Archive for February, 2010

 

This is so different from the one other show we did, way back about 14 years ago. We didn’t have a clue – just put out art pieces and wondered why no one bought anything. Much more thought went into next weekend: types of items (lots of little, impulse buys), some small fabric pieces, stationery, larger fiber pieces, digital art, clay pots, water colors, semi-precious jewelry, and books. Really do have something for everyone. We’ve got change worked out, schedules worked out, displays worked out…I do think we are ready.

Pima Cimmunity College Northwest (7600 North Shannon, Tucson), Saturday and Sunday if you can make it!

And from the email this past week, a few tips on marketing….

• Set aside a specific day and time each week for marketing.

• Create a quiet office space for your business.

• Start collecting names for your mailing list.

• Call five to 10 art world professionals each week.

• Spend one day visiting local galleries.

• Subscribe to an art publication for one year and read it.

• Enter a competition.

• Sponsor a community event.

• Host a studio party.

• Donate time to some charity. Let people know you are an artist.

• Barter your art for services.

• Support your statewide arts organization by buying an art license plate with your art-business name on it.

• Try to get an interview on your local radio station.

• What interior designer could you take to lunch?

• To what local business could you lease your artwork?

• In what cafe could you hang your paintings?

• Give out coupons with a Valentine’s Day e-mail blast.

• What special offer could you make on a postcard to your clients?

• What storyline can you create for the local art writer?

• What previous client would be able to give you a useful referral?
 
• What sign could you put on your car to advertise your work?

• What bumper sticker could you create to give to your clients?
 
• Create an e-mail newsletter to send to clients.

• How much would it cost to put up a billboard at the entrance to town?
 
• Create an unusual, catchy name for your new group of paintings.
 
• Apply to the next local art fair.

• Start saying, “I am an artist.”
 
• Provide a specialized service that no other artist provides.

• Get a phone number that spells out something (or figure out what your current one spells).
.
• Be friendly with a competitor.

• Place your artwork in model home displays.
 
• Work with a local chapter of American Society of Interior Designers—give a talk at one of their meetings.

• Contact your local International Furnishings and Design Association chapter affiliation.
 
• Place a display of your work at the local library, associated with a talk you will give.

• Find a Realtor’s office that will let you exhibit. Offer agents a commission on sales.

• Create a gift certificate form.

• Check out your local doctor, veterinarian, optometrist, emergency room, hospital, medical facilities office. These venues  often do have a budget for “decoration.” If they are not in the position to buy, offer a lease option.

• Smile at everyone today.

This is from artmarketing.com, with their book Art Marketing 101. I need to review this list on a regular basis, as I try to build my business. But at the same time, I have to remind myself that I already have a full-time jub teaching, so I have to be judicious in my time. I’m interested in hearing from you – which ones have you tried that really work?

On the way to the chiropractor’s yesterday, there was this beautiful tree in bloom with all these gorgeous white blossoms. No idea what the tree is, but it reminds me of the ornamental pear trees in Maryland, that would always signal spring was finally here. Well, this is the desert – white trees, genista in bloom, and African daisies started in many yards.

One of the joys of the new camera is the ability to snap a pic whenever I want to – like this tree. Since I haven’t done much with Photoshop later, I figured it was time to try out a few filters and see what I liked.

This was the basic shadow adjustment – I like what it does to the bark – lightens it considerably, so it seems truer to what the tree actually looked like.

 

This is an inversion filter. For some reason I am really taken with the inversions and the black/white effects. This makes it look very stormy.

This is the “find edges” filter, and I like the drawing effect of this one. You can see all the line elements in the photo. I’d like to try coloring this one, or using some gradients on it.

 

 

Nice way to start for Valentine’s Day! We were driving around yesterday, trying to find a small art gathering we had gotten an invitation to, called “Cupids, Cupcakes, and Champagne.” They did have quite a spread. This was a group of 13 artists who set up in the parking lot and offices of an interior design firm to sell their wares. It was done very well, and located close enough to the main street to get drive-by traffic. Not a lot of parking, but I think people would go out of their way to park and walk back to the group.

