It all seemed so simple at art school. You were led to believe that as long as you kept creating great art then success would follow naturally. So perhaps after embarking on your career as an artist you have become a little disillusioned to discover that buyers and dealers are not beating a path to your door.

Whatever your story, you’re now on the right track. The fact that you’re reading this shows that you want to know more about the business side of the art world, and that’s a huge start. Over the coming months you’re going to learn what so many artists never do: the basics of how to successfully market and promote yourself and your art.

As an introduction this month we’re going to debunk a few myths that commonly hold artists back:

Myth 1: Artists should stick to art and leave business to the “suits”

The idea of the artist as a creative genius, free from the constraints of the real world, is a romantic dream. The reality is that in addition to creating great art, the artist also has to be his own promoter, agent and manager. You must therefore dedicate yourself to spending time learning each of these skills if you want to be successful.

This may sound daunting, but that’s why Art eXposed exists. The tools and resources available on our website are designed to increase your visibility and help you market yourself more effectively without having to start from scratch.

Myth 2: People expect artists to be unprofessional

The people who make money buying and selling art are professionals and they expect to deal with professionals. If your eccentricities and artistic temperament cause them hassle, your value to them goes down accordingly. Having a professional manner and being easy to work with are essential to success, but especially so if you have yet to make a name for yourself.

Myth 3: Artists must be solitary

The solitary genius slaving away at his creation is another false legacy of romanticism. Successful artists constantly interact with others in the art world. The ability to create and maintain friendships and working relationships is one of the biggest factors in getting your work out there. Art eXposed works to forge links with your local arts community, as well as allowing artists to interact with each other via the website.

Myth 4: Art dealers and buyers don’t understand art

This is a common mistake and often leads artists to treat dealers with disdain. They forget that these people got into this business because they love art. Perhaps their tastes differ from yours, and certainly they may seem too interested in current trends and market value, but they do love art and most are willing to take a chance on newcomers.

Myth 5: If the work is good enough it will sell itself

If your studio is currently full of unsold work, then you should know that this isn’t true. The art world has always run on the same principle as everything else – you are selling a product. The difference is that in art the value of your product is based upon your reputation and skill, rather than raw materials and cost of production. With this in mind you must learn to maximise the value of your work using techniques we will be discussing over the coming months.

Myth 6: My art is unique and most people don’t understand it

While your art may be different, it is not unique. There are other artists doing similar things and you ignore their success at your peril. You must not stand aloof from the people who can make you a success, and that includes other artists. If you can talk easily about your art without being either shy or boastful, you will not only make new friends but you will sell more art.

Finally, don’t get disheartened

None of this should disillusion you about your dream of expressing yourself through your work. The art itself is still the most important thing. Understanding the business side of art is an addition to your talents, not a substitute for them. Hopefully it is another skill that you want to cultivate, and over the coming months we will be walking you through how to go about doing this.

“Smart World, Breakthrough Creativity and the New Science of Ideas” is a book written by Richard Ogle. In this book Mr. Ogle talks about the mind and how it can be used to foster creativity. Below, I define the nine laws of breakthrough creativity as it relates to artists.

The Nine Laws of Breakthrough Creativity:

1) “The Law of Tipping Points” - The tipping point is the critical point in an evolving situation that leads to a new and irreversible development. This happened in every artistic movement to date. Your art may not have hit the tipping point, but when it does; you will be in the forefront.

2) “The Law of the Fit Get Rich” – Think of Darwinism: The theory of evolution that states that all plants and animals developed from earlier forms by changing and adapting to their environment for survival. Can your art survive, does it have a quality that attracts people to it?

3) “The Law of the Fit Get Fitter” - Does you artwork have the traits to engage other artist ? As Picasso brought in so many follows, does your art have this quality? Can you get other artists to see the light of your work?

4) “The Law of Spontaneous Generation” - Can your style grow and multiply. Look at the Lowbrow or Graffiti scene; it’s infectious, with hundreds of artist thriving.

5) “The Law of Navigation” – Treat your creativity and art as a matter of navigation, rather than invention. Tinker, break away to fuel your creativity.

6) “The Law of Hotspots” – Breakthroughs happen through hotspots and occur at them. Hotspots create energy. If Andy Warhol didn’t move from Philadelphia to NYC, the art hotspot at that time, pop-art would not be what it is today.

7) “The Law of Small-World Networks” - You cannot live in a vacuum; you must be part of a network. All networks are connected by hubs, which connect to other networks. Artists have always collaborated, their networks help them to excel. Get into a network today. Use the power of community the internet provides, join forums, and show other artists your work.

