In Mindset, Part 1, we discussed how important our thoughts are in driving our actions as artists (indeed as human beings). We also talked about the idea that in order to sell your art, you have to have to understand:
- that art can be sold
- the various ways art is sold
- how you will sell your art
We covered the idea that art can be sold in depth in that post. In this post, we’re going to talk about the other two keys to being mentally ready to sell your art.
The Various Ways Art is Sold
Obviously we talk about this a lot here at TAA. We’re all about giving artists the skills to sell themselves. Before you learn the best image SEO techniques and what makes a great artist website, you need to understand how sales happen.
People buy things from people that they know, like, and trust.
What does this mean?
As human beings, we like to feel that things are familiar. We are creatures of habit. We fear the new and fear being made to look stupid. So we avoid risk and gravitate toward whats proven.
I have a good friend who has a great job in human resources. He makes plenty of money and lives in a city where there are amazing chefs from all over the world. He could literally eat anywhere he wanted to – but when he chooses to eat out, he prefers Outback Steakhouse and Red Lobster. He prefers what he grew up with and knows to trying new things.
Art is even more this way.
Art is risky. People think of art as something that only wealthy or educated or smart people can buy. Who knows if it will be worth it in a few months or years? What if you want to repaint your walls? What if the art has a hidden message you don’t know understand?
Art is challenging. Even something as innocuous as a pastel canvas of a beautiful coast causes potential collectors to worry that they might be making the wrong choice – what if they buy the wrong piece? What if it falls apart? What if their annoying hipster friends make fun of them for buying art the wrong way?
Buying art takes time. Even people who have money are hesitant to buy because if you have a lot of money what you usually don’t have is a lot of time. If the process of buying the art, getting it to the house and getting it on the wall is too hard, even the richest collector may pass.
These reasons are a big part of why art dealers and gallery owners have been effective gatekeepers for so long.
Art collectors have relationships with high-end galleries or with well-known artists. They know, like and trust them.
Collectors buy the art because they trust the taste of the gallerist or because they believe in an artist enough to support their work. They know that the artist’s personal brand is solid, and the value of the art could potentially go up. This is the reason that Damien Hirst can sell a $12 million stuffed shark and you can’t sell your brilliantly composed and painted kitten (or whatever).
Of course, we know that not every artist will end up with a wealthy patron, and not every artist will even want that. It comes with its own set of drawbacks.
The great thing is that there are ample opportunities to build these relationships with collectors yourself. The Internet has made it possible to connect with people from all over the world who like what you do.
You just need to understand what makes you unique and how to find the people who like what you do. Simple to say. A lifetime of exploration in store.
How YOU Will Sell Your Art
In the last post, I mentioned that there are a handful of specific business models that an art career can follow:
- Being a Gallery Artist
- Being an Independent Artist
- Selling Prints and Products
- Commissions
- Licensing Your Images
- Art careers working for someone else
Now, out of all of these ways of selling, how will YOU sell your art? Which one makes the most sense to you?
What’s the right fit for your personality and your stage in life? The simple truth is that there are around 40,000 artists in New York alone trying to make it in the gallery scene. Getting into a major gallery or a Sotheby’s auction is like making it as a professional athlete. It can be done, but it takes tremendously hard work, and no small amount of luck.
However, if the thought of managing your own business and taking care of customers makes you queasy and you absolutely MUST have someone else manage your business dealings – well, you should probably stop reading this blog right now.
What do you want your life to look like?
If you’re looking for a life where you dictate your own terms, you can do it. The life of an independent artist can feature these wonderful experiences:
- Collectors loving you enough to pay you a monthly stipend, just to make sure you continue working
- Connecting with people all over the world who love you and want to see you make things
- Having dozens of people decide to post random acts of kindness performed at your behest
- Producing an art show that sells out in just a couple of days and having enough demand to add more seats at the venue
There are obviously hundreds of examples that I could show you, but you (hopefully) get the idea. If you are creative, the business of being an artist can be just as fulfilling as the creation of your art. And you know what’s not mentioned in any of these examples? Being dependent on begging for money through grants or lobbying for new laws (sorry, personal pet peeve).
So, here’s my question for you: what do you want your life to look like? What steps can you take today to make it happen?
