Network Aztlan Latino Chicano Comunidades Transnacionales

How would an artist use the Internet

How would an artist use the Internet?

Artists make things, things to be looked at, handled, hung on a wall and, hopefully, sold to a happy patron. Writers look for publishers and hope their work is put on a bookshelf or on top of a coffee table. But art or literature is as much about communication as making a product. And most of what happens on the Internet is about communication.

The Internet is a two-way street whose activity can be grouped into three rough categories - exchanging information, exchanging goods and services, and entertainment. As an artist, you could post information about your work or create a portfolio on the Internet. You can include images, prices, availability, resume and statement, and perhaps share your ideas and techniques. As writer you can find a place in a literary on-line library for your prose and poetry.

AztlanNet Web you can develop your own Website and join a large on-line community. AztlanNet has had 100,000 visitors since 1998, and garnered a number of web reviews and awards. It is difficult and expensive for an individual artist to get that kind of exposure with traditional promotion.

How will you promote your work?

AztlanNet Web people are art aficionados interested in exploring our culture and social movements. AztlanNet attracts people who are looking for information about Latino artist and literature, and we make it easy for them to find you. Because, we are a bigger e-community bases artist's group compared to an individual Website. AztlanNet also list your name with search engines leading them to you, and, the most effective approach is that we list your site with search engines like Yahoo, Lycos, Webcrawler, HotBot, Magellan, Infoseek.

How will your work look on the Internet?

You can expect that your artwork online will have a more limited palette and less detail than the originals, because images on a computer monitor are small and displayed at a very low resolution. However, your digital images can still be vibrant and complex enough to intrigue potential buyers and gallery owners, and give them a pretty good idea of what the actual piece would look like. Accurate reproduction of your work depends greatly on the quality of the image scanned, and the skill of the scanner operator or web designer who edits the image with software like Adobe Photoshop.

Take a tour of 0101AztlanNet Web,
http://www.aztlannet.com and click!... Artist Directory and Library and see how we have handled the problems of image and text display. As the web Internet publisher and designer, I have design a gallery template displaying artwork and personal information, much like if one walk through a traditional gallery where one see a series of work and descriptions about each of the pieces. Including in the gallery is an artistic statement, resume, and guestbook sign-in.

Can you sell your work on the Internet?

Artwork is frequently sold on the Internet. ArtQuest, http://www.ArtQuest.com a Website that lists artists and their works, reports over 1000 visitors a day and is generating sales of work, though they admit that it is difficult to determine exactly how much work is sold, since the artists handle the sales themselves. At AztlanNet this is the same method that buyer or gallery to artist do business. Some of our artists have sold work and some have been invited to show in other areas of the country. If you are contacted by a prospective buyer, you should send them a slide or photo of the work, to show more detail. If you clinch the deal, send two copies of a signed contract or purchase agreement. They must sign one copy and return it to you with payment. If you include shipping charges, notify the buyer beforehand. Above all, do not send the work without receiving the contract and payment.

Can your work be stolen off the Internet?

The purpose of exposing your work to the public is to make it accessible to art-lovers and potential buyers. But you run the same risk on the Internet that you run any time your work appear in the public domain, either printed in a magazine, or reproduced on a post card or poster. If your full-frame images are large and detailed, they can be copied off the Internet, re-sharpened and printed without your knowledge. They will never look as good as the actual works and the difference would be very obvious to anyone who has seen the original, but the general public may unwittingly purchase a 'bootleg' copy of your work printed on a place mat.

If you are concerned about intellectual property or copyrights you should consider registering your work with AztlanNet online registry. There is shareware (free or cheap software) available that allows you to build an invisible watermark into your online images.

How do you get your artwork online?

You must create a digital reproduction of your work by scanning a slide, photograph, or the original. If your work is three-dimensional, you should shoot more than one view. High-end photo labs and desktop publishing service bureaus offer scanning services (To Kodak Photo CD). Most scanners can only handle flat art, and have a small, 11"x15" window. If your original is large, it can be scanned in sections and later 'stitched' back together using image-editing software.

Now you need a web page. If you don't know how to build your own, have us create one for you (We except your scans or do the scanning). If you want to have complete control over the design, you can take classes in Website design. One design tip: keep image sizes at 2.5" x 3.5" ratio (mid size images). Larger images are slow to download. You can also use thumbnails (small images) Thumbnails can be linked to full-size images, and will give your visitors the option of choosing which piece they want to look at first. You decide to build your own in this way or use our template design.

AztlannNet World Wide Resource!

While the Internet can't duplicate the feel of a book or a piece of paper, or marble, the smell of turpentine, or the gloss on an impasto surface, you can still be moved, amused or informed by an artist's work or words, and can interact to a much greater extent than with traditional media like a printed magazine. By following the many 'hyperlinks' on our web pages you can explore an infinite web of relationships and common interests. With the growing inclusion of animation and sound your experience of digital art begins to truly approach virtual reality.

The AztlanNet Web contains a huge sampling of interesting, informative, and inspiring Webster for artists, patrons, gallery owners, art-lovers, writers, students and teachers. From each of our links you can jump to a multitude of other sites dealing with Latino-Chicano culture and social issues.

To get your own personal web site portfolio click! Email: artxchange@yahoo.com.