Creating a Book

Self Publishing & You

    These days just about anyone can publish a book, have it listed with the Library of Congress, and have it for sale on several of the most popular bookstore websites. Of course this doesn't mean that you will be a famous author that sells over a million copies and is on the New York Times Best Seller List, though you may get lucky if you keep at it. What creating a book does mean, is that you have taken the time to produce a book, learned something along the way, hopefully had fun creating it, and have something that might be worthy of sharing with your friends and relatives. Now, this might sound a bit discouraging at first, but let's not get mired in the muck of doing something creative because you want to be famous. Generally, the reason a creative person produces a work of art is because they are compelled to create by an invisible force that speaks louder than their rational mind, overriding all circuits of logic to create something tangible in the three dimensional world no matter what circumstances may be occurring. Are all creative people simply crazy?

   

    The best self publishing company I have found on my journey of self publishing is www.lulu.com. I researched many sites that made a lot of promises, cost a considerable amount of money, and had poorly explained procedures to create a book. I'm not trying to sell you on LuLu, only to say that I really liked there site even though it was a lot of information to wade through in order to create a book (it's free!). They do have a few templates that you can use for some books, but they are very limited in the scope of aesthetics and choices for book sizes. In order to create my most recent book, "Viewpoints" I had to learn the Adobe InDesign program, read through a fair amount of information on all the specifics of formatting for major distribution, copyright, and of course, do the writing. It has been almost a year since the inception of this book, and I have just finished the final edits, and will hopefully have it on the market in a week or so. Instant gratification does not bide well with making/writing books, as most books take anywhere from a year to five or ten years to create.

    One of the biggest learning curves for me was when I had to work with a professional editor. I had never done this before and knew almost nothing about the process. To find an editor I made a list of criteria I thought important and went on line to review the different types of editors. Specifically I was looking for someone who edits fiction, had worked in a major publishing house, possibly a writer them-self, had a wide variety of references, well educated with a masters in creative writing, listed their fees directly on the website, and someone I could easily communicate with. As a novice writer I felt quite apprehensive about approaching a professional editor. I finally found someone I wanted to work with and sent them my short stories and poetry thinking that they would look at my work and wonder why in the world was I choosing to be a writer. When I spoke with the editor, she said that all writers, whether professional or amateur feel a great deal of insecurity when handing over their work to an editor. As a writer I feel much more vulnerable, naked, and insecure than I do with any other creative endeavors I take part in. The editor made a gazillion red marks on my transcript, mostly grammatical errors of which I'm famous for, and a few content revisions. We went back and forth on the content revisions, and finally after three months of exchange, I had a finished manuscript that I felt confident about and wanted to publish.

    This journey of writing, creating a book, working with an editor, and learning the ins and outs of the InDesign program, has taught me that with a bit of fortitude, perseverance, and an open mind, a crazy idea like writing a book isn't so crazy after all. Now, if someone actually purchases the book and enjoys it...this would be a gift.

William Rossoto
www.rossotoart.com

Multi-Media Website

Making a Multi-Media Website


    Not long ago I created a new website to combine all the various creative endeavors I partake of, on one website. This new site has residential design, fine art, commercial art, and published works all on one site. Yahoo! So, it's what you might call a one stop shop so that you don't have to go to several different websites to find out what I do. After observing several of my multi-talented compatriots doing this, I was convinced to follow suite. I hope you will enjoy the new site. Below is the link.

www.rossotoart.com

    The beauty of creating your own website is that it allows you make updates as needed instead of relying on, and often waiting for your website builder to update things for you. The site I created was done through a template site and took about forty hours to complete. I didn't have to know HTML or any other language to create a reasonably clean, well organized site. One of the main factors in choosing to go with a template site was cost. What I originally wanted to create through a website builder would have cost between three to five grand (which isn't a bad thing), and of course would have been far more creative and complex than what I was able to do on my own, but I feel the results I got are a reasonable compromise that allowed for a fairly good outcome, though considerably simpler than I would have designed with a website builder. After that long sentence full of grammatical errors, what more can be said?

