Again this week I'm featuring a blog from Seth Godin ........this has to do with marketing, but it speaks clearly to what holds so many artists from creating some memorable work. And art really is marketing yourself, in a very personal way. I know it has controlled my art too much. Doing what's safe means doing work that pretty much looks like just part of the crowd. But it's safe.
So thank you Seth, the weird mind that lives within is going to get a chance to be heard!
SABOTAGE!
"Just about all sabotage is self-sabotage.
We don't get forced to eat that cookie, we choose to. And so the diet is ended.
Marketing self-sabotage is fascinating to watch and understand. Consider the college application: it's primarily an opportunity for teenagers who aren't sure of where they want to go to undercut their chances by exposing their uncertainty. The lizard brain, the voice in the back of the head that wants security and safety--it's not eager to go to a college that might be 'too hard' or 'too good'. The easy thing to do is to scale back the effort, not do what works, but do what feels right instead.
Or consider the way we resist opportunities to lead, to connect, to do work that matters. We don't resist because we're not capable of it... we resist because if our marketing fails, if we don't get the job or earn the trust, then we're off the hook. No promises made, which means no promises to keep.
We know more than enough about marketing now. We know how to craft a story that will spread, we know how to find and lead tribes. The thing we have trouble with is making the commitment to do it even when it's frightening and difficult."
This newest Scratchboard Etching really isn't weird, but still outside what I would "normally" do. I hope you enjoy it!
Joy Ride(c) Scratchboard Etching 10x8"
So now with renewed conviction, more promises will be made, more chances will be jumped on, and I'm not afraid of failing either, because there are always more ideas......
Keep Coloring Outside the Lines,
Sandra
(ps.....check out the other Scratchboard Etchings and Oils on my web site....click here Sandra Haynes.)
The following was lifted from the daily blog of Seth Godin.
"The only problems you have left are the perfect ones. The imperfect ones, the ones with a clearly evident solution, well, if they were important, you've solved them already.
It's the perfect problems that keep us stuck.
Perfect because they have constraints, unbendable constraints, constraints that keep us trapped. I hate my job, I need this job, there's no way to quit, to get a promotion or to get a new boss, no way to move, my family is in town, etc.
We're human, that's what we do--we erect boundaries, constraints we can't ease, and we get trapped.
Or perhaps it's your product or service or brand. Our factory is only organized to make X, but the market doesn't want X as much, or there is regulation, or a new competitor is now offering X at half the price and the board won't do anything, etc.
There's no way to solve the perfect problem because every solution involves breaking an unbreakable constraint.
And there's your solution.
The way to solve the perfect problem is to make it imperfect. Don't just bend one of the constraints, eliminate it. Shut down the factory. Walk away from the job. Change your product completely. Ignore the board.
If the only alternative is slow and painful failure, the way to get unstuck is to blow up a constraint, deal with the pain and then run forward. Fast."
If you are not familiar with Seth's writing, I would urge you to take a look.....if you do follow him, you are aware of his ability to see through all the smoke and get to the point.
Much of what he writes can be applied to artists and the daily struggles we all face. If what you're doing isn't working, then don't keep doing the same things. This applies to anything in your life.
Coming soon in my art life will be the publishing of my coffee table book of Wildlife Scratchboard Etchings. I expect it to be finished, proofed and ready for market in about a month. My first! So I'm excited about the venture. It is a compilation of animals in Scratchboard Etchings along with some stories about the unique individuals I have had the privilege to meet.
It will be available from me directly by email or through my web site at Sandra Haynes, through Amazon and other venues to be announced. A limited time 20% coupon will be available....combined with a good price, it will make a nice gift for the holidays that are on the horizon or for any occasion.
With pre-orders already in hand, the pressure is on! Click on my name above to go to my web site and see what wildlife in Scratchboard Etchings looks like.
It's been a busy few weeks.....with a show, usually profitable, that bombed for me rather seriously, it has taken awhile to recover from the shock.
Now this wasn't my first rodeo, so I'm aware that as an artist you have to take the bad with the good occasionally, but I had relaxed into what had always been a profitable show for me. It's easy to blame it on the economy, but a few artists were doing well. After mulling it over, no good reason has come to light.
