28 March

Ginofor Gallery: Art In The Window

by Jon Katz
Art In A Gallery Window
Art In A Gallery Window

To me, this photo says so much more than it seems to say at first look. It is in George Forss’s Ginofor Gallery window in Cambridge, N.Y., on a rainy and gray day. I focused on the raindrops and the photo seemed to speak to me about art and it’s place in the world, it is a bright spot in the window, it is a rainy spot in the window. Beautiful in its own way.

28 March

Morning Meeting: Two Ways To Help Save The Carriage Horses

by Jon Katz
Morning Meeting: Helping Horses
Morning Meeting: Helping Horses

Our day begins with Maria’s morning meeting with the donkeys, I can’t imagine a life that begins any other way. They seem eager to hear the news, so is she, they talk and talk.

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Many of you have written asking how you can help save the New York Carriage Horses from banishment either to rescue farms or, more likely, slaughter. It is one thing to send a sick and abandoned or aging horse and donkey to a rescue farm, quite another to send a healthy, well-cared for and engaged working animal to one. The Carriage Horses need to be saved, but from their mayor and self-proclaimed rescuers, not from the people who own them, drive them, care for them well and value them highly. The carriage horse owners want to keep these animals in our lives, the people who say they are for animal rights want to drive the away.  If you wish to help, here’s a way. Randie Blumhagen is organizing a fund-raiser for the horses.

You can also contribute directly to the carriage owners and their legal defense fund here.

The carriage trade people are now getting flooded with messages and e-mails asking how people who really love animals and are concerned for their welfare can help. People are awakening to the importance of giving animal rights that are based on compassion for them and the people who live with them and a new understanding of their real lives. We need a real animal rights movement that is about them, not just us. Every one with an animal or who loves one has a horse in this race, pardon the pun. Check out Randie’s project. I will keep on writing and help in any way that I can, I am  returning to New York next Thursday to spend the day with a carriage driver, one of the many people whose voices have not been heard in this sad and unnecessary affair. Hard-working and law-abiding people should not have to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend their livelihood in court.

28 March

The New World Of Creative Marketing

by Jon Katz
The New Marketing
The New Marketing

The old ways of marketing books and creativity are fading away, Maria and I, both creatives working for ourselves and now promoting our own work, are always thinking of ways to market what we make. I do the blog, promotions, subscriptions, photos, give-aways, podcasts, videos, Maria has her own blog and when she makes something new, she sometimes asks me to photograph it. Sometimes I feel we are running Bedlam Farm World.

But you know what, I have come to like it, and we are getting good at it.

Our favorite marketing studio is the side of the big barn in sunlight, we always have a rapt audience of curious donkeys, dogs or sheep. If it isn’t too windy, or even if it is, Maria will take one of her wall hangings outside, hang it up on the wall, pinning it to keep it flat in the wind, not always an easy thing to do. We do some of the notecard photographs on this wall, sometimes the other wall if the sun is out in the afternoon.

I’ll take a photo, choosing my lens carefully and watching the light, then Maria will post the piece up on her blog, or I’ll post it on my mine. Once upon a time, galleries did this or publishers, but no longer. The creative is on his or her own when it comes to marketing and selling work. I was horrified when I realized my publisher would no longer try and promote my books, but I have come to like promoting my own books and helping Maria to promote her work. I like taking responsibility for my art, so does she.

I think the donkeys like it too, they will often stand and bray at us while we take our pictures.  The donkeys and dogs love to enter the spirit of things, they are a part of our world. The New World Of Marketing.

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