Josse Painting on Location in the Grand Tetons

This is a re-posting of an old article from 2005 – more relevant than ever….

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. You still have to work hard – but you can work hard at being yourself!

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.

Agnes Martin, “Starlight,” 1963. Watercolor and ink on paper, 8 x 8 in. Private Collection

Curating is an art form in it’s own right. Get it right and your show will be way more spectacular than the sum of the individual works of art. Get it wrong, and your visitors may wander around bewildered, not “get” the art at all, and leave with unhappy faces!

I recall a very memorable experience in 2005 at the opening of the “3 x Abstraction” exhibition at the Drawing Center in New York. Wandering around the show I was immersing myself in the exceptional works of Emma Kunz, Hilma af Klint, and Agnes Martin. At one point though I stood in the center of the main gallery and took a sweeping look around the space. What I saw amazed me – the show looked like a symphony of light in which each painting was a note. It hadn’t just happened that way – it was the result of excellent and creative execution of the curator’s art.

Next time you organize an art event – be it a solo or group show – be sure to take full consideration of the powerful effects of curating. Here are some useful tips to creating a stunning show:

• Plan well in advance. We recommend that you start planning for any art event (even an open studio series) at least 3 months in advance – preferably longer. There are many steps in the process to a great art show and all take time.

• Choose artists and themes carefully. If it’s a group show, choose a fairly small number of artists whose work either compliments or contrasts in a way that makes sense. If there are significant variations in theme you might want to segment the show into different staging areas (just like the rooms of a gallery)

• Think Minimalist – less is more. Ever been to one of those shows where you couldn’t even see any wall-space? Art needs room to breath. The space around the art is crucial to good presentation. I’ve noticed a general trend that the more expensive and exclusive the art the less is generally placed within a given space. Conversely, inexpensive shows often plaster every inch of wall space with art – it looks cheap and doesn’t showcase the work well.

• Visit excellent art exhibitions. Learn from the professionals by going to a significant art exhibition at least once every week. That might be an art museum or a commercial gallery or an open studio. By attending art events regularly you’ll quickly get a feel for the style of curating you would like to model in your show.

• See the big picture. Just as I experienced at the Drawing Center, you too can create a show which is a symphony of light and creativity. My recommendation is to spend time with all the art pieces inside the (actual) exhibition space at least a week in advance of the show. Take some wonderful music, good food, and spend at least 2 days working with the organization of the art. Let each piece speak to you. Keep your heart open and take risks. Don’t get left-brained and analytical. Allow the symphony to unfold….

Enjoy the show – its so amazing and rewarding to see how visitors react to all that creativity you’ve invested!

Twitter Artist

Just as networking with people has ALWAYS been the key to success in any field of business (Remember the old saying NETWORK = NET WORTH), now online social networks like Twitter and Facebook allow you to expand the reach of your networking efforts beyond traditional geographical boundaries. This allows you to be a global networker in your field of interest – great news in a niched interest area like art. But to be successful you need to have a strategy…

Consistently good online content will lead to attention and commercial rewards – and this is just as true for art as any other form of content.

A very simple but effective social marketing strategy is to tell your social networks about new content on your artist website. Invite them to visit your site regularly – and keep your website and blog full of new work and fresh content to keep them coming back.

When you do this, you are achieving three important things:

• You’re bringing real visitors to your website

• This regular flow of traffic can potentially help your search engine Relevance leading to even more visitors

• You’re growing your social network so that even more people will be exposed to your work.

A few things to keep in mind though…

• Social Marketing can help you build a solid brand. The quality of your images, bio, logo, etc on your Facebook and Twitter pages should reflect the direction and inspiration of your art business.

• The quality and content of your posts is really important. If you spam a lot of noisy personal content it’s not going to contribute to branding your art business.

• In our experience with Twitter we’ve noticed that there are three distinct patterns of behavior in Tweeting artists. The first group tends to tweet incessantly and on all manner of topics – very few arts related. Don’t do this! It’s like Junk mail!

The second group is what I call the “twitter arts news feed”. It’s literally like watching a news feed from Reuters in arts related topics. I really don’t like this for two reasons. Firstly – I can get that from my newsreader any time I want. But much more important – the reason I followed you was because I wanted to “get” you as an artist. I want to know what you do and what inspires you. I want to know when you have interesting art stuff happening that I can go look at or participate in!

The third group sends out tweets once or twice a day that draw attention to something art-related they are doing or something relevant or inspiring happening elsewhere. The headlines are interesting and primarily arts-related. This is a much better plan!

