Wednesday, April 8, 2015

pp150408  Value Back Story: Analyze this  

He attended a lecture on the valuation of art based on its monetary worth in the eyes and hearts of art collectors and their asset management experts. A casual reference to back story by one of the speakers cracks a door to a different view of media arts.

Emeralda means asset management and legacy transfer

Emeralda is my structured asset management and legacy transfer system. In a meeting with Kevin Collette (Ryan Swanson & Cleveland) in the 1980s, I introduced Kevin and one of his associates to my plan to team up with software engineers and design an algorithm[1] for artists’ families to identify, control, evaluate and disseminate the artist’s legacy. The objective is artistic legacy transfer to the advantage the family and society. At that time I was to begin by applying for a trademark, “Living Prints.” The USPO mistook my application for hardware design and I could not afford to reapply.
My plan went back into its box, which is a casebound trilogy called the Perfect Studios Series—and I carried on with R&D for the asset management and legacy transfer algorithm. Then, last night, on the occasion of a presentation by Dave Buck (Riddell Williams) and Michelle Dunn Marsh (Northwest Photo Center), I gained a fortuitous insight into art valuation and my dream of Emeralda was awakened.
The insight came in to stages: First, when I walked into the lobby of Riddell Williams, I saw two artworks facing each other across the seating area—a work by Dennis Evans’ and, on the opposite wall, Norie Sato’s. Dennis and Norie spent time with me at the University of Washington, where they were getting their MFA degrees in the School Of Art and where was one of their professors.
The second thing that awakened my Emeralda dream happened during the course of Dave Buck’s discourse on factors that affect the value of artworks. He mentioned “back story.” This piqued my interest because back story is an essential element of Emeralda. In the arts, back story is a literary tool for fiction, poetry, and screen play writing. Back story functions too in day-to-day social intercourse and personal relationships. In the age of digital communications, back story is finding its way into our lives in ways we could not have imagined except in science fiction, mainly through social networks.
Following the talks I related my delight, speaking up to the gathering and telling them my experience, and so there is another aspect to valuation of art, one which I experienced when I saw the art of Dennis and Norie in such a fine setting as these law offices. I said, “Value works of young, unknown artists you like or believe in, despite that young, up-and-coming artists (and the down-and-going and the down-and-out) are not famous, or that their art is cheap.”
“Lend a hand,” I said, “because you never know what a difference your purchase can make.”
To which Michelle Dunn Marsh, added, “Also older artists.”

Press Ghost Investor

The trilogy that I showed Kevin Collette that time many years ago was the beginning of my writing practice. The first book of the trilogy was the “Art of Selling Art: Between production and livelihood.” After the rejection of this tome by the first publisher I offered it to (and, later, seeing the same title published soon after by someone else!) I swore off big publishers and took advantage of an element of my algorithm, the technology of self-publishing.
An example of this is my paperback “Press Ghost Investor: Art crowd sorcerer’s guide to investing in a new school of printmaking.” I gave a copy to Mr. Buck, encouraged by his wife Chris. In this book, I suggest that—within Washington State—equity crowd funding may be combined with using artworks as preferred stock. At the time I wrote “Press Ghost Investor,” I was focused on developing a new school of printmaking and technology. This became one of nineteen startups I work on in my current ten-year plan—the Seattle Printmakers Center.

Call to action

Valuation of art in the age of digital reproduction is a deeply fascinating topic. Moreover, I appreciated the chance to revisit artwork by Dennis and Norie and meeting Dave Buck and Chris. The Seattle Printmakers Center will be the end my quest for the Perfect Studios—possibly sooner than my target year of 2023—and my quest will be the back story to the physical structure of the Center. If you, who read this essay, can join in the quest, please indicate your interest and how you can help.



1.      [1] An algorithm (pronounced AL-go-rith-um) is a procedure or formula for solving a problem. The word derives from the name of the mathematician, Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khwarizmi, who was part of the royal court in Baghdad and who lived from about 780 to 850.

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