And what amazes me, what never changes, is that the learning curve is always ahead of me. I used to think there was a catch-up point, and I’d race for it. Took a while for me to notice that each time I got close, the curve simply… reinvented itself.

And no matter how much I learn, there are these places where I am stumbling in the dark.

1. Blog Posts – my Achilles heel. I know the rules: post at least 3 to 4 times a week. Some weeks I’m running hot and writing a post or two flows. Other weeks, I just plain put it off – nothing’s bubbling up to the surface and I hate writing boilerplate material just to cover my tail.

I’ve tried guest posts. I’ve tried creating a schedule. I’ve tried tip style posts. Personal posts…you name it. Alyson Stanfield and Joan Stewart are my blog heros and I swear there’s no way I can live up to their productivity and it makes me crazy with self criticism.

2. Data – Ouch…numbers. So Google analytics (which is great, btw) comes into my inbox every week. Do I go even look at the darn thing? (So you’re wondering how I know it’s great.)  Okay, I’ll go look – be back in a sec….

I’m back, here’s what I learned: I’m getting 1 referral from email.fatcow.com. Huh? Now I’m going to have to go check out that site. And, what do I know that is the slightest bit helpful? Thank goodness I have the world’s best marketing coach and she’s slowly getting my head around numbers and how critical they are to running this show.

3. Focus – Even as I write this I’m being exquisitely distracted by Lizz Wright’s stunning “Walk With Me” video. Which I discovered in a tweet while I was being distracted from my priority to-do list for today…and so it goes. It was suggested that I don’t actually have enough on that to-do list, that adding a really BIG project, or two, would compress the urgency to get the smaller stuff done. We’ll see. I’m ever so skeptical, but game to try.

What I have learned, thank goodness, is to be gentle with myself when things go boo in the night because I’m stumbling around. And to be grateful for what I do well, like the telesummit.

What are your stumbling blocks? What have you learned from them? I’d love to know.

—————————————————-

One place I know you quake just a little is finding the perfect audience for your art.

I’m hosting Molly Gordon TONIGHT (Tues, July 20) – 7pm ET – on a free 90-min, teleclass: “5 Proven Steps to Getting More Collectors and Art buyers Even if You’re Allergic to Biz.”

Register even if you can’t make it, and we’ll send you the recording.

Hawaii the First Time

This has been a shake-up, wake-up year for me, your normally stay-at-home-in-my-Internet-Ivory-Tower kinda gal. Oh, sure, I might wander up to Maine, or down to New York City – once in a while. But 4 trips in 4 months that all started with getting on a plane?

In the first place, I’m an introvert – which means I’m pretty darn happy toddling around in my own space, frolicking with the fairies and elves of my endless Idea Machine. It’s why I prefer being online and on the phone to, say, a keynote address where my body is in front of a bunch of other bodies – being alone keeps the external stimulation to a minimum so I can access, and cough up ideas like the smARTist Telesummit, or write books like Writing The Artist Statement.

However, something dramatically changed at……the beginning of this year.

It started with a spontaneous jump-on-the-plane and flying out to Portland, OR for New Years – where I hooked up with one artist, abstract painter Barry Mack, and visited the home of another artist, Ray Losey, whose work plays off of traditional totems.

Then, in April, I flew to the Big Island of Hawaii for a 7 day “Swim with Wild Dolphins” retreat, came home, and 4 days later was in Savannah, GA giving one of those in-the-flesh keynote presentations (that I don’t give :-) for CODA.

Hawaii the 2nd Time with Peruvian Elders

Five weeks later saw me back on the Big Island of HI for a week-long PAQO Conference of indigenous shamans and healers. And, as if that wasn’t enough for one stay-at-home introvert, I fell madly in love somewhere in-between the two trips to Hawaii.

Whew! Makes me dizzy just putting all of that in two paragraphs!

Of course you weren’t keeping up with any of this because I was still hiding underground in my mistaken smARTist Identity.

But, besides giving you a peek into my personal life, why on earth am I telling you all of this?

