Comments on: Believe In Your Art

By: Michael Pendergrass

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:59:47 +0000

I was a fan of the Apprentice just to gain some advice and insight on marketing and selling myself and my art to potential clients. And it worked. I’m not going to wait for my ship to come in. I’m swimming out to meet it half way. Or as they use to say back in the day “You snooze you lose!”. If I don’t sell I don’t have a “pity party” either! I suggest reading his books on business even if they’re not an art business book. The ideas can be applied to your art marketing. And yes I believe in my art wholeheartedly!

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By: TracyWall

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:53:58 +0000

What a great message. I know alot of folks pooh-poohed Trumps show, but it’s such a bounty of marketing advice!

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By: Vicki Ross

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:03:55 +0000

I LOVE THIS! Sales 101. I am a new artist (only 4 years fulltime) and now that many of my available paintings, while good, don’t get me excited because I see too many things I would do differently today. HOWEVER, when I get that 1 in 5 that makes me smile…THAT is a good feeling, and one I can ‘sell’. had a friend of a friend over for a drink a week ago and he purchased FIVE paintings…some of my favorites!

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By: Kaitlyn

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:36:16 +0000

Oh indeed! I know we are so often our own worst critic but I have never seen the advantage to that when it comes to promoting your work. Certainly, hold a standard to yourself in order to grow as an artists, to expand techniques and improve your skills, but believe that everything you create has worth and value because you created it.

Brilliant.

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By: Patricia

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:25:16 +0000

So basic! On the other hand, it does not mean that the work “sells itself,” as one might erroneously conclude.

Patricia

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By: Michael Newberry

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:02:20 +0000

Alyson,

Superb.

Michael

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By: Stacey Peterson

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:22:42 +0000

So true. This also speaks to the fact that those who sell your work must love it also! I sell most of my work through galleries, and have learned the hard way that the ones I have to persuade to carry my work rarely sell much of it. The galleries that are excited about my work are the ones who move it, and this is why!

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By: Miranda

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:04:46 +0000

So very true! Thanks for this. If you don’t believe in your work, why should anyone else? I got my first exhibition largely because I had the guts to apply for one straight out of school. I also had the guts to call myself a formalist, which the curator seemed to find very amusing! Very much enjoying this blog, thanks again!

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By: Beth Stafford

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:19:01 +0000

This comes at a good time – I LOVE the art I’m presently making, even though it hasn’t gained wide acceptance yet. One dealer told me she really missed my old style, which was radically different. I told her that I don’t see the world that way anymore; I had to move on before slipping into “formula” painting. It hasn’t been easy, this “redefining” process, but I’m enjoying my art more than ever, and am seeing infinite possibilities just around the corner.

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By: studioartdirect

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:37:58 +0000

Alyson
Way to hit the nail on the head.

I wonder how you do grow to LOVE a piece or series of art though? I am not sure if it is a personal love for the piece or the reaction I get from others that helps my love grow? Perhaps I have never fallen in love with a piece I have done (hot off the easel). Perhaps when I do, a new world will becon. Or maybe it’s just like boyfriends – if you are not sure, you haul them around to friends and family for feedback. But when YOU know it is right, you need no critic to tell you so.

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