Business of Art Class Portrait

Which one of these creative artists is YOU?

winding down--but to be continued

The final week of classes was last week and this week is final exams. One 100 question final in HTML is tonite. The worst thing about this is the Timing. It happens same time as the Monday Nite Football game at Lambeau Field. Action on this piece of Wisconsin frozen tundra will loom HUGE for the victor and their chances for extending their season into the Playoffs. A good team from Baltimore plays the Green Bay Packers, who have looked good playing some weak teams.
They have also played poorly against some weak teams so tonite's result will depend on which team shows up.
I enjoy the HTML class too much to cut and I don't think the teacher would let me bring in a small portable tv set, or take the test in the lab while following the result from the nfl.com website.

Hopefully I will do well on the exam and the Packers will do well on their testing by the Ravens so that when I finally get to find a tv broadcasting the game, we will all be happy.

Allison Saar lecture at SB City College

The final Fall 2009 Fine Art Department Lecture Series episode is this Wednesday, December 2, at 4:30 and anticipating an SRO type crowd, the location is Physical Science building room PS 101.

I attended the Opening Reception on November 13 from which I offer an unassuming grainy snapshot.

The work is powerful in its clear symbols and in its relating to the life of the artist and her relationship to the world as a woman and as an African-American.

The exhibit is at Atkinson Gallery from November 13 till December 11.

I can't wait to hear what she has to say about her art. You should be curious also.

Home Stretch

Thanksgiving Holidays--all 3 days --signify that the Home Stretch is coming around the corner now. The Business of Art class has two work projects due instead of classroom lectures.
We make two presentations, the first one, on a step of our Roadmap that we take during 'Implementation Week'. The Final is a presentation about our overall Roadmap.


HTML class still has a few concepts to learn. Frames done. Forms almost done. XML as a meta-language. Other miscellaneous goodies to mention about.

still some fun learning to accomplish.
I hope to get some nourishing Turkey and Accessories for the journey.
THANKS to YOU ALL.

Culver City Art District Road Trip

The Road Trip to look at what ART is being Exhibited in the Culver City Art District was a great success. We were able to leave the car parked and walk a few blocks on Washington, then a few blocks on La Cienega and we saw at least a dozen galleries and their offerings.
For the most part we were greeted by Gallery personnel who were happy to answer our questions and passionate in explaining what the art they were showing was about and the processes involved.

I have a new term to riddle out--'non-historic gallery'.
I saw some 'photorealistic painting' that was focused on such a tiny part of the object that it was abstract color rectangles. A new way of thinking of realism.

I saw huge graphite drawings that were realistic and must have taken forever to create.

When we asked about local eating places, one gallery owner told us his favorite restaurant was on Milpas street. This is not in the Culver City area but Santa Barbara's own SuperRica and he will drive up to get the number 12 and the number 16 especial. I hope he gets an extra order so he doesn't have to drive again the next day.

We checked out the new 'million dollar gallery'--the big white building without a sign yet, still with workmen inside doing finishing touches.

In our Beverly Hills stop we learned the story of artist Chuck Connelly, who was good enough to be in the group of New York big -time success stories of 40 years ago but somehow fate didn't call his number then. He survived a self-destructive path involving drinking but kept painting. In the movie New York Stories, he was the basis for Nick Nolte's role. The gallery owner found out about the artist, tracked him down in Philadelphia and produced a Los Angeles show of his art to great success. There was a movie on HBO about Chuck Connelly, they are producing a sequel, the gallery owner is producing a movie too and best of all Chuck Connelly has been given a new life of success. You can see his art at Trigg Ison Fine Art through November 24.

I hope your turn and mine come up before 40 more years. With just the right connection.... Moral is, though, keep working and keep making YOUR art.

Networking with Culver City Art District

Bobs Open Studio Class

will be taking a Road Trip next Wednesday, November 11, Veteran's Day Holiday, when the Schott Center campus is closed. So far we have 1 car with 4 students willing to go. I hope for another car or two and some more students.

The importance of expanding our network and establishing a relationship with individuals in this area and connecting with the world of art is important for growing our art survival.
The art shown here is Contemporary, Figurative, of Today, and made by regular Artists like YOU and ME.

Email invitations were sent to the class roster to join.
Stay tuned.

Heard this week in class

The thing about having very smart teachers is they use Vocabulary in a precise way.
As Ross Perot would say, "I am all ears..." to hearing new terms, so fire away.

The Business of Art class had for today the agenda of Accounting principles, which were nicely simplified into a couple of math formulas.

I need to learn this Accounting STRUCTURE to keep track of the money aspects of THE BUSINESS that is bobsart ART.
I have to make Balance Sheets and Income Statements.
I didn't THINK I had any Income.
The Couch Cash was spent months ago.

My business needs to have strong Goodwill established so it can be Porting this into successful Transitions of Work.
It needs to avoid Execution Problems by anticipating Downtime Factors and learn How to Track to Monitor and Generate the right Reports.
The Business has to start Projecting Revenue and Expenses and find the Break Even Point.
On the way to the Bank I check my pocket dictionary for Return On Investment (ROI).

I wonder if Roy's restaurant was created so Roy could cook or so Roy could have a Roi.

I ponder more.
How is the storage capacity holding up against the Inventory Cycle?
If I get too many referrals will that cause problems with my Fulfillment service?
I realize the need to Punch Out One Message, hard and often. The Use of Point of Purchase displays is consistent with using e-mail Blasts and E-vites.
Are there enough deductions to protect the income and still have favorable comparisons to similar-industry's Run Ratios.

What is my Flex Number and does it really mean that my Net Worth is Negative?
I have to go now and find the Gating Item, because my Opportunity Cost is going too fast.
If I can just Identify and get to my Demographics with Podcasts or Facebook, I'll be fine.
And cooly DIGITAL, too.