If everything has a beginning, middle part and an end, why should a blog be an exception and run forever? Recently, I’ve been actually living by my being fearless paradigm. I’ve worked through quite some things throughout the recent blog entries,tackled some new challenges as an artist and generally faced life. And I cannot blame one specific issue, encounter or blog entry for it, but I have become a different person. I spend my day talking with a lot of people now, without fear and with a lot of outcomes. Suddenly, there is a lot of blessings to count but little to no time to do so. I need to act, I need to do more and I have the drive for it. And the time has come to leave this blog behind. My future actions shall document what I do. That’s it and that has been the secret all along. Love what you do, always have fun, but put in all the work to become excellent at what you are doing. If you excuse me now, I have to draw a lot to get there.
Tag: art
Creating a marketable body of work (part 4)
Notes on a talk by fine artists and art coaches Meagan and Michael Blessing, interviewed by art director Grant Roberts, 15.01. 2022 on the Art Work House Discord
Their socials:
https://www.meaganabrablessing.com/
https://www.michaelblessingart.com/
https://www.artstation.com/grantroberts
Disclaimer:
These notes are filtered through my perspective and interpretation, what I personally took away as a listener. I do not claim to cover the complete talk. Also, my views are not necessarily the views of the speakers.
(continuation of part 3)
Square Five
You have the permission to be as niche as you can, doing what you love and are strongest in. There is a market for everything, sometimes your market just needs a while to find you. If you are really as weird and outlandish as you think you are people should have no trouble remembering you.
Keeping an audience
By this point, you most likely have a fanbase to cater to. Do not just leave older collectors and fans behind when you switch styles or subjects. You are absolutely allowed to grow and change, but don’t just cut people off. Try to find connections between the new and the old in your work, bring your contradicting interests together even and integrate them into what you are already known for. This way you can keep your work fresh and interesting, while still being consistent. For some artists splitting up into two pen names can be necessary but it should rather be the exception. Most people are strongest when they can focus on one thing.
(to be continued in part 5)
Creating a marketable body of work (part 3)
Notes on a talk by fine artists and art coaches Meagan and Michael Blessing, interviewed by art director Grant Roberts, 15.01. 2022 on the Art Work House Discord
Their socials:
https://www.meaganabrablessing.com/
https://www.michaelblessingart.com/
https://www.artstation.com/grantroberts
Disclaimer:
These notes are filtered through my perspective and interpretation, what I personally took away as a listener. I do not claim to cover the complete talk. Also, my views are not necessarily the views of the speakers.
(continuation of part 2)
Square Four
You are your art. Questions about being authentic and convenient personas come up.
So, finally, you curate your pieces towards the story you want to share about yourself and why you are doing what you are doing.
A strong and fun to follow story has the power to completely outshine your actual craftsmanship and quality of your art. Make of this what you will.
How do you discover your story? Remember, it is there already, but maybe you haven’t looked at it in a way that you can put in words before. Some questions to get started: Why am I doing this? Where am I from? What shaped me? How do people see my art? What in my art reminds people of me?
Building an audience
Whatever you do, be consistent.
If you can only post once a week on social media, then you can only post once a week on social media, but do it. And mind the language and tags the culture(s) and communities you’re in are using.
Taking breaks is natural though, too, so if you do it, don’t apologize upon your return. Most likely, people will not even notice you were away in the first place.
It also becomes interesting to keep an audience engaged at this point. Note that people must see your art at least seven times before they actually start paying attention. That is a lot of repetition, so you absolutely are allowed to recycle and repeat your older content on social media to get those repetitions in. Also, not everyone sees every new piece of art the first time you posted it, so that is another use to it!
And remember the power of your personal story. Make it easy to learn about your story and fun and engaging to follow it. Your personal artist statement can help with that. Have a long version, but also a really short one of about 25 words for someone who has no time, but a spark of interest.
(to be continued in part 4)
Creating a marketable body of work (part 2)
Notes on a talk by fine artists and art coaches Meagan and Michael Blessing, interviewed by art director Grant Roberts, 15.01. 2022 on the Art Work House Discord
Their socials:
https://www.meaganabrablessing.com/
https://www.michaelblessingart.com/
https://www.artstation.com/grantroberts
Disclaimer:
These notes are filtered through my perspective and interpretation, what I personally took away as a listener. I do not claim to cover the complete talk. Also, my views are not necessarily the views of the speakers.
(continuation of part 1)
Square Two
Later, you start curating your work yourself, picking and choosing what you want to show to the world.
Don’t cut and engineer too much too early.
At first your only goal of curation is to choose the pieces that have the strongest aesthetic value to you. Also don’t just put them out there. Ask yourself: why do you like them, why do others like them? What can you learn for future pieces?
Keep creating!
Square Three
When your body of work has flourished further, you can afford a stricter curation: Now you are looking for consistency in themes and techniques in the works you want to show to the world.
The ultimate goal of all curation is that someone understands what you are doing within 3 seconds of looking at your works. This does NOT mean to dumb your works down or fit a pre-existing mold perfectly.
You are also allowed, even required to keep experimenting with art that doesn’t fit what you’re curating. Any of your training is research and development work for your main works though.
But this stage is not where and how the curation ends.
(to be continued in part 3)
Creating a marketable body of work (part 1)
Notes on a talk by fine artists and art coaches Meagan and Michael Blessing, interviewed by art director Grant Roberts, 15.01.2022 on the Art Work House Discord.
Their socials:
https://www.meaganabrablessing.com/
https://www.michaelblessingart.com/
https://www.artstation.com/grantroberts
Disclaimer:
These notes are filtered through my perspective and interpretation, what I personally took away as a listener. I do not claim to cover the complete talk. Also, my views are not necessarily the views of the speakers.
Square Zero
Start with this premise:
You have everything that you need already, a story, a personality, strengths, interests, anything else you might need. If it is invisible to you, it is still there, but in seed form and wants to be discovered. So if you run into problems later, know that you can’t fall to or below zero. There is something in you.
Square One
If you don’t have a body of work yet, this is the first thing that you do. Create create create.
At first, for the fun of it and for the exploration of you as an artist.
(To be continued in part 2)
