How Important is Presentation ?

Sometimes presentation is forgotten about in the creative process. This was brought home to me during the past holiday season when I went to a number of art show and sales. These were shows at art galleries. Even though the art work was not juried, the people submitting them were, theoretically, "artists." Some of what I saw appalled me. When I first started showing my art work, one never could put anything up that wasn't framed, even in a holiday show and sale at an art gallery. I always followed the motto that only framed pieces go up on a wall. I saw digital prints, not even well printed covered by loose shrink wrap on a wall. These should have been in a bin with the other non-framed prints. I saw canvases without any frame at all stuck on a wall. And I saw digital prints that were strictly poor non retouched photographs selling for $100. These were, obviously, still there when the show closed. A good digital print starts with a technically good piece of work. I am not speaking about artistic quality. I always love the statement "Garbage in, garbage out." Before you frame it, make sure you have printed it well. Look at it under a combination of lights. Make sure that the shadow details show as well as the details in the highlights if they showed on the monitor. Sometimes because of the difference in types of light, the monitor image will appear differently from that of the printer. I am not really discussing calibration but qualities of light. Sometimes the monitor light will wash out highlight shadows or expose shadow details in the shadows that do not appear in the print. If you mat it, make sure that mat is well cut with square corner edges unless you are using ovals, etc. It is interesting to do this experiment with a friend. Show a friend a piece of work that you like. Then put a mat around it, and then put it in a simple frame. Do these three steps close together, and I think you will be amazed at the difference it makes. Also, try using only white, black, or off white mat board. I used to use colored mat board until a watercolor artist who showed a lot (this was 10 years ago and he was not speaking about digital art) told me that shows only accepted white or off white mats. I started using them, and I have found that I prefer them over colored mats even when the color picks up a predominant color in the image. I still do use colored mats, but, then, I have developed the image, mat, and frame together. The next area in presentation we, as artists, have little control over is how our work is submitted to shows. I will discuss this in my next column. Anyway these are some of my thoughts. I'd like to hear thoughts from you, out there, on the topic of presentation.

As always, I invite you to visit my web site, Perpetual Visions

The Paula Sanders Report is a regular Renderosity Front Page featured column, where Paula investigates and comments on graphic software, techniques, and other relevant material through her reviews, tutorials, and general articles.

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