A Site for Emerging Artists
Inspiration
Why They Buy
Jan 26th
This article was originally published on The Arts Business Institute blog. Visit the ABI website for more information about the businesss of art, and an upcoming workshop in Philadelphia on February 18-19.
Do you know what makes your customers tick? Understanding the hidden reasons behind making a purchase will help you plan, market and sell more of your work.
Before addressing why people buy your art, let’s take a look at who is doing the buying. So many of us think we’re selling to the masses, but that’s hardly true. It may look that way at most local art and craft fairs, but in reality functional crafts sell to only about 5% of the public at large, and fine art and sculpture sell to about 2%. Let’s look into the minds of this small slice of humanity:
The Dream, the Myth. People who pursue and buy art actually envy the lifestyle of an artist – or at least what they perceive your lifestyle is like. They are up at 6 a.m., dressed in heels or a suit, off to fight traffic and put in 8-10 hours in at an office. Your life and career seem like a fantasy they can’t begin to touch. Owning a piece of your work is like possessing a tiny bit of your creative spirit and soul. That’s heady stuff.
It’s Real and Authentic. In a society that’s rife with plastic, faux this and that, and “Made in China” stamped on everything, your work stands out as one of the most authentic things left. You have a skill – one that someday may be lost. You design and follow each piece lovingly and carefully through the creative process. And that’s why you must tell your story, on each hangtag and brochure and by word of mouth to every buyer.
It’s Local. What’s growing in importance to shoppers today? Spending and supporting local businesses. As our world grows more and more global, we all need that connection to home. A huge shift is taking place in society as citizens tie themselves, their loyalty and their money to neighbors, hometowns, local stores and people, and local artists.
It’s Different. Visit any mall in America, and your will see the same thing. Over and over. The same brands, the same buttons, the same colors, the same, same. What you, as an artist, offer is beyond the mall and the narrow imagination expressed there.
It’s Luxury. True, nobody really needs to buy luxury products, but it’s a common perception (and an advertising slogan) that we deserve it. Luxury is no longer restricted to the affluent class. The concept is greater than the product itself – it’s the “experience.” And making a purchase of a piece of art or fine craft is a blissful experience to many consumers who consider it a reward for themselves or a guilty pleasure.
The Message. Since only 5% of the world buys crafts, and 2% buys art, let’s double that audience. Add words to any piece of art, whether it’s on the surface, or a tag, brochure, in the packaging or on a mat, and you have effectively multiplied your customers. The “left-brained” shopper can now understand and embrace what you offer. You’ve provided an anchor of comfort, a translation of your visual language.
Is it Price? High or low, it’s never about price. Instead look at it as “value.” What is your piece worth, standing alone? What is it worth when infused with and accompanied by your story, your process, your signature, your fingerprints? Can the customer hold your talent and soul in their hands? Why, yes. Yes, they can.
Function or Non-Function? All art, whether it’s a ceramic teapot or an oil painting, is functional. No one reaches into their wallet if they don’t have a purpose or use for their purchase. It’s more than love or adoration. Your artwork fills a void, brightens a space in their home or their heart. The more you discover about the “function or purpose” you add to a customer’s life, the more you will sell.
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Tumblr10 Resolutions for Artists to Make this the Best Year Ever
Jan 18th
By Carolyn Edlund
Start 2012 with renewed energy and a resolve to make this your most successful year ever.
- Face the truth. Be kind to yourself, but honest. Are you satisfied with this past year? Were there things that went undone? You can’t change the past, but you can acknowledge where you are now, so that you can move forward and . . .
- Make a bodacious plan. Then, become accountable for it. That means you have to get really clear. Create a vivid mental picture of your big goal for the coming year. How does it look, feel, and sound to achieve it? This type of clarity and planning will help you . . .
- Step into action. Big goals might seem unmanageable. Break them down into smaller goals, on a quarterly, monthly or even weekly basis. Work backwards from your desired result and resolve to take action today. What can you do now to start the momentum? Today is the first day of the rest of your art career. And remember . . .
- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Have you screwed things up? Yes, you have. No matter your level of education, chances are you took a few credits at the School of Hard Knocks. You remember well the lessons learned then, because you had the guts to take risks and try something new. You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to . . .
