Announcing Our First Steemit Based Art Support Project and Collaboration!

In looking back at The Red Dragonfly's introductory post and later at our 2018 Goals and Ambitions post for working with the @sndbox initiative here on Steemit, one of the things we have wanted to do with our presence on Steemit is to (A) find and support artists in the community and (B) bring their artwork from virtual space to our physical brick-and-mortar gallery here in Port Townsend, Washington.

We used our first six months on Steemit to build a base and get to know "the ropes" a bit. Along the way, we managed to build a little Steem Power and we got involved with the marvelous @sndbox creative incubator which has been a tremendous help. 

Now we finally feel ready to take the next step.

Collaboration Between @RedDragonfly and @OrionsBeltbuckle!

A few weeks ago, we first came across the multi-talented @orionsbeltbuckle and fell in love with his work and decided we would to work with him on our first "Art Support Project."

So how does that work, exactly?

Of course, the situation will vary considerably from artist to artist, so let's just start with the steps involved in this first project.

In this case, we have an artist who's located in New England, USA, working with a gallery located in Washington state on the US west coast. Although a fairly accomplished artist, @orionsbeltbuckle hasn't typically presented his work through a gallery, selling instead through online venues. 

After some consideration, our ambition is to have his work in our gallery for the monthly "Gallery Walk" in Port Townsend on April 7th of this year.

The Process is More Complex Than Meets the Eye

To the uninitiated this may seem like a pretty straightforward project: Put some paintings in a box and ship them to Port Townsend, and we're done. 

However, there's a lot more to the process than meets the eye.

Collage of "Divine Feline" paintings; ©John Deecken; @orionsbeltbuckle 2018; Used with permission

In order to give John aka @orionsbeltbuckle the most possible exposure for his work, we want to be able to offer not only his original work, but also a selection of high quality prints made from the paintings. 

Our experience has taught us that lots of people love art, but not everyone is in a position to spend several hundred dollars on an original, but they will spend $30-50 on a nice print. 

By extension, that means getting high quality digital files made from the original art and then using one of our museum quality printers to create worthy and color-correct reproductions on archival paper stock. One of the important considerations here is to get the prints made in "popular" (standard) sizes that still do the original work justice.

Collage of "Transportation Cats" paintings; ©John Deecken; @orionsbeltbuckle 2018; Used with permission

Art Support Project, Part II: Financial Support

Of course, creating a stock of prints from maybe 15-20 different images can quickly become a costly affair. Not only is there the cost of creating the actual prints to consider, but then the prints have to go back to the artist to be signed, before being poly-bagged with a stiff board insert to protect them both for shipping and for when people look at them in our print racks.

In collaborating with artists on Steemit, one of the things we really wanted to make possible was to help artists out financially, as part of making ready for a show at Red Dragonfly.

Much as we would like to think otherwise, many artists are "starving" to some extent, so an up-front outlay of $500.00 (or more) to produce prints and ship them would present a major obstacle and potential burden for the artist.

Thanks to our affiliation with the @sndbox creative initiative, it is our hope that we will be able to share the process of getting from "discovery" to "showtime" in a series of posts, and use part of the rewards from upvotes to help underwrite the cost of making the art show a reality.

Ultimately, we would like to create a really positive experience both for John, and for Red Dragonfly!

Putting On the Exhibit

Once the artwork for the show reaches us here in Port Townsend, things will still be far from done.

If there are any original pieces that need to be framed, that will be the next step. Fortunately, our gallery is three doors down from one of the best framing shops in the state of Washington.

Collage of "Patriot Cats" paintings; ©John Deecken; @orionsbeltbuckle 2018; Used with permission

We might also choose to frame a number of the new prints so we can hang them in the gallery and sell them as "ready to hang." A lot of folks prefer to just take art straight home and put it on their wall without having to worry about framing and such.

Then there is the cost of publicity and advertising. It's not enough to simply hang the art and throw open our doors; we will need to run ads in our local newspaper and send a mailer to our local clients. In addition, we will be sending press releases to regional publications with an "arts" page.

This is another point at which there are up-front expenses that will have to be paid out. However, we are confident that we will be able to raise sufficient funds to put on a worthy event!

Where We Stand As of Now

At this time we have loosely agreed that we will make this project happen, and we are in the process of choosing art and deciding which items will also be made into prints.

This is our inaugural post announcing the project; more are planned, to share each step of the way.

In this post, we are sharing images from @orionsbeltbuckle's "Sacred Feline" series, which is where we first fell in love with his work. He has also created two other series "Transportation Cats" and "Patriot Cats" which may also be incorporated into the exhibit.

This will essentially be a "Steemit Driven" event; the support of the community (through upvotes and re-steems) will make it possible for us to fund and pull this art event together, and hopefully to use it as a model for future events-- and maybe even as an example for other artist-gallery collaborations; everything you see here (except for John's images!) is quite open source, so feel free to take the basic operating plans and run with them!

In the meantime, you can support this artist and help make this project a success through your upvote, and by resteeming. Thank you!

Thank you for reading! Red Dragonfly is a proud member of the @sndbox creative initiative.

The Red Dragonfly is an independent alternative art gallery located in Port Townsend, WA; showcasing edgy and unique contemporary art & handmade crafts by local and worldwide artists. All images are our own, unless otherwise credited. Where applicable, artist images used with permission.