Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

Ah, I finally get around to writing up the Bush Artist retreat highlights, from the perspective of the fly on the wall. The 2008 Bush Artist Fellows are an impressive (and photogenic) bunch. Follow that link to learn more about them and their award-winning art. As I said in my earlier post, everybody was witty and charming and talented, the orientation events were educational, the reception was fabulous, and the Fellows deserved their wins.


Did I mention the reception was fabulous?


I picked up a couple more tips for filing photography-related tax forms from the Fox Tax presentation. They specialize in handling the taxes of artists, writers, and musicians, and if I get to the point where I think bringing a professional in would be feasible (soon--I'm already dealing with 3 "as a small business" forms in addition to my W-2s), they're the first on my list.

Specific tax points I noted for my own future use:
* The amount of time to keep bank statements and credit card bills is 3 yrs.
* Photographers can write off movie tickets and things like Netflix subscriptions.
* Art school/classes can be deducted directly as a business expense.
* Possible education credits to look into - the "hope" credit, the "lifetime learning" credit.
* Double-check to see if qualify for "saver credit" - I think I looked into this last year and failed, but I should make sure.
* They are taking new clients, and claim they've got some good affordable options.

Nate from the Walker Art Center was back this year. He didn't go as deep into the chewy paradigm shift ideas and technical details as he did last year, but even the surface overview was a good reminder of What You Should Be Doing As An Artist. You can see the slides from his presentation here (click to move on to the next slide). In general, the Walker and its New Media Initiative are doing interesting things that I (and other Minnesota artists) should investigate more fully. And they're trying to encourage that. It's funny--I wasn't interacting with people, but when he asked things like, who knows what Flickr is?, who has a blog?, who knows about Twitter? I was hard-put not to jump up and down when nobody else responded. Takeaway: cross-pollination is good, and people need a way to participate in your success.

Websites of interest for future reference:
* MN Artists for artistic community.
* Web Style Guide for good web design pointers.
* Google webmaster tools for stats on how others see your website and usability issues.

Mary Leir of Leir Design (under construction) also provided some good pointers on web presence/design and what to consider.

Jennifer Phelps of Chambers Hotel talked about curating an art exhibit and what she looks for or what can bring somebody's art to her attention. Sounds like there's significant overlap in the "how not to approach" category with an art curator and a literary agent. Note to self: never ever nag for a response. I hadn't realized that Chambers had quite such an extensive art collection, but between her description and the images on the website, it sounds amazing. One day, when I am rich and famous, I will stay there. Until then, I'll have to content myself with seeing if I can persuade Phil to take me there for a fancy dinner, or trying to be part of one of the free group tours that they offer (apt. req.).

The reception was verra nice. Delicious food, tasty wine, lots of mingling, and a very illustrative and moving presentation of the artists, in the form of a brief documentary. Also, my name was on the program, which makes me happy. And the reception event photographer, Tom Roster, let me play with his (way beyond my budget) camera, which also made me very happy. I even got a good photo of Julie while using it.


Now I've finished getting the photos ready and writing up the retreat just in time to take a deep breath and dive into my next major event. That would be the Fourth Street Fantasy conference, which I'm attending this weekend. It's my first writer's conference. I hope they'll be gentle.