I would appreciate any feedback you may have to offer about the website I just finished.

Scratcher Thoughts

 

Scratcher

I still like to make marks

like the fur weavers of Lascaux

Scratching a patch of hard rock

or coloring with ochre

I'm not a hunter, but......

sighting beauty aim with barb

Every mark and stroke

paid attention like G-d

This path chosen?

To scrawl and scratch

conjuring the unseen magic

Manifesting desire invisible

imitating ancestors drive

Leaving mark like dog

on fire hydrant.....

My saber tooth calls for knowing

somehow remembered, though.....

Scarcely can I say why

               William Rossoto 4/25/13

Working in the studio today on a new abstract series....more explorations than anything serious. I use the word serious because it is quite the opposite of what I'm experiencing as I do these explorations. I'm having so much fun I'm thinking that this couldn't be serious art.....whatever that is. So much of the time I carry with me the belief (how ever erroneous it may be) that a work of art can not be simple, that it requires enormous effort and if it does not then I haven't made something worthwhile....does anyone else feel the same way. Well, silly musings for the day........

Explorations & Meanings

This article is on the absurd musings of a self absorbed artist (me momentarily) in search of the unknown, a sort of holy grail quest, though certainly not as profound as finally finding the philosophers sword......or was that the philosophers stone.........  Maybe some of you have gone through the following process of thought.

Starting a new series of art work is always a challenge, the contrasting elements of academia, intuition, preconceptions and a willingness to explore the hidden realms are often overwhelming for me. In this case I'm leaving years of figurative drawing & painting in the wind and proceeding with the amorphous and ambiguous nature of abstraction. I find abstract work to be much more difficult and am trying to find a way to define my concept in a set of constructs that will communicate something of value to the viewer. When dealing with figurative art there is always the associative thread of physical reality the viewer can correspond with, and even if the work is of little conceptual value there is still something easily associated with. When dealing in the abstract realms it is like trying to explain what another planet looks and feels like without the viewer having ever been there or having seen it.

A better question to ask in all of this is, "does it matter if abstract art means anything other than a pure & true expression of the artist?" If one paints from their heart & soul is that not enough, does everything need a justifiable and intellectual reason for creation as though to substantiate the artist virility, intelligence or purpose, or the viewers reason to look at the art? Is decorative art shallow and lacking in substance? Maybe all art is simply decorative and as artist we create stories about our art to satisfy academia, intellectuals and the audience hungry for a story of interest and entertainment value. I know this isn't really true, but I do ponder what the value all of that academia training tries to inundate us with.

A few of my main premises in all that I create are:
1) Will the viewer be elevated in some way?
2) Will it allow the viewer to dream and explore new emotional or intellectual territory?
3) Does it inform the viewer in some way?
4) Am I communicating what I intended through the medium of art?
5) And lots of other questions........
I should say that these questions arise only when completely lucid, not in the act of creating.......

The main question on my mind about creating this abstract series is, can I start without a concept and work towards one? When starting with a concept, a vision, a reason to proceed and of course passion, there is still an exploration of the infinite within any given subject matter which can take years to explore and define in way that will ultimately convey what I had in mind. If I start with no concept it seems improbable that as an artist anything of value might be produced other than a possible hit and miss sort of progression.

I have so many questions about what I'm exploring right now that it seems the only thing I can do is to move forward and create work or sit still and think about it, neither of which may be of much worthy fruition. After years of working in the figurative realm I am somewhat fearful of venturing into a realm of art that may simply end up a mess, or of course I might surprise myself and end up with a series of work that has some aesthetic and conceptual value......who knows? By the way, I have also ended up with a mess even in creating figurative art, but not too often.

Well, my friends I'm on a quest to search for my own truth, one that will honestly communicate without the interference of academia, mental projections of perceived audience, fearless planting of paint on canvas and paper to hopefully express my given potential, whatever that may be...........

Contributing Your Art

A few times a year I like to donate my art work to various foundations that have a worthy cause. One of the foundations called Chairise the Future lets you pick up a piece of furniture from their huge warehouse so that you make it into a work of art to be auctioned at their fundraiser. This auction raises money and provides furniture and other services for over 3,000 people every year in the Atlanta area.

