"Bonavista (Blue Iceberg)," 2024 Painting in The New York Times

"Blue Iceberg" in the January 5, 2025 New York Times Magazine and "Praiano" on the back cover of the December 30, 2024 New Yorker

“Bonavista (Blue Iceberg),” 2024, 20x30 inches, oil/canvas. Appears on page 15 of the January 5, 2025 New York Times Magazine across from The Ethicist.

In 2010 I received a Stanford Continuing Studies flyer in my Sunday New York Times home delivery. I’m sure you’ve seen national inserts or brochures about cruises or maybe jewelry. The Stanford flyer struck me because it was clearly regional, targeted. I wondered, how does that work? In your smaller local papers that are probably long gone there used to be department store or grocery store inserts. Often there were so many inserts that you just grabbed them and quickly set them aside without taking note of anything.

But inside of the New York Times home delivery there was usually just one or two very nicely designed and printed inserts. Remember I’m talking about 2010. If you can really picture the world before Facebook, Instagram and iPhones, you can better understand how many people were noticing those inserts, reading them. They were effective.

I held onto the 2010 Stanford Continuing Education flyer that was only inserted in the San Francisco Bay Area where I live and I even tracked down the person at Stanford that helped prepare the flyer and the New York Times person who billed and managed it’s insertion into my paper. After two years of contemplating printing and inserting my own catalog/pamphlet/flyer I took the plunge and started working with the New York Times in 2012. A series of catalog inserts over 12 months performed incredibly well and eventually led to full page ads in the T Magazine and then various ads throughout different sections of the print paper. Most recently, I am focusing on regular ads in the Sunday New York Times Magazine usually across from The Ethicist as in today’s paper. Occasionally, I run digital ads in different sections of the on-line paper. I’m not trying to find out what paintings people like, I’m trying to find the people who like my paintings. The ad below is #217 of my efforts.

My Bonavista painting on page 15 of the print January New York Times Magazine.

The New York Times only prints one version of it’s magazine as does The New Yorker. I started partnering with The New Yorker in August, 2020 and the relationship has been so much more pleasant and interesting than working with a gallery. I feel very fortunate to have found this solution.

My first ad with The New Yorker, August, 2020. How lucky that Wayne Thiebaud was on the front cover.

The New Yorker has print subscribers all over the world. They’ve helped me connect with collectors in Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Holland and England. My print ads also appear in their digital edition. The New York Times ads are not on-line. Some artists work with galleries; after twenty five years in the gallery system, in 2012 I decided I’d like to find a different approach.

One of my Praiano paintings from my artist residency at the LeWitt House on the Amalfi coast in February, 2024, is on the back cover of the December 30, 2024 double issue of The New Yorker.

My exhibit at Flea Street in Menlo Park starts January 10 and continues through February 15, 2025. I’ll provide more details in a future post. You’ll see promotion for the exhibit in HTSI (January 25), in the Nob Hill Gazette (page 9) and also in Hyperallergic.