CA: You’ve worked in many creative media. What guidelines would you suggest to someone who has tired of one art medium, and wants to explore a new one?

Nessim: Make an effort to always be trying something new. Go to a class where they emphasize exploration in different mediums. Use social time with artist friends to work together doing something interesting work-wise. When you are in an art supply store pick up a small set of something completely different to try like woodcutting tools that you can use on linoleum blocks. It is so physically different than painting, drawing or working on the computer that you are sure to be engaged. It may feel uncomfortable at first, which is a good thing, but you will be challenged even if you have done it before in your younger years. It will feel different this time around and perhaps change, even in a small way, the direction you’ve been working in for years. Explore other digital options if you are “comfortable” in one area. Wander through others artists’ work on Facebook that have friend[ed] you. I have come across such interesting work by artists I don’t know and always write a message to that artist about it. Something I would like to try is video. I have no idea of how I will be using it, but, with all the “ease of use” cameras around, it will stimulate, inspire and stretch my imagination. I have been thinking about it for a while now. The best part is there are so many web uses for video that  I’m sure I will find my way to use it in an artwork or in a commercial venue.

CA: What advice would you give a beginning illustrator, in terms of archiving their work?

Nessim: Any artist/illustrator working today is lucky to have the digital tools available to catalog their work from the very beginning of their career. Archiving is such a big subject and artists are all so individual that there isn’t one “right” way of archiving or keeping track of your work. So consider this answer/suggestion a little snapshot of how I see this subject after 50 years of creating art. I’m fairly organized now but I was not always orderly. One day I realized after fifteen years of creating and making piles of work, books and magazines, also stuff I couldn’t bear to throw away, I was going to “drown” in my own mess. The funny thing is that I always thought I was “organized.” I even created a work in 1967 titled Disorganized Organization Organized, a 40" × 40" silk-screen on stretched canvas sold at one of the first NYC design stores, Scarabeaus, owned by George Beylerian.

It may be hard to imagine that you will want to see the particular work you are creating at the moment ten years from now but, trust me, you will—especially if you like it. And if it is something that is not to your liking then you have to decide if it will go in the trash. There are times when you don’t like a piece you are working on and you put it aside and somehow stumble upon it a year later; you may look at it and suddenly like it and wonder why you felt so negative about it. I call these my transition pieces, where it brings me to another point of view of creating. Each transition is different and in a way, an artwork all to itself. Every artist will devise his or her own way of keeping track of his or her work and it has to be a conscious decision to do so.

CA: How did you arrive at the system that you use to archive and store your work?

Nessim: There are several things to consider when embarking on the lifelong task of archiving your work. I say “task” because you have to view it as a necessary undertaking. First you have to arrive at a system. For example: My first attempt at organizing in the ’70s was to buy two good secondhand filing cabinets, and file folders that were different colors. Blue files were for illustration jobs, green for speaking, yellow for writing, purple for fine art shows, beige for friends and red for taxes. I have since transferred this color system to my computer. I have folding sawhorses that I bought at Ikea years ago and put half-inch Gatorboard foam tops on them to make impromptu tables. I also have oak and white metal flat files, which are the most important furniture I own besides my drawing table. I bought oak years ago but now would only consider metal. Every flat file in my studio sits on a specially constructed wooden frame with heavy-duty rubber wheels. One group is stacked with five files each with five drawers. There are four flat files, two side-by-side I use as a high table with a white Formica top. The flat files are labeled according to the years the artworks in them were created. Each artwork has been scanned at 300 DPI and stored in folders on the computer according to the year and drawer they are in. The artworks are labeled according to the year, are given a number and coded as to whether it is fine art or illustration art. The penciled identifying code in the back of each work may look like this: FA-1977-34. They are stored, in groups, in archival plastic bags and taped shut. If you ever have a flood, which I did, they have a better chance of being protected and surviving.

If I were starting out today I would investigate software available that utilizes other universal systems that museums use. The more universal the system the easier it will be for museums like the Norman Rockwell Museum to receive your work for inclusion in their collection. The NRM has recently opened The Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies in Stockbridge, the nation’s first research institute devoted to the art of illustration. It states, “Visual Culture Studies is the vibrant area of emerging scholarship that explores the impact of imagery in shaping societal conceptions and aspirations across broad cultural categories.” Explore the site to find out more about this important addition to the field of illustration. If you have any questions about archiving, please e-mail me at barbaranessim@gmail.com and I will be happy to help with whatever I know. There is so much more to say. I could write a book on this subject. CA