Taking the Leap: Building a Career as a Visual Artist

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Nice Book

Showing Your Stuff

One of the better books on the subject

Excellent Book for the Fine Artist

Comments on Cay Lang's Taking the Leap: Building a Career as a Visual Artist

Taking the Leap: Building a Career as a Visual Artist
Cay Lang
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0811850935

Book Description

Cay Lang's Taking the Leap has helped thousands of artists jumpstart their careers and make real the dream of exhibiting and selling their work. An internationally exhibited photographer and teacher, Lang offers the wisdom of experience, combined with enthusiasm and gentle humor, to guide artists through the ins and outs of the art business. Practical and inspiring, this revised and updated edition offers two new chapters on using the Internet and the media to best effect plus provides step-by-step advice on preparing presentation materials; finding and dealing with galleries (as well as bypassing the traditional gallery system); handling rights, royalties, and taxes; an extensive resource list; and other invaluable information for both beginning artists and those ready to take the next step in their careers.

Customer Reviews:

Nice Book.......2007-05-20

Taking the Leap: Building a Career as a Visual Artist
by Cay Lang...nicely balances the aspects of what the title is about.
It mixes references/examples with good old advice in an organized easy to read fashion. I feel that it is a great investment for anyone starting out or needs a good refresher.

Showing Your Stuff.......2007-03-30

When people reach the stage where they start to think they may be artists, one of the things they envision is showing other people their work. At first, hanging it on their own walls seems enough (especially since many, at least at first, try to convince themselves that they are doing this work only for themselves.) But eventually the bug bites and they want to be exhibited in public. Cay Lang tells them how.

Of course the basic rule is work, work, work! But how to direct that work to get on the walls is what this book is about. Bit by bit, the author covers all of the steps that a visual artist needs to get exhibited, from preparing a submission packet for a gallery to schmoozing the press.

While reading about her process, I had a mental checklist created by consulting artists I know as well as my own experience. Once or twice, I thought I had her. She talked about mailing one's packet around. If all an artist does is send a portfolio by mail, the chance of being exhibited is small, even with the most brilliant artist's statement included. But a few chapters later there was the advice about making a personal visit, and a little later, there was the advice about networking. Eventually, she covered almost everything on the checklist.

Lang's writing is so simple as to be deceptive. It's straight forward and makes the process seem so easy. Of course, it's not, but if you can do the work you probably won't go wrong with her process.

This is an update of a previous edition, and she recognizes the importance of the internet in modern marketing. Occasionally, she makes some work seems easy, like taking pictures of your work for your portfolio. If you're a sculptor, taking pictures that will capture the spirit of your work is an art in itself. Designing a website, which artists need, even though sales from the site are unlikely, is also no easy task. So recognize that many of the tasks Lang touches on will involve whole new fields of study, or require the services of others.

The author also limits herself to discussing fine art exhibition. For artists like photographers there are other ways to present images to the public, including books and magazines, and selling from stock, that are not discussed here. Also, in one place in the book, she provides a reference to a book on artists' taxes that hasn't been in print for many years. This was quite disappointing because it would be great to find a book that could explain depreciation to an artist in simple terms!

In summary, here's a simple book that can start an artist on the way to marketing his or her art. It's a good recipe, but you have to add lots of work.

One of the better books on the subject .......2007-02-02

This is one of the better books on the subject. As one review mentioned there are parts of the book where ity is dumbed down but that is to be expected in these types of books. Just skim those areas and slow down when you get to the meaty parts. This book does have a good amount of meat. Admittedly there is a lot of fluff to get through but it is worth the time. The one part about the book that bothered me was the motivational aspect of it. But, as can be seen from other reviews that is what many people love about the book. I'm just more of a "give me the information as efficiently as you can" type of guy. Over all this is a good book worth the read, but my suggestion is to get all the books you can on this subject, read them all and come up with a strategy that works best for you and your personality.

Excellent Book for the Fine Artist.......2006-07-12

This is an easy-to-follow guide on how to establish a serious career as a fine artist. The first edition released in 1998 was excellent and the second edition has been appropriately updated to reflect how the Internet has influenced the business of promoting an artist's work. A significant strength of this book is its description of the business practices followed in the fine art field. Understanding how galleries operate and select art is a critical aspect of establishing a career. It is also important to know the best way to establish an artist's credibility with respect to the marketing aspects. The author's tone is very respectful of artists and the creative process and her approach is to inform artists on how to best establish a presence for their work in contexts that enable an artist to maintain a living as a professional artist. Readers should be advised that the focus of the book is fine art. It does not discuss licensing practices for commercial art or how to set up and run a booth at crafts fairs. However, if you are interested in a career as a fine artist, this is a genuinely excellent book.

