First on the list of odds and ends for August: I now have a twitter account and I just set up a public Facebook page for my artwork. Yes, I set these up just in time for everyone to switch to Google+. Seriously, I wanted to be able to tweet my blog posts and coordinate that with Facebook. Plus, since I have been reading my husband’s twitter feed to skim over the news article links, he suggested that I could get my own account.
Twitter is here: sarahpetruz
And, you can be a fan of my artwork on my new Facebook page (come on, be a fan!!!)
Of course, the rss feed is still over there on the right. That works, too.
Next up on odds and ends: my friend, fellow artist, and mentor Barbara Minch has started a blog on creativity - the artist’s idea factory - and you can now see her artwork on her new website.
And, to close out the list of odds and ends: several months ago I gave permission for one of my drawings to be used on the cover of the Turkish edition of Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire. The publisher did a wonderful job with the design (click here to see) - and beautifully integrated the image with the text (and the image works so well with the concept of the book itself). For those of you who knew about this from the beginning, I am happy to report that they did pay for the use of the image (I have not received a copy of the book, although they forwarded a high res pdf of the front and back cover). I know that a lot of artists get cheated by not getting compensation for their work when it is used outside of the US; sending digital files, only to discover that there is no reasonable legal recourse when payment is not made is a frustrating and belittling experience. In my case, I trusted they would pay, and fortunately they did. But, if anyone wants to start up an international visual art image broker available for all artists (in the style of Getty or Corbis, but with the unrestricted accessibility of an eBay, that would function in a PayPal manner - payment made by the client first, and then distributed to the artist when the files are uploaded) take my suggestion and please do. And, let me know when you get that started up – or, if one already exists, someone please let me know, because it is rather shady and unsure out there in copyright/compensation land for the individual artist.
I might actually end up in the black this year with art sales and such …not so bad after 17 years in the studio. Next week's blog...jpegs and my sanity.