Because…

… Shaking It Up Loosens The Crud

Putting myself into completely unfamiliar places, without a ghost of a chance of sticking to my daily routine, netted me a few surprises. Here’s some of them:

1. Getting away from the computer (I don’t travel with a “laptop” or other digital devices – except my camera.), and not watching TV while flying (in 4 months I logged 59 hours in the air!), allowed my Idea Machine to flow freely. I came up with 6 new projects and 3 books to write – each one outlined and ready for the next step – and all on **real paper written with a real pen.

2. Meeting new people juiced up my energy flow so I was more accessible to myself, and I returned to my Internet Ivory Tower where all of this is now spilling over into my tribe (that’s you).

3. Living in a daily cauldron of the unfamiliar opened up my perspective so I could see what needed changing in my company, and what could stay the same. This led to my most commented blog post ever, and an outpouring of support I didn’t even know existed. (Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.)

4. Working offsite once a month (that new love I mentioned, who doesn’t live close by…) was the real eye opener. Away from my homey work space, I discovered I could write blog posts – a task that, before, felt tedious and uninspired. On the other hand, I could not complete the to-do stuff that dominates my time back at the office.

Beyond The Valley of Discomfort

Shaking up a comfortable routine feels… well, uncomfortable. I enjoy operating on automatic pilot where certain habits and pathways are well worn across familiar territory – so I can use my active mind for other tasks. And now I see just how seductive this comfort can be, and that it is not the most effective way of operating for me, my tribe, or my business.

Discomfort is valuable. It gives me a chance to pay attention to what actually happens when I shake things up – to look over the edge and align my behavior with what works best instead of sticking to my easy chair.

What can you do to shake up your routine? I’d love to hear what you discover when you step away from your comfort zone.

———

**A complete aside: Did you know that hand writing activates different neural pathways in the brain from typing on a keyboard? Next time you are having trouble writing, mix up the process.

Which reminds me, are you having trouble writing your artist statement – that extra chance you have of bonding with your collectors? I’ve written a whole book just for you. Click here to check it out.

NOTE: This post, for those of you keeping up, is a re-post from last year. Why? Because, the problem isn’t going away and I’m the drumbeat in the lost artist jungle….

——————–

Artists love black. Love, love, love it. It has class. It engages. It draws you in.

Black is classy. It fairly screams “high end.” It dominates and holds our attention. Let’s face it: black has power.

And for years and years and years it has been the color of choice to lay the crown jewels on, as the backdrop for a brochure, in framing… the list goes on.

But let me tell you the one place where everything black does, and stands for, works completely against you.

And against your…art.

On your website or blog

I know. It’s so hard to realize that the Old Order has given way to a New Virtual Reality. In fact, it’s so hard that a good many of us haven’t caught on to the differences that decide our online fate.

And the traditional sacredness of black is positively trance inducing.

So here’s the question I’d like you to ask yourself:

What is the most important thing on my website or blog?

A. My domain name

B. A picture of me working on my art

C. My art

D. My artist statement

E. The background color

Of course, each of these is important in it’s own way. But without “C,” none of the rest matters, right?

Which brings us to the First Law

Nothing should upstage your art. That’s the first law of an artist’s website or blog.

Your art is center stage, first and last. Nothing should detract, draw attention away from, or usurp your viewer’s focus on your art. Period.

If black is engaging, dominant, holds our attention and draws us in, doesn’t it go without saying that a black background trumps your art?

It seems so simple, so logical. But whenever you tread on sacred ground that is also visually emotional, “simple” and “logical” hardly register.

“But my art looks so good against a black background,” you might wail.

Now, I ask you…have you ever been in a gallery with black walls?

And anyway, what do you want people to think is “classy”: your website background or your art?

You can’t have both.

The Second Law

Unlike gallery walls, a website needs words to deepen your viewer’s connection to you and your art (hard to shake hands and make eye contact on a web page).

You also need words to a) keep your visitor on your website and b) moving in the direction of taking action to sign up for something (newsletter, a free offer, a short article, etc.) so you can follow up and stay in touch.

