A short conversation before the end of the world

Eschatologist : See.. I told you the end of the world w...

Me : Oh shiiiiiiii...

The End

Click on the image below to visit my website..

The future for POD's ?

Zazzle has been my best selling POD site for a couple of years now.. as far as I know I haven't referred one buyer there.. for starters they get a lot.. lot more visitors than any of the dedicated Fine Art POD sites.. because they sell a wide range of personalised products... in addition to everything a Fine Art POD offers.

They don't charge to open a shop.. and so actively attracting buyers is the ONLY way they make a profit.. and it shows ! I get the impression there is a lot going on behind the scenes at Zazzle.. to drive in buyers.

To this end they have an affiliate program that resells products via non art specialist sites.. for example "Christian sites" These sites earn income when someone buys your product via their site.. and so the targeting is very specific to buyers with a particular interest. But Zazzle also attracts art buyers.. I regularly sell prints there. So they have developed niche market buying.. as a way of bringing in buyers for whom price is not the most important thing. Zazzlers themselves can also earn by reselling other peoples products.. if they have an audience. Lets say I recommend someone else's "unique" Christmas cards on my website.. I can earn from any sales I generate.

A Fine Art POD site is largely a "one trick pony" just selling "Fine Art".. sites like Zazzle sell all sorts.. from "T shirts with famous sayings" to products made by the visitors themselves. I get the feeling with many FA POD sites they are more interested in making income from artists.. rather than working to attract buyers. For me Fine Art POD sites have not really moved forward.. I think they really should be acting like global galleries..representing artists as an online version of the real world gallery.

I also believe Zazzle is a company benefiting from the fall in the dollar.. as all their products are much less expensive to foreign buyers than they were two years ago. Its been noticeable to me how one comparable non US based site's sales have tailed off.. while Zazzle's have grown and grown.

I believe you rise up the searches as you make sales at Zazzle.. I ordered some of my own Christmas cards from them a couple of years ago.. and it may be co-incidence but sales kicked started shortly after. I would describe my income there as "useful additional income" I maybe spend a two or three hours week uploading and creating products.

Unlike one or two sites out there.. I get the feeling their sales reporting is much more accurate.. for instance you see folks debit debit/credit cards not being accepted and then they come back and use another. That never happens on any other site I'm listed with. So my level of trust in Zazzle is much higher than other sites.

I do have serious reservations about the reporting of some FA POD sites out there. At Zazzle I get reasonable numbers of visitors.. but the ratio between visitors and buyers is much lower.. at one FA POD I have one image with 3500 visitors in the last 9 months but not one sale.. (that really does strike me as "sus".. why would so many people look at the image but then not one follow that interest up and buy ?) At Zazzle I have no product with more than a thousand hits in 3 years but the sales keep coming. I find that a very interesting and curious comparison !

The forum at Zazzle has almost no small talk.. everyone post seems focused on business and making money, I think that says something in itself. There are certainly folks making decent income at Zazzle. Some folks have literally tens of thousands of products at Zazzle... they produce simple designs and plaster them over loads of products like mugs.. skateboards,, shoes.. so Zazzle is as much about designers as it is about artists.

http://www.zazzle.com/apmercer*

If you follow my link and buy, I get paid via that "star" at the end of the URL as someone who refers you to Zazzle (I think) for a period of a month.. so even at this basic level Zazzle is encouraging buyers and sellers. I know plenty of artists who happily point links at Zazzle simply because there is always the possibility of a sale

If you think about it the Fine Art market is quite specialist and restricted.. and visitor interest is limited.. "design" on the other hand is a huge industry with almost everyone on the planet wanting designed goods. Zazzle is a design and art site. Folks interested in design are just as likely to be interested in Fine Art.. so the audience is right.

There is much less commenting and rating by fellow artists at Zazzle in my experience.. for me that indicates that most folks don't want to be distracted by this.

I see FA Pod's as being squeezed.. by ever more competition.. in this scenario the biggest sites offering the biggest range of products will survive.

The future for FA POD's in my opinion is to specialise and to replicate the real world gallery model. They should be competing with real world galleries.. I might be persuaded to look at a site specialising in say "urban art" or "American landscape photography" or whatever but on a general POD art site its often really hard work to find what you are looking for ?

I think FA POD's will have to specialise or die ! I've been quite uneasy for awhile about the emphasis certain sites put on Fine Art when they actually sell unsigned reproductions.. the serious art buyer is not going to be taken in for long.

I think this site is an example of the way Fine Art POD's will have to go to.. selling LE prints etc. I believe its a real world gallery but it seems clear they are replicating their specialisms and skills online and restricting the number of their artists based on quality. It's online gallery representation !

http://www.silverburngallery.co.uk/




My Zazzle Shop- Cards, Mugs T Shirts etc

POD site comparisons

Basically this is just my opinion of some of the POD sites out there.. its certainly not a comprehensive list. I've left question marks where I don't know the answer

Imagekind a complete independent store for Premium members £100 per annum. 100 images uploaded and available for POD at no additional charge ? Multiple image uploads. Print Quality high.. not many sales unless you drive them there.
Basic POD cost for A4 print ?
Image Security ?
Responsiveness ?
Artist rating 8

Zenfolio $100 per annum similar to Imagekind but primarily geared towards photographers. Hosting and gallery template service. Few POD sales unless you drive them there.
Basic POD cost for A4 print ?
Image Security ?
Responsiveness ?
Artist rating 7

The Untappedsource 100 images uploaded and available for no additional charge ? Selective about works stops the site from being overloaded.. as yet ! New kid on the block.. work in progress. One to watch. Print quality high. Multiple image uploads.
Basic POD cost for A4 print ?
Responsiveness : Good
Artist rating 6