I’m just starting out and I have to tell myself everyday that I can succeed if I put in the hours everyday and take action everyday to reach my goals. I would love if I could pay my bills by selling my art. 🙂
How would one produce an art show? Would you rent a place like a hall or something for a day? I really have been pining for years to sell art for a living. I just dont really know how. Should i build a website? Maybe buisness cards to pass out at work?
Join an art collective in your town or get juried into a State sponsored art effort. That’s how I did it.
Veronica, that is exactly what I want also, pay my bills with my artwork.
Your work is great, Veronica — Are you influenced by Francis Bacon? It’s cool to see, 7 years later, that your work is out there. Your efforts, in other words, are evident. Keep Going!
Cory, thanks for your important bogging. I’m getting reproductions made so I can have some passive income and attract an audience that might not be able to afford originals.
In the meantime, I’ll “invest” in myself by painting some larger works. I may hang onto those until I build an audience for them… People who collect paintings for prices around $5000. I don’t have that audience now… Without a gallery, it’s more difficult to build/find those buyers because, as you say, those higher end collectors work with a gallerist they trust.
In the meantime, I’m making giclee prints made from those paintings so I can get steady income on my own. As I get older, I’m attracted to the idea of passive income, as I would like to have more time to travel.
Blogging 😉
Your plan encourages me to have giclees made of
some of my work that is on paper, the originals of which are heavy because they are framed and under UV glass.
This is so costly and cumbersome.
How do you get your prints and giclees out into the world? Do you sell online or get them into shops in your city?
Thank you!
Judy Buskirk – Gig Harbor WA
hi cory, i joined your mailing list a month or two ago and e-mailed you with a quick thanx for the wonderful insights, tips etc that you were giving – plus the interviews i’d watched with successful artists. here we are several weeks later and i now have a new job which is part-time so i can paint all morning before i get ready for my paid job. i’m on etsy -yay! my facebook page is filling up with likes and i am ACTIVELY doing research for at least 2 hours every day on my target market and good business practice. i still can’t thank you enough…and i do believe that your blog was pretty crucial to me turning my life around. i love it! the success has already started for me-my first steps- so i just wanted to say very well done and keep up the good work. you are inspiring artists everywhere i’m sure. ‘hoping this goes into your ‘praise’ file 🙂 regards, suzy s.
Suzy! This is fantastic! So excited to hear about your success!
Hi Cory I took for facebook for artist course a little while back and it was insightful, I did a suggestion in the course that said you could convert your personal page into a business page, overall it was a good decision as I would get distracted by reading posts and instant messaging, but the engagement of fans verses friends is much more work, everything you did as friend page now cost to interact as a fan page which I didn’t realize before switching and you cannot switch back after you convert it over, please include the pros and cons of switching your personal page into a fan page so that everyone is well informed..
Salkis – Thanks for the feedback. You don’t have to spent money to interact with fans. It just helps you reach more of them.
In addition, Facebook’s terms and conditions forbid people from running a business from personal profiles.
Great work on these two posts. I think that we need to read them everyday as a practice to help re-shape our habitual thinking. But first we must become aware of our thoughts! We have over 50,000 thoughts per day, many of which are repetitive. Just like creating art, thinking and building new belief systems are a practice. I think this is where many fall short. If it took us 10-15 years to build a an unconscious belief (as most of us do in our childhood) it will most likely take a while to alter and change it. As you mentioned, we are creatures of habit, our unconscious mind takes over on a lot of everyday tasks and habits that we create (brushing our teeth, the way that we walk, drive, make a sandwich, look at ourselves in the mirror, all patterns) Lots of emotions and feelings are tied into our thinking and acting as well. Are people aware of how they feel when they are making decisions? How does your body feel and react? How do you feel when you sell a piece of your art/work? Does that feeling transcend into other things? If you are aware of the feeling, can you program yourself to feel it again in other experiences? You sure can, it take practice and awareness. Luckily there are great resources out there to help us make changes (like this one) and beyond. Thanks again for the consistent reminders TAA.
My promise is to have a $100K business. I just have to figure out how to make that happen. Selling online sounds like a key part of that. I am plugging into the possibilities and opportunities.