But how can you read words on a black background. Ah… yes… thundering in, stage left: the White Font!

Which brings me to the Second Law: Do not make anything hard for your visitor!

And nothing, but nothing is harder than reading white words on a black background.

Nothing. (Except, maybe, slow loading images.)

In small doses, say a tag line or a headline, you can get away with white on black. It might even be classy.  (Heck, I even do it here…just look up.)

But once you start piling up sentences, never mind paragraphs, you are asking the human eye to do an inhuman task. It hurts…so, naturally, people don’t read, or don’t read much. Or don’t read enough.

Me, I just click off as fast as I can. Your art doesn’t stand a chance.

I have a theory

Why would something, like black, work so well on printed paper, but not on a computer monitor?

I suspect it’s biology. The human eye was never designed for the static light of a computer monitor.

Our eyes are designed to adjust to incremental, discrete changes in light from the minute we open our eyes in the morning until we close them at night.

Plunk down in front of the static, unchanging light of a monitor screen, then stare at it for minutes, if not hours, and you are suddenly holding your eyes hostage.

It’s a hostile environment, and anything you do that even subtly increases the hostility shortens the life span of a single visitor staying on your website long enough to engage and enjoy the creative work you so lovingly and passionately share.

Give up black and you will gain an audience.

Here’s what you get. Remember, I’ll be adding to this list until May 19th:

• #1 - Find Out Exactly How Geoffrey Gorman Became Such A Successful Artist -with my first release of our interview for my brand-new, “Successful Artist Series” of podcasts.
• #2 – Have People Dying To Know Even More About Your Art With This Simple Sentence with my digital worksheet on “How To Write A Descriptive Sentence of Your Art”
• #3 - Will be posted on Sunday, May 16th.

For more information and to grab yours today visit:

http://smartist.com/exclusives/resources/

Remember to check back through May 19th for the next FREE Art Career Resource.

Is your art career sitting on the fence because you are?

Register for the smARTist Telesummit 2010. (It starts in 2 days!)

Your art career will thank you—and that’s a promise!

I’ve come to call it the Business Bitters–that mouth puckering contrast to the sweet taste of creative flow.

The story is simple and timeless: artist paints or sculpts or weaves or throws or composes, experiencing a kind of…ecstasy. The result is a work of art that has first moved the artist, and then – if the skill, artist voice, and materials are up to the job – reaches out to move someone else.

In the beginning, the artist is joyous when one person is moved enough to tell the artist how they love the work.

As time passes, and more creative flow produces more work, eventually the artist’s expectations shift from a verbal stroking of her or his artistic voice to a definitive nod from a collector’s wallet.

Once this shift happens, there is no turning back: the gift of words, without a corresponding exchange of money, slowly pivots from mild irritation to outright frustration.

And here is where the story starts to show the true color of its underbelly: dark, foreboding, brooding, and painfully blind to a common, shared reality–that an exchange of money is the material core of a business transaction.

The “underbelly” I’m speaking about is not this reality, but an artist’s relationship to this reality… or should I say, non-relationship to this reality.

As much as some artists want the affirmation that comes with a sale, they make choice after choice that denies them a rational relationship with the business of art. For these artists, all they can taste is Business Bitters.

Imagine, for a moment, what this would look like if you had the same attitude toward bread on your table.

You want bread. You love bread, especially fresh baked and warm from the oven. But you don’t want to sully the experience with money. You want the bread to drop from the sky, already dripping with butter.

Goodness sakes, no, you can’t imagine paying somebody for this heavenly experience–that would be sacrilegious. That would steal the very flavor from each bite.

Pretty silly, yes?

And  yet, that is the same attitude artist after artist has about their art career. They will pay for art supplies. They might even pay to have a studio of their own. But that’s where the buck stops, literally.

When it comes to the business side of their art career, suddenly they want that loaf to just drop out of the sky.

Here’s a prime example: one artist I spoke to just spent $20,000 on building the perfect studio, but dug her cute little heels into the ground when it came to spending a couple thousand on improving how she markets her art. The excuse? (Which, of course, cleverly disguises itself as a reason.)  She felt too stressed out over how much the studio had cost.