Comments on Cay Lang's Taking the Leap: Building a Career as a Visual Artist.......2005-10-30

I found the book to be well-organized, full of excellent advice and an easy read. She goes through all the pitfalls artists meet in unlocking the gates leading to a gallery association. Her advice is punctuated with humor and fun. I'd recomment it to anyone in the field.

Book Description

Taking the city as a laboratory, Fugitive Sites challenges the predictable radicality of global art projects, the usual notions of site specificity, community engagement, artistic practice, and public space. Initiated in 1992 as a collaborative venture of cultural institutions in San Diego and Tijuana, inSITE commissions new work by artists from the Americas that responds to the extraordinary context of these two inextricably linked border cities, and is reinvented according to the shifting interests of artists and public institutions in Mexico. This most recent version of inSITE reconfigures public space, disrupts the syntactical order of the city, exposes its patterns, traces the activities of its goods and people, and provides remedies against the intertia of everyday life.

Customer Reviews:

Visual Memories From Deborah Willis.......2001-11-11

This catalogue from the inaugural exhibition of the National African American Museum at the Smithsonian is a compact survey of fifteen contemporary photographers whose work addresses "...themes relating to gender, family, race, differences, and stereotypes." The catalogue features reproductions of work not often available in publication form as well as artist statements about each body of work and a succinct summation of each aritsts practice from curator and author Deborah Willis. An excellent teaching tool and must have for any serious student of photography.

Book Description

An enemy is creeping up on the hero, when the hero suddenly does a half-spin and sends him flying with a back roundhouse kick! Then the hero jumps up and on the way down delivers a punch to the enemy. Action scenes are the highpoints of a story. This book selects action and movements often used in popular combat games and explains these motions to allow you to master drawing them quickly, starting out by tracing and, later, to draw your own original character performing.

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant satire of affirmation books.......1997-08-11

This is a brilliant satire of those little affirmation books, if I must say so myself (being half of "Shanti," who my friend Brad Bunnin and I channel). Alas, some these affirmations have been ripped off by some scoundrel and sent all over the internet and usenet. It's a funny little book, great for gifts, or advancing your karmic points. Jack Mingo

Hilarious! Won't let you take self-help too seriously........1997-07-19

A collection of "half-firmations" which will open your eyes and make you laugh at your problems. Some of these have been making the rounds of the internet recently (Summer 1997), without proper attribution -- get a copy of this wonderful little book to get the whole picture. "I Am My Own Best Casual Acquaintance" is a poke in the eye and a kick in the backside that will get you thinking and leave you rolling on the floor laughing. There is no better antidote to an overdose of therapy, support groups, and self-help books, and no better way to improve your outlook on your own problems or the problems of your loved ones. This book manages to be hilarious, poke some fun at serious topics, and also give you a fresh and healthy viewpoint about what's really important

Book Description

Unemployment costs the United States at least $400 billion per year in lost output. This number does not begin to add up the total costs of unemployment that include many serious social problems like increased divorce and crime rates. If unemployment costs so much, why don't we simply pump up demand and push the unemployment rate down? The answer lies in the relationship between inflation and unemployment: we simply cannot push unemployment below the rate that is compatable with stable inflation. Must we, then, just live with unemployment? No. But to understand how we can reduce unemployment, we must understand the nonaccelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU). What determines the level of the NAIRU? Has that level increased? Can we reduce the current NAIRU? These are important questions addressed in Reducing Unemployment. Ottosen and Thompson argue that the NAIRU has increased significantly over the past 30 years. Many blame structural unemployment for that increase. Others have argued that increases in social welfare programs and payments are to blame. But hardly anyone has examined the effects of increasing government regulations on the NAIRU. Reducing Unemployment remedies this oversight, and also looks at the effects of unionization and productivity on the NAIRU. The authors conclude that the United States does not have to tolerate a high unemployment rate, for the NAIRU can be reduced through appropriate government deregulation.

Book Description

Neale Godfrey's Money Doesn't Grow on Trees flew to the top of the bestseller list by helping parents teach their kids the value and uses of money. In her latest national bestseller, A Penny Saved, Godfrey builds on those basic concepts -- for preschoolers through teenagers -- and gives parents a concrete structure to teach values and essential life skills.

Parents want their children to grow up with healthy self-esteem, sound judgment, self-discipline, and the ability to take care of themselves in an uncertain world. They want their children to learn the positive lessons of honesty, responsibility, cooperation, and ethical behavior. By teaching children to understand what money is, how to use it, and what it can -- and can't -- do, parents prepare their children for life in the real world.

Worksheets, quizzes, teaching games, and age-appropriate exercises give kids hands-on opportunities to hone their practical skills.

Customer Reviews:

Too Difficult a System.......2002-08-23

Although there is some interesting, useful ad fun tips (the Need v. Want game is great), the whole system is too difficult for a working family to use. I'm sorry, but having a 6-year-old pay "taxes" is over the deep end. And so is paying interest on your child's savings jar. (That's what banks are for.)

