Recovering an Artist's Life's Work

Hello friends, family, collectors, and all,

I'm Joan Zalenski, a practicing artist for more than 40 years. As an interdisciplinary artist, I work in photography, sculpture, ceramics, site-specific installations, public art and land art. Two days before Christmas 2021, a traumatic disaster occurred in which I lost my life's work of photographs, sculpture and public art records due to a failure/crash of my computer backup system. This was a professional, reliable dual RAID system, employed to prevent such a devastating loss. It failed.

This device was less than a year old, and still under warranty. After consulting with tech support where it was purchased, it was determined the device had to be sent to a reputable data recovery company. Because of the holidays, I have been waiting in suspense to hear if these experts would be able to recover more than 40 years of my photographs, artwork, film scans, public art records and documentation -- my life's work! Many of you are collectors of my work, for which the records of this work were lost.

To understand how vital and important an archive of files is to an artist, it helps to know how critical it is to keep records of the work. When I produce a piece of art, whether a sculpture or photograph, for example, it is documented photographically every step of the process with copious notes. These images and data are then archived in a digital file that can be accessed quickly. If a piece is damaged, destroyed, or I want to duplicate it, that record is invaluable and would enable me to repair or reproduce the work accurately.

I was given an estimate of $1800 to $4600. While that took my breath away, I knew I had to get my life back no matter the cost. How I would do that, if the files were recovered, I had no idea. And time was of the essence.

On New Year's Eve, two days ago, I received a call from the data recovery company. I answered the phone with trepidation. They called to tell me (earlier than predicted) that they were able to fully recover all my files! I was speechless and overcome with relief. The file system on my backup drive had been corrupted -- reason unknown. The final cost to get my life back would be $2900.

I'm a working artist, living on the edge so I can continue to do my work, and therefore I'm asking each of you for your help, to make a donation of whatever you can to help me reach my goal of $3500. This amount will cover the total cost to get my files back: the actual recovery charges, new drive, shipping charges, return shipping of the rescued drive and cover the fees to GoFundMe. The faster I reach my goal, the sooner I will have my recovered files back without which I cannot apply for grants or fellowships, make prints to sell or exhibit, that would further my career and provide income for living expenses.

I invite you to visit my website http://www.joanzalenski.com to see some of the work I have been doing most of my life. You can also find me on Instagram, @joanzartist. With your help, I'll be able to continue to create new work to share with the world. I thank you for your support. Please share my fundraiser with your friends and their friends.

If you prefer to donate offline, you can send a check to me at 670 Alta Vista F17, Santa Fe, NM 87505.

Thank you again and I wish everyone a bright and hopeful New Year.

These photos of a public art installation, are from a page on my website. For details go to http://www.joanzalenski.com/what-lies-beneath.html