Today I’m heading to New York City to attend my very first art and design expo: SURTEX . Surtex is an annual event where artists and designers show off their patterns, prints, and designs for companies. The name of the game is art licensing, which is described by Wikipedia thusly:
A licensor may grant a permission to a licensee to copy and distribute copyrighted works such as “art” (e.g., Thomas Kinkade’s painting “Dawn in Los Gatos”) and characters (e.g., Mickey Mouse). With such license, a licensee need not fear a claim of copyright infringement brought by the copyright owner.
Hypothetically, I am the licensor, some cool company that likes my stuff is the licensee, and the art is my original art. I didn’t rent a booth to show off my work, but over the course of the three days I hope to learn as much as I can about art licensing and how it might work for me.
In preparation, I’ve collected a number of pen-and-ink drawings and collages, and created a new page on my website: gaberobertsart.com/licensing. I also created a little sequence of designs for Dolores Park. Check out the page and let me know what you think!
I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to share my work, but if I do, I’ll use this page. My friend Leah recommended I explore art licensing and suggested that my ink drawings in particular may have commercial appeal. Whether or not this is true, I’m very excited to see what the pros have put together for this show, and maybe make some new connections.
If you’re in the big apple and would like to say hello, please drop me a line! I’m looking forward to ten days of adventure on the east coast.
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