Never mind that learning how to market her art effectively would help her recoup that studio cost.

Never mind the incongruity between expecting collectors to dig into their pockets for your art while you are unwilling to do the same thing to help move your career forward.

Never mind that there is no business in the world that can sustain itself without some level of upfront investment.

Heck… just brush those pesky flies away from your face!  You’re an artist!

—————————-

Here’s a straight forward investment that doesn’t cost thousands of dollars, and is backed up with the experience of your peers. Check out what other artists – who are not afraid to invest in themselves, roll up their sleeves and go to work – have to say.

Not only can Attorney DuBoff hand you legalese in plain English, turns out that, as a young attorney with a yen for the arts in a firm that suddenly had a high profile artist client, he is the person who created the concept of Art Law as a field unto itself. (Amazing, isn’t it, to think someone could actually create a field of endeavor.) His book Art Law in a Nutshell is a classic.

When Facebook started getting in all our faces with changes that threatened protection of our images and brands, Attorney DuBoff was the first person …I turned to.

And it was his newsletter that first alerted me to the fact that Facebook had a small window of time to register a trademark before someone else tried to snatch it in the Facebook User Name Gold Rush a few days ago.

Then today, his newsletter arrived in my inbox and I realized you HAD to see it.

BI (Before the Internet), most artists would never have considered registering a trademark. But, as I’ve said over and over again, it’s a whole New World. And we ignore the new commandments at our peril.

I’m re-printing his newsletter in its entirety. Read, and think carefully about what to do next.

——–Trademarks: Protecting Your Most Important Asset——–

The DuBoff Law Group Legal Alerts

Last week we alerted you to the fact that Facebook had announced that it would allow owners of federally registered trademarks to “enroll” those marks with Facebook, preventing third parties from registering those marks as usernames.  The time Facebook permitted for the registration process was extraordinarily short, and the enrollment process closed after only a day, though trademark owners may still submit complaints about infringing usernames.

The fact that only owners of registered marks could take advantage of this procedure underscores the importance of having your trademark portfolio in order, and of registering any valuable words that you use to identify your business, products or services as federal trademarks.  It is worth bearing in mind that the trademark laws, a product of the 19th and 20th centuries, permit protection of a mark by different owners in nonconflicting markets.  For example, General Motors’ Cadillac trademark did not prevent Cadillac Pet Foods from using “Cadillac” to identify its dog food, or from registering that trademark.

The Internet, a more modern innovation, is different.  When, for instance, a name is first used as a URL in cyberspace, no one else will be allowed to obtain the same URL, even if the second claimant has an otherwise legitimate right to that name.  Further, search engines such as Google will generally feature the identified URL even if others have an equal or better claim to the trademark.

Ownership of a federally registered trademark establishes a presumption that the trademark is valid and helps to establish a priority as among competing owners, as well as to simplify claims of infringement reported to service providers, such as Google, eBay, and YouTube.

There are a number of other benefits provided to those who have federally registered trademarks, and the importance of protecting your company’s assets, including its intangible intellectual property, cannot be over emphasized.  It is, therefore, appropriate to determine whether the names you use to identify your business, products and services can be registered as federal trademarks as well as on the web.

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You can sign up for Attorney DuBoff’s newsletters, hear his presentations at this year’s smARTist Telesummit 2009 & smARTist 2008, and check out his books.

1. They already expect rejection, so why waste the time.

2. They think asking is a kind of weakness; a lessing of individuality.

3. In some well-hidden corner of self, they secretly believe… they don’t deserve what they want.

But in truth, if you don’t ask,

the answer is always No

And real weakness is not doing everything you are able, and know how, to put your creative fire in the world.

As for the story of being undeserving, think about this: Is your art undeserving of your commitment to making sure it’s available to those who would love it? Really?

Tonight, I followed my own advice

Now, let me be clear; this isn’t always the case. I’m like anyone else when it comes to dishing out advice that I need for myself. But tonight was different because I knew that the 879 artists who were on the call tonight for “Why Artists Need A Right Brain Business Plan“–they deserved my asking for what I wanted. 