- Be true to yourself. If you want to sell your work, you have to understand your customer, and their interests. But you don’t have to try to become what you think they want you to be. Your inspiration comes from the heart and your creative mind. When you express yourself authentically, you will be fulfilled and happier with your work. One crucial part of that happiness is to resolve to . . .
- Give up the negative self-talk. You have the power to improve the quality of your art, become a better businessperson, and achieve success. The biggest thing holding you back besides fear is a negative belief system. Shed any tendency you may have to put yourself down or give up. Actively cultivate a positive mindset. Part of that is to . . .
- Hang out with the right people. The right people are those who support you, even at your very worst. Your true friends. Hang onto them. Unfriend the naysayers and the vampires who drain your energy, creativity and happiness. And then . . .
- Resolve not to be jealous of others. This one is tough because there is a lot of really great artwork out there and sometimes you feel small. Want to know a secret? There are many people out there who are jealous of you! It’s true. Most men and women commute to work each day to a job they don’t like, feeling unfulfilled and uninspired. The life of an artist is like a dream to them. So, smile and . . .
- Give yourself credit. What you are doing is hard, and you have to make your own way in a very competitive business. Most people out there couldn’t do it. But it’s also fun, challenging and rewarding. So . . .
- Be grateful. Why? Because you have the best job in the whole world. This is a marvelous gift you have given to yourself. Be grateful that you have the talent, inspiration and passion to follow your dream.
Now, go out there and rock your art business this year!
Artists Look to the New Year
Dec 29th
By Carolyn Edlund
Artists talk about the year just passed, and their resolutions for 2012.
Some took risks, or had tough learning experiences. They all grew in their businesses and their art. Here are their stories:
2011 has been a year of reviewing my true vision as an artist and making necessary adjustments. It has also been a year of growth for my art business as I have gained representation with new galleries due to my diligence in marketing myself via LinkedIn and other online venues.
Being added to several art consultants rosters will bring new commissions and sales for 2012. I already have several acceptances for juried fine art exhibitions across the US so 2012 will be a continuation of the progress made in 2011 getting my artwork out for collectors to see and purchase.
This past year has been pretty good, and I’ve had a slight increase in sales over the previous year. Every year I add a few more goals to my list, in addition to ones that carry over from previous years. For instance, one of my annual goals is to add another gallery, and I try to find at least one new one every year. I usually lose one every year, too, due to closing or performance issues; so it’s actually very hard to gain ground on this one. Other goals that get repeated every year are things like booking workshops, writing magazine articles, entering juried shows, earning Signature Memberships, teaching classes, etc.
This year, the extra goals on my list include joining more artist societies near my new home, more plein air painting, expanding my online sales, and producing a new DVD. This doesn’t sound like much, but it’s on top of everything else I already have on my list that gets repeated each year, so it’s enough!
I definitely want to spend more time making art in 2012 than worrying about art business. In 2011 I had the busiest exhibition schedule of my career with five solo shows spread over four states. I met several benchmarks such as showing at a large public university in a large city via the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. It was also a big step to show my work for the first time in the leading art markets of Miami and New York. Meeting many of my online contacts in person was a great experience as well which has led to other opportunities in the pipeline. But promoting shows back to back while dealing with the logistics of organizing so many large solo exhibitions was a real wake up call.
Managing life beyond art plus all of that has left me just plain worn out. I haven’t produced much work at all this year, which has been frustrating. I’ve learned my lesson though. From now on, the core of my energy will go towards time in the studio. As artists if we lose sight of that, we run the risk of leaving out the joy of discovering the full potential of our creative path. I’ve already started some new work. I’m really excited to ring in 2012 with momentum!
This past year has helped me figure out the direction I want to head with both my art and my business. It has included gaining the courage to turn down areas of work I no longer wish to provide, rekindling a passion for areas I thought I would no longer pursue and struggling with time management.
This January 2012 I hang my solo show at The Delaplaine in Frederick, MD. I’m excited to share my new body of work, Beautiful Silence, which features winter landscapes in and around Carroll County, Maryland. The reception is February 4th, 2012. I hope to build print sales through my online store. And just like in this previous year, I would like to hang my work in at least a handful of shows, not limited local venues.
