Hi, Victoria. First, congrats on selling your work to a serious collector! This email might be a bit lenghty, but I promise...it's worth sticking with it...bear with me...
I understand what you're saying about "letting go" of a creative work...a part of you goes with it. But, I found out today that there's a way to hang on to it FOREVER...well in the virtual sense anyway. There is a fabulous new site I just discovered...brand spanking new. Actually, I was told that they just went live yesterday.
Get this... It's a permanent registry for artists and collectors. The url is http://www.fineartregistry.com I found it while looking at a pop artist's work (Lorna Wallace), who lists on ebay. Come to find out this pop artist has her ENTIRE portfolio (over 200 pieces) on the site--all of her pieces PERMANENTLY registered--all of them right there for her to showcase to anyone, anywhere, anytime and what's nore is that she gets to track the provenance of the pieces she sells. And get this--all but three or four of the pieces she has listed are SOLD. She bought tags for ALL of her pieces and sent them to buyers. Pretty terrific, huh?! That's why when I read your post, I couldn't help telling you and whomever else reads this about this "dream-site"--thought you'd appreciate knowing about it.
In an email exchange with the pop artist mentioned above, I asked her for a bit more info about the site, and her response posted below is pretty exciting! Here's what she had to say:
Hi, Ter...
I appreciate the email and thank you for the kind words. I definitely wanted you to see what Fine Art Registry "FAR" had to
offer. Not only do you get to create a catalog (raisonne if you will) of your paintings forevermore, even more importantly, you as the artist start/create the provenance for every work of art you create. Think what that will do for my copyrights....Ingenious! Just think if Picasso could have had access to this technology. There would not be the fakes and forgeries in the numbers there are on the market today. Fakes & forgery's
become a thing of the past or at the very least are more easily identified.
You can read more about the site on the site, but basically to answer your question, what happens is you buy a FAR label/tag (for a one-time fee of only $2.25) to place on the back of your painting. You don't even need to buy a membership to do this, but it's worth it to subcribe as I'll explain below. The label is clear and holographic--small, attractive, AND TAMPER EVIDENT, as you can see on the homepage of the site. There are a number of other covert or hidden elements in the tag that makes it virtually impossible to counterfeit.
The tag has a unique, human readable number associated with each work of art. Now here's the thing of beauty. When you sell a painting, you inform your customer to request a "transfer of ownership". It doesn't cost your customer anything to do so. All they need to do is register as a "free member". Once you approve their request for the transfer of ownership, the history on that painting will show that you owned/created the painting and then it will show who the current owner is. If they ever decide to re-sell your painting, then the new owners request a transfer of ownership and the history of the painting continues to grow.
As a collector of art, I can tell you that provenance of a painting is huge and as an artist, even though we are not Picasso's today, doesn't mean our work later on down the road won't be highly collectible--at the very least, future generations won't wonder about the artist who signed the work they just purchaxed at an estate sale, because our pieces and our BIOGRAPHY will remain forever in the FAR database. All this makes Fine Art Registry worth its weight in gold. There is nothing else out there like this and I plan on letting all my fellow artists, such as yourself, know about the site.
Once you subscribe to the site, which is only $19.95 per month or you can save some $$'s by subscribing for 1 year (which I did), you can create your on-line catalog and also SELL your paintings. I plan on continuing to sell my 9 x 12 oils on ebay and utilizing FAR to sell larger works on canvas. Another cool thing FAR offers, if you subscribe for a 1 year membership, you will be included in their annual planned PRINT publication "Fine Art Registry's Guide To Contemporary Artists" at no additional cost. So you become INSTANTLY Published with number of tags (pieces) registered, sales records, etc...
There are other huge perks as well, INCLUDED with your monthly or annual subscription is the ability to post up to 50 pieces of your art at NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE!! Hard to believe, huh? I don't know how they can offer this, but Fine Art Registry does not take a commission--not one penny of any sales that you make. FAR is definitely an indpendent, self-representing artist's champion. Oh, and one more thing...you also get to read hundreds of daily articles on the ARTS! I spent all day Saturday reading...really an incredible site. There's much more to say about it, but I've taken enough of your time. Can you tell I'm hooked? You asked how I found them and why I didn't let everyone know immediately? Well, I was busting at the seams, but I had signed an agreement to participate in their beta testing phase and at that point, it was a process of finding little bugs and stuff. But now...I can scream it from the roof tops! Let me just say I'm there to stay!! I just started to add mention of FAR on my ebay listings where you found it. I just wanted to touch on the highlights and I'm sorry if I went on too much. I truly belive that what FAR offers adds value and credibility to any artist's work. It sends a message to your customers that you take your work seriously.
Thanks again for your interest and for asking about FAR... Take care...
***********************************************
Well, I guess your post inspired me as I never post items on message boards... I always visit d'art, and often read the posts, but really never reply... This is my first.... I thought if you wanted to you could register the piece you sold to the collector and send the tag to him or her...or the gallery to send to the collector...which collector's will love!!
Anyway...that's it... Everyone should check out this new site!! AND SUPPORT IT! It certainly appears they stand for the contemporary artist, like NO other entity on the web....
By the way, Victoria...I like your work very much...
Regards,
Ter
|
|
