I feel documentation is on the top three list as one of the most important things we can do as artists. For me it goes as follows: Create, document, market/business.
Creating: Of coarse I mean to paint and to manifest and build in whatever medium that you explore in. Keep going and finish the things that you start to the very best of your ability.
To document: As a painter the first step is to number and date all the pieces. After you number them on the back make a hard copy all the work in a file with the number, name and date. Take pics of all the paintings. This is a great tool for me because as soon as I load them into the computer my program automatically files them with dates. Once these pics have been filed with dates this is legitimate prof incase anyone else tries to rip your art. Now you have saved dates and pics of when the work was first created. Buy a external hard drive so you don't bog down your computer with images and or small flash drives . Also this is a great way to back up all your data.
Take as many pics as you can as a artist, pics of your studio, pics of you painting with friends/colleges, pics of you at your art shows, pics of you at other peoples art shows. Spread these pics and share them on all your social media sites. This is beneficial because you are further actualizing your presence in the art world. The process is also a lot of fun because it shows you a different perspective of you gaining momentum in your art career. For me this builds excitement and excitement then builds inspiration to create More!!
The other form of documentation that I am building is video. I am doing my best to video all my work that I create. I have a simple editing program on the computer that I use to put them together. After I create the video I post and try to share with as much people as possible. It's ok if you do not have great equipment. The point is: you have to start somewhere even if it is just with a small digital camera. From there with hard work and faith the creative elements that "are" will open up doors and opportunities that will bring you better equipment.
Marketing/business: In this blog I just wanted to really talk about documentation. The business/marketing section is endless and I have talked about it a bit in my past blogs. I think one of the biggest things to realize about being a artist is: marketing/business is just ONE hair less important then the creating process so don't neglect it. It helps if you are supper organized, if you have an equal balance of all your elements and to visualize the process being all linked together.
Here is the Link to the most resent video I made of me painting live. I did a painting for the Love Me Dead Art Show at Galeria De Los Muertos. Check it out, if you like it please post/share with others that you think might like LOVE ME LONG TIME