Our small mixed media group has talked about finding venues for our work, as opposed to doing the show circuit. We are doing our first show on March 6th, which will be the first for most of the members of the group. It will be interesting to see how we all do, how each of us does, and overall how the event goes.

So here’s shots of Cupids, Cupcakes, and Champagne.

The Tucson Museum of Art is winding down its exhibit of Ansel Adams, and we headed there today. First, let me say I think the Tucson Museum of Art is a really ugly building and gallery, and the lighting of the exhibit was (I think) appalling. It was really hard to see the photos, as all the gallery lighting was reflected off the glass of each photo. I got to see myself reflected in El Capitan and lots of aspen, and it detracted overall from the exhibit.

That said, these photos are absolutely amazing. One thing I was struck with was the commentary with each picture, mostly in Adams’ own words – and he was quite expressive, quite poetic in his description of the scene. The pictures of Yosemite are spectacular, and we have started planning a trip over spring break. Amazing we live so close and haven’t yet been there…yet we live seven hours from the Grand Canyon and let 20 years go by before visiting again.

I have some favorites…like this one of the rose with a backdrop of plywood. The texture of the plywood adds to the scene, and who knew plywood could be so expressive. This was an unusual photo, in that Adams rarely contrived the photos; he just let them happen.

This next was taken with a long exposure, and no wind, otherwise, as Adams says, it wouldn’t have been possible.

 

There is such glory in black and white photography. And such masterful work in photo developing, which seems like a lost art, thanks to the digital revolution. To think Adams had one chance at a photo…he was a genius at the foreshadowing of a picture to come…wait and it would happen, and he was ready for it.

This next is considered one of his “abstract” photos – a frozen lake. If you look really closely, you see the water, the ide, the cliff, and the morain right at the water’s edge. Really beautiful.

 

Went to one of the big bead shows also in town with the gem shows and saw lots of great goodies, only one of which I had to have…these stones at the right. Don’t know the name of the stone, but it is gorgeous. Bought one strand – with 60 percent off because of my wholesale license, it was 19 dollars for the eight stones. Somewhere, somehow I will get at least a pendant necklace out of these, and then some lucky piece of fiber art will have the rest included in it. I have learned over the years that when I see stones I fall in love with, I better get them then and there, because it seems I never find them again.

There were lots of other goodies, like these gorgeous glass fish. I was sorely tempted, but I really don’t haave a project in mind for these – they certainly won’t fit the “glacier” piece that hopefully gets finished this year. But I have the card…

Lots of other stones with great textures:

These are glass hearts, and if you look closely you can see various marbling patterns in them Really gorgeous patterns and a great blue color.

I saw this wire lace “ribbon” a year ago and went specifically looking for some – but out of my price range (I still have the card…). Many widths, would be great in a fiber piece, let alone jewelry….

 

I really love this piece – taken from an Art Deco design, and then marbling added for textures.

One of my absolute favorites – not only cards, but I am using this for our Mixed Media Arts banner.

This is another favorite, done about three years ago. I did a little more work yesterday with some filters.

Lots of productivity, and even more today!!

I am spending time this week really analyzing what I want to do with this blog and with my art – and the art of those of us in our Mixed Media Arts Tucson group. I am working through BlogMasters Club with David Risley and learning a huge amount of information. Part of me is getting discouraged, but another part of me is extremely excited. For those of you interested in building your art business, let me show you what I’m learning.