8) “The Law of Integration” - Innovations that bring fundamental breakthroughs are not the end game, they transform common thinking. J.M.W Turner’s revolutionary paintings show the possibilities of this law. His peers did not like or understand his work. With the industrial revolution starting, Turner grasped the inner workings of things, rather than just their surfaces.

9) “The Law of Minimal Effort” – You will do your best work when you’re “In The ZONE” (In a state of focused attention or energy so that one’s performance is enhanced). You mind takes the route of least effort when solving problems, so as an artist, your “In The Zone” when your creative juices are flowing. Find that state and keep it for as long as you can.

The Art eXposed PR Toolkit is an easy set of communication templates that enable you to selectively broadcast recent news and information about your artwork and share it with your public. Let’s discuss what a PR toolkit is, what it does for you in terms of self-promotion and why it will help you to reach groups that want to learn more about your artwork.

What is a PR Toolkit?

It may sound complicated but it’s such a simple concept. A PR Toolkit is a set of PR templates that you are able to customize on your own for personal use. Art eXposed makes these templates available for download as a part of your membership with our community. These templates are assembled in individual Microsoft Word files. Whether it’s a news release template that announces a new piece of art work or an announcement about a recent award, you fill in the details and it’s ready to share with your friends, family, art patrons, prospects, galleries, associations and the media.

What does the PR Toolkit do for you?

A PR Toolkit is an easy way to assemble you best news to make it available to the parties who want to know about and share information on you and your artwork. As an artist, you need to spend time creating your artwork. Promotion is important, so we try to make it easy on you. The PR Toolkit templates are written so it’s easy for intended audiences to digest information use it in a useful way. For example, the news release templates are created for journalists who are looking to take your digital release and incorporate information into their stories or news briefs. These templates are media friendly and use an accepted AP style format that’s accepted by journalists world-wide. In terms of promotion, the more you fill in and use your templates, and send them out to an email database of interested parties, the more you’ll see those parties will take interest in you!

How does the PR Toolkit help you to reach different groups?

The PR Toolkit is designed to appeal to a number of different groups. You can cut and paste a PR Toolkit template into the body of your email message or send it as an attachment (but, only if the intended recipient knows you and is expecting the attachment). These templates are universal and can be used for many different groups. You can brand them with your logo or artwork and send them out as frequently as you feel the information warrants dissemination. With respect to the media, you should always be sending the media news release announcements regarding exhibits, awards and the unveiling of new pieces of art. You may not see a story every time, but the ability to send a customized release, at intervals throughout the year, will keep you and your artwork top of mind.

The PR Toolkit was designed by Art eXposed to make publicity and self-promotion easy. We want you to spend your time creating the ultimate masterpiece. Promotion, we know is very important, but when there’s only so many hours in day, the PR Toolkit is your best way to accomplish many things in a very short period of time.

In my last installment “Setting Goals for 2007,” I talked about creating your weekly to-do list at the beginning of each week. In this installment, I’m going to add in all the other to-dos we have in our lives, because life’s demands never wait for us. We all lead busy lifestyles with lots of other demands that also require our attention. Some of us have families, pets, homes, and second jobs, which all need consideration and action.

Using a 3×5 Index Card to Organize and Prioritize

At the start of the week, you get a new index card and using a pen you put three vertical lines; breaking up the card into three sections. In the left hand section, you put in the items that you need to get done that day. These will be called your “Urgent” items. Your goal for the day is to complete those items, no matter what! The center column is called “Required.” These are action items that you are required to get done, but can wait until tomorrow, if you haven’t finished your Urgent items. The right column holds items you need or want to get done, but non-completion will not cause you any setback. An example would be: I just read an article about a new artist, and I want to check out his website. So, I place the URL of his site in this column.

Sample To-Do List:

Urgent

• Call UPS Store
• Call Dean Adams
• Fix forum entry
• Get Yellow Ochre
• e-mail artists on site updates

Required

• Complete Painting
• Find venue for Kickoff
• Call exhibitors
• Call Deirdre regarding Saturday Art reception.

So I don’t forget

• Read http://www.wired.com/ article
• Check out Art & Fear on Amazon
• Develop a news letter

Now you have your daily to-do list. Keep it in a place where you always have access to it. I like to keep mine in my shirt or pants pocket. Index cards are very durable. They don’t make it through a wash and dry cycle, but they can easily last a week in your pocket. I say this because I don’t create a new card every day; sometimes I keep the same card for few days. When you complete an item on your card you cross it out. If a to-do comes up you add it on. I review my card every morning. On some days I transfer the information to a new card and on other days I just fill in new items and move others around.Another good thing about having the index card on your person is that you can use the back to jot down notes. If I see artwork I like, I write down the artist’s name. When I meet people, I use it to put their names and telephone numbers. It has come in handy.I hope this information helps you to prioritize your life and keeps you organized, giving you more time to do what you love. Creating art!!!!!