Inspirational quotes are great too. But don’t forget that we want to be inspired by YOUR art as well as all those great old masters and sages!

More things to keep in mind:

• You are judged by the company you choose to keep! As an artist that means that you should follow and join at least some online groups associated with the arts. If all your followers are promoters of online dating sites – how will that look?

• Try to connect with Arts Professionals as well as other artists. It’s a lot of fun to connect with other artists all over the world and this is very valid use of social networking – and it will bring results too. But remember to also put your Social Marketing hat on and attract arts organizations, galleries, collectors, and other potential buyers of art.

• Keep your artist image in mind at all times. That doesn’t mean be boring – it means be authentic and build your artist brand!

One final and very important point is to maintain some boundaries between online social networking time and art studio time. The Internet is like fire – an excellent servant but a poor master! Make sure that it is not taking your attention away from your true calling with your amazing artistic creative process. And whatever you do, don’t forget to also foster the communities in which you participate with live humans face to face!

Waiting….Waiting… Waiting….. That’s the sound of the wheels in my brain spinning around waiting while a typical flash-based site to load in my browser. And I’m on a 3MB DSL connection so its not a network problem. Those loading images are really cool but after a while I start to get really impatient to see some actual content. And just when I thought it was almost there then I discover there’s two more sections of the page that still have not loaded.

Think about this from an art-buyer’s perspective. Unless they know that you have something really special – why are they going to wait around while your website loads? And then when they click through to your gallery section will they be prepared to wait all over again while that loads? Will they wait or will they get impatient and move on to the next artist’s website? Are you willing to take that risk – every day?

Attention spans are getting shorter, not longer. Life is getting more competitive. In our experience, all the high quality images, content, and design in the world don’t mean a thing if a website doesn’t load in the twinkle on an eye.

Search Engine Visibility: Some companies that promote Flash-based websites refer to them as being “Search Engine Friendly”. But the reality is that a typical search engine spider can’t read most of the content on a flash-based page.

So, I guess by “Search Engine Friendly” they mean that you can include page titles and some Keyword and description tags on the site. But how will a search engine react to a site which appears (to it) to have no actual page content? Here is what Google says in their “Webmaster Guidelines”:

“If fancy features such as JavaScript, cookies, session IDs, frames, DHTML, or Flash keep you from seeing all of your site in a text browser, then search engine spiders may have trouble crawling your site.”

Contrary to some popular thought you can’t just rely on back-links for SEO – A website has to also have intelligent placement and density of appropriate keywords throughout its content. If you’re happy just to tell people about your site and use social networking then no matter – as long as you realize you may be throwing away 50% or more of your potential qualified website traffic by not taking SEO seriously.

Distraction Doesn’t Sell – Art Website Rule #1 – An artist’s website should not distract from the art. It should draw attention to the work, not away from it. Many (although not all) of the Flash-based sites I’ve seen tend to be self conscious and draw attention to the website rather than to the art and the artist. That might be ok for some artists – but if you’re trying to make a living from your work it’s a no-no.

In conclusion I’d simply remind you of one important point – A good art website should be focused on making the experience of visiting your work a pleasure for a potential buyer or arts professional. So, rather than thinking about how it looks to you – try to look at it from the customer’s viewpoint. That’s just basic good marketing.

Flash is a wonderful technology that can create stunning effects in a website. But our viewpoint is that it should be used primarily for effects in specific sections of the website rather than as the basis for the whole design. That way you get a fast-loading, great-looking art website that stays elegantly in the background and focuses attention on the work and the artist. Just like a great gallery space!

Please feel free to post your thoughts on this. If you have a flash-based site and it’s working well for you commercially I’d love to hear your comments.

“Can I make it as a visual artist without having a Twitter and Facebook account? Not to mention Linkedin, MySpace, FriendFeed, Flickr and on and on.”

The best way to characterize Barney’s answer is: “Yes, but….”

“In order of importance, I would start with a good Web site that can professionally promote and properly present you and your work. Follow that with a blog and then let those things be the platform to launch into Twitter and Facebook, which can effectively be used to drive traffic to your site and blog. There’s obviously more to it than that, but this is a good overview of how to get started using Web 2.0 to promote your art career.”

We agree wholeheartedly. Social networking provides an excellent framework for online promotion. But it only adds value when there is a “website that can professionally promote and properly present you and your work” to bring all those followers back to.

Ultimately it is always about the art – and it has to look great.

