Art Marketing Secrets

Cindy Sherman - Art Quote of The Week

I was supporting myself, but nothing like the guy painters, as I refer to them. I always resented that actually.. we were all getting the same amount of press, but they were going gangbusters with sales.

About Cindy Sherman....

By turning the camera on herself, Cindy Sherman has built a name as one of the most respected photographers of the late twentieth century. Although, the majority of her photographs are pictures of her, however, these photographs are most definitely not self-portraits. Rather, Sherman uses herself as a vehicle for commentary on a variety of issues of the modern world: the role of the woman, the role of the artist and many more. Read more here

Technorati Tags: art, art marketing, selling art

Postcards From Texas - Creative Art Marketing from L.G. Lemons

Larry Lemons emailed us this very imaginative art marketing idea. This is a great example of how to use your creativity to enjoy success with selling art. Thanks Larry!

We welcome great art marketing ideas from artists - send us your best art marketing ideas and we'll publish them on Art Marketing Secrets with a link back to your website. But now - read on and enjoy Postcards From Texas!

In addition to the larger paintings that I create for galleries, shows/festivals, and commissions that often take a few weeks to complete, each week I paint a small 6" x 8" original on a canvas panel and e-mail it out to several hundred folks all around the country who have expressed a desire to follow my career. I call this series of small paintings "Postcards from Texas." One of the key features is that the painting is inserted in the e-mail, not attached as a download. I believe this increases the "wow" factor with an immediate reaction to the artwork when the e-mail is opened. I use a special bold type with the words Postcards from Texas (A Painting A Week) written above the image. I try to achieve a consistent professional look so that the recipient will get used to a format that is pleasant and predictable.

This program allows me to not only offer the painting for sale, but I also use the opportunity to share a little of my "homespun" philosophy and include career updates and upcoming show schedule. It has been very well received with the majority of the paintings selling within a few days after they are introduced. In addition, several commissions have resulted from this weekly contact. When I go to shows now, in order to expand my subscriber list, I make a special effort to tell anyone who expresses any interest in my art about my weekly paintings. My "Postcards from Texas" have become a substantial part of my art income and a creative and enjoyable way of letting many folks know that I'm getting out there with my work. To date, I have about 600 subscribers and many tell me that they forward them to their family and friends. I take the unsold paintings to art show/festivals which gives me an added opportunity to talk about them and make a sale.

One note of caution is to know the bulk e-mail policy of your internet service provider to avoid being labeled as a spammer. For me the answer was to group my e-mail addresses in groups of no more than 50 at a time. I send the e-mail to myself and blind copy it to each group of 50 to protect their e-mail privacy. I got the idea from an artist friend that I met a couple years ago who was doing a daily painting and offering it on ebay. If you have more interest in knowing my procedure, I'd be happy to share the mechanics with you. You may also wish to look up the Daily Painters website, as well.

Larry G. Lemons
www.ATexasStateOfMind.com

Thanks Larry!

Technorati Tags: art marketing, art resources, selling art

Big Wave Surfing, how much do you love your work as an artist?

I'm a fan of big-wave surfing. One winter I was on a painting trip in Oahu, when I went for a drive to the pipeline to watch some of the big wave surfers catch some big ones. That day the waves were enormous and only about six surfers were out. Scores of surfers and tourists sat on the shore and watched in awe at these tiny specks, dwarfed by massive crashing waves as high as buildings, and marveled at the courage of man.

Last week was the Mavericks Surf contest in Half Moon Bay and today the elite of the world surfers wait on call, for the go ahead for Eddie Aikau invitational big wave surf event at the Pipeline in Hawaii, for the waves to meet the 40 foot requirement. The New York Times ran an article on the preparation these surfers put into their craft. As well as being superb athletes they spend hours studying weather patterns, ocean currents and whatever it takes to understand the movement of the ocean. Such painstaking preparation can mean the difference between life and death. With waves over 50 foot high there is no room for error.

I paint on location. The first thing I do when I arrive in a beautiful place such as Hawaii is spend a few days just looking at the ocean. Studying it's waves, it's light, it's energy until I feel I have reached an understanding of the special gifts that the location has to offer. This is absolutely vital if you want to capture the spirit of a place on the canvas.

