We cut up a lot of magazines, but that’s not really ok. Those magazines are copyrighted and so are the images in them. We can draw our own pictures or find and take our own photos, but that is not always convenient, or even possible.

And there are collage sheets, which are fine because the images are public domain - they have outlived their copyright. But they are all old for that reason, and the vintage look just doesn’t suit everybody or every project idea. Lots of creative folks want to step out into new directions. Now, they can.

In the advertising and marketing fields, there are stock agencies which sell usage rights to photos and illustrations, but for a whole lot of money - more than most artists could ever afford - or would be willing to pay.

We thought it time that there be an affordable stock agency for mixed media and paper artists. So we created one. It is called Art Safe because the images there are safe for you to use in your art - even if you sell or publish your work. We own the copyrights to all of it because we created it, and we can grant the usage rights to you. What a deal!

So, get ready and get excited. It may be time to try some new colors and new themes - and some brand new possibilities for your artwork. (We are showing you a “vintage” looking image first just so you won’t get culture shock. We better break into this change gradually . . .)

At first, we were going to put the images on collage sheets and offer choices of sizes and papers, and we soon realized that you would want too many different sizes and papers and we would never get this done. So, we decided to distribute the images on CD so you could size and print them as needed - and use them for digital work too.

We already have two of the most exciting inkjet surfaces to print on - Sheer Heaven and Waterproof Inkjet Canvas - and we are adding two more (see the following article), so we could be like Burger King and offer you the images and the papers and you could have it your way.

We looked around for a pricing comparison and found price tags of $399 and up for like quality royalty-free collections on CD, and $10-$12 for collections of junk. Not much in between and nothing to compare with what we’re doing.

We needed a new paradigm and came up with the music CD, which made sense to us. A music CD is a collection of 12-16 artworks (songs) created and performed by artists - that we can buy for $17.99 or less. We can then play the selections over and over to suit our mood and activity of the moment.