Tara Esperanza

Tara Esperanza needed more than a simple image gallery. Her website had to present her paintings professionally, document a growing exhibition history, share news and press, and provide access to merchandise featuring her artwork.

I created a custom content-managed website that organizes Tara’s paintings into three distinct series, with individual artwork pages containing images and essential catalog information. The site also includes a shop-style merchandise section with product descriptions, pricing, image galleries, and links to purchase through third-party sellers.

Rather than combining fine art and merchandise into a single sales-driven catalog, the website keeps Tara’s artwork portfolio intentionally separate. Visitors viewing a painting are not immediately presented with mugs or other products. Within the shop, however, relationship fields connect each product to its original artwork and to other merchandise featuring the same piece. This creates natural opportunities for discovery and cross-promotion without diminishing the portfolio’s curatorial integrity.

The same relational structure connects exhibitions with the works included in each show. Tara can select the participating paintings when entering an exhibition, and the website automatically generates a visual gallery of those works on the exhibition page.

The website serves several different audiences and purposes. Galleries and curators need a professional catalog and exhibition history. Collectors need detailed artwork information. Supporters may be interested in merchandise, news, or upcoming shows.

The challenge was to connect all of this material without making the website feel cluttered, repetitive, or overly commercial. Tara also needed a manageable way to keep her exhibition history and professional CV current as her career developed.

I developed a structured ExpressionEngine website in which artwork, exhibitions, products, press, and featured homepage content can be managed independently while still working together.

Custom relationship fields create meaningful connections throughout the site:

• Exhibition pages automatically display the paintings included in each show.
• Merchandise pages connect products with the artwork they feature.
• Related products using the same painting can be displayed together.
• Artwork remains presented as fine art rather than as a pathway to merchandise sales.

The exhibition system is also date-driven. Upcoming and current shows appear in the appropriate areas automatically. Once an exhibition has ended, its information becomes part of Tara’s chronological CV, eliminating the need to maintain the same information separately in multiple places.

Key website features

Categorized artwork portfolio

Tara’s paintings are organized into three distinct bodies of work, with individual pages for artwork images, titles, media, dimensions, dates, and availability.

Connected exhibition catalog

Each exhibition includes structured information for dates, gallery or venue, location, curator, exhibition type, description, and participating artwork. Selected paintings automatically form an exhibition gallery.

Automatically maintained artist CV

Solo and group exhibitions move into Tara’s CV based on their dates and categories, allowing one set of content to support both public event promotion and her permanent professional history.

Externally fulfilled merchandise shop

The website presents products with the polish and organization of an online shop, while purchase buttons direct customers to the appropriate third-party marketplace for checkout and fulfillment.

Strategic content relationships

Products, paintings, and exhibitions are linked through custom relationships that encourage visitors to explore connected material without mixing merchandise into the primary artwork experience.

Flexible homepage promotion

Recent news, current exhibitions, selected artwork, and featured products feed into the homepage automatically. Tara can use featured settings to control which items receive additional visibility.

The completed website gives Tara a professional, centralized resource for presenting and promoting her work. Galleries, curators, collectors, and prospective buyers can explore her paintings, exhibition history, press, and current activity through clear, interconnected content.

For Tara, the structured publishing system reduces duplicate work. Exhibitions update her CV automatically, related artwork builds exhibition galleries, and product relationships support merchandising without compromising how her paintings are presented. The result is a website that functions as both a polished artist portfolio and a practical career-management tool.