book day.

11 comments:

  1. What a great idea! Congratulations. The photos look great.

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  2. Hi Barbara,
    I love that idea!
    Congratulations.
    P.S. Who is your printer?
    Zina

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  3. Terrific idea and what a unique way to showcase your work! That would really stand out in someone's mind when compared to the endless portfolios they see. Are you going to be selling them? I would love to buy one!

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  4. Hi Janie,

    Thank you so much! So glad you like the idea.

    Take care,

    Barbara

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  5. Hi Zina,

    I go to St. Clair Copy. They are
    super.

    Take care,

    Barbara

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Gwen,

    I had not planned to sell them. Let's talk on email.

    But of course I could. Yes. They do stand out. Actually many people produced hard cover bound books for the Biennale, and people loved those too.

    xoxoxoxoBarbara

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  7. Wow, great idea on the book. Yours looks beautiful.

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  8. Hi Karen,

    I met an artist in January from France who had a small 5 x 5 inch book of drawings and it was such a cool idea. So I'm thinking of making another book just of drawings.

    Take care,

    Barbara

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  9. Oh wow, this is great!!!!
    I would like to buy one of your books - let me know how to do so and so on...
    And thank you very much for mentioning my little book, Barbara!
    I appreciate that so much! Thank you.

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  10. This is a good idea! I like how your work looks. Yes, authoritative in presentation...established. I hope you'll make more and perhaps add text. Very interesting as it breaks the old portfolio construct.

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  11. this is great - you are wowing the people... always! XOXOX

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