Wednesday 24 February 2010

Anywhere Left to Turn - Pt. 3

I have submitted my photos for printing. They'll be in my hands tomorrow and I'll begin framing immediately.

It took a lot of time and even more critical creative thinking to figure out which I wanted to remove from the big-print list and which I wanted to remove from the exhibit entirely. I ended up getting rid of only nine, while putting the rest that were "on the fence" onto the small-print list - they'll be either alternates or space-fillers, whichever is necessary.

There are eight 12x18s and two 16x20s which will be hanging on the walls but not in frames, and seven 11x14s that will be framed. My finances are much more secure than I thought, too. Originally, this was all going to cost me $240 or so - much more than I could or was willing to spend. Now, I just spent about 1/4 of that on prints, and instead of the initially projected cost of $78.00 for frames, I don't need to buy frames at all. In fact, I'm just reusing the frames from The Mind Dynamic.

This also helps with filling the gallery more, since the photos from TMD are still lying around (and still for sale, by the way...), so I can put them up too if need be. I've even got a bunch of spare 8x10 frames for the small-print list stuff that I may want to frame.

Saturday, I begin installation. I'll have pictures up here and on Facebook as well.

Speaking of Facebook - If you have one, and are in the Main Line area, check out the Facebook page I made for this event. Main Line First Fridays (March 5th) will be in full swing, and mine is one of several art openings that night. Shuttle buses will be going up and down Lancaster Avenue stopping at all the venues, and The Haverford School's Centennial Hall Gallery is one of them - and will be full of my photos.

The exhibit runs from the 1st to the 25th of March, but the official reception is Friday March 5th from 6 to 8 PM. I will be there to answer questions, take comments, make sales, and pretty much anything else (artist networking? great!). Additionally, I'll be taking commissions for photo-restorations and have some samples of my work available, so I'm going to be representing pretty much every side of my photographic adventures.

That's all for now - next post will likely be a final wrap-up of information, probably when I finish preparation completely. Maybe I'll even have some photos of the installation (in progress, finished exhibit, etc).

I'm pretty excited, to say the least. :)

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Anywhere Left to Turn - Pt.2

After six days off from school, I'm back and shifting exhibit prep to the top of my priority list.

As of now, there are 69 items lined up to be in the exhibit. I'm at a bit of a loss as to where to go next, though. See, printing and framing is a bigger issue than it ought to be (par for the course). Some photos, as I mentioned, will be printed at school - this is beneficial because it's free and those 20 or so pictures either don't need to be framed or can be put in frames I already have.

But the Costco prints, there's a challenge. See, it's really cheap and convenient and all, but there's still the fact that I'm printing (theoretically) 40 pictures there at 12x18. That works out to $120 for the printing alone. Then there's frames. The ones I use are basic and rather boring and happen to cost as much as each print, so there's another $120 roughly. That's a total cost of $240. $240 I'm not necessarily willing to spend. I'd much rather save wherever I can.

I have all the TMD stuff sitting in my room. 3 of them are going in the exhibit already, which leaves 12 frames I could salvage (read: reuse), saving me $36.

So that's $204.

Also, what's to say I really am going to print 40 pictures at 12x18? I've yet to actually scope the gallery itself, measuring the walls and all. For all I know, it's more efficient to have a bunch of unframed 8x10s or 8x12s pinned to the walls and maybe 20 12x18s. I know for a fact that 40 12x18 framed photos would take up much more space than I have! And given the duration of the exhibit...nah.

Notice the stream-of-consciousness writing tactic implemented above. See why long-term projects stress me out. Good. Moving on.


There you have it - the cartoony, colorful, and much-anticipated (I hope) poster advertising the exhibit. I just printed 20 of 'em and I'll start hanging them as soon as I can. Maybe a Facebook album of their locations will ensue. If you live in the Main Line area, be on the lookout for them. :P

In the near future (read: when I'm done with Astronomy homework), I'll be going through the "Costco Prints" folder and narrowing down my future 12x18 prints. With any luck, I'll cut it in half. That might be hard, but at least I'll still be showing the others at a later date. ;)

Total cost: $144

Each 12x18 print will be selling for $45. The others, of various sizes, will be of various prices...yet to be set.

I'll have a Guestbook format finalized very soon, along with an aesthetically pleasing price list. I have already made labels for each photo, but haven't printed them because I don't know which will be in the final exhibit. For reference, I can begin "installation" on February 27th. So I've got time. But as we all know, time is money...

I'll keep you posted. Stay informed. :)

Thursday 4 February 2010

Anywhere Left to Turn - Pt. 1

My next exhibit will be in March, at my school's art gallery. It's a sizable space with plenty of room to hang photos. Which is good, since I've got together about sixty photos I want to put in the exhibit.

They're of various sizes and styles...got some HDR stuff, some black and whites, some Thought-Process drawings, and some other weird and wonderful photographic art. It'll be cool to see it all in one place.

As of now, I've got a folder of stuff I'll print with my own resources and a folder to print at Costco (great prices and great quality). Luckily, I've already got a bunch of 12x18s left over from The Mind Dynamic and some other 8x10s that were alternates. Some of the photos I'm going to put in the exhibit will be printed small anyway (5x7 or 4x6) because that's how I want them. So it'll be a cool meld.

At this point, what's left is finalizing a poster design, printing it, and hanging it all over the place. Also, I've got to find out specific details on the exhibit space (as in how I'm gonna hang stuff - nails in the walls? - and how many exactly) because I'm new at this...I've seen exhibits at the gallery before, and know how they work and all, but I've never been in charge of setup and arrangement and such! I'm going to have a guestbook, of course, and I look forward to reading people's comments and such.

Also, I'll be selling pretty much everything at the exhibit. The experiences I had with TMD have taught me that my approach to selling isn't quite correct. Two people "bought" prints from TMD and never followed up. It was as good as saying "Hey, I'll buy this!" and then forgetting about it...

So that's part one. Fair and simple.