Artist Round Table Bi-Monthly Zoom Session Follow-Up Newsletter (08-08-2021)


Greetings, you are receiving this newsletter because you are registered for our Artist Round Table Bi-Monthly Zoom Sessions. We will be sending a follow-up newsletter like this after each session to highlight the key points discussed during the roundtable. We hope that you are having a great and art-productive week!


Be sure to check out the John Dalton Gently Does it podcast. This week he is interviewing Natalie Featherston, and the podcast will be out next week. Natalie is incredibly grateful to everyone from the zoom group who submitted questions. If not for the questions, she probably would have rambled on about cats and dogs. :slight_smile:


Thank you, Natalie Featherston, for sharing a youtube tutorial on making slideshow reels. Instagram Reels is a brand new Instagram feature for users to create 15-second video clips set to music and share to their Stories, Feed, and the new Reels tab on a user’s profile. Two apps that Natalie suggests using to create videos, collages, adding text to reels are Canva and Inshot. Both apps are easy to use and very intuitive for IOS and Android users.


Exhibit Reminder:
We are looking forward to Natalie’s and Julie’s show at Bowersock Gallery, Provincetown, MA. The show’s title is Insentient Bits and Bobs , and it opened last Friday, August 6. To view the virtual, multi-platform, live stream opening, click HERE.


Exhibit Reminder:
Debra Keirce secured an invitation from The Albuquerque Museum Foundation for its 31st Annual ArtsThrive: Art Exhibition & Benefit. Debra’s painting Tipi is one of three that will be displayed at the museum from October 9 through December 5, 2021. The exhibition’s overall scope is very diverse, representing a wide range of subject matter, styles, and media.


Congratulation to Debra Keirce for securing yet another invitation to the Annual Art of the Heartland National Competition. The Annual Art of the Heartland National Competition has grown to be one of the nation’s premier shows for representational art. It is an opportunity for advanced amateurs and professional artists across America to compete with their peers. Debra’s painting All American will be displayed at the Mena Gallery, AR, from September 1 till October 29, 2021.


The great debate - what shipping carries to use to ship your artwork?
At the Ani Art Academies, we had great success with the UPS shipping domestically. Artwork always arrives on time and is undamaged. On rare occasions, when something did occur, UPS honored the insurance claims and gave extra credit for future shipments. We do prefer DHL when shipping internationally. DHL is fast (you do not want your artwork to travel around the world for a long time) so the quicker it can get to its international destination–the better.
An important aspect of the shipping process is the packaging. The carriers will try their best to handle the package with care, but accidents will happen, and if sturdy and fall-withstanding packaging does not protect your artwork, you might lose a painting or a drawing.
Below are a few links for packaging crates/boxes that Ani Academies used and had great success with.

STANDARD WOOD CRATES (various sizes)
ARTWORK SHIPPERS (various sizes)
THE AIR FLOAT STRONG BOX (various sizes, preferred by Ani)


Last zoom session we discussed camera stabilizers and tripods.
A camera stabilizer, or camera–stabilizing mount, is a device designed to hold a camera in a manner that prevents or compensates for unwanted camera movement, such as “camera shake”.
A tripod is a portable device used to support, stabilize and elevate a camera, a flash unit, or other video graphics or observational/measuring equipment. All photographic tripods have three legs and a mounting head to couple with a camera.
Below is an example of each, that our colleagues had a great experience with. Thank you, Elizaveta for recommending the Benro a 1970f tripod. A versatile tripod that can be used in horizontal position as well.


Above is an example of Anthony’s notes from the last Zoom Session. Now you guys can see what I am dealing with. I do not even know where to start to decipher these “notes.” And this happens after every zoom session, which is why I email you personally for the information. :slight_smile:


In between our bi-weekly Artist Round Table Sessions feel free to come and join the discussions on Smartermarx.

@AWaichulis For the A1 problem, I was thinking about your analogy with translation and the idea of the “gist”. If I’m trying to extend the analogy, would you say you’re trying to understand and compensate for the quirks of the translation algorithm, so it produces an end result that’s closer to the gist? Or does the concept of the gist not really fit with the translation algorithm analogy?

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That’s exactly it Tim. I have always found that highly complex regularities (patterns) are highly “contaminated” or “distorted” by our manner of “processing.” Finding an analog that gives rise to the same type of contextual regularity (like perhaps a certain type of brush that gives rise to a believable grass or bark pattern) seems to get a lot closer to an experience of regality (A.)

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Cool, thanks! As I mentioned—that analogy really resonates with me.

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