Great advice for those of us who weren't taught early!.......1999-10-01

This book offered some new ideas for teaching my children about money and the significance of earning, saving, and spending. Ms. Godfrey does get a little carried away with the "jar" system (there would be about 30 in my house!), but her point is well taken. I really liked the part about teaching children to research purchases and costs of living, and looking at debt and financial responsiblities as an overall, long-term picture.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent social history of Germany during WWI.......1997-07-21

This is an excellent history of Germany during World War I, with particular emphasis on the social history of the people, especially the middle classes. The treatment goes beyond merely and the diplomatic and military history of the war

Book Description

Old Europe’s new crisis.

Europe, the charming continent of windmills and gondolas. But lately, Europe has become the continent of endless strikes and demonstrations, bombs on the trains and subways, radical Islamic cells in every city, and ghettos so hopeless and violent even the police won’t enter them. In Spain, a terrorist attack prompts instant capitulation to the terrorists’ demands. In France, the suburbs go up in flames every night. In Holland, politicians and artists are murdered for speaking frankly about Islamic immigration.

This isn’t the Europe we thought we knew. What’s going on over there?

Traveling overland from London to Istanbul, journalist Claire Berlinski shows why the Continent has lately appeared so bewildering—and often so thoroughly obnoxious—to Americans. Speaking to Muslim immigrants, German rock stars, French cops, and Italian women who have better things to do than have children, she finds that Europe is still, despite everything, in the grip of the same old ancient demons. Anyone who knows the history can sense it: There is something ugly—and familiar—in the air.

But something new is happening as well. Indeed, Europe now confronts—and seems unable to cope with—an entirely new set of troubles. Tracing the ancient conflicts and newly erupting crises, Menace in Europe reveals:

• Why Islamic radicalism and terrorist indoctrination flourish as Europe fails to assimilate millions of Muslim immigrants

• How plummeting birthrates hurtle Europe toward economic and cultural catastrophe

• Why hatred of America has become ubiquitous—on Europe’s streets, in its books, newspapers, and music, and at the highest levels of government

• How long-repressed destructive instincts are suddenly reemerging

• How the death of religious faith has created a hopeless, morally unmoored Europe that clings to anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and other dangerous ideologies

• Why the notion of a united Europe is a fantasy and what that means for the United States

In the end, these are not separate issues. Berlinski provocatively demonstrates that Europe’s political and cultural crisis mirrors its profound moral and spiritual crisis.

But this is not just Europe’s problem. Menace in Europe makes clear that the spiritual void at the heart of Europe is ultimately our problem too. And America will pay a terrible price if we continue to ignore it.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

great.......2007-09-27

This is a good book for anyone interested in the immigrant experiences and more importantly why they differ. She uses anecdotal writing which to my mind makes it more entetaining.

Brilliant social and historical analysis.......2007-07-30

Menace in Europe provides brilliant insights into the current social crisis in Europe. Exploring topics such as immigration and nationalism, it provides American readers with pointed, thoughtful and well-documented observations about the social and political climate in Europe. We should all be concerned about the destructive forces ripping apart the European continent. As a footnote, the chapter on the German rock band Rammstein is absolutely brilliant as it depicts the underground rise of nationalism in a nation that has tried to stamp out Aryan tendencies. This book is highly, highly recommended.

DEMOCRACY HAS LOST ITS SOUL .......2007-06-15

"That roots must be defended in the full knowledge that `those who subscribe to Islam are aliens, regardless of their clothes, their professions or their places of residence'. They sense Western weakness and expect that if Islam supplies the only old religious tradition left standing fifty years hence, it may attract mass conversions. That would indeed be the end of the West, its final surrender to the spirit masterfully depicted by Jean Raspail in the preface to the 1985 French edition of his Camp of Saints: "The West has no soul left. At every level - nations, race, cultures as well as individuals, - it is always the soul that wins the decisive battles." "...monstrous cancer implanted in the Western conscience." `Its roots are in the loss of faith and in the arrogant doctrine - rampant in the `the West' for three centuries now - that man can solve the dilemma of his existence by his unaided intellect alone. If that loss is not reversed the game is over anyway, proving yet again that where God retreats, Allah advances." (Srdja Trifkovic, The Islamic Conquest of Britain)

Horribly Biased.......2007-06-12

It seems that when Ms. Berlinksi decided to write this book, her goal was to try and equate the mistakes of europes past (recent and not so recent) to the blunders of the Bush administration. This book is a book for republicans, thinly veiled in "facts". It does present a few good points, but on the whole if it were any more biased it might as well have been called "Dubyas guide to the rest of the world". Not worth the money.

Good read .......2007-05-13

Finally, a simple but profound and right on analysis of the European psyche vis-vis the United States, written by an American who has lived most of her adult life in Europe. Excellent!!!

