I don't know if it is a right brain, left brain thing but a great many talented artists that I have met seem to lack any kind of business sense and have no clue how to promote themselves. I've been involved now for several years in the local co-op gallery scene and have observed a steady stream of artists that euphorically believe that the moment their art is hanging up on a gallery wall, the public will come flocking. They will make enough to cover the cost of their wall rent and sales commission fee with a tidy profit left over to at least buy their supplies to create more lucrative art.
WRONG! I have personally learned from these past couple of years that the attitude towards co-op gallery scene should be more treated as an educational process in your LONG journey to be a successful artist. Very few can create a fan base overnight and there is so much great art out there that you have to keep your eye on your goals.
GOAL # 1- Paint, Draw, Sculpt, Throw Pots, Weld, Make Jewelry or whatever else it is you do and do it OFTEN! My skills as a painter have improved greatly over these past 4 years since I decided I might want to retire from my 8-5 accounting job and do art instead. If your lucky like me you might be able to trade your skills learned from you OTHER career to discount that wall rent. Co-op galleries are always in need of someone that actually understands accounting, balance a checkbook and knows the difference between a profit and loss and a balance sheet.
GOAL # 2- Never stop learning! Your education as an artist can't stop at your easel. You have to learn all about sales, marketing, web hosting, photo editing, writing, blogging, networking; the list goes on and on and it may seem overwhelming because as mentioned before, many of us are retired. We didn't figure this stuff out when our gray matter was young and in it's twenties. We're in our 50's and 60's and so the cliche "It's hard to teach OLD DOGS new tricks" comes immediately to mind. Make a list of your weaknesses and start LEARNING about them.
GOAL # 3- Be a SPONGE! Find a buddy that is at least a little further on the road to success than you are and that starts by joining your local art guild. That's what I did and now have a number of good artist friends that offer support and help. Artists can be a crazy lot but even a very quiet and conservative person like myself was able to find a friend. You can do it too!
GOAL #4- Get your website up and maybe create an art Facebook page. You're not going to have thousands of hits or friends right away but it does build like a snowball rolling down the hill. Find an successful artist and check out their website and Facebook activity. There is nothing wrong with sitting up your own website to resemble and function like theirs. They more than likely paid thousands of dollars to have a professional site made and you can take advantage of that. You are welcome to check out my website at- JulieTownsendStudio.com I used a free website host called Weebly.com but this past week have been working on my co-op gallery website that uses WIX.com. Both work find and are good options as I am sure there are many reasonably priced sites out there to choose from.
I'm pretty sure I could come up with a pretty lengthy list of goals this morning while I'm enjoying my McDonald's coffee and free WiFi, but these 4 are, in my opinion, the core of where you should focus on immediately.
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