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From: John Jantsch (Duct Tape Marketing)

Jul 16, 2009 – There are dozens of sites and services set-up to help you promote events such as webinars, seminar, workshops, grand openings and product launches. While these tools are indeed online you can get benefit employing them for local offline events as well.

Use MeetUp and create a group surrounding your event – this might turn into something very valuable to do on an ongoing basis and create a nice way for you to build a local community.

Publish your event to some of the bigger online events calendars such as Yahoo’s Upcoming or Eventful. These sites have geography built in and help promote events that are near users.

Create multiple Facebook pages or twitter accounts just for the event and post relevant information by building local followings through twitter search and Facebook Groups.

Do a series of interviews with participants in the event or to tease out bits of content that will be presented. Record these interviews as postcasts and post them on your event pages, submit to iTunes and offer them to others to run on their sites. Just make sure it’s great content.

Upload transcripts from the interviews or slides you intend to present to sites such as DocStoc, Scribd, and Slideshare.

Include quick videos and photos of before, during and after the event and host on YouTube and Flickr for added exposure.

Submit press releases before, during and after the event to sites such as PR Web and PitchEngine. (Note from Daniel: These will most likely be pay-for services)

Cross post as much information from all of this activity to all of your social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and twitter as all allow links to videos, audios and photos.

The short-term impact of working a system like this to promote an event or launch is greater exposure and hopefully greater participation, but the long term impact for future events may be the real payoff. As you get better at this kind of social media routine, you’ll find momentum building through search engine traffic too.

Ceres Gallery, New York Deadline: December 31, 2009

From re-title.com:

Ceres Gallery, a not-for-profit program of the New York Feminist Art Institute and dedicated to the promotion of women in the arts, invites women visual artists to apply for a complimentary two-year gallery membership culminating in a four-week solo exhibition at our premiere 2000+ sq. ft. Chelsea space. Women artists of all media except video, living anywhere in the United States and Canada will be considered. Accepted artists will enjoy all the benefits of Ceres membership which includes a four-week solo exhibition, at least one four-week group exhibition and other group exhibition opportunities. Interested applicants please visit http://is.gd/1zVWS

Deep in the forest away from the grid, amongst giant trees, fast flowing water, mountain air, and sleeping close to the earth my whole physical, emotional, and mental being-ness starts to normalize and re-train with the natural rhythms of nature. I feel a natural sense of well-being and happiness for no particular reason and I wonder why I bother with many of the things that concern me in the city. Aches and stress in my body have left within a couple of days and I’m waking up with happy, visionary, creative thoughts and feelings and an overwhelming desire to live my life fully.

All this in just a few short days in the forest….

Many great artists chose to spend large amounts of their time in nature – whether in the crispness and beauty of the mountains, the serene ocean landscapes, or the harsh but beautiful red deserts. The works that came from those places are almost invariably stunning – because the artist was able to connect with the powerful primal forces of nature. There are so many examples but check out any of Georgia Okeeffe’s desert paintings or the works of the Hudson River School if you need some inspiration.

Today’s art marketing tip is a simple piece of advice:

If you want to create more stunning and truly original art which will wow art collectors – spend regular amounts of time in the wilds of nature. It could be as simple as lying on a beach when you have a spare hour – or walking in state or national parks. Maybe sitting on a rock in the desert with a cup of tea and a good book for a few hours. Ideally, try to take a few days away if you can so that you can really wind down and allow the powerful forces that created you to speak. Bring this into your work and see where it takes you…..

Albert Bierstadt: Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California 1868

Inglewood Open Studios Artwalk

In Parts 1 & 2 we discussed how to prepare and stage the event. Today it’s time for….

Part 3 – After the Open Studio is Over

Relax and Have a Drink
You deserve it! Talk with your friends and find out what worked well and what could be improved. Take notes and make those changes to your next event.

Follow Up
You’ve just completed phase 1 of a multi-phase selling process. Make sure you follow-up:

- Send Thank you cards to all your visitors
- Follow-up by phone with potential buyers
- Call and personally thank any arts professionals who visited your event

Update Your Mailing List
The new contacts who signed your guestbook might be the most valuable result of your open studio – treat them like gold! Add their names to your mailing list and be sure to invite them to future events and keep them informed of your latest work.

Plan Your Next Event
No time to lose! Start planning your next event. You can use the same process we outlined here but updated based on your own experience.

Go Create
Marketing without great art behind it is just a big bag of wind. Go create masterpieces for a while so that you have something truly authentic to show next time!