Art is like surfing. You have to love it and be willing to do whatever it takes to master your craft. You have to have a big vision and you have to have a big passion for the vision that you want to share with the world. You have to be willing to whatever it takes to get it out in the world. I can think of no more noble calling than to help up a torch for what is great and beautiful and light. The following picture is one of the great surfing locations on Maui. I painted it because when I watch Big Wave surfers I am transported into a place that reflects the courage and grace of the human spirit, dancing with the enormous power of Nature. A great piece of art like Van Gogh's "Starry Night" or one of Turners paintings does the same thing for me. So how about you, what inspires the arti spirit for you?

Big Wave by Josse Ford.

Technorati Tags: art, art marketing, artists, Hawaiian, ocean

Don't Sell Out!! - Find Artistic Success through Context

This is a simple, yet often overlooked aspect of selling art in our modern age: Context.

In our hearts, most of us yearn to be "found" or "recognized" by a kingmaker in the art world - someone with the cachet to be able to make us a millionaire simply by whispering our name to an elite few collectors.

This does actually happen for some artists. For many of us though, life as an artist is something of a struggle between the desire to be true to our artistic calling and the need to create enough income to have the privilege of being a citizen of planet earth. We don't want to "modify" our art to suit the market - because then we would no longer be artists - maybe craftspeople - but not artists.

So - what to do??

Many possibilities actually - but here is one to think about. Don't modify your art - but find a context which allows it to be better understood by collectors and the general public.

For example, if you paint beautiful landscapes you might be able to align with movements concerned with saving the environment. Your next show could be promoted as an environmental awareness event with a percentage of sales donated to a relevant charity. And the wonderful thing is that through your art you will actually be raising environmental awareness.

Another context which I have often noticed used - especially by photographers - is the desire of Americans to visit beautiful locations in Europe - especially in The Mediterranean area. The next best thing to actually going there is to have a beautiful photograph or painting in their home.

Another related context is aligned with helping travelers relive their experience in an exotic location - think of how many pieces of art are shipped home from Hawaii or the Caribbean so that Mr and Mrs Tourist can remember the wonderful experiences they had there. And many of those works of art are truly amazing and original pieces.

Marketing art successfully does not mean that you have to modify your work or your style. Take a look at the dominant themes that are of major interest in the public eye - and then find one or more that line up with your art. After that, you are only limited by your imagination.

Technorati Tags: art, art collectors, art marketing, art sales, selling art

Be Yourself = Artistic Success

This is a re-posting of an old article - more relevant than ever!
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For many of us, especially when we are establishing our art careers it's tempting to want to appeal to every buyer who might have cash in their pockets or a healthy credit card limit. That might bring in some fast dollars but long term you really want to attract collectors who you can build a relationship with. What does that mean and how do you do it?

In my experience, the most important factor is very simple: BE YOURSELF! You might be tempted to project an image of how you think art buyers want to see you. This is a good plan with basic issues like dressing well and having a positive attitude. Beyond that though, if you pretend to be anything other than yourself, you'll attract clients who relate to that "other you" you have created. Over time, you'll get tired of acting out a role that isn't you and this will really waste a lot of your precious artistic energy and leave you feeling quite confused.

Just being yourself you will attract clients who genuinely like the real you. You'll enjoy working with them and very likely establish a long term business and artistic relationship.

On the same subject, in case you haven't realized it yet, you and your art are inseparable - your art reflects much of who you are. Being yourself with clients can be very powerful because the focus and energy in your art are congruent with your beingness and personality. So, the collector can get a very clear image of you and your work - rather than one where the focus and underlying themes are moving in different directions.

Its like the old analogy of the horses pulling the chariot: If the horses are going in different directions the chariot goes nowhere. If, on the other hand the horses gallop in the same direction, the chariot moves effortlessly towards its goal.

Technorati Tags: art collectors, art marketing, art sales, selling art, spiritual art

Sunday Art Quote - Paul Gauguin

When all is said and done, success as an artist has its foundation in authenticity. All the fanciest marketing efforts are on shaky ground unless the artist understands his or her voice. I thought the following quote from Paul Gauguin captured the deep resonance of his true being:

“The flat sound of my wooden clogs on the cobblestones, deep, hollow and powerful, is the note I seek in my painting”

Paul Gauguin

Look at his picture - you can feel the cobblestones, wooden clogs, and the deep and powerful sensations he refers to. An artist authentic and aligned with his Soul's purpose.

