“Thank you for making the submissions *****, have to be honest, the paintings look interesting but not really working as flat lifeless images on a computer screen, we did say with the open call that we were really looking for a sense of the painting being a painting hanging on the wall, a sense of the texture, the dimensions, flat images on computer screens on most occasions really don’t work in terms on an actual on-line exhibition, they might work as way of illustrating who you are and what you do on your own website, but not in terms of an actual on-line exhibition” –

We’re busy going through the submission that have come in for the next on-line show, (Far From The) Turmoil, the deadline is May 4th by the way, more on the open call page of this website (or via te rather useful Curator Space website if you prefer). don’t leave it until the last minute though. and do please take a look at the previous show(s) and get a feel for what te shows are about and how they flow, run the slide show, have a look before you fire off a submission, and one little tip here, say a little more than “Hey!” when you send in your images, if all you have to say is one word then really, what do you expect from us, yes I know the art should do all the talking but hey!. Actually we do try to answer everyone properly, the message up there was sent to someone who submitted some images of their  work this morning, I thought we’d share it here as well so yuo get a feel for how we work, so often I find as an artists submitting something ot a gallery or show that the silence can be very very annoying, galleries and curators should at least communicate, it is part of the job. We do try to answer everyone properly and give then a least an idea  as to why it is a “yes” or particualrly when it is a “no” – I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that when I’ve submited work to an open call I’ve sebmitted something to, around here we like to treat our fellow arists in the same way we’d like ot be treated (we do expect artists to treat us with a bit of friendly respect though, some of you artists can be very rude without any real cause to be so)

And no, we don’t charge an “admin fee” or a “submission fee”  or anthing else that amounts to little more than treating fellow artists as nothing more than cash-cows. When the submissions come in we have a look at the imagery actually submitted, we go check out the artist’s website, sometimes we won’t really feel the pieces submitted work but that something we’ve found on the artist’s website does. Actually it can be rather enjoyable searching through the websites of artists we don’t know,  we’ve found some very exciting artists, an open call element can be extremely rewarding,  no self respecting curator should be charge an “admin fee”, why would any gallery or curator charge artists an “admin fee” unless that is , all that that gallery is about is money.  We might be broke artists outselves but there really is absolutely no excuse for charging a fee and personally I would never trust or work with a gallery, curator or artist who does charge an “admin fee” – you pretty much know their shows are going to be half hearted affairs plagued with the art of anyone they could sucker some money out of, same goes for “submission fees” for actual physical shows, thaose shows run by the like of Zap are never any damn good, she might write books about it, but that damn Zap woman is full of crap (she refused to appear next to me on a discussion palnel about paying ot submit to an open call once, tried to get me thrown off)

Anyway, we’re rather enjoying going though the submissions for the the next on-line show while we wait to see when we can get back to actual physical gallery shows – well we’re really enjoying going through most of them and discovering new artists, new to us anyway, the only thing we don’t enjoy is photographers or damn digital artists who haven’t read the call. Please do actually read the open call details before you submit soemthing, please do be respectful enough to take the time to actually look at the previous show and do actually run the slide show and see what these on-line shows are about, and thank you for reading thing and if you do, thanks for taking the time to submit your work. (sw)