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Biotech Business, published by Worldwide Videotex on April 1, 2000. The length of the article is 461 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: AVOCET GETS FDA CLEARANCE AND CLIA "WAIVED" STATUS FOR PT-PRO.(patient monitoring device cleared by FDA)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)(Statistical Data Included)
Publication: Biotech Business (Newsletter)
Date: April 1, 2000
Publisher: Worldwide Videotex
Volume: 13 Issue: 4 Page: NA

Article Type: Brief Article, Product Announcement, Statistical Data Included

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AVOCET MINING PLC: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (Financial Performance Series)

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AVOCET MINING PLC: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (Financial Performance Series)
Icon Group Ltd.
Manufacturer: Icon Group International, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Ring-bound
ASIN: 0597156263

Book Description

The goal of this report is to assist managers in gauging a company's financial performance vis-a-vis firms competing in the same sector, at the global level. In particular, this report covers AVOCET MINING PLC, LONDON, United Kingdom. With the globalization of markets, greater foreign competition, and the reduction of entry barriers, it becomes all the more important to benchmark a company's performance against other firms on a worldwide basis. Doing so, however, is not an obvious task. First, one needs to find firms competing in the same sector. Second, one needs to control for exchange rate volatility. Finally, one needs to use comparable financial standards. This report overcomes these issues and gives full financial benchmarks vis-a-vis worldwide competitors who are present in the same narrow industrial classification. Benchmarks cover assets, liabilities, income and ratios. Since our reports are printed on demand, the statistics reported are for the latest quarter and are the most up to date available (4 reports are produced each year). Each report provides over 100 statistics and 40 graphs to the reader.

AVOCET MINING PLC: Labor Productivity Benchmarks and International Gap Analysis (Labor Productivity Series)

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AVOCET MINING PLC: Labor Productivity Benchmarks and International Gap Analysis (Labor Productivity Series)
Icon Group Ltd.
Manufacturer: Icon Group International, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Ring-bound
ASIN: 0597319197

Book Description

This book is designed for human resources managers and directors of personnel who are concerned with labor productivity. It gives benchmarks and gap analyses used to gauge a company's performance vis-a-vis firms competing firms in the same sector, at the global level. In particular, this report covers AVOCET MINING PLC, LONDON, United Kingdom. With the globalization of markets, greater foreign competition, and the reduction of entry barriers, it becomes all the more important to benchmark a company's performance against other firms on a worldwide basis. Doing so, however, is not an obvious task. First, one needs to find firms competing in the same sector. Second, one needs to control for exchange rate volatility. Finally, one needs to use comparable financial standards. This report overcomes these issues and gives full human resources benchmarks vis-a-vis worldwide competitors who are present in the same narrow industrial classification. Benchmarks cover labor-asset ratios, labor-liability ratios, and labor-income ratios. Since our reports are printed on demand, the statistics reported are for the latest quarter and are the most up to date available (4 updates are produced each year). Each report provides over 100 statistics and 40 graphs to the reader.

Diurnal and nocturnal behavior of breeding American Avocets.: An article from: Wilson Bulletin

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Diurnal and nocturnal behavior of breeding American Avocets.: An article from: Wilson Bulletin
Matthew Johnson , Jon P. Beckmann , and Lewis W. Oring
Manufacturer: Wilson Ornithological Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Science & Technology | Subjects | e-Docs | Formats | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Wilson Bulletin, published by Wilson Ornithological Society on June 1, 2003. The length of the article is 7062 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: We studied nocturnal and diurnal behavior of breeding American Avocets (Recurvirostra americana) at the Jay Dow, St; Wetlands in the northwestern Great Basin, USA. Seven-day observation periods were centered on two full moons when ambient light was maximal and auxiliary lighting unnecessary. We recorded avocet density, habitat use, interbird distances, and behavior three times daily (beginning at 07:00, 15:00, 23: 00 PST) for 14 days. We calculated the mean proportion of individuals within flocks engaged in four behavior classes (foraging, copulating, agonistic, other). Foraging birds were further subdivided by technique (pecking, dunking, scything). Avocets copulated with similar frequencies during the morning, afternoon, and night. Avocets were more aggressive and closely spaced at night than during day. The full repertoire of behaviors seen during daylight also occurred at night, though frequencies of particular behaviors, flock location, and interbird distances varied among morning afternoon, and nighttime observations. The role of nocturnal reproductive behavior should be assessed in species generally perceived as being diurnal. Received 12 January 2003, accepted 20 March 2003.

Citation Details
Title: Diurnal and nocturnal behavior of breeding American Avocets.
Author: Matthew Johnson
Publication: Wilson Bulletin (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2003
Publisher: Wilson Ornithological Society
Volume: 115 Issue: 2 Page: 176(10)

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