Well, another year has gone by and I hope everyone had a joyous and productive 2006.  So, what can we do to make 2007 even better?  Let’s all make a simple resolution for 2007.  On Jan. 1^st, let’s create a list of goals for the year.  You’ll need one or two hours to complete this task.
The first thing you want to do is create a list of all the things you wish to accomplish, as it relates to the artistic part or your life.  You can do this for other parts of your life too, but in this writing I’m going to focus on your artistic goals.
Yearly Goals:
Let’s begin.  First, write down as many goals as you can think of as they relate to your artistic career.  There is no limit to how many items you place on this initial list. This should take a good 20 minutes.

Sample Goals for the Year:

• Create a minimum of 24 paintings
• Experiment in sculpting
• Become proficient in portrait painting
  
  • Take classes, talk to other artists, read books on the subject
• Find my voice!
• Sell my artwork on-line
• Sell 12 paintings
• Enter at least five art shows
• Get gallery representation
• Get accepted to two exhibitions
• Go to an art gallery, show or museum every weekend
  
  • Get to know people in the business, one person per weekend
• Meet 12 artists, in my area of expertise
• Increase my mailing list by 40 patrons
• Create or update my website
• ….

Once you’re happy with your list, TRY to weed it down to the top 10 goals you would like to accomplish in 2007.  If you can’t weed it down, try to get as close to 10 as you can, because once you get over 10 its going to hard to manage and meet those goals.

CONGRATULATIONS, you have goals for 2007!!!!!
Now, you’re probably saying,  “OK, every year I create New Year’s resolutions on the 1^st and forget about them by the 15th.”  Not so fast, we still have some work to do.  You are going to break down these goals into monthly goals.  Then, on a monthly basis, you will break them down into weekly goals.  Therefore, every month you can see where you stand and adjust as needed.
Monthly Goals:
The next step is to take your yearly goals and break them down to more manageable monthly goals.  So, if your goal is to get 40 patrons signed on to your mailing list then, you would want 3-4 patrons signed up a month.   This is what I call your Monthly Goal Template (MGT).
Sample MGT:

• Add 3-4 patrons to the mailing list
• Complete a painting.
• Meet two artists in my field.
• ….

On the first of each month, you should take your MGT and create monthly goals for that specific month.  If your monthly goal on the MGT is to visit an art gallery, art show, or museum every weekend, then you should have an entry for each weekend for what museum, show, or gallery you will visit.  If your goal is to compete a painting every month, define the painting that you will be completing.
Sample January Goals:

• Go to the Metropolitan Museum to see ‘Americans in Paris’
• Go to the Red Bank Art Alliance opening reception
• E-mail friends about a new piece of art completed.  Ask them to forward the e-mail to their fiends.    (Adding patrons).

Weekly Goals:
Now that you have are monthly goals you can create your weekly goals.  Your weekly goals may not include every monthly goal and it most cases it won’t.  Every Sunday or Monday, you should create your goals for the week.  You should base your weekly goals off of last week’s goal and your current month’s goals.  Sometimes you may move the same weekly goal forward.  For example, I have one weekly goal that never disappears. “Talk to one new artist.”  In your weekly goals, just as with you monthly goals, you need to get more detailed.  If your monthly goal is to complete a painting then your weekly goal could be “purchase required material, prime canvas, create color studies.”
Sample - Jan. 1-7 Goals:

• At the opening reception speak to three artists
• Send e-mail to friends about a new painting
• Update website with new paintings

You may be thinking that this is just too much work, but it really isn’t. Once you’ve spent the time on Jan. 1st creating your Yearly Goals and your MGT, it takes just minutes to create your Monthly and weekly goals.
So, how do you not fall into the New Year Resolution trap?  What I did was create a recurring meeting in Yahoo! Calendar.  You can use any calendar software to do this.  Every Sunday, I get an e-mail with my goals.  Then I update the entry with my new week’s goals; I also keep my current month’s goals in this entry as well.  So, now I know what needs to get done and I have a copy of my plan.
Setting goals is a proven way to get things accomplished in your life.   Start today!!!  Good luck with your 2007 goals.