Just Google Yourself...

An important part of my effort to be a career artist is to try and have my work seen in as many places as possible.  Thus I'm quite relentless on social media and other on-line forums.  Every now and then I'll check in to see how far my efforts may be reaching.  One of the best ways to do that is  to 'Google' yourself...sometimes just your name, sometimes adding the word 'artist' after it.  Google Images reverse image search is another excellent tool.  The results can be very surprising.  

Before I start the ball rolling, I'll just note that many of my 'own name' search results come from places where I've purposely loaded up images, such as Facebook or Twitter or my various print-making services.  I also get hits from published articles about me or shows I've curated.  Those things I'm generally aware of.  What I find far more amusing are the ones I had no idea about.  They are what I'm presenting here.  And just for the record...I have no problem with people using the images without asking.  I don't intend to hunt them down or 'sue' them for compensation.  My philosophy is that art...any art...benefits from as many eyeballs on it as possible, and I'm grateful for the free publicity.  Some of them have been good enough to provide accompanying links to my website, and some have been legitimately paid for via Getty Images or Shutterstock which rep my artwork.  Onward we go...

I mentioned the social media sites, and so things like Tumblr or Pinterest that are image-based platforms tend to be fertile ground for sharing images.  Here's a New Year's greeting on Google+ from a lady in Bulgaria, featuring 'The Shortcut':

I've also now come across several Pinterest boards where I'm the subject of the board itself.  That's a bit of a surreal experience, especially when users have also made boards featuring artists who are actually famous, like Van Gogh.  Here's an example:

Bloggers too, tend to want visuals to enhance their pages.  Here's one using "The Getaway":

Last Christmas an accounting firm decided to tie their December blog to Dickens' Christmas Carol story, and borrowed "The Ghost of Christmas Past" as an illustration:

Here's one promoting an organization's upcoming prohibition-era-themed party that borrowed 

"The Speakeasy":

Ottawa's Kitchissippi Museum blogged about the old Elmdale Theatre, and I was very happy to see my painting of said theatre shown alongside one done by a friend of mine, Andrew King...an Ottawa artist I very much admire:

Being shown alongside another artist (this time some hack named Robert Bateman) also occurred when I was part of a young student's on-line art project.  His task was to analyze and contrast two Canadian artists, and I was chosen because of my Metis heritage:

Education was also a component of the following article on beachgoers-of-yore. This one is translated from the original Russian:

And the international reach doesn't end at Russia.  Here's some blogs from Asia:

On-line magazines and articles are also a place where images can pop up.  The Rocky Mountain Goat (love that name!) highlighted one of Ducks Unlimited's auctions that was selling off an "Arriving at Union" print:

Here's a classic car news magazine that borrowed "Windsor Night" for its December message:

A book reviewer used "The Bathing Machine" since the book in question was about a Victorian-era swimmer.

And the publications can be pretty sizable ones, such as this entry from the National Post twitter feed that featured "Stephenville Crossing":

Best of all, one of my Scrooge paintings turned up alongside a column in Forbes.com.  They have tens of millions of viewers.

And lastly, I'll leave off with this one, from a New York Jazz musician who felt "Third Avenue El" was a great compliment for one of his music releases.

And so I'll continue to periodically 'google myself', which I'd like to say is purely for analytical reasons, but have to confess is a most addictive and gratifying pass-time!