So - Are you being authentic in your art??

Technorati Tags: art, art marketing, art techniques, artist websites, selling art, spiritual art

$50,000 in grants for artists

A new charity, United States Artists, will give $50,000 grants to 50 artists. - New York Times:
New Charity to Start Plan for $50,000 Artists’ Grants

A new charity, United States Artists, will announce today an ambitious plan to provide support to working artists, starting with a grant program that will be one of the most generous in existence.

Fifty artists working in a wide variety of disciplines and at various career stages will receive $50,000 each, no strings attached. The first recipients will be announced on Dec. 4.

However, to be eligible for a grant you will need to be nominated.

"Each year, nominations are made by an anonymous group of arts leaders, critics, scholars, and artists chosen by USA. Nominators do not know one another. There identities shall remain secret.

Nominators are asked to submit names of artists they believe show an extraordinary commitment to their craft. Artists at any stage of career development may be nominated. To be considered for fellowships, artists must be 21 years of age or older and U.S. citizens or legal residents in any U.S. state. Artists must have the following:

• Expert artistic skills
• Received artistic education or training (formal or informal)
• Attempted to derive income from those skills
• Been actively engaged in creating artwork and presenting it to the public."

For further information visit United States Artists.

Technorati Tags: art opportunities, artists, emerging artists, artist grants

Sunday Art Quote: E.M. Forster on Destiny

Think on this as you wake up and smell the coffee this morning......

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. .......E.M. Forster

Have you let go of the life you have planned? Try it - there may be a surprise waiting for you.

E.M. Forster (1879-1970) was an english author best known for his novels, "Howards End", "Where Angels Fear To Tread", and "A Passage to India".

Technorati Tags: art, art marketing, writing

New uses for the hipster pda

Mao gets things done,
originally uploaded by davekellam.

Anyone been using a hipster PDA to gather their creative ideas? Thought this was very cute!!

Technorati Tags: art, artists, hipster

This Artist Is A Horse!

If you're ever wondered if you need a MFA, its good to be reminded that talent and inspiration can still win the day. With that in mind, we'd like you to meet Cholla.

What is special about Cholla? Well its simple - Cholla is a horse artist!!

A Mustang/Quarter Horse, Cholla was born in the spring of 1986. He started painting in the spring of 2004 and since then his art has been featured in several galleries including:

Alexandratos Gallery - Reno, Nevada
Art Encounter Gallery - Las Vegas, Nevada
"Visions of Johanna" - Albany, New York
Welcome Grant Gallery - Virginia City, Nevada

Cholla is also featured in a story in "Chicken Soup For The Horse Lovers Soul II". You can find more details on his website: http://www.artistisahorse.com/

Technorati Tags: art, art marketing, art sales, selling art

A good artist website portfolio will make you sales!!

How many of you artists sell your work from your websites? I have found my portfolio website www.josseford.com an excellent tool for selling prints as well as originals. Usually patrons have already been exposed to my work through an art show or studio show. Sometimes years later then will end up using my website a bit like an on-line catalogue to buy more originals or limited edition art prints. Just tonight I had a customer I had met a studio show call up and order another limited art print that she saw on my website.

• Do you even have an artist's website?
• When was the last time you updated your artist website? Does it reflect your best work?
• If you do have a website, does it reflect the work of a professional, high-end artist or does it look like your Cousin Joe designed it in his spare time, as a personal favor or to try out his web coding skills?
• Does your artist statement, bio, resume reflect the well-crafted words of a committed professional.

If you don't have a website or your website could do with a bit of a make over check out Beautiful Artist Websites. A small boutique web design firm they focus on designing a website that showcases your work as if in a high end gallery.