This new year should also include some site updates for myself and to feature other artists on my site, an idea I pushed last year but that lost momentum. Over the past three years, I’ve improved my skills in business, marketing and relationship building – not to mention I’m more and more excited by my designs and I can manage my own website! And the drive to do more and get better just keeps on coming!
In 2012 I will continue making art about medicine and health, but with a stronger focus on internal and emotional issues in addition to my interest in the body. This past year I continued with my “Scarred for Life” project, in which I make body prints from people’s scars and collect their stories of trauma and healing. I shot a television pilot about this process, and how the experience serves as a cathartic expression for many of my subjects, a cap to their “story.”
I also started a new series of paintings in which I embed photos and documents from my parents and grandparents into the compositions. I recently visited my brother, who has a serious longterm illness, and got some of his creative notebooks from his youth as a folk singer. I’m starting to collage these fragments into new paintings about him, exploring the effects and his suffering of dementia and Parkinsons. It’s possible I’ll also mix human ashes (my mom’s) into these paintings. Finally, I started a business called ArtandMed.com last year, and in 2012 I’ll continue to present lectures to health providers and patient groups about art and medicine.
My hopes for 2011 were big. At the end of 2010, my boyfriend and I began subleasing a retail space that we turned into an art gallery/portrait studio. I was really excited that it would allow me to reduce the number of art fairs that I was doing, help my boyfriend build his new photography business, bring in new customers and start moving in a new direction.
Long story short, after a long winter that came with huge snow plowing bills, light rail construction in the area that kept people away, crime on the rise in the neighborhood, and not being able to keep regular hours because of my schedule, I came to the conclusion that getting into a retail space was a huge burden that came with a big lesson. I realized that I was continuing to fall back on the safe decisions of more of the same (though it took on a different form) to avoid the big scary decisions I needed to make to make significant changes to my business. I spent the year spinning my wheels instead of making much progress.
In January, I’m taking a four day mini-retreat to a family cabin to get away and focus on what I really want for my 10th year in business. For 2012 my biggest hope is that I can find a wayto travel more so I can create new artwork which will in turn expand my licensing opportunities. I’d also like to take a bigger step towards doing more corporate art. My resolutions are to ditch the toxic part-time job, stop resisting the really big changes that will take me out of my comfort zone, as well as stop putting off the little things that could make a big difference down the line.
December 25th marks my second year of selling pet portraits on Facebook. I have continued to work with watercolor and acrylic on a daily basis. When not busy with pet portraits I would paint different subjects such as flowers and carousels which are located in three small local galleries. Painting every day is not a chore for me and my love for my art and for animals brings me much support from a vast network of people. It is important to me to share my natural talent with others and to give back as often as I can. My fan page grew to over 7,000 and my sales are steady.
For 2012 my goal is to learn how to create portraits with graphite and color pencil in addition to my paintings. Many people seem to be drawn to the simple elegance of graphite. So, my first free portrait for 2012 is going to be a 8×10 graphite drawing. Fans are eager to see my work progress and they encourage me to continue.
What’s Your Story and Your Vision for the New Year?
Perseverance and Results
Dec 9th
Guest blogger Jacqui Hawk shares how she visualized and created success this year. Through giving and sharing, she received a bounty in return.
By Jacqui Hawk
My blog is full of posts about charities I have supported this year; The Painted Bra Art Project, which went viral on Facebook, Trees for Life in Edinburgh which I also attended and joyfully brought me together with my father whom I recently found after 42 years! Another very special post was “Paying it Forward,” a post about Jack Burke and Joey Middlemiss – two little boys each challenged in different ways, but connected with their courageous hearts and spirit and the paintings I did for each of them.
Many artists feel that charity events are ultimately not a win/win … I appreciate that you have to be selective! The ones I have given to have personally given back to me threefold. Artists could perhaps negotiate a 50/50 split of the silent auction profits if they find themselves doing a lot of fundraisers. The goal is to give quality art and raise a lot of money to achieve these goals. I believe it has to be a fair arrangement.
In January of 2011, I had a clear vision of my success and tried to visualize what that looked like and work towards it. I have been dedicated to painting every day. I get up early and paint for an hour before work and then paint for 2-3 hours in the evening, juggling a full time job at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. Managing my time - life as a Corporate Project Manager has helped me keep on task, stay structured and achieve goals.
