Retired artist resurfaces, sells art via Internet site

LAFAYETTE – What did we do before the Internet? Before this relatively new medium for communication, before this mechanism to reach millions a day, before dot-coms gobbled up funding like candy? We worked – the old-fashioned way.

Artist Daniel Kirchenbauer hoofed it through the streets of Chicago in his 20s, trying to peddle his oil paintings and pen and ink drawings. He had some success and some minor press coverage. A write up in the Chicago Tribune, showings at the college of art, the school of the art institute, the Gold Coast fair and around shopping areas of Chicago helped to sell some work, but Kirchenbauer, now a 23-year resident of Lafayette, moved West with his family and traded in his art for a trade in antique furniture repair.

But the dawn of the Internet has piqued his interest in returning to art.

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Like many others, Kirchenbauer has decided to try his hand at doing business over the Internet.

“I tried the legwork 30 years ago with my easel painting and pen and ink drawing. It took me a few places,” Kirchenbauer said. “Now I wish that 30 years ago, I had the Internet.”

Based from home, Kirchenbauer, 50, and his partner, Jim Keil, 46, a financial analyst at Talmey Drake in Boulder, have started Posterage.com. The site features a handful of Kirchenbauer’s paintings, some rock concert posters from the 1960s and ’70s that he designed and a catalog of prices. Posterage is contacting other artists to display their work on the Web site. “We really do have the intention of adding to our inventory of other artists in the Boulder County area and expanding our inventory and perhaps introducing some of the new medium and materials for artwork,” Kirchenbauer said.

To that end, the two are offering their prints on a material called Colorplak, designed by a Lafayette company. Your print is professionally mounted to wood with dry-mount tissue and heat-pressed. A special UV protective vinyl is laminated over the print and heat-pressed again under 120 tons of pressure. The edges of the wood are beveled, sanded and trimmed, according to the company.

For as little as $128 per month, the two have set up an Internet business, including Internet access and a server through Earthlink, an e-commerce account with Cybercash, which deposits the funds, and an account with Card Service International, which authorizes the transactions.

“And that is what we pay if we don’t sell anything,” Keil said. “We have a trickle of sales, but the next thing is to get our name out there.

“I think it’s going to be very interesting how we are going to compete with the other art Web sites.” To view Kirchenbauer’s art, visit www.Posterage.com.