It has become an expensive show to do....not only high booth fees, but 3 auctions in 3 days has drawn the dwindling crowd, that has to pay a hefty fee to get through the auction door and a buyers premium, out of the booths of the artists. The auctions prices across the board have fallen to record lows and are now no longer a good venue for selling art, unless you enjoy getting a very small fraction of your usual selling price.
So what to do?
Well, go to another show, of course!
This one was a startling contrast to the long-running, but failing show......into it's 4th year, it charges no entry fee at all! Located in a small town just south of the other show, it sets up artists in outdoor and indoor locations on the central core downtown streets and in businesses. The streets are blocked off and has food vendors and live, recognized singers and musicians and activities for everyone in a family.
With an artist's reception and quick finish and auction on Friday night and then 2 days of showtime, I found it to be exciting and very refreshing. The committee that puts on the show made it clear that it's a show for the artists and were incredible to work with.
How do they keep it running? All they asked for was 50% of the take on the quick finish and a donated piece of art, voluntary, to be auctioned off as a fundraiser at a later date. 60 good artists showed up for this wonder of a show, and I made a nice profit....not huge, but nice.
Where's the idiot within? Alive and well right here, thank you. The profits were used to buy a binding machine and supplies to print up instruction books for my workshops.....the light bill isn't getting paid this month, but the show(s) must go on! Professional looking workbooks are another step closer to where I want to be.....and I'm in this for the long haul.
Many of the other blogs I read, and including mine, all maintain that diversifying your market is wise in the current economic climate. Sort of like a diversified stock portfolio.....if one stock tanks, hopefully there are others still keeping the boat afloat.
My recent venture into automotive memorabilia is now an avenue worth pursuing. The contacts I have in the auto world are responding with enthusiasm and supplying reference photos from across the United States.
I don't know how sales will be yet, but I also wonder why I didn't think of this sooner. The short answer is the concentration that has been put into learning how to paint landscapes and the research and work on the wildlife has kept my mind from even considering anything else.
What's the difference now? Haven't a clue, except for an insistent urge to render in scratchboard an innocent little gas pump a few short weeks ago.
Here is the latest.....a Cadillac that resides in North Carolina awaiting restoration......
"Retro Queen" 10x8" scratchboard etching
Along with teaching workshops, private students, commissions, and art shows, this auto memorabilia will round out a diverse program. Is this being too busy? Not as long as I love what I'm doing and still able to do it all well.
A continued thank you to the legions of wonderful people that stand behind me in so many ways....I am grateful.
by Sandra Haynes on 3/26/2010 1:22:43 AM
2 Comments
Hi Friends,
The art market is still alive and happy, and now I can quit worrying about it. My first traveling-to-it show of the season, this one in Great Falls, Montana, was a success and people are buying art.
Cheerfully, I will lift a quote from Seth Godin's blog....."Anxiety is nothing but repeatedly experiencing failure in advance." Seems I still wonder.....ok.......worry, that the show season will be a dismal failure based on what little news I do hear of the world. This only happens when I pay attention to all the bad news.
News on TV and newspapers is purposely limited in my house so that it doesn't influence my thinking. And reading constant doom and gloom does have a dampening affect, whether you realize it or not.
Influence is a subtle and sneaky thing that controls most of our lives. As artists, do we really need a negative outlook? Do we need to have a limiting factor in our creative thinking? Truly, if anything of substance occurs in the world, you will hear about it. Meanwhile, your job is to create.
Worrying about how the selling will go or if the next painting will be "good enough" is a self-limiting way of viewing it. Why program yourself to fail by thinking about failing? Or listening as "they" pronounce you doomed to fail because the economy is so bad. We are in the mother of all economic corrections.....I didn't miss that.
However, think about the joy your art will bring to someone. It's your gift to the world. Beautiful things never go out of style and this is a chance to keep striving to create better art for a waiting world.
A few years ago I was in an area that I knew was frequently inhabited by Rocky Mountain Sheep. As a wildlife artist I really did want to take the time to watch them. So here I am in this rocky terrain with big boulders strewn all over the landscape as it gets increasingly steep up to the ridge summit.