I took part in 21 events this year (gallery exhibits, solo shows, and fundraisers) This clearly helped raise awareness for my art. When I google my name now, there are about 30,000,000 more than last year.
I invested in a new website. This is very important I believe. Being one in a sea of thousands on a third party website was not for me. My goal in 2012 is to build my own “shop” on my own site.
I embraced Facebook, and created a Facebook business page where I organized all my paintings for sale, sold, etc. I network with a lot with artists all over the world on Facebook and Twitter, many of whom are becoming great friends. I make sure that I’m very visible in the art world on Facebook, and I am totally inspired by the amazing work I see being created. I make a point to share the work of artists I love; they also do the same for me and so the energy and momentum builds.
I network and collaborate extensively with other artists, especially those whose styles are very different to mine; great things can happen! Because of this, I receive many invitations to join other artists in new gallery opportunities.
An example of this is “Art Reach,” a collaboration between St. Joseph Hospital and six artists to “harness the healing power of art.” I painted a huge 6 x 6 ft canvas in the dark during the terrible October East Coast snow storm by candlelight.
I am a member of several art associations, and this year I became a regular artist member of 263 Art Gallery in Nashua. This gave me a lot more exposure. I intend to widen this net next year. I went through a huge attitude change this year. Every time I felt like giving up because I came away from a show where I sold nothing, it made me dig deeper and deeper and become so much more resilient – and I enjoyed 33 sales this year! You recognize those moments as a ‘turning point’ in your artistic journey. It’s not a race, and success is different for everyone. I intend to pay my art dues, showing up at my easel every day because I love what happens in those magic moments.
Do You Need a Mentor?
Nov 3rd
By Carolyn Edlund
“I’m too shy and lack the confidence to promote my work. I think I need a business partner to help me.”
“Where can I sell my work? I’m not sure where my market is, or how to find it.”
“How can I convince customers that they should buy my art? And that they should buy from me?”
“I’ve got a lot of ideas but am not sure how to go about making them happen.”
“Where can I find funding to make my dream a reality?”
“How does my product line look? Is it saleable? Where am I going wrong?”
These are some of the concerns I hear expressed by artists and craftspeople when they request a consultation. The inspiration and drive to create art is a strong pull, and many of my clients want to make a living doing what they love.
Seminars, webinars, telesummits, and meetings are wonderful motivators. Speakers invite participants to look at new possibilities and concepts. They help inspire creative people to feel great about their businesses, embrace new ideas and become wildly successful.
But what happens when you get back to the studio? How do you translate all that energy and inspiration into reality for your particular business?
This is where “the rubber meets the road.” This is the point at which you plan, set goals and put systems into place to grow and expand. Do you feel confident making this translation? Or do you need personalized input from a mentor?
Mentors provide a huge variety of services to mentees. Conversations vary widely. Does a product line work? Is it big enough, cohesive enough, different enough from the competition? How to market in a way that makes sense and reaches the right potential market. From writing business plans to earning referrals, artists who are entrepreneurs need lots of information.
A mentor can be a friend who is experienced in the business, a member of your guild, a volunteer or a professional coach. Make sure you can work together and feel that the other party has your best interests at heart.
A good mentor will provide the following:
- A personalized approach that addresses your needs specifically.
- An unbiased opinion on your body of work, and a willingness to be honest about what they perceive as working and what needs more development.
- An evaluation of your strengths (you already know your weaknesses).
- An assessment of challenges you have to reach your goals.
- A plan to reach those goals, broken down into steps which are realistic considering your schedule and time needed to complete them.
- Your mentor should ask you to be accountable to them for completing goals you have set. When you run into problems, your mentor will act as a sounding board.
- A “reality check” if you become overwhelmed or feel you are getting off course.
- Encouragement, reinforcement, and ongoing planning to move forward with your business.
In a recent interview about their new book “Starting Your Career as an Artist”, authors Angie Wojak and Stacy Miller state, “Mentors are critical for success. No one does it on their own.” They consider the mentoring relationship, along with being part of a creative community of artists, and regular studio practice, as the basics of a successful art career.
Have you had a mentor? Who inspired you most as you pursued your business as an artist?
Featured Artist Leah Jay
