Thursday, February 16, 2012

Have you seen this painting?

FOUND!!!   It was with a consultant and neither of us had the paperwork. I am  working on it!

July 4 28 x 39  encaustic on canvas on panel


Yesterday I saw a facebook post by Joanne Mattera  saying she was busy doing inventory. 

Inventory, a huge thorn in my side.

For years I had a book with titles, info, inventory number sold or not but what good did that do me? Not much. Now I have folders on my computer that show the images; where things are, where they are going, if they are home and if they are sold. What is this doing for me? Not much, apparently.

( I do have an account with one of the online programs but when I went to  enter the information I was overwhelmed. Did anyone say I need an intern????).

July 4th was in my home folder but it is not in my  home, studio or racks. When I realized this, I traced it back to some paper work which placed it at my solo show at the Center for Visual Arts, fall of 2010. I know I brought it home and it may have made it out to a local venue after that....one that didn't have a folder on my desktop. I don't have a record of selling it. I keep going back through my racks thinking it is hidden amongst the  graduate school paintings.

 I sent out some feelers with an image but all said they didn't have the painting.

You know, it is not like my keys or cell phone that will show up  in my garbage, under the bed or in my back pocket. It is a painting!! It is somewhere.

Ok. I confessed.  I have misplaced a painting. Not my finest moment.

Anyone else? Probably not.

Working on my inventory is top on my to do list.


So the next question is which program do you use to keep track of your work?

And if you see July 4th somewhere please let me know. 

7 comments:

Joanne Mattera said...

I am still inventorying--finishing up with the prints now. It's a job!

Since I'm a visual person who works on a PC, I keep folders: By title, by year, by gallery, what's available, what's in the studio now, what has been sold and by whom. It's reduntandly redundant redundancy, but it works for me because I can access that information in differentfomc ways.

Info with title, year and dimensions is entered on the Jpeg ID line (you can fit a lot of info there).

Knowing who bought it is the next project; some dealers relinquish that information easily, others don't.)

Good luck!

Stephanie Clayton said...

I hope you find the painting. It has happened to me briefly, for once I had an inventory of unsold work in a handful of locations.

I use e-artist which usually works fine...until recently I was locked out of my own system (after changing computers and attempting to transfer data). Should be sorted now. In fact, your post reminded me to work on inventory this month!

ska said...

lovely lyrical painting, hope you locate it. With me, usually I have donated a piece to a gallery for a benefit and didnt keep a note of it. Sometimes, I have to sit down and think back to when I last saw it, and what I might have done with it. So many racks of paintings and boxes with sculpture carefully stored. ska

Anonymous said...

I just started using Flick! for my inventory record keeping. It does just about everything I would want a database program for artists to do. Each record includes the image, detail info, size, etc. as well as records of where it's been and who it now belongs too. It also keeps track of your contacts and which paintings they have purchased.

amy said...

This is beautiful - hope it's been found!

amy said...

This is beautiful - hope it's been found!

CMC said...

I've used MS ACCESS since 1995 I think. It is overkill I know but now I have everything in it. It can be converted from an Excel like spreadsheet to a one page record with picture if so desired. I don't do that often.
One time I did have a 'lost' painting for a short time. I went to pick up at a gallery that liked to use their own forms...so between mine and theirs there was confusion. I had marked that I brought one back but later couldn't find it. Then I saw it on the gallery site and sure enough it was still there.
So glad you found your painting.