Orb 5 (Long Island, New York) by Carlo Van de Roer

Orb 3 (Blue Lagoon, Reykjavik, Iceland) by Carlo Van de Roer

West Coast Wednesday greetings, my collector friends! I'm happily ensconced in SF for the balance of the week after a whirlwind weekend in sunny Seattle. That's right: sunny... not a typo, nor an indulgence of my alliterative aspirations! A bright blue sky provided the perfect backdrop for all of the Emerald City's lush greenery throughout my visit.

The red carpet treatment given to me by the wonderful folks at Photographic Center Northwest and SAM added more local color. Also rainbow bright and fabulous: the Photo Op exhibition at PCNW, curated by yours truly and expertly installed by their talented gallery director — and primary red carpet roller outer — Ann Pallesen.

I'm excited to be getting back to business with today's editions, Orb 5 (Long Island, New York) and Orb 3 (Blue Lagoon, Reykjavik, Iceland) by Carlo Van de Roer. As you collectors have come to expect from Carlo, the images are gorgeous, and we've added a bit of a twist to the editions — something you've probably come to expect from us!

We're releasing Orb 5 as a new kind of benefit edition, one offered specifically in support of the artists themselves. In this case, all profits from the sales of this print are going toward funding Carlo's critically acclaimed, ambitious Portrait Machine Project. The project also happens to be an expensive one, as the equipment he uses to make the portraits is costly.

Doing an edition like this puts the spotlight on 20x200's ability to directly support artists in their practice — it's one of the things that really drives me to want to make the site a sustainable, successful endeavor. As you all know, I work with lots of artists; what causes many of them to give up on making art is something I'm all-too-familiar with. Unsurprisingly, money is probably the biggest obstacle. It's all too easy for the making of art to become a luxury, especially these days. By participating in 20x200 as a collector, you're a patron. You're helping them not give up.

I cannot overemphasize the importance of your patronage, especially since I think it's something easy to overlook. You're not spending much after all, and in this post-industrial, mass-produced era, affordable things usually don't provide much benefit to the person who actually makes them. That's where the ultimate coolness of the internet comes in — its ability to allow lots of us to act collectively is amazing. It's vastness makes the world smaller, and being able to reach all of you in your inboxes with my newsletters means that I can connect you with art and artists in a way that's never been possible before.

All of this to say that you should feel good about the art you're collecting here, and that yes, you are indeed a patron of the arts — even if you buy just one $20 print. It's not often that getting something offers an opportunity to give something just as good, but that's how we roll here at 20x200. Which brings me to another thing — we started out with a straight-up formula of $20-$200-$2000 prints and right around Christmas last year we started introducing new configurations, like the $50 prints in editions of 500 that we're offering of Carlo's two images. There's been some grousing from art traditionalists about the edition size, but that's where the giving part of getting comes in.

You're getting a gorgeous, archival print for fifty bucks. It's worth it, I promise. Put that baby up on your wall and you'll get $50 worth of pleasure in no time flat. Plus, out of everyone in the universe, only 499 other people will have the opportunity to hang the same print at the same size on their wall. That's pretty cool. The best part is that with 500 people kicking in their $50, we can write some fat checks to artists. The type of check that keeps them from giving up. So buck up collectors, and give as good as you get.

All this proselytizing has taken up the space that I usually devote to talking about the artz, but lucky for all of us, plenty of other people have written about Carlo and his projects. I'm including a mess of links below, so go ahead! Collect yourself some limited edition Carlo Van de Roer prints, then go forth and read up on the latest additions to your collection!

Coverage of the Orbs project:

Dossier Journal
Beautiful Decay
SeeSaw Designs
but does it float
The Exposure Project
design work life
ISO50 Blog
Abecedarian

More about The Portrait Machine Project:

The Portrait Machine Project site
The Moment Blog (NYTimes.com)
Interview Magazine