And even though I’m running out of time to pack for my flight tomorrow to LA, I still asked.

I asked an artist who signed up for the free call tonight, and then registered for the six week smARTist Master Class, The Right Brain Business Plan for Artists, what about my conversation tonight with Jennifer Lee made her decide to register for the full course?

Her response, unedited

It’s long. You may not want to read it all. But the breadth and depth of her response begs to be put out there, unedited, so I am.

Well, My Dear Ariane,

It’s definitely a right-brained answer, but here goes.

There were 3 things that really grabbed me:

1. Business Plan as a Road Map: I love the analogy of a map and how not having a map leads to veering off course and lots of wasted time. As a commissioned portrait artist, I KNOW the steps I need to be taking to get myself out there, in front of the right people, expanding my business and, ultimately, creating and living the life of my artist dreams. I’ve been wanting to create a business plan because I know that putting the elements down “in writing” (target market, branding, marketing, finances, etc.) will propel me forward into action in those areas, maximizing use (really, minimizing waste) of my time. However, the writing part, well…YUCK!  Which leads to…

2. Business Plan as Art: Unless there is some creativity involved, putting anything down in writing is either too hard or just too darned boring! I wanted to run, shrieking with JOY around my house (but didn’t, in case it got picked up on the call!) when I heard Jennifer talking about the business plan MOBILE and especially the business plan LEATHER BRACELET!!!!! It sparked the EXACT format that I want to do mine in so that it will actually be BE portraiture AND will also allow for constant updating!!!!! WOO-HOO!!!!!!!! How cool is that??? I’m so excited about it, that I want to start IMMEDIATELY (big change from dreading and avoiding!), but I’m going to wait for the kick-off next week and work on my house & studio this week. (I swear, I am DROOLING over my future “Portrait Business Plan / Art on the Wall / Living “Document”!!!!!!) And I am SOOOOOO looking forward to photographing it and sharing it with the group. Oh, yeah, Baby!

3. Business Plan Supportive Community: When you shared about the artists generously sharing resources, even one you’d never heard of or considered, I just HAD to participate! I actually LOVE business and I love sharing resources! I also know that there will be times during the program when I’ll start to drag my feet, and I know that I’ll be able to find the motivation, energy and creative boost I’m looking for within our online community. You really expressed the “good vibrations” component beautifully.  :-)

And I guess what I would say to those artists who are still sitting on the fence:  

Trust the coaches to provide excellent, relevant information. You’re in good hands.

Trust your own intelligence and creativity. You WILL be able to make it uniquely yours, and put it to good use.

Trust the community. We are all in this together, and everything you could possibly want or need is just an email, a posting or a phone call away.

Big hugs and gratitude, Rena Tucker

This round was so successful, that I’m going to ask again

You.

I’m going to ask you…

to read the details for the six week smARTist Master Class, The Right Brain Business Plan For Artists, and see if this is the right time for you to lay a foundation for putting your art in the world.

I promise, at the end of the six weeks, you will have your art career business plan, 100% done.

And that will feel every bit as good as I felt when Rena emailed me tonight!

It’s not unusual for me to hear the following artist lamentation:

“I love what I do. I could spend weeks in my studio and never miss the outside world. When I do come out, I have to face a mess of bills, call back an old collector I know, order supplies, figure out how to update my website, and I begin to feel like this other reality is crushing me. I don’t even know where to begin. Can you give me any suggestions?” 

I understand this plight all too well. It’s like trying to get somewhere when you haven’t even figured out a destination, so you just keep driving around hoping some street corner of recognition will spontaneously pop into view.

In truth, though, business is no different than…planning out your art.

Even if you aren’t paying attention, you do plan it out: which supplies you’ll use, how you’ll set up the project, what lighting you need, what the content will be, which brush you’ll pick up first, or which tool, what size, etc.

So, what if you could approach planning your business the same way you plan your art: part spontaniety, part methodical, part intuition, part rational.

