The Portfolio Disc

I’ve always thought if they want to have a “real” Survivor show take a dozen and a half artists, load them down with a portfolio case and a list of art directors and turn them lose in Manhattan on a hot summer day. Anyone who makes all the calls and lives to makes it back to the Holland tunnel wins. They have to still have their portfolio case to qualify.

Painters aren’t you lucky, you’ve probably never had to do this, but for photographers it’s a way of life, if you want to make it in the commercial world. You need a case big enough to haul a dozen, painfully selected, board-mounted, 16 x 20 glossies. It has to be tough enough to survive rides on the subway, bike mounted thieves and changes in the weather. And when the day is done, unlike the fantasy Survivor, you get to do it all again.

Thank goodness for the computer. With a Windows system, a blank disc and a bit of time you can create a pocket-sized portfolio, which will carry a hundred not so painfully selected photos. And the cost is so cheap when you find someone interested in your work you can smile and say, “Keep it; you might want to sleep on it and take another look in the morning.” You can do that because your name, address and phone number are on the disc, all that and your website, blog, your dog’s name, two dozen cute little emoticons and a note from your mother. Slip that in a paper disc holder and you’ve got a marketing manager in your pocket. You can burn a dozen just like it and hit every place in the area in the same afternoon and no giant, heavy, expensive portfolio case to haul.

But wait, there’s more, what if you are a sculpture or a potter or a wood worker or yes, even a painter. Yes, painters can carry their work in their pockets just like the shiftless photographers do.

But you don’t photograph your work. Why not? There is no greater sin than for an artist to allow their work to leave without having a record. What do you do when someone says, “What can you show me?” Well, there are the pieces I have on display in Roseburg or the three that went to the museum in Portland or the sculpture I have in the juried show in L.A., but no I’ve got nothing here. Or what if you are one of the lucky ones and you sell your work as fast as you create it? Think that doesn’t happen? Check with Kimberly Wurster or Jardin Kazar, but then they’re too busy creating new art and may not answer the telephone. What do you have to show for all of your hard work?

You have a portfolio disc if you’ve been reading this. Now don’t start whining and say that you don’t know anything about computers and you don’t have a digital camera, half of the cell phones in the country have cameras and a bad picture is better than an empty hand. If you are running XP or later Windows systems making a disc is easy. Just load a clean disc in the drive, go to the folder with your pictures click on the ones you want, (If you are doing more than one you’ll have to hold down the control key while you keep clicking), look over at the menu on the left and click on the Copy To CD command. On my machine it’s the last one in the window. And Bob’s your uncle it’s done. How easy was that?

And now that you’ve done it, don’t leave home without it.