Marketing your Art--part 8--two thoughts...
This one will be short, but both concepts are very important to me, and I hope they help you, too. Neither is specifically selling-oriented, but both add a lot to our satisfaction in what we do. Both enhance and enable creativity, too, I think.
First--do what you can live with. And even more than that, do what you love. Remember what Joseph Campbell said--"follow your bliss." Making art may not always make me blissful--God knows sometimes it's frustrating and tiring!--it IS what I want to do with the rest of my life. I do it to earn my living, I do it for fun, I do it to relax, to cope, to celebrate, to focus. It's how I respond to the moments of my life.
Vassmer's Road, Winter
Paint what you care about. Create what you love. It can't help but shine through your work, and someone will respond in kind. At a recent art crawl, someone walked up to me with one of my large framed pieces and his checkbook in hand...and I was delighted, because it was one that I loved doing. It was the painting above, done on a country road I visit and paint often. (You can click on the image to see notes on how I worked, on my Flickr album.)
If you love landscape, florals, horses, people--concentrate on those things. Get at the heart of them. Explore them fully. LOVE them, and let that show. Paint what you feel deeply about-even if it’s painful. You will find an audience.
Doing what I love has allowed me to write and illustrate books like Creating Nature in Watercolor, below, and I'm happy to say it's found a responsive audience. I've gotten lots of comments from people who tell me how they love doing just this.
Creating Nature in Watercolor: An Artist's Guide
Click on the link, above, to look inside the book, if you like--I can't link on LiveJournal except through a text link, sorry!
This is not just about making art, of course. If you're a songwriter, write what moves you, what you're all about. If you're a poet, share your deepest feelings, or your humor, or insights. Writers are often told to write what you know. This doesn't necessarily mean the mundane details of everyday life, but what's in your soul.
And if commissions make your stomach hurt (they do mine) try to keep them to a minimum. The money's nice, sure, and it can help pay the bills--we ALL have to do work we're not wild about from time to time--but if you're miserable? Not worth it. Find another way.
The other important thought involves the most important advice anyone ever gave me. “Pass it on. Help someone else along the way.”
When I was very young, I was trying desperately to get a job in art. I had no experience so couldn't get hired, and couldn't get experience without a job-the classic Catch-22. Finally a very kind gentleman in an advertising agency told me that although they had no openings at that time, he’d help me learn the ropes, the lingo, the procedures and tricks-and then told me I could say I had "worked with" his agency,. (Which technically I guess I had--just not paid..)
I was overwhelmed by his kindness, and when I asked what I could do in return, he simply said "pass it on." I have, whenever I've gotten the opportunity. And it’s paid off a thousandfold throughout my life-as did his kindness to me, like ripples in a pond.
First--do what you can live with. And even more than that, do what you love. Remember what Joseph Campbell said--"follow your bliss." Making art may not always make me blissful--God knows sometimes it's frustrating and tiring!--it IS what I want to do with the rest of my life. I do it to earn my living, I do it for fun, I do it to relax, to cope, to celebrate, to focus. It's how I respond to the moments of my life.
Vassmer's Road, Winter
Paint what you care about. Create what you love. It can't help but shine through your work, and someone will respond in kind. At a recent art crawl, someone walked up to me with one of my large framed pieces and his checkbook in hand...and I was delighted, because it was one that I loved doing. It was the painting above, done on a country road I visit and paint often. (You can click on the image to see notes on how I worked, on my Flickr album.)
If you love landscape, florals, horses, people--concentrate on those things. Get at the heart of them. Explore them fully. LOVE them, and let that show. Paint what you feel deeply about-even if it’s painful. You will find an audience.
Doing what I love has allowed me to write and illustrate books like Creating Nature in Watercolor, below, and I'm happy to say it's found a responsive audience. I've gotten lots of comments from people who tell me how they love doing just this.
Creating Nature in Watercolor: An Artist's Guide
Click on the link, above, to look inside the book, if you like--I can't link on LiveJournal except through a text link, sorry!
This is not just about making art, of course. If you're a songwriter, write what moves you, what you're all about. If you're a poet, share your deepest feelings, or your humor, or insights. Writers are often told to write what you know. This doesn't necessarily mean the mundane details of everyday life, but what's in your soul.
And if commissions make your stomach hurt (they do mine) try to keep them to a minimum. The money's nice, sure, and it can help pay the bills--we ALL have to do work we're not wild about from time to time--but if you're miserable? Not worth it. Find another way.
The other important thought involves the most important advice anyone ever gave me. “Pass it on. Help someone else along the way.”
When I was very young, I was trying desperately to get a job in art. I had no experience so couldn't get hired, and couldn't get experience without a job-the classic Catch-22. Finally a very kind gentleman in an advertising agency told me that although they had no openings at that time, he’d help me learn the ropes, the lingo, the procedures and tricks-and then told me I could say I had "worked with" his agency,. (Which technically I guess I had--just not paid..)
I was overwhelmed by his kindness, and when I asked what I could do in return, he simply said "pass it on." I have, whenever I've gotten the opportunity. And it’s paid off a thousandfold throughout my life-as did his kindness to me, like ripples in a pond.