You Can Now Google Search for Your Images

Google finally has a useful way you can search for your images online.  As artists, we are all concerned with potential misuse of images of our copyrighted artwork.

So, to do a google search for a specific image:

1.) Just click on the link below

http://www.google.com/imghp  

2.) Next, click on the camera icon and then click on upload an image (from your computer).

I tried this with a few of my images and although the search pulled up several images, none were my images.  Google image search analyzes patterns of pixels and colors in other photos so I found photos with similar colors only.

Art Scam of the Week

Here is a recent email that I received below.  This guy did not even bother trying to ascertain my name (which is in large letters across the webpage and in the webpage domain address as well).  He saw my quote about Isamu Noguchi and stopped reading there. I have highlighted in red some of the tip offs that this is a scam.

Avoid people who do business this way.

-----------------
From: Eric Toczko eric@custommade.com
To: Isamu _ cacglass@aol.com.

Hi Isamu,

My name is Eric Toczko, and I work for CustomMade.com. I was just searching through Google for "custom glass" in VA and noticed that you've been making some really cool stuff.

We are a marketplace for North American design professionals. Every year we connect 3 million+ customers with talented specialists capable of creating their projects. It's been part of my job to find the best custom companies from VA and get them on board. Due to recent openings in your state, I'm offering the first 20 companies a $1 introductory offer to give us a test run.

The offer is open to anyone from VA that's interested, but after catching a glimpse of your work I think we would definitely like you to be in that first 20 ;).

Either way, I would love to hear from you. Keep up the great work!

Best, Eric

Eric Toczko

Business Development

CustomMade.com

p: 800.501.3121

First Annual Arlington Adult Education Juried Show

I served as one of the jurors for the first annual Arlington Adult Education juried show. A $100 prize will be awarded to the best in show art work at the reception on October 27, 2011. The reception will be held from 6 pm to 9:00 pm at the Arlington Adult Education Center, Clarendon Education Center, 2801 Clarendon Blvd,Suite 306, Arlington, Virginia.

All selected artwork will also be featured on the Arlington Adult Education website during the exhibition period.
Click here to see the call for submissions.

The Offical Press Release for my Upcoming Book.

Here is the Official Marketing Flyer for My Book--One Month Until the Release!

Click on the Flyer below to view it.

More Art 101 Advice: Captions

Whether you are entering juried shows, submitting your work for consideration for a book, or for any other art opportunities, you will be expected to understand basic captions for your art work. Most captions include the title of art work, your name, the medium, materials, size/dimensions and year.

I come across way too many artists who seem unclear on what a caption is. The title of the art work is what you name your painting, the name of your glass sculpture, etc. For example, you may title your painting of flowers "My Summer Garden" or your ceramic vessel may be called "Blue Horizons." The title is your personal choice. If you do not have a name for your art work, then call it "untitled." Name refers to your full name only. The medium refers to the type of art you create such as a photography, an oil painting, glass, ceramics, etc. When you are asked for the materials for your work, no one is seeking information on your "secret process." However, it is important to list the major materials such as steel, glass, and wood (for a sculpture for example) so the juror and/or audience can understand your work. While you may identify a piece of glass as recycled glass, it would be better to identify the type of glass used such as recycled window glass, recycled bottle glass, etc.

Size or dimensions refer to the size of the art work. For sculpture you should include height, width and depth (in the order specified) and in the unit of measurement requested in the rules (inches or in centimeters). Two dimensional work should include height and length/width. I come across a lot of photographers who become confused here and submit all types of odd numbers such as pixels, shutter speed, etc. A photographer should submit the size of the photograph he may print and sell the jpeg file in such as 8" x 10", etc.

Finally, the year does not mean the year and month and day that you submitted your work to the call for submissions. It refers to the date you created the work such as 2011, 2009, etc.

Received My Advance Copy of My Upcoming book!!!!

Well now I can actually hold my book and finally seeing the finished product is amazing.  The book should be in the publisher's warehouse in the next 6-8 weeks.  The final countdown is starting!