Cincinnati Animation Network Meetup this Thursday

We are having a meetup! Important facts:

1) Bring your portfolios for review and your questions for answering.
2) Win Stuff + get free stuff
3) Bring your art supplies that need to be re-homed

This is taking place at Essex Studios, Studio #268 (thank you to David Harz, it's his space) at 7:00 pm on Thursday Jan 28th aka in a couple of days.

2511 Essex Pl, Cincinnati, OH 45206
The door to Essex is kept locked but we will be there to let people in at 7:00pm,. If you RSVP I will look out for you. If you're going to be late or if you arrive late you can also text or call me (Darcy) and I will come let you in- (513) 304-9780

Please email me cincycan@gmail.com or reply to this post to rsvp so I know how many chairs to bring!

More details:

We will be giving away free Anomalisa posters to everyone who comes and we will also give 4 lucky people a free Behind the Scenes book about the making of Anomalisa since it is in wide release now.

Evidence of free stuff!

If you have a portfolio that you want reviewed or have any questions about anything animation related, also bring that along because this would be a good time to get that stuff answered.

AND

Bring any art supplies or other animation-related stuff that you don't want anymore but you can't bring yourself to throw away, we are also having a supply swap!

Other people having a supply swap! Ours will be cooler.

 You don't have to bring anything to take stuff home but its a good opportunity to get some use out of stuff that's gathering dust at your place, and saving someone money in the process.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Tax Talk for Artists and Freelancers November 30th

This looks really useful! A lot of people in particular do not know the entangled world of sales tax!

November 30th, 6-8 PM

ArtWorks Creative Enterprise is pleased to host a talk by Rus Garofalo of Brass Taxes, here to take some of the uncertainty out of preparing for tax time.

"Brass Taxes helps freelancers, artists, and other nice people with their taxes.

This talk about taxes is to help people avoid 90% of the problems we see come in our door at Brass Taxes. Artists and freelancers have work lives that are more complicated and it can be hard to find the right answers to questions about taxes."

www.brasstaxes.com

This event is FREE and open to the public.

https://www.facebook.com/events/403612823181867/

Indie Animation Feature Screening "Cheatin'" and Filmmaker Q+A

Earlier this year Bill Plympton's indie feature "Cheatin" played in Columbus followed by a Q+A by Bill Plympton.

Well, the good news is that this event is happening again in Cincinnati this Thursday evening 8/6/15 in case you couldn't make it to the Columbus one!

The feature will be followed by a Skype Q+A with Bill Plympton as well. This is a great opportunity to not only see a different type of feature but also to ask questions of a man who has produced multiple features on his own and has had a lot of really big clients too. He's basically the ultimate freelancer, which is why he's called the King of Independent Animation.  Can you make it?

Cheatin' Still- Bill Plympton

We could also meet up after for a drink!

Here are details:

Esquire Theatre, Cincinnati

7:30pm

tix: $9.75

Student tix: $7.50

http://www.esquiretheatre.com/events.asp#cheat

Email me at cincycan@gmail.com with any questions :)

FREE SEMINAR ON CONTRACT LAW FOR ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS from Manifest

 Thanks to Beth Neal on the heads up about this.

From the page:

Contracts can be a frustrating part of the art 'business'.

What is a fair contract agreement between yourself and a gallery? How do you handle contracts for freelance design work?

Three attorneys from the Cincinnati Bar Association will be joining us at the Manifest Drawing Center to discuss and answer questions about contract law for artists, makers, and designers.

Please spread the word!


This is offered free of charge at Manifest Drawing Center, 4905 Whetsel Ave., 2nd Floor, in Madisonville. (NOT at Manifest Gallery.)

May 30th from 3:00 to 4:30

https://www.facebook.com/events/780792342015932/

Kyle T Webster on Art 'Contests'

We have talked about this here before, but here is a tumblr post by Kyle Webster about a recent 'contest'.

From the post:

"All they do is provide the client with tons of free art and a tiny pay day for the selected artist. I’m getting more direct with my replies to these annoying emails - the one below was in reply to an email about designing a can for Mike’s Harder Lemonade (this is a multi-million dollar brand, folks, offering to pay $7500 for winning can design… pathetic)- let’s show these companies that we don’t work for free."

http://kyletwebster.tumblr.com/post/119019783950/art-contests-hurt-our-business

Fascinating Article About Artists and Tax Revenue

The New York Times published an interesting article about how the Internal Revenue Service views artists and write offs and is called:

Tax Court Ruling is Seen as a Victory for Artists

Written by Randy Kennedy.

It starts:

"If you say you are an artist, but you make little money from selling your art, can your work be considered a profession in the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/arts/design/tax-court-ruling-is-seen-as-a-victory-for-artists.html

Although we are not in the fine art world for the most part, many of us dabble and do gallery shows, etc.

I do not know any freelancer with a business plan, but they still make a living and that can vary wildly from year to year. You can kind of plan but there are a LOT of variables.

The upshot of the ruling is that you can make very little money and still be considered a professional artist.

Good Tax Advice for Illustrators

Scott Bakal wrote this great post about dealing with taxes and the inevitable letters of doom all of us get at some time or another.

It starts: "I received this letter a few weeks ago. Having a minor heart event and scraping myself up off the pavement after blacking out, I tried to wrap my head around what went wrong. I owe the IRS $36K"

http://www.drawger.com/scottbakal/?section=articles&article_id=14392

He has a lot of good advice for keeping records. It really is essential that you keep records of everything.

A couple additional notes:

• It is also good to get a tax ID for your business so you do not have to give out your SS# to every client.
• One thing not covered in the article is sales tax. You really need to look at the laws in whatever state you live in and they are always changing. In Ohio, some types of graphic design are also sales taxable as well as any art you sell to someone in the state. With so many artists showing and selling work at art and craft shows, a vendor's license is essential.
• The state you live in has information on doing business there. It is a good place to start when you are freelancing so that you are filing all the correct paperwork.
• Here is the website about doing business in Ohio: http://business.ohio.gov/ 
• Get an accountant that knows what he/she is doing.

 If anyone has any additional notes, I will update this post.

Darcy from Flaming Medusa Studios gave me this additional information from her husband David Van Horn. He is a CPA and does accounting etc for small businesses.

You can email him at dave@churdles.com or call him at (513) 429-5058.

Some more notes about doing business in Ohio:

"There are many taxes a small business must pay.  Those without employees must pay, depending on their legal structure, taxes on their earning to various government entities (Federal, State, City and sometimes even townships in Ohio). 

Once you add employees the burden really takes off.  In addition to the earnings tax for profit from the company you will be responsible for:

- Trust taxes for employee withholding's (Federal/state/local withholding, Social Security, Medicare)

- Also you will be responsible for the matching portion of Social Security and Medicare, State Unemployment taxes, Federal Unemployment taxes and any Workers Compensation premiums due.

The due dates vary and depending on the amount of payroll could be as frequent as weekly or as long as quarterly. 

Ohio also has a unique "privilege" tax called the Ohio Commercial Activities Tax.  This only applies to companies with over $150,000/year in revenues.  This tax replaced the Personal Property tax that Ohio used to charge."

Thanks Dave! I hope to do a future post about sales tax.