Gallery Stroll Review-- Salt Lake City
Modern Love & "Mundane" Art 
Mariah Mann Mellus
mariahm@worldstrides.com     

The Salt Lake Gallery Stroll takes place the third Friday of every month. The local galleries stay open until 9pm. Here is a list of some of the shows you can check out on the stroll February 21st.

Art Access will be heating up your evening with artist Lance Duffin,  The show titled MODERN LOVE, explores the current trends in how we perceive love. Television, bill boards, shopping malls -- these images, whether fantasy or reality, are infused with the overtly sexual, live for the moment, youth culture spirit. Lance capture's the sexually charged media and fashion world and asks is this how we think love is supposed to happen? Does it only happen to supermodels and actors? Are relationships as deposable as we treat them? Have modern images taught you how to love, have sex, dress,or what your body should look like? Commentary will be provided by several local writers.  Come check out how affected you have been. The show runs February 14th through March 14th with the Gallery Stroll reception on February 21st from 6pm to 9pm.

Finch Lane Gallery , AKA the Art Barn. You drive by it all the time, it's that blue building by the park on 1300 East and 1st South. If you weren't able to catch last month's show with Brad Slaugh and Suzanne Kanatsiz you are in luck, the show will run until February 21st with it's closing reception on Gallery Stroll Evening. My favorite by Mr. Slaugh, "Doug's Ugly kids" is owned by Doug!  If you don't have a sense of humor when you show up, you will when you leave!

Finch Lane Gallery Present's PAINTINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHY opening February 28th with painter Kathryn Williams and a collaborative exhibit by photographers Jeremy Bringard and Alex Ferguson. Kathryn works primarily in oils and titles her exhibit FLESH LANDSCAPES. As an artist her objective is to create a visual response to the how the world looks in certain romantic situations.   

Bringard and Ferguson demonstrate a similar interest in random haphazard markings by people and a connection with the world. The photographs were not shot with any preconceived idea so the viewer can come up with their own conclusion. Jeremy Bringard uses more traditional photography techniques, yet he views the object in several lights.  Presenting the public with a unique look at the view from behind his camera at mundane objects in life. Alex Ferguson has explored many forms of photography. This show is a result of his Foot Travel Project. The project; to lay down developed, un-exposed film on 50 different walk ways and see what is left behind in the foot prints of Olympic travelers. Along with the photo's are excerpts of his journal that he kept throughout the project. The journal includes the placement of the film, beginning time and retrieval along with how much exposure the piece of film collected. If you walked through the WALK OF SHAME STUDIO during the Olympics then you are part of this project. Alex Ferguson has been quoted saying "Art for the people by the people."


Phillips Gallery presents artist Ronald Clayton. Clayton is a thinking artist whose images derive from architecture, using an interior space juxtaposed against a natural landscape. His paintings always reference a debilitating nature, anything disregarded or destroyed by human nature. All viewed through the opening of a window or door. These landscapes revel actual places as they could be or should be! The opening reception will be held Gallery Stroll evening February 21st from 6pm to 9pm and run through March 14th

Salt Lake Arts Center features Cris Bruch in the Main Gallery and Street Level Gallery. Bruch's work consistently escapes definition. It's the mundane items in our life that placed altogether remind us of all the time we spend with these items. One piece titled "How did we get here?" uses a trash can lid, flocking pigment, text and lights. The text reads "that familiar strangeness". Another piece titled " Roller Rooster includes a shopping card with pans and a hibachi. Cris's interest for this work stems from the simple unconscious repetitive actions which, to one degree or another, define who we are. The opening reception will be held Gallery Stroll Evening February 21st from 6pm to 9pm. The show will continue to run through May 25th.

Artists of Utah News
New Services Page: Art Opportunities
To respond to the needs of the community, Artists of Utah has developed a new page in the Services Section. Art Opportunities will list a variety of opportunities for artists to work together, including listings for plein air groups, figure models, art instruction, and travel opportunities. For more information on the program click here.

Underwriting Program: Supporting our Community
Artists of Utah is instituting a new program, designed to provide benefits to the individuals and organization that financially support our programs. Our Underwriting Program will allow contributors to place banner ads on certain pages within the site, including the pages of 15 BYTES.  This will help to insure that the services that our website will remain available to the community.  To launch the program we are offering a bonus of a free month to underwriters who contribute during the month of February. For more information on the program click here.

15 BYTES is brought to you in part by the support of the following:

PAINT UNDER A TUSCAN SUN Join other artists for an exciting opportunity to paint in the tuscan countryside. Stay up to two weeks in a beautiful Italian villa, equipped with a  large artist studio and surrounded by breathtaking views.

Call for Entries -- Salt Lake City
Bicycle Art for a Better World

Marketing Tips
Exposing Yourself . . . from page 5

If you have an agent who sells work for you, maybe it would help sales for you to have their name printed on some of the cards to use.  If an agent is showing off one of your images with their name - whose works do you think they will sell first?

Another way in which cards can work for you is by selling themselves.  For example, you hand one of your cards to a business person in a different field.  They look at it and exclaim, "What a beautiful card. I wish I had one so beautiful" At this point, you can tell them how they could use that image (or one like it) for their own business.  Give them a quote on cards of their own with one of your images on the front and their information on the back.  And don't forget to stipulate that you need credit for your image with a small copyright line somewhere in the image.  Make some money with this little transaction, so set your fees accordingly.  This card will double duty.  Your image gets presented to a whole new set of people as they hand them out, and increases your potential market.  We produce cards for many artists who do this quite frequently for all kinds of people, and I have been told that the artists get calls from people they don't even know who want images for themselves.

Let's take this even one step further.  Let's say that you paint animals - dogs are your forte'. You could put together a small presentation with your portfolio in hand, and go out to veterinarians in your area and explain how they could have color business cards with your images to advertise their business. Or, maybe you like to paint old houses.  Go to builders, or remodeling contractors and show them how they could have color cards like no other in their field.  Do florists need cards? Do they need floral paintings?  Maybe your love is wildlife - outfitters need cards, sporting goods stores need cards, wildlife preserve folks need cards - get the idea?

Get creative, and you can sell your images to most anyone who is in need of a very unique business card for themselves.  Keep this in mind - they could not do this without you.  Do you think some Vet would take the initiative to come up with the idea - find just the right artist to paint an image - fine a printer who could produce color cards, all just to create this look? Bet not.  So, you can be the creative thinker for him.

The bottom line about business cards is that they are your very first advertising tool.  Use them to open up your market.  Use them to present yourself to the public and to look professional from the first meeting and use them to start working your career.

Ruby Reece is a co-owner of Art Editions and has been in the printing and advertising industry for over 25 years. She has been directly involved with the national arts community for most of this time and has conducted artist marketing seminars from the Virgin Islands to California to teach artists how to market themselves and their work. She has lectured extensively to artist associations on subjects from self advertising to publishing and marketing prints. Reece has also written a variety of educational articles that have been used in the industry.

Art Editions is a fine art printing service company that is dedicated to producing professional advertising materials and high quality products for the national arts community.

For more information, or to request an information packet, please call (801) 486-8313 Local or 1- 800-331-8449 toll free.