zoom
Voices
IVhat effeffi
has the Internet
had on your
work or career ?
While I have a website, I don’t
have high expectations of sales
from it. Having a site, driving
traffic to it and selling through
it are different tasks. I find its
cachet of professionalism useful.
The Internet also offers me im-
mediate information and com-
munication. My use of it for my
business has diminished during
my tenure as president of the
Furniture Society, but it has
grown by an order of magnitude
in my daily work schedule. I’d
be lost without it.
—Andrew Giant
z, president,
Furniture Society, owner, Zenith
Design, Scottsdale, A Z
The Internet makes communi-
cation and research easier and
faster. Early oil in my studio
career, I wrote the code for a
simple portfolio-style website.
Over the years it has expanded
and evolved, but the original
motivation remains the same:
to serve as an easy access point
for learning more about my
carved paper sculpture. It has
proven its worth in augmenting
other marketing tools by dis-
playing the full breadth of my
work, filling in details, answer-
ing questions and redirecting
interested parties to my galler-
ies’ websites for sales and
future shows.
—Jennifer Falck Linssen,
hand-
carved paper sculptor, Niwot, CO
In the 1970s, when I was a young
“stringer”—independent re-
porter—for the Am»
'York Times
in Chicago, my assignments
for trend stories arrived via
telegram, carrying the cachet
of extraordinary speed. With
the Internet, I carry on a corre-
spondence of remarkable im-
mediacy and depth with people
all over the world. But the best
interviews still demand a per-
son-to-person encounter. And
when I really want to clarify
a point with an editor, I pick
up the phone.
— Polly Ullrich,
art critic,
Chicago, IL
As an artist based in New Y ork
but originally from Rome, I’ve
found that the Internet has al-
lowed me to connect and col-
laborate with international de-
signers in a way that would
never have been possible before.
It’s as if we’re all still sharing
the same studio, even though
we’re oceans apart. Another
major plus of designing in a
web-based world is having such
fast access to so many different
resources and materials. This
allows me not only to be more
innovative in my work but to
produce ideas more quickly
as well.
— Emanuela Duca
, jeweler,
New York City
The Internet makes it much
easier for my gallery to research
artists and to send images to
the press and clients. It also of-
fers a new vehicle for individu-
al artists to market their own
work at no cost and collectors
to pursue artists directly—a dou-
ble-edged sword.
The role of commercial galler-
ies for contemporary artists
is diminishing. In the future,
nonprofit art spaces and muse-
ums—subsidized by the state,
foundations or universities—
will exhibit work where there
is no business imperative. Com-
mercial galleries will exist more
and more exclusively for his-
torical works and for showing
at art fairs, an experience closer
to surfing the Net.
— Rebecca Cross,
director, cross
mackenzie gallery, Washington, DC
In the last 10 years I’ve been
able to research and implement
new technologies. I’ve taken
in new ideas from the worlds of
art, craft, design, fashion, sci-
ence. I can’t imagine this type
of access—both the variety and
the depth—without the Internet.
For me, the Internet always
oscillates between being the
best research tool and the
greatest distraction machine.
The boundary, of course, is
painfully blurry.
Down the line, I see a new
frontier for makers who are
interested in creating objects
linked via the web, as described
in the concept of “the Internet
of things.”
— Andy Brayman,
ceramist,
Kansas City, KS
Making products in the United
States has only gotten more
costly. One of the first things
we realized when we took over
Heath Ceramics six years ago
was the need to sell direct as
well as wholesale to make the
business work. The opportu-
nity of e-commerce has given
manufacturing in the
U.S.
a sec-
ond chance. The other really
important aspect of the Internet
is the ability you have to fully
communicate your story. We
take full advantage.
— Catherine Bailey and Robin
Petravic,
owners, Heath Ceramics,
Sausalito, CA
— C.K.
014 american craft apr/mayio
Illustration T amara Shopsin.