Zazzle.. no additional charges and they work to bring in sales as a result and it shows. Best POD site out there in my opinion. Print Quality.. good if not exceptional. Multiple image uploads.
Basic POD cost for A4 print ?
Responsiveness ? Don't know never had any real problem
Artist rating 9


FineArtAmerica... $30 per annum to allow POD sales at higher/similar/lower cost than rival sites ? Print Quality ? Single image uploads only. Jpegs only.
Basic POD cost for A4 print ?
Responsiveness ? Average
Artist rating 7

Red Bubble.. unlimited images.. no additional set up or POD charges. Site is rammed full of artists and images but still manages to deliver some sales. Limited Print options. Great community aspects.
Basic POD cost for A4 print ?
Responsiveness ? Generally Good
Artist rating 8 mainly due to lack of print options


Artist Rising/Art.com/allposters.. simply not worth the bother unless you are already established and selling on the site.
Basic POD cost for A4 print ?
Responsiveness ? Sporadic and problems left unresolved
Artist rating 3
Comment : Poor reporting of sales,




My Red Bubble - Art Prints
My Zazzle Shop- Cards, Mugs T Shirts etc

Au Revoir Damien

The art of excess for an age of an excess..
A superficial art that shocks for a superficially shocking age.
I think it captured the spirit of that age perfectly.. but now the world has come down to earth with a bump... Tracey is leaving the country to avoid paying 50% tax and Damien now wants to be a painter. I think we can safely say its the end of an era.

Duchamp declared "ideas" art.. and this became "art is anything I/we decide it to be.. and if you aren't one of us and we don't like your art then it isn't art"
I suspect even Duchamp would have grown weary of his joke by now..

I've got in mind a new piece of conceptual art.. its called "Damien's New Paint Shirt". Its got to be great art.. because its about Hirst. I wonder if the era of oiled filled rooms.. soiled bedsheets and half pickled cows as art will be remembered ?

My feeling is it will be the embarrassing art of an embarrassing era.
I think the death knell sounded for Hirst as stock markets crumbled and the world as we knew it fell apart.. while his bejewelled skull became the most expensive art work in the world.

Banksy has stolen Damien's shirt.. the art dealing elite have donned their designer skater outfits and gone all "street".. man !

"Behind this wheely bin is Banksy's tour de force..not since Da Vinci has an artist captured the true essence of.. "

Oh dear "Damien the unconvincing Classicist" is born... I think the Independent article gets the tone just about right.

Its a bit like the Queen piercing her navel and posing with belly exposed.. not what you'd expect.. somewhat disconcerting..(I will resist saying "shocking"). and not likely to be overly appreciated by either admirers and detractors.

I predict Damien will become a recluse and retire to the Bahama's with his millions.. and mumble to anyone willing to listen for the next 30 years about his ignored genius. The cow and the shark will secretly be buried.. or quietly replaced with plastic replica's.

Au Revoir Damien

http://www.andy-mercer.co.uk






My Red Bubble - Art Prints
My Zazzle Shop- Cards, Mugs T Shirts etc

Digital Art ?

I hear a lot of argument about digital art. Personally I think most artists are working digitally to a greater extent these days. If they photograph their conventional artwork it becomes a digital copy of the original work, and if they then start modifying the digital photograph, the image becomes progessively more digital and distinct from the original. So whats the problem ?

Personally I enjoy the process of taking a conventional work and then producing digital works based on the original. I can't really see any problem artistically with that. I define myself as an artist who incorporates digital methods.. I make this distinction because some artists are 100% digital.. i.e. the work is never anything other than 100% digital content. This content can be generated entirely from within a computer as is the case with fractals and mathematically based digital art. Some artists create digital art using digital photographs or imagery created via a tablet. In my case my art is produced using a mix of conventional and digital methods.

(Hope your still with me ?)

The digital revolution is here.. in fact it really is the mainstream now. Like music art is being digitized in a big way. Artists can either embrace these new processes or not.. but they are here to stay.

How many of us only know an artists work because of digital versions shown on websites and reproduced in magazines, even artists who never saw a computer in their lifes have had their work digitized ?

(This is all very interesting but is it fun.. but dear reader you must keep going ?)

The only thing the buyer of digital art needs to think about is that it is simply art produced digitally.. which can be good or bad like every other form of art.

But there certainly are distinct characteristic's of digitally produced art.

One of the characteristics I like about using digital methods to create art is that you can easily start using a dark colour or even "black", most conventional art works start with a white page or canvas and the artist builds tonality and shade from this white base. Its not all that common or easy to go the other way and start with a very dark canvas and then lighten it. So this is just one of the attributes that makes digital art different.

I don't think any art buyer should worry that digital art is somehow of less value than conventionally produced art, for me thats only a matter of time. Eventually collectors will fully understand that early and good digital works also have value.. what do they say about any investment buy while the value is low because as "sure as eggs is eggs" values will go up.

(Look you've come this far so don't stop now.. you're getting close to the fun part

BBC Radio Lancs

I will be exhibiting some of my pictures at BBC Radio Lancashires gallery from Oct 27th to 20th Nov.

More info to follow..




My Red Bubble - Art Prints
My Zazzle Shop- Cards, Mugs T Shirts etc

Inside Solo Feature

Solo is a group at Red Bubble that gives online solo exhibition's to selected artists and Inside Solo is the magazine this highly professional group produce as part of their group activities. They have some very well informed feature writers and I am delighted to have been featured in the latest edition of Inside Solo online magazine.

My best wishes and sincere thanks to the excellent folks at Inside Solo.

Andy Mercer





My Red Bubble - Art Prints
My Zazzle Shop- Cards, Mugs T Shirts etc