Thanks to you , Cory, I’ve stopped referring to myself as a starving artist. Sometimes I’m still a struggling artist but most of the time I am a steady artist. It IS all about mind set. If you think you are starving then you are, if you think you are struggling then you are. But if you just keep producing and putting yourself out there on a steady basis then you find that even if you’re not selling a lot you can still feel good about yourself and your chosen path. I’ve studied and put into practice the whole positive thinking stuff and it really does work. The trick is to go through your days thinking good positive thoughts about ANYTHING, not necessarily your art, and eventually you start to see your thoughts about selling your art changing as well. Don’t get me wrong, this is not as easy as it sounds. We humans tend to be a very negative lot so it can be quite a challenge to start thinking positively on a regular basis. It feels like work at first but if you keep at it you can retrain you brain to think differently. It takes a lot of patience to be an artist. Most of us are use to waiting for things but that doesn’t mean we have to be miserable doing it. We are also very good in the imagination department and that is exactly what we are using when we choose to think happy thoughts over those nagging dark negative ones. I suggest to people to just try it for one day. Pick something that makes you smile when you think of it and for just one day, every time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought force yourself to think of that happy thing. Yes it will be difficult at first but it is well worth the effort. By the end of the day things are going to seem different. And if you can do this exercise for a week you will see a big change in the way you look at life as well as your art. This practice has not only taken me out of a long depression but has given me the courage to pursue my lifelong dream of being a full time artist. Try it – you’ll like it!
The last question you posed in your article interests me the most as I approach 80 and look back at my 50+ years as an artist. What do I want my life to look like?
Over the years I have known many artists and a good proportion of them wanted to make a living as artists. But many were unable to do so for a variety or reasons, not because they didn’t make good art, but mostly because they could not figure out how to sell or market it. Galleries have been a principle avenue for artists but getting into those has been and can be daunting and perhaps only partially successful. And many artists I knew/know simply turned to making a living in other ways, accounting, selling real estate, doing graphic illustration, teaching (my route), writing, and hosts of other ways. There is not one path, there has always been multiple paths and many good and even some recognized artists get income in ways other than selling their art. And for many the urgency becomes even greater if they want to start a family and need a consistent income source.
Now I look back on my years as an artist with interest, looking at all the different directions and types of art I have done (photography, painting, sculpture, prints, and now iPhone images, etc.) and try to make sense of it, get clarity on the path I have traversed. But of course that is not easily done as we live day to day and the road today is likely to be different than that taken yesterday and sometimes quite different. I just know I have always enjoyed it, mostly.
As an artist I look at that work done over the years and some interests me more than others, of course. And while I take delight in what I have created I am more excited by what I am creating now. Does this include selling? Not really. Over the years I have sold works and it pleases me when someone buys something. But as a “senior” artist I now just make art that I like and keep an eye out for those places on the path where I can make sales. But as a artist friend said to me years ago the larger question may be that as an artist “what do you want your legacy to be”?
In the end I now realize it is what I have often heard said, the journey is more important than the destination”. So if I am having a good time being an artist then perhaps that is most important. Earning a living is another issue that may involve making and selling art or it may be something quite different. But no matter what, you need to be happy with what you are doing and finding satisfaction.
To answer Cory, that is what I would like my life to look like (and has so far).
Very interesting different insight, Stan. Making art for the market or for satisfaction.
First off Cory I’d like to thank you for all your amazing inspiration. Thanks to you I decided to build my own website. The process was a long one but in the end very rewarding. I am a regular reader of your posts and always get something truly valuable out of them. It’s people like you that really do make a difference in this world! Please check out my website and see what you inspired. Thank you again Cory!
Well done Alan! Your site looks great!
Thanks Cory for this post. As you indicated, the world is wide open with possibility, we need to decide on a direction. I feel like it takes a while to figure out the direction. Like most artists I fear mistakes, commitment, and failure at choosing the wrong direction. Maybe I’m just now figuring it all out:-).All that said, I credit your enthusiasm and the many posts that I’ve read from you. You are an awesome inspiration to me and help me filter all the advice buzzing around.
Hi Cory,
I love what you said about “what do you want your life to look like”, that’s exactly where I am right now. I’m an independent artist who is in the midst of creating the life I want and KNOW I can have as an artist. I am a teaching artist who took the summer off of teaching to focus on growing my business. Thank you for these two posