Artspan:

NEWSLETTER
SUMMER 2011// VOLUME 8 // ISSUE 7

Summer 2011 Newsletter

Written and edited by Eric Sparre

IN THIS ISSUE:

New Control Panel

We have launched the new Control Panel. It has a very different look. It is also more easily navigable than the previous version for two reasons: 1) there is a navigation bar on the left of almost all the pages so you can jump immediately to other sections without having to go back to the main menu and 2) we have rearranged the links on the main menu page so that your action links will be on the left.

Our thanks to Brezzy, who designed the pages, and to Kim who did the necessary programming.

Using Facebook to Promote Your Art, part 1 (by Joan K Smith)

Editor's Note: this is the first newsletter item written by our new marketing director, Joan Kathleen Smith. She is determined to do what she can to help all our members in their marketing efforts. Artspan cannot succeed if you don’t..

The easiest way to gain friends and followers on Facebook is to generate two-way dialogues.

Why is it important to get people to comment on your posts? Every time one of your Facebook friends comments or “likes” something you’ve posted, it is listed on their newsfeed – thus you are exposed to a group of potential new followers.

So absolutely use Facebook to announce new work posted on your site (Artspan makes this easy with a feature to automatically share on Facebook when new work goes up), your upcoming exhibitions, and even works in progress. BUT – and this is critical – don’t limit your posts to self-promotion only. If you use social media for self-promotional announcements only, people will quickly tune out your messages.

Instead, use a formula of at least three general comments or posts to every self-promotional message. Have you seen an interesting article or news item related to art? Share it, and include a comment or an invitation for comments by others. Have you seen a great exhibition? Share it, and make sure you add a link to the gallery or museum where you saw it.

The key here is to make people look forward to your posts and to get those two-way discussions going. Your social media mantra should be “engage, engage, engage.”

Referrals: Best Ever Program

As we announced last month, the current referral program is our best ever. The referrals program works as follows: recommend Artspan to someone who could use our service and both you and that individual would receive a free month each (for the new member, that means they actually receive two free months – including the regular free trial).

What is different is that, for the summer months, if you have two referrals sign up during the months of June through August, you will receive three months free. The new members will continue to receive one free month in addition to the 30 day free trial they get automatically.

Ask your referrals to mention your name as they are signing up (or enter your referral number which is in the upper right corner of the Control Panel)… that is all that is needed.

Design Themes Enhancements

Our tech team continues to refine the Design Themes section which allows you more and easier control over the look of your website than you would have with any other template website. Here are some of the changes:

  • You can add multiple background images with lots of options for positioning
  • You can borders to any and all sections, specifying color, size and more.
  • Opacity on some of the elements: you may want a background image to show slightly through.
  • You can have a logo image and choose whether or not to also have site title, subtitle and customization field.
  • The Header is now separate from the site title.
  • Uppercase text is the default for many elements but you have control.
  • Site preview bugs have been fixed, as have some other minor bugs associated with placement of some of the elements on some of the browser versions.
  • Website customization field (upper right hand of the pages) can be enabled or not with a hide/show checkbox.
  • We also added a few pre-set designs (‘ready mades’), but need more.Can we use your design?

Blog Enhancements

Kim, who designed and integrated the blog into all the sites, has enabled you to moderate comments before posting them, and also installed an improved captcha field. This should cut down or eliminate spam postings on your blogs.

What Else?

A lot! We have a huge list of stuff for the fall, including image batch uploads, multiple views, a new sales platform covering all print s which will allow visitors to expedite the check out process with just one cart for all member work. Stay tuned for our next newsletter in September!

Featured Members



Alan Mazzetti

Abstract Paintings

 

Primarily abstract work, but he also shows us some stunning landscapes and even “timescapes” (with a timeless feel), and much more. Alan has exhibited in the last 15 years, primarily in the Bay Area.
Here is what he says about his work:

"I learned to think visually at an early age. Growing up in the house designed by my father, surrounded by my mother's paintings and brother's product designs, making art was pretty normal. Making art, for me, is a way of understanding something better. A career in graphics taught me to search for the fundamental elements when designing a logo or illustrating a story. In my paintings as well, I reduce the subject to an icon - visualizing it's essential form - and in the process get to know it more fully. I hope my appreciation and interpretation of the subject stimulates a new awareness in those who see the resulting art. I hope you enjoy the work. Making art is an immensely satisfying, though solitary, compulsion. Sharing it with others is one of the best ways I know to connect.”

 


Harold Joiner
Paintings

" The house we lived in when I was very young was at the edge of town, with nothing but bare prairie beyond our next-door neighbor's house. Not too far into the prairie was a shallow arroyo where I frequently played with other kids in the neighborhood. It was filled with a dense thicket of tall sunflower plants, so tall that they towered well over our heads. We would press down some of the flowers to create a pathway through the thicket, and the pathway led to a large circular gathering place far into the thicket. (Early crop circles?) One strong visual memory I have about that experience was squatting down and peering at the horizon through the sunflower stalks. At the shallow edges of the arroyo, I would do the same thing in the tall grasses that grew there.

I have an innate impulse to create: to make something from essentially nothing, to record beauty, to make visual judgments, or to tell a story that is about primarily visual phenomena . That urge is informed by memories. Some memories are strongly visual like my childhood memory of gazing at the light and the horizon through the grasses and wildflowers of the arroyo.  Other memories are more broadly sensual, like an attraction to a texture or a color seen somewhere in my recent experience. And still other memories might be considered more psychological wherein the shapes and lines flowing from my paintbrush reveal something mysterious that even I don't fully understand."



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