Imagekind Blog | Buy, Sell, Create and Discuss Art

In yet another endeavor to expand and promote a vibrant online arts community, Imagekind is excited to announce its partnership with EBSQ for it’s upcoming juried show ”The Art of the Equestrian“. All Imagekind artists are encouraged to join in on the fun and add an entry. One winner will be chosen, and we are happy to provide some pretty sweet prizes! And of course, all submissions will be available as museum quality art prints on Imagekind - offered, as always, at the artist’s own price.

If you are not an EBSQ artist, you should learn more and sign up. For those of you who already members of EBSQ, here is the rundown. Over the entire month of October EBSQ is featuring a contest that centers on the theme of the equestrian. Now, keep in mind, just because your art contains a horse, doesn’t guarantee it is eligible for this contest. Horse art is great, and can be pretty amazing. However, this particular contest requires not only a horse, but a rider as well. You can find the official definition of equestrian right here. The show is open for entries as of today, and the deadline is October 25, so make sure you get your submission in! All artwork will be featured in special page on Imagekind for the month of November.

Once you have the art you want to submit for the contest, it will be featured on both EBSQ and Imagekind, so make sure you are signed up with us, or your entry won’t be featured. After October 25, one artist will be selected and win the following prizes:

• A $100 gift certificate, good for anything you can create or buy on Imagekind.
• A free one-year Imagekind Platinum account(note: If you already have a Platinum account, we will simply add this on to your current membership.)
• A free media kit of Imagekind’s fine art paper and canvas samples.
• A free print on your choice of paper at any size your digital file will allow.
• Your profile featured on Imagekind’s homepage for one week.

Make sure you follow the requirements and sign up correctly. As stated on the EBSQ entry form:

An artist’s statement is required with every entry. Tell us about your materials, process and something about why you chose to represent your subject in the manner or media that you did. Your statement is an important element in presenting your work online and helps make your work more accessible for the viewer. As texture or other small elements may be pivotal to the piece, detail shots are encouraged.

Keep in mind, all work must be shown on both EBSQ and Imagekind to be eligible.  So make sure your work is recognized - include “ebsq” and “equestrian” in your tags on Imagekind.

We think that about covers it.  Just follow the directions found on both the EBSQ blog post and Prospectus. Send any other questions over to edu@ebsqart.com.

We really look forward to seeing some of our amazingly talented members show off their work. Good luck everyone and let the race begin!

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We wanted to hear a little more about what are member artists are doing outside of Imagekind, so we put out the call a little while ago. We got a great response and hope everyone keeps it up! I’m sure there’s more busy artists with lots to tell, but we encourage you to take a look at those who jumped up and decided to share right away.

It’s a diverse group of events, accomplishments, and new releases - so have fun browsing our listings, and maybe go check out some of your favorite Imagekind art in person.

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Back in June Imagekind announced a non-profit giveaway to brighten up a charity in need that we called the Art Inspires Non-profit Makeover. Our blog post and press release on the subject made it far and wide, and the event happened to get this 15 seconds of fame (literally) on the popular local talk show Northwest Afternoon. Here’s the clip, with Imagekind’s President, Kevin Saliba, front and center:

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We got a huge response, and after sorting through a bundle of applications we selected a very worthy winner, out of many very worthy candidates. We chose to sponsor a terrific Seattle charity called FareStart. They have a wonderful mission:

FareStart provides a community that transforms lives by empowering homeless and disadvantaged men, women, and families to achieve self-sufficiency through life skills, job training and employment in the food service industry.

And, though their restaurant has a gorgeous interior, all the classroom walls were bare, and ready for a little artistic inspiration. Continue reading for some shots of the big reveal as Imagekind gets to work for this worthy cause.

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Hey artists and art fans - it’s become that time of the year when you can find great work showcased traditionally through art and craft fairs, and other summer events, walking through booths and galleries to explore what’s new and grab up some local work. Though our Seattle days start looking pretty gorgeous after the solstice, the rainy winter gave us some time to come up with a few novel ideas for showcasing our great Member Artists on Imagekind.

We are happy to announce one that made it off the drawing board, the first ever Washington State Online Art Walk, hosted by Imagekind.  We decided, after much thought, to give this kind of event it’s trial run in our own backyard.  The art walk will feature over 100 emerging and established artists from across Washington State, starting today and continuing through Sunday, August 18th, and is running in conjunction with our Non-Profit Makeover contest.

We love the idea of creating more new venues for artist to showcase their work, and modeling our community after the real world activities all working artists have proven engaging.  So take this chance to get to know some of the influences and styles that permeate and shape Washington artists and their work.  You can even take something home with you - but you don’t have to carry it around all day!

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As you probably already know, Imagekind is all about the artists that use our service to fulfill a part of their artistic endeavors that they may never have been able to do until now. We started the company with a focus toward providing what was lacking in this industry, and making what was already available leagues better, and we are continually holding up those ideals and working hard to make them a reality.

One thing that might not be apparent yet is that we have the same enthusiasm about changing the way people buy art too. We know that the great and diverse work on Imagekind may have for the first time been made available for many styles - especially at a quality worth putting on your walls, and at a price you can afford - finally creating a bevy of new choices for art appreciators of all stripes. It’s not just about selling art, it’s about owning art. Imagekind is about celebrating creativity and making it available in a palpable form, for anyone. Because art is important. It lets us explore and reflect in a way that only this visual medium can. Art inspires.

That’s why we are announcing a new contest to share that inspiration with those who provide it for so many others in a whole different way - Washington State’s wonderful Non-Profit organizations. To the winner, Imagekind will donate up to eight digitally printed, museum-quality framed works of art out of a selection of emerging artists from Washington State being showcased in the our first Online Art Walk event - something we haven’t quite spilled the beans on yet, but details will be coming soon. In addition, accredited staging professional Kari Takacs, owner of Curtain Call, will work with the winning nonprofit to select and professionally stage their art work.

All Western Washington nonprofits located throughout King, Pierce and Snohomish counties are eligible to apply for the art makeover between June 14th and July 13th at:
http://www.imagekind.com/charity.aspx

A reveal on August 9th will feature the before and after images of the room selected for a makeover by the winning nonprofit.

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Imagekind member and local (to us, anyway) artist Mike Cressy will be having a gallery opening here in Seattle,  on Saturday June 9th, at the Laura Frost Fine Art Gallery in the Ballard neighborhood.  This coincides with the monthly Ballard Art Walk, and by gosh you couldn’t ask for nicer weather this time of year, both wonderful excuses to check out one of our favorite artists work in the real world.

BearBoys by Mike Cressy

Mike will be showing some of his latest acrylic paintings along with a series of recent prints.  We definitely encourage anybody who can make it to go - maybe we’ll even see you there ourselves!

The Laura Frost Fine Art Gallery is located at 5801 14th Ave. NW - in Ballard;  If you can’t make it, I assume the show will be running for some time, and you can always get some of Mike’s work right here.

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Tonight Imagekind’s own Aleks Davidovich will be presenting at a live chat forum hosted by EBSQ Self Representing Artists on the topic “Imaging Best Practices for Art & Photography Print Production“.

Learn how to best prepare and correct your images for superb web viewing and more importantly final output to print. Some of the main topics being covered in this presentation will include file formats, image sizing and scaling, image resolution, color management basics, and a brief look at using Photoshop to bring it all together. There will also be a Q/A session afterwards to clear up anything that might not get covered.

This will be a somewhat beginner-level presentation on these topics, but if any of the material mentioned above has ever puzzled you, this might be a great presentation to sit in on. It’s open to EBSQ members and non-members alike.

It all goes down tonight - Monday, March 12, at 9pm Eastern (6pm Pacific). Read more about the format and details here.

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Flickr celebrated it’s 3rd birthday this last Friday, and some of us from Imagekind were at the party. It was a wonderful event, and the benefit auction raised $5,480 for Kids with Cameras. Almost everyone brought a camera along, but they all took their eyes from the viewfinder for at least a few minutes to appreciate the framed photos on display for the auction. They looked great and we were proud to be a part of the event. Cupcakes were had by all.

Credit for the above photos from the event goes to Flickr members diyosa, Steve Rhodes, and cel.

More of their photos, along with many others can be seen by browsing images tagged Flickr333.

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We got word at the end of last week that Flickr has selected the 20 works for a benefit auction marking their 3rd birthday, dubbed Flickr 333. Anyone could enter, and after sifting through 460 submissions, Flickr somehow managed to narrow it down to 20 wonderful photographs.

Imagekind couldn’t be more excited to wish Flickr a happy birthday! Because, as mentioned in a previous post, Imagekind is donating our matting and framing services to the cause, and Flickr is auctioning off all the artwork for charity. It all goes down Saturday March 3, 6-9 PM in San Francisco, and the details for attending, RSVP, and the selected works with their creators info are on the Flickr Blog.

This last weekend put us on our way to rolling out these fine examples with the full Imagekind treatment. Some lucky bidders are going to own a beautiful little piece of art history as these two thriving artist’s communities meet up and celebrate.

Here is a look into the Imagekind production offices where Aleks starts this first print’s long trip to SF:

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We are hosting our first webinar with an itinerary full of tips to help any Imagekind member increase their sales. If you are an artist on Imagekind, or are thinking of joining, this webinar will explain how to properly create a gallery, get your marketing pointed in the right direction, and help you to make more sales. In addition to our newsletter, blog, and soon to be forum, we are very excited about giving this format a shot as another way to pass on some useful tips & tricks, give some instruction, and answer some questions.

If you receive our Member Newsletter, then you probably already know the details - but for everyone else, here is a quick outline:

• Setting up your Gallery for Maximum Exposure: We’ll go through the options you have to create and customize your galleries, and explore the best ways to get your artwork noticed on Imagekind and beyond.
• How Artists Make Money with Imagekind: Learn how to increase your sales by knowing our pricing and mark-up system. Find out how to diversify what you can offer your potential clients and buyers using Imagekind creatively.
• Marketing Tips - Promote Your Galleries! Drive traffic to your site and your Imagekind galleries. More visitors means more sales!
• Questions and Answers with Imagekind Staff: Get answers and share your ideas!

It all goes down on Thursday, February 22nd 2007 at 5PM PST. We’ll try to keep it concise and interesting, and it’s all about increasing member sales - so REGISTER HERE and put this short webinar on your calendar!

Feel free to give us some feedback in the comments of this post after the event. Also - have an idea for something you would like to see us cover in this format? Let us know here as well!

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