Let me introduce you to a friend of mine

Jennifer Lee, an artist and solopreneur coach, has struggled with all the same issues you do.

Here is a post from Jennifer’s blog, Life Unfolds. I’ll bet you can relate!

———————————————————

Jennifer's Very Own Right Brain Business Plan

How many of you cringe when you hear the words business plan? Or maybe even worse… budget, cash flow or P&L statement? If you’re like me, those terms (especially the financial ones), make your skin crawl. Yet, as an entrepreneur it’s vital to know where you’re going and what it’s going to take to get there.

So, how about approaching business planning (and life planning) from a visual, creative and fun perspective instead?

The idea of doing a more right-brain approach to my business plan came to me while brainstorming materials with my colleagues Starla Sireno and Tara Russell. As we refine resources and exercises to use with our business coaching clients, it’s also important that we walk our talk, too.

So, I revisited my business plan (originally in a boring, static Word document) and decided to update it for 2008 and beyond using my art visioning techniques.

Above are the front and back covers of my Artizen Coaching business plan accordion book. I started off decorating the front with a really cool art studio image from a magazine. Then I thought it would be clever to have the back be more of the “zen” in the Artizen.

Here are some detail shots of the interior.

Typically a business plan has sections such as: an executive summary, company description, industry analysis, target market, financials, marketing and sales plan, etc.

In the first couple of pages I wanted to just set the tone of my business and also list out the different products and services I’m offering or working on.

Next, I got clear on my strategic alliances and affiliations – who I’m working with and what organizations I belong to for networking and support. It’s a relief to know I don’t have to go it alone!

For the finances, I really wanted to concentrate on abundance and chose images/words around that. I have my P&L statement folded up in the little manila envelope so I can pull it out and look at it when I need to.

These last pages are about marketing and getting myself out there. Part of what triggered doing this project now was that today I received galley copies of the book that I’m featured in:The Girl’s Guide to Kicking Your Career in Gear and I got excited about next year! I also want to write a book, so there’s a little 3D book attached to one of the pages.

Next, I’m going to write out more details on the back of each page. Now that I have visuals and the emotional connection to what I’m wanting to create, I can articulate it more clearly in words. I’ll probably write out my strategy and tactics in a creative way, too, and have some images as well.

How do you plan out your business and personal goals? What if the process was more fun and engaging? What else would be possible for you if you let your creativity and intuition run wild?

Would you like to know more? 

Come listen in as Ariane of smARTist interviews me in our free teleclass this coming Wednesday: Why Artists Need a Right-Brain Business Plan!

Or, if you are an Early Bird and like to beat out the crowds, check out how you can save $40 right away and get your perfect business plan at the same time.

Upwind Flames by Louis Copt

I was asked to speak before an influential group of retired businessmen and women this past summer. By “influential” I basically mean millionaires. But listen, not all rich folks are jerks.  Many started with nothing, never forgot where they came from, and are…

generous beyond description, especially with the underprivileged.  Several of those types were present where I was speaking.

They dug the talk

And understood the relevance of participating in the arts in our region, and helping the region to grow culturally. Nice round of applause. Most came up to thank me afterward, and I knew I’d won a few new clients. But one dude, inevitably, came up to tell me about his son’s practice, how they couldn’t afford art (yeah, right), but would I be willing to loan them works in exchange for…

…the “exposure” the artists would get?

I thought of another artist, Louie Copt’s, standard response to this kind of presumption: “Man, I know artists who have died of exposure.”

But as the art dealer, I have to be diplomatic. So I just gave the dude a card, telling him in a certain tone that I’d think about it. He never called, apparently able to read a tone.  Man, some people. I mean, do you think this guy ever worked for free?

My point?  When you’re an emerging artist, you’ll inevitably have to do these gigs.  We all have. And with the current economy, even mid-career artists or established artists, making a come back, may have to also.

But here are the rules:

1)  The host insures the work for its retail value.

2)  The exhibition should last no longer than 60 days.

3)  A table will be cleared for your cards, bios, artist statement, press kit, etc.