Here's some of their work:

www.brucefuller.com

www.willobalfrey.com

www.jenniferneal.net

Technorati Tags: art sales, artist web design

A Call To All Artists

Here's a call to action from Nietzsche:

"We, the new, the nameless, the hard-to-understand, we firstlings of a yet untried future - we require for a new end also a new means, namely, a new healthiness, stronger, sharper, tougher, bolder, and merrier than any healthiness hitherto. He whose soul longs to experience the whole range of hitherto recognized values and desirabilities, and to circumnavigate all the coasts of this ideal "Mediterranean Sea" who, from the adventures of his most personal experience, wants to know how it feels to be a conqueror and discoverer of the ideal - as likewise how it is with the artist, the saint, the legislator, the sage, the scholar, the devotee, the prophet, and the godly Nonconformist of the old style: __ requires one thing above all for that purpose, great healthiness - such healthiness as one not only possesses, but also constantly acquires and must acquire, because one continually sacrifices it again, and must sacrifice it! __ And now, after having being long on the way in this fashion, we Argonauts of the Ideal, who are more courageous perhaps than prudent, and often enough shipwrecked and brought to grief, nevertheless, as said above, healthier than people would like to admit, dangerously healthy, always healthy again, __ it would seem, as if in recompense for it all, that we still have an undiscovered country before us, the boundaries of which no one has yet seen, a beyond to all countries and corners of the ideal known hitherto, a world so over-rich in the beautiful, the strange, the questionable, the frightful, and the divine, that our curiosity as well as our thirst for the possession thereof, have got out of hand __ alas! that nothing will any longer satisfy us!
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Joyful Wisdom

Technorati Tags: art, artists, journeys, ocean, spiritual art

Alfred Steiglitz - The Eloquent Eye

I'm fascinated by the artists and arts professionals who were there at those key turning points in history to define the new directions for art.

One who had profound influence on defining art in America was Alfred Steiglitz. Like Theo Van Gogh before him, this giant of a man and his influence on art and artists earlier this century remains essentially unknown to many. Artist and Arts professional in one being, he nurtured the talents of many young artists to create the new American art of this century.

Alfred Steiglitz: The Terminal, 1892

I recently came across a really excellent documentary of Steiglitz's life and work: "Alfred Steiglitz - The Eloquent Eye". I strongly recommend that you see it to learn more about this great man, his strengths, achievements, and all his human challenges too.

Here is a review of the documentary by Nicholas Croft:

This 90 minute American Masters documentary chronicles the journey of photographer Alfred Stieglitz, whose life closely parallels the birth of the Modernist Art movement within American culture. The story begins in late 1880's Berlin, with Stieglitz ending his studies as a mechanical engineering student to take up intensive self study in the then new medium of photography. With an allowance from his supportive father, he traveled to Austria and Italy making many early photographs.

In 1893, we find Stieglitz in New York City, where he begins his struggle to help make the practice of photography become recognized as a serious form of artistic expression. By 1902, along with a group of accomplished photographers, he formed an organization called the Photo Secession. Their highly coveted publication, "Camera Work", was propagated throughout the city by word of mouth.

From 1902 to 1907, Stieglitz championed the work of other photographers, rather than his own work, in a new gallery at 291 5th avenue. Gradually, the gallery shows began to include works of new painters from Europe, in addition to those first works of the New York photographers. An early exhibit of the work of Picasso at "291" in 1911, was Picasso's first one-man show in the United States.

With the American involvement in World War I during 1917, Gallery 291 closed and the publication of "Camera Work" ceased. Stieglitz's correspondence with painter Georgia O'Keeffe helped to sustain him through these emotionally difficult years of social isolation. In 1922, O'Keefe and Stieglitz were married. Stieglitz made approximately 300 intimate portraits of O'Keeffe around this time, creating one of the first deeply devotional photographic portrait series ever attempted.

With the advent of the great depression, Stieglitz's anarchist sensibilities began to clash with the collectivist mood of the time. This led to a body of profoundly elegiac portraits of New York City, completed during the later years of his life. In 1937, Stieglitz laid down his camera, abandoning further photography. He died during the year 1946.

This documentary details the work of an astonishing range of visual artists and writers whose lives were intertwined with the life of Alfred Stieglitz. It allows each artist to "speak the truth as they see it" and will make a welcome addition to any comprehensive study on the history of modern art.

You can pick this DVD up from Amazon or rent it from Netflix if you are a member. It really is worth seeing to understand more about how today's art world came to be.