Peeling my best sheep eyes, my focus was toward the top where the sheep trails were just barely visible on the sheer rock walls. Knowing the sheep were there, but not spotting them right away, my concentration was keen.
After studying this wild landscape hard for several minutes, a small movement in the foreground, about a 1000 yards in front of me, caught my attention. A dozen sheep were there just going about their lives, doing sheep stuff, while I was focused over their backs way up on the mountain side.
While I would like to be kind to myself and say they blended in well with the habitat, they didn't blend that good. I mean they were right in front of me. Ever since I have wondered what else have I missed? What really good ideas for marketing art or creating art have I overlooked while focusing on a distant idea?
One project that I took on recently was doing ACEO small format (3.5x2.5") paintings and selling them on EBay. It was an experiment to see if there really was a market there. It didn't take long to get disenchanted with selling them really cheap and I had not figured in the time to photo them, posting in the auctions, writing the descriptions, paperwork, package them for shipping.....you know.....the details.
Because I was doing at least one a day, this amounted to a lot of time.
So about the time that my whining was starting to get annoying, I realized what I had learned and it was rather a lot. It's an excellent exercise in learning what colors really can get a painting to stand out and it was a dramatic lesson in what sells to what I call a "cold" audience. Meaning it was not connected to a particular region or show, so I was selling cold with no way of even guessing what they might be interested in.
About the time I decided to throw in the towel, these little paintings have even started increasing in selling price....not impressive money by any measure, but enough to get my attention. So how long will the experiment go on? With a new attitude about this venture, I'm just focusing on the close up picture.....just paint the paintings that I know stand a good chance of selling well and leave the far-off, top of the cliff things to work themselves out. This lesson applies to all the art work that comes from my easel now.
Now and then, though, I look to the mountain tops too.
How do you get ready for shows? Or an open house? Do you have all these things that "must be done" until you feel like you're holding on with just the tips of fingers on one hand?
What would happen if you did some things a little differently?
My first show of the season is fast approaching, but the difference this time is letting some of my traditional "have to" things just go. Plenty of new wildlife and landscape art is already done......a few pieces need framing, price cards and brochures need to be printed, but it really is under control. And it left me with enough time to enter a few more shows and frame up a donation piece for a benefit auction.
Instead of painting the big "show stopper" piece (which I have several of anyway) using up precious weeks before the show, I am working on painting several Art Card Editions & Original paintings a day. If you have not gotten acquainted with ACEO cards, they are 2 1/2x 31/2" pieces of art. It doesn't take long to paint them and it distills your colors, ideas and brushstrokes down to an essence that is a great learning experience. Plus, it then leaves plenty of time for other things in the studio.
Like building blocks, I have come up with several uses for them. Reproductions will become notecards and small size art fair prints. The ACEO originals, in a more impressionistic style than my larger work, will be sold on Ebay.....about 5 per week. I can hear the groans out there.....Oh my god, she's not a real artist, she's selling on Ebay. With tenacity and without fear, good money can be made in that venue and that's exactly what I plan to do. DIVERSIFY YOUR MARKET!
Small art works in this size can be marketed at art shows with some clever take off on the "30 paintings in 30 days for 30 dollars each" concept. I've only begun to think up ways to market them, and maybe create some new collectors along the way.
The best thing about ideas though, is if this one doesn't work, there are more! It's not life ending if something doesn't work out.....in our culture we are taught from the start to win at nearly any cost. You know what? Life doesn't end if you don't win and if you pay attention to yourself and advice that is available around you, you just might learn how to think for yourself and come up with some really outstanding ideas.
A good resource for learning how to develop new ideas is ArtBizBlog by Alyson Stanfield. A wealth of information in one place.
There have been a couple of new oil colors added to my line up.....these may be old news to some, but several artists I've talked to recently, especially ones that paint sorrel or chesnut (any shade of red) horses and other reddish animals, had not heard of these. Transparent Oxide Red and Transparent Oxide Orange, both by Rembrandt, are great ways to achieve what can be very difficult shades to create in a painting. I endorse these only because they work.....let me know what you think if you try them.
Thank you for stopping by, and keep Coloring Outside The Lines,
Sandra