4)  All works will be priced with a title card.

5)  A guest book will be set out where browsers can write down their contact info.

6)  Offer a 10% commission to all the office workers, should they facilitate a sale.  Believe me this works, and is better than retaining 100% of nothing.

7)  Offer the host a discount at the end of the exhibit, if it helps to place a piece.

We never sold much doing these exhibits, since it normally takes a sales person to sell anything, including art.  But we often picked up new clients, the hosts were grateful, and many later became collectors. 

However, if the host has no personal interest in your work, I advise you not do it.  It’s important that they feel passion for what you do, because it’s that passion that will become infectious.

It all started on Twitter

I know, I know…not another Social Media site! Except, Twitter is a hotbed of information and connection that just doesn’t quit. It’s also, once you get the hang of it, a much faster way to spread yourself around the globe.

And yesterday I saw a tweet that made my hair stand on end: Facebook CEO changes the TOS (Terms of Service).

Now, let me be perfectly clear: this just happened! And it’s the reason why staying ahead of the curve online is critical. You just never know when the next shoe will drop.

When Facebook stated that it will no longer allow users to delete their data when they leave the service, the crowd roared and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was forced to post a response justifying FB’s “right” to do anything it wants with any of content or images you post on FB.

Back during my smARTist Telesummit, artists were already asking about the legal safety of their images if posted on Facebook, and the expert’s response was that FB needed permission that would allow them to have you post your images on their servers, but that you, the artist, still retained all copyrights.

So, ok, no big deal. Just a lot of legalese that sites are required to post to cover their bums.

Not so fast

But that was then. Now it’s a whole different ball game.

CEO Zuckerman has inserted a new clause in the TOS that says FB can do anything at all with your content and images, and you have no say in the matter.

What really concerned everyone is that they took out the following lines, which were in the earlier TOS:

“You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.”

Now they claim:

“The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses, Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other.”

In other words: your hands are legally bound and you can do nothing to stop FB from using your material any way they choose.

But, as many have pointed out, including the CEO, they aren’t about to abuse this clause and actually use your images in a way that you would not want, because that would violate your trust in FB.

But the question is: do you really want to trust a Big Company?

I suggest you read these other blogs, especially this one where I comment (about 38 comments down the line) and right after me is a salient comment by Rana posted Feb. 16th at 3:24 pm PST 

I sent all of this material onto our smARTist resident arts lawyer, Leonard DuBoff. His response was that this would take a good deal of research and expert analysis, and would I like to hire his firm to do this.

Which told me that there’s nothing cut and dried about this. And I’m not sure any of us have anything more going for us than our guts. For now, I’m staying in Facebook.

I’m banking on Zuckerman listening to the uproar and altering the TOS. I even tried to start a Twitter hashtag movement #facebookrevolt, but the response has been less than deafening.

Here’s a short discussion from one of my magazine column, where I answered the following question about galleries insuring your work.

Artist’s question

All four galleries I’ve dealt with during my career have provided insurance. Is it commonplace for artists to…carry insurance to cover their own paintings when they are being shown and sold in a gallery?

My response

Well, it’s supposed to be commonplace for galleries to carry the insurance. But because the vast majority of galleries struggle in the early years-and many in their later years-they sometimes fail to take out insurance, or they let the insurance lapse.

How do I know?

I did this when my gallery was young, back in ‘96. I owed so much money everywhere, that I decided to let the insurance lapse while I caught up on rent, the phone bill, and marketing expenses.

Sure enough, no sooner did the lapse occur than the gallery caught fire, and my business went on an entirely different trajectory-a good one in the end, but only because I refused to give up.

Upshot? If the gallery doesn’t carry insurance, which I consider to be the cost of doing business, then they shouldn’t carry your work. And insuring it while it’s in their possession really isn’t your responsibility.

Your first responsibility

…is to produce the best work you possibly can.

Unfortunately, that’s not always enough. If a gallery is uninsured, and you are hell bent on being there, then you might want to protect yourself and take out your own insurance.

Tell me, how have you handled insurance with the galleries that represent you?