Technorati Tags: art, art collectors, art marketing, art resources, art sales, artist websites, selling art, spiritual art

Andrea Zittel at the Whitney

Recently I attended a panel at the Whitney curated by Andrea Zittel. Andrea and her friends who live at Joshua Tree talked about their influences and experiences on building community in the context of art. Here's what the Whitney had to say about the event:
"Well known for her research and design of domestic and external environments, Andrea Zittel creates experimental models for contemporary life, or what she calls "systems for living." Her current project, the desert studio and home A-Z West in Joshua Tree, California, explores all aspects of the everyday, from home furniture and house guests to food and clothing, as part of her investigation into the contours of human nature and human needs. One such A-Z project, Wagon Stations, comprises mobile living stations customized by individuals invited to join Zittel's desert community; several will be on view beginning February 9 at the Whitney Museum at Altria."

I've always liked Andrea Zittel. I first saw her work at the Whitney where she had a film on her daily routine as an artist at Joshua Tree. I appreciated it because the film had a great sense of humor. And then, of course, there's the desert. As Andrea herself has to say of the desert: "After living in the desert for six years, I have come to believe that most of us are drawn here because each of us is looking for some version of personal freedom." The A-Z wagons represent small, portable structures, customized by each artist, an ode to personal freedom. Traveling through the desert in my RV, painting, I can totally relate to the need for a space of one's own, even better if we can take it with us on our art journeys.

A Wagon in It's Native Environment

A Wagon Station from the installation at the Whitney, Altria

The panel itself meandered across a lot of different territories, from activist 60s art to camping out in a large tent in the middle of the Freize Art Fair, in London. What struck me, however, was just how much fun these artists were having being artists. They seemed to live in a world so far removed from our ordinary world of "getting ahead" and commercial considerations. How refreshing! This is what it must be like to live fully in the artist archetype, not an small pokey garret, starving but noble, but in a world of childlike wonder, innocence, creating magnificent worlds of your own choosing, without regard to whether of not anyone else gets it. I can't remember the last time I felt like that - probably the last time I was out in the desert.

Further thoughts from "The Artist's Mentor":
"In one of his letters from Tahiti, Gaugin had written that he felt he had to go back beyond the horses of the Parthenon, back to the rocking-horse of his childhood. It is easy to smile at this preoccupation of modern artists with the simple and the childlike, and yet it should not be hard to understand it. For artists feel that this directness and simplicity is the one thing that cannot be learnt. Every other trick of the trade can be acquired. Every effect becomes easy to imitate after it has been shown that it can be done. Many artists feel that the museums and exhibitions are full of works of such amazing facility and skill that nothing is gained by continuing along those lines; that they are in danger of losing their souls and becoming slick manufacturers of paintings or sculptures unless they become as little children.
-- E.H. Gombrich

"The Artist's Mentor : Inspiration from the World's Most Creative Minds" (Ian Jackman)

Technorati Tags: art, artists, culture, desert, journeys, women

Jetlag and The Love of Art

I’m traveling in Berlin at the moment. I arrived yesterday from New York, and last night I was very tired and jetlagged and could not sleep.

If you’ve never experienced it (jetlag), you are truly blessed. If you have, then you know how difficult it can be to stay in balance and some of the challenging thought forms that can come up. In my case I was feeling very anxious about whether I had achieved my purpose in this life. It was a very stressful feeling – in my slightly out of balance state, the thought of possibly having wasted a precious life was almost unbearable.  

And then I thought about art. I thought about my love of curating, and the amazing feeling when you open an exhibition and people experience the symphony of art. I remembered how it feels to see someone truly connect with a painting or sculpture. I remembered the great joy of being in the presence of a true artist at work:  To me, they are the navigators of the invisible worlds who bring back their journeys and create windows so that others can share the experience.

As I relaxed into these feelings, I realized that no lifetime could ever be wasted for me as long as I had my attention on art. It has nothing to do with fame, or fortune, or even success. Just simply immersing in the flow of the great river of art, wherever it may lead me is what it’s about.   

Today I awoke rested and happy. I still did not get enough sleep, but I felt very alive with the realization I had that art is so important to me. And though I did not go to any galleries or exhibits, I did enjoy a lot of very amazing Berlin grafitti as I was walking some of the streets. Suddenly life is deliciously full of happiness and purpose!