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Thursday, August 28, 2008

See you on the scene

I've wrapped up my internship at Jackson Fine Art. It was a positive experience, though mostly doing data entry, creating/managing/cleaning up their address book, press and contact lists is pretty tedious.

I prefer the mystery of how art gets sold to the nuts and bolts of actually selling it (please disregard if I'm applying for a job at your gallery!). There's so much money involved. It can come off as high end retail, only without name tags. I don't mean that to sound negative, though I suppose it does. I'm not much of a salesman. I had this romantic notion that art just sells itself. You look at pictures and argue about them. They speak to you or they don't. Deposits and payment plans never came up in my fantasy. Art exists, just floating in the air, like music. But, like music, art is a business. And I do like to make money. Especially from something I find fulfilling. So I am pro-gallery, just a bit naive about how it all works.

Since I finished up the address book updates, I've been helping with inventory.
internship, last day
So basically what happens is I look at the numbers written on the back of a photograph, and match them to the corresponding inventory list, while checking the edition and title information to make sure it all corresponds. This was a pretty fun way to look at different work.

Masao Yamamoto puts snapshots into boxes and encourages the viewer to pick through them. I like this method for creating an individual experience and narrative. Mona Kuhn... not so much. If that's a nudist colony, it has the best looking nudists I've ever seen. Everyone is gorgeous and seems to be well under 30. And white. it's like Logan's Run, only everybody's naked and soft focus-y. Or a nudist colony populated by underwear models. Maybe it's because they're French. Everyone knows the French are hot.

What I most enjoyed was meeting everyone who worked there, and having the opportunity to ask them a little about their jobs and how everything works. That was the most rewarding. They even gave me a book (I chose David Hilliard) when I left. And that was pretty cool. One day I hope to be on the artist end of the gallery biz, and this experience will come in handy.

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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

the intern strikes back

Today I am updating addresses, deleting bad ones, sorting returned mail, and making phone calls soliciting the email addresses of curators. I'm also told that Elton John might come in.

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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

more interning

I'm still working on the address books. Data entry isn't all that exciting. The gallery owner did say that she didn't want me just sitting by myself in the office typing in addresses, that she wanted this experience to be rewarding, so that's good news.
Last Saturday the gallery server was down so I helped with the artist talk. I fetched some lemonade and ice from the store, and poured it back at the gallery. The talk was interesting, though I question the impact of a photo that needs extensive explanation in order to be anything other than a picture of a door. My favorite piece in the new show are the 12 blackboards with different formulas for determining race.
I did get to mention to the preparator, who owns another gallery, that I'd like to talk to him about a show. We'll line that up sometime.
This week it'll be back to the office and more addresses.

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

another intern day

Last Saturday I continued on my data entry project at Jackson. When I got there, they had all of Angela West's and Vee Speers' work out. A young couple was there looking to buy. I like the Speers pictures... well, I like em both but I'm familiar with West's work. Speers' "The Birthday Party" is a series of spare portraits of children in ambiguous costumes, and I have a thing for costumes.
After looking at the images for a few minutes, and helping Mark sort the storage room, I got down to business and copy/pasted for a few more hours. I hope I can finish that up this week.

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Thursday, June 19, 2008

I am an intern now

I started my internship at Jackson Fine Art yesterday. Data entry, it's what an intern does! I'm gathering contact information for museums around the country and will eventually enter it into a 10-year-old "Gallery Manager" program built in Filemaker. Just like the "Siteweaver" days back at the Savannah Morning News. Good times.
While that wasn't very exciting, everyone is really nice and talkative. This may be a better networking opportunity than a chance for practical skills. I've already got some computer skills, but I am really looking forward to getting more into how the gallery works. It was my first day, so I'm sure there will be more opportunities as summer goes on.

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