Basquiat + eBay = EBSQ
Visual artists use their own websites and blogs (and even third-party websites such as YouTube and MySpace) as self-promotional and/or marketing tools. EBSQ is an online community of visual artists created in response to the massive marketing tool called eBay. (Many of you have written to me to ask about selling art on eBay, but until I saw how EBSQ artists use it, I was not inclined to discuss it.)
EBSQ is a member-based, member-run online community begun in 2000 by a Californian artist, writer and professor named John Seed. Other people now own it, but it remains an organization dedicated to the "self-representing" artist – that is, artists without a gallery or dealer/agent working to further their sales.
EBSQ (www.ebsqart.com), as you learn on their website, is a name "derived from the [tag] name e-Basquiat." The early members of the group liked Basquiat's work and they self-identified as outsiders – refusés of the gallery system and proudly self-directors of their careers. Basquiat tagged his work "SAMO." EBSQ members, whenever and wherever reproductions of their work are posted online, tag their work with "EBSQ." When they put their work online on eBay, "EBSQ" is in the title line of every piece of art they post for auction.
So when each EBSQ member acts positively for his or herself, whenever a member takes an initiative, the member also does something for all the artists of EBSQ – they further awareness of the EBSQ "brand" and they entice all who come across their materials, back to the EBSQ website where peer artists have work for sale.
When eBay began, there were few subcategories of visual art allowing the buyer to sort out kinds of art of no interest, and "art" meant anything from originals, to copies of historical works to posters. It was decidedly viewer/buyer unfriendly. Now there are many subcategories including a category of "self-represented" artists. But – and this is a big but – inexperienced visitors have trouble finding the category, and if they do, the searches are organized by the times that the auctions end and include work from the sublime to the ridiculous. Visual artists of integrity, therefore, were unlikely to use the site, and this is too bad because it could be an effective outlet for visual artists as EBSQ discovered. The EBSQ "club" of like-minded artists, by using their tag in every title, allow visitors to the eBay site to simply search "EBSQ" in order to receive choices in art that meet a certain standard.
Originally, EBSQ, offered free membership to any artist interested in joining the online community; it continues to allow any artist to join, but the site now charges a modest annual fee. Now it has a juried section called EBSQ+, juried on factors such as quality and professionalism. The work of juried members has "EBSQ+" in their title line.
The idea behind all these online communities is a "strength-in-numbers" philosophy that allows peer artists to cultivate collectors in a way similar to galleries. Through cooperation, they create a "brand" that is easy to find on eBay for all who know about EBSQ. And their buyers are saved from viewing countless images, sorted by auction expiration date, of mediocre work.
This is a model any group of artists can follow as their own, establishing an online sales presence easily and inexpensively, in partnership with an online community of peer artists grouped by media, location, subject, size, whatever... This is a different kind of community than the popular and excellent MyArtClub.com and Art Sites (www.ArtSites.ca). eBay works well for relatively inexpensive work for the mass market (MyArtClub.com and Art Sites are excellent sites for more experienced buyers of more expensive work) and even though it works best for lower priced work, there is no middleman so you pay no commission.
This is certainly something that is not for everyone, but for those who like working online, who are remote and have no representation, eBay can work when used in partnership with a group such as EBSQ.
The most practical visual arts service organization in Canada has to be the CARFAC Copyright Collective (www.carcc.ca). All its members could, for example, form a group as the artists of EBSQ have done, adding CCC to their titles and forming an online association. (Be advised, this is only a suggestion for CARFAC Copyright Collective members.)
What are your favourite websites or what sites or services on the web have attracted your interest? Sharing them with me is a way of sharing them with all the artists who read this newsletter. I have shared a few with you in the past, but what are your favourites? And if you send me some sites, what is it you like about the references you are providing?
I like, for example, the website of "Chicago Artists Resource" because, although American, it has lots of practical information about professional development for visual artists that is relevant to artists in Canada. Another example: the short films on Andy Goldsworthy on YouTube because for me there is something particularly appealing about the environmental installation work that he does. If you have some gems to share, please send them to me at the address below.
ctyrell@shaw.ca
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