Pixiq

This is a RANT! Yes, capital letters! I received an email from an artist that wanted me to review their work. As I politely put together my response (that I can't do this for everyone that writes) I also was curious. First, their email had attachments. I don't mean ONE attachment but ten! The artist wanted me to review each of them and "please critique me, I can take it."

Yes, I did look at them but did not download them or put them on my hard drive to take up space. This is one of those "beyond the call of duty" events. The person that emailed had never taken any of my workshops, attended a program of mine or given me any indication in the email how we might know each other.

I was still forumulating my polite response when I noticed they had a website link in their signature. YAY! I could go to their website and see if I know them. The link DID NOT WORK! Time was spent googling this person and attempting to find out who they were. (MY mistake!). After I could not find them in a few minutes I gave up.

So I figured it's time to set up some rules for artists and photographers that want recognition.

1. Be sure all your LINKS in emails WORK! That was really frustrating!
2. If you are writing someone you have met before, please tell them how you know them, where you met them and why you are sending them the email.
3. Be respectful of everyones time and patience. Send only a few (maybe four) images and don't ask for critique. Just share the images or paintings and tell them that you hope they enjoy them. We know what to do on our side.
4. Don't expect or demand a response. Send the email to share it. Not with rules and expectations.
5. Do NOT have an email address that is blocking spam that after we do reply we need to "verify" who we are to get the email to you. ADD our email address to your trusted emails before sending the email.

So there you have it. Todays RANT and some rules for sharing with me. I am not saying "don't" just to do it politely, correctly and personally.