How the Internet Paid Off For Us

There's a lot of excessive hype about the Internet and it's easy for people to become sceptical that an Internet presence is really useful to anyone other than geeks and weird cyber-game-players. Well, we're still relative newbies on net matters, but the Internet has paid off for us -- and I'd like to tell you how. If you are an artist, maybe it can pay off for you too. Hey, maybe even if you are a non-artist.

We'd been on the World Wide Web for 5 months

I had put our little "RodMer Arts" art side on the web on April 1, 1995 (April Fool's day) showing the paintings and sculpture of my wife, Merike Lugus, and some poetry and short stories of both of us. Then 5 months had gone by. Sure we'd received expressions of interest from net-surfers as far away as Bergen, Norway and Sao Paulo, Brazil as well as from places sprinkled throughout Canada and the United States.

But had any potential art purchaser asked about Merike's paintings? No. We were beginning to wonder if the Internet wasn't just a time-consuming addiction that didn't actually help anyone.

Then, on August 31, 1995 the following e-mail arrived in our electronic mailbox.

	Dear Merike,
           		We are a new gallery opening in Bellingham, WA..The gallery 
	will be showing contemporary American and international art in fine art 
	and multi-media.
           		We like the painting we saw on the Internet and would like to 
	see more. Please mail us any information regarding your work e.g 
	slides, c.v, price list.

                       RADER GALLERIES,
                       1303 Cornwall Ave,
                       Bellingham,WA
                       98225, U.S.A.

		Look forward to hearing from you,

           			Mark Prest

What had they seen?

So what had they seen on the Internet? Well, it turns out that they after doing some search-engine searches for international artists they had come across Merike's page at the then-existing CultureNet (formerly run by the University of Calfary). This was a page containing an image of a single painting ("You Can't Go Home") but considerable explanatory text and a linkage to our own site: the Merike Lugus Art Gallery on the Web. The latter site had given them the chance to see over 30 images of Merike's work.

And then?

Of course, images on the World Wide Web, although (in my opinion) surprisingly good, are not as reliable (yet) as photographic slides in terms of colour fidelity. So we mailed out a set of slides to RADER and referred them to Merike's CV and other info already available on our website. Then after several phone calls we flew out to meet them. In the end they decided they wanted to show Merike's work and we decided we liked their gallery and approach and were happy to work with them. Naturally, nothing beats direct personal interaction. But the point is this: the initial contact came from our sites and links on the Internet.

Merike's show at RADER GALLERIES

Merike's one-woman show opened at RADER GALLERIES in Bellingham on November 17, 1995 and ran until the end of December. We drove out to the opening (first time I've driven across the continent since aeons ago when I was a teenager!) and back through the Canadian Rockies and north of Superior. Very emotional driving across this country that is trying to decide whether to stay together or not.

Thank you, CultureNet

Thank you, CultureNet! Why? Didn't we have our own site anyway? If you're an artist (or a net-savy business person) why do you need other sites and links if you already have your own website? Answer: to make it easier for people to find you. We switched our website location in mid-1995 (when a local provider appeared in our community). But the point is: most of our visitors arrive because they've found a link to us at some much more high-traffic directory (or search engine data-base). One such directory used to be CultureNet (formerly run by the University of Calgary).

To RodMer Arts Home Page

Last updated: July 28, 2005

RodMer Arts c/o Rod Anderson & Merike Lugus
rod@rodmer.com