I've been doing this particular donation for a few years now and I have encountered many questions from artist about giving their art away for free to fundraisers, of which I'd like to share with you.

The most often asked question is "why do all these fund raisers use the talents of artist to raise money but give the artist nothing in return" (money and or recognition). It's a loaded question with a lot of viewpoints depending on if you are a "successful artist" (in this case meaning - making a living from your art), or if you are a "struggling artist" (not making a living from your art). If you happen to be fortunate enough to thrive from your passion you generally don't have an issue with giving a few pieces of art work away every year. On the other hand if you are working a full time job in order to support your art and possibly your family as well, this is where most artist feel devalued when it comes to giving away their art. Another a salient question connected to the issue of giving art away for free is about the value/devaluation of art in our society which is a long and sticky topic to contemplate. So I'll do my best here to give some answers to the above questions and hopefully provide a perspective that might help you to see a bit of light in the tunnel of art fundraisers. 

The only fundraiser I have ever been a part of that gave a portion of the proceeds from the art sold to the artist is the Alan Avery Gallery in Atlanta. He feels that artist are worthy of receiving when they donate their art work. He told me he believes that a fundraiser should benefit everyone concerned and that it is important to not to devalue the art and the artist. He was raising money for Owen, a child in need of medical help, a very beautiful cause. I found myself contemplating his viewpoint about having value for the artist and the art. I had previously contributed for years with no expectation of a return on my art other than to benefit others. I think it is important to give and to give from your heart with no expectation of reward or attachment to a monetary outcome. However there are some considerations to be made when contributing of which I will discuss later in this article.

Recently I was talking with my friend, David Mendoza who has some valuable perspectives on doing fund raisers (he has helped to raise money, talent & sponsors for Chairise the Future). He views fund raisers such as Chairise the Future as an opportunity to make new contacts, advance your exposure as an artist, have people own great art and that all of the efforts  benefit a great cause to help people in need. Because of David's effort and several others, Chairise the Future which raises money for The Furniture Bank has been able to get a new warehouse and to continue to benefit many needy people. The upside of contributing your art is the beauty of knowing you can help many people with a small effort on your part. Community effort and the conscious intention to be of assistance to those less fortunate than ourselves is about love, altruism and the joy of giving. 

From another viewpoint, many fund raisers solicit artist to support their cause without the slightest inclination to offer recognition and or a percentage of the art they sell. It is as if artist have no value in this society that is often bereft of aestheticism, elegance, grace, wisdom and creativity. Our culture in the U.S. puts the arts on the bottom rung of life pursuits as though creativity and personal expression are of no value. On the top of the economic structure are the sciences, entrepreneurship, politics, being a CEO, etc., and reaping as much capital as possible at any cost. I have no qualm with making money or pragmatic endeavors, I simply would like to see the arts and artist recognized as a valid, important, potent and necessary part of life in our society. The arts and the artist reflect and help to create the shaping of society. It a spiritual journey many are not willing to explore because often the monetary rewards are not sufficient to provide for the everyday cost of living.

Wow.....I went on quite a tirade there and got off the subject.......sort of. Fundraisers ask artist to contribute on a regular basis because we are an easy target. There is often a belief that artist have tons of unsold artwork in their studios and that they should give it away because they can't sell it. This premise may or may not be true, but I do know that artist are often the first ones asked to donate to a worthy cause and unless a rare bird comes along such as Alan Avery who believes that artist and art have value, we will continue being the bottom of the shoe....good to step on, keeps your feet from hurting, but is rarely seen or recognized for its value.

In conclusion I believe that we (artist) should contribute to worthy causes to help others in need, but in a way I also feel that we deserve some sort of recognition and or a shared percentage of the donated art. On the other hand, the reward of giving is simply the act sharing from your heart without any expectation of being compensated. I am a bit conflicted about fundraisers and present this article as food for thought.  Aside from all this conjectural diatribe, I do hope you give your art to a good cause to help others.