There is so much information available on line if you are interested in marketing yourself. Knowing what to look for – and the whole issue of key words – has really confused me. So I am taking this step by step. I went looking on Amazon in the categories of buying art and selling art. No magazines in the buying art, becoming an educated art buyer, but there were a couple if interesting books that could be used as resources to round out my own knowledge. The magazines under “art” tend to be “make it yourself” kind – quilting, scrapbooking, sewing – many of the same magazines I tend to buy. But nothing on how to know what and how to buy art. One magazine, Flaunt – $60.00, 10 issues – is supposedly a trendsetter (their words), but had lousy reviews – magazine was just taking money and not delivering. I keep telling myself not to be discouraged, I really do think this will be a potential market – I will need to tweak things.

The two books I found that look really interesting are “The Art of Buying Art” by Paige West and “The Art of Buying Art” by Alan Bamberger (you can click through to Amazon to purchase).  The interiors looked helpful.

From here I went to Google to check out what kinds of forums are available to follow buying and selling art. No question there is traffic here on line, as opposed to strictly magazines. There are about 132,000,000 forums available, I found several within the top fifteen that had potential. They all seem to be focused on artists getting their work out for others to buy. Foundmyself.com is on the honor system for selling, with a first glance of some nice-looking work. I especially like the opening graphic – “artsy” and eye-catching. Emptyeasel.com  had a great article on helping buyers find your work. About three years ago my digital partner and I were talking about an online site to sell art. I think this is going to remorph itself into something within the blog. Given the number of forums, I do think there is market potential. But – I want more than just places to list your art. What about the actual selling – and driving buyers to want to purchase the art? Those are the big questions. Off now to start looking at the keywords.

Now to make some art this weekend! Need to marble some paper, follow up on a wholesale order, get a few fiber pieces ready for a show in March, start planning our new blog Mixed Media Arts Tucson. mark papers, finish the geometry quilt, and get some good walking in. Should be in the 60’s!

Well, it has certainly been an interesting day – lockdown at 8:20, a few minutes into the start of the day, seems to be a false alarm, but 30 minutes later we are evacuating the school…to the stadium – 3000 kids, mind you – and then trying to get kids to leave with parents only, moving every one to the university’s older gym, angry aprents not understanding why we can’t just let them take “friends,” and finally back to school for the end of the day….I would much rather teach than have to do this.

That said, I have some time to kill right now while I await my ride, and as I am exhausted, I probably won’t write too much tonight. I need to think about Bob and Jane, my potential art customers. They are both middle class (for those of us left in this economy…) with some disposable income. They like nice things, especially since now they are settled, almost empty-nesters, and can look at exploring the possibilities of buying/owning art.

Bob isn’t sure what to buy. He knows what he likes, he’s interested in the back story of the item, and he’s willing to pay the price if he really likes the item. He knows art can be collected, and sometimes its value increases, but he isn’t sure he wants to collect art as an investment. He is of the belief that “I know what I like when I see it.” He walks galleries for the enjoyment and likes when an owner takes the time to talk to him about the various artists. He’s not a really fashionable dresser – he likes to be comfortable, so it upsets him when gallery owners make an assumption about whether or not he can afford to buy the art and consequently ignores him. He looks at art books, not really sure about all the fanciful jargon. If he sees something he likes, he feels he is now in a position to buy it. He would really like some guidance on where to find good galleries that have interesting and unusual artists. He doesn’t just want “regional” work, like only Southwest because he lives in the Southwest. He will buy “big” in size if he loves the work.

Jane is similar. She has been a “crafter” all her life, from crochet to knitting to needlework. She loves small pieces of art and, like Bob, enjoys knowing the story behind the piece – who made it and how. She collects primarily smaller pieces, the more unusual the better. She feels uneducated about art as she had no training or art courses, so she is easily put off in galleries. She needs to be reassured that if you love the art, it’s perfectly okay to own it. She prowls craft shows, not knowing how to make the leap into other more “art” venues. She would like guidance on buying art for enjoyment, not investment. She’d love to give small piece of art to close friends.

Whoa, so I’m selling to me…..and maybe this was the whole purpose of this exercise….I want to reach out to those potential customers like me who want to know where to go for good art, unusual art, and great customer service. Hmmm….more to ponder….