Collecting Resources

Getting Images for First Friday

Oil Painting by Sharon Hollensbe.

Oil Painting by Sharon Hollensbe featured at Well Street Art Co. First Friday event on April 6, 2018. Photo source http://www.downtownfairbanks.com.

This was a bit of an adventure. I make time for First Friday in Fairbanks, Alaska every month as it gives an opportunity to support local artists, students, fundraisers, and small businesses in Fairbanks and surrounding areas. For those who don’t know what the event is all about, on the first Friday of each month, local galleries and small businesses host an artist or artists and showcase their work and available pieces. Often the businesses will have sales, sometimes catering, and infrequent links to local charities and non-profits. I wanted to discuss some of the pieces in the blog post before noticing that B Track required finding images. So I set out to find images from some of the artists’ works I viewed on First Friday.

 

Most artists will leave a business card with their displays or signature books at the

"Penitence." Mixed sculpture by Anvil Williamson.

Mixed media sculpture “Penitence” by Artist Anvil Williamson. Photo source http://www.anvilcatlin.com.

galleries. My favorite piece from the evening is “Penitence” (left) by Anvil Catlin Williamson. Providing her business card directed me to her personal website and portfolio where I was able access her photos of her work.

 

Other artists did not provide personal websites on their business cards but only Etsy.com shops or Facebook pages. Some portfolios and galleries and shops were up to date while others were not and additional internet sleuthing was required. I found current images of the pieces I saw through the organizations promoting the artists and galleries for the weekend.

Print by artist Sarah Day Cash.

Print on paper by artist Sarah Day Cash featured at Well Street Art Co. for Fairbanks First Friday Event April 6, 2018. Photo source http://www.downtownfairbanks.com.

 

This was a pretty specific quest for specific images and I still feel it was successful thanks to availability of primary sources and knowing the right connections to follow online.

 

In general, I look for open source and free images. I may alter them myself through use of Photoshop or another editor but always keep original sources in the file names and descriptions. My favorite website for free images is Unsplash.com as it also includes an optional html tag you can embed with the image. Freeimages.com is another familiar source though there is less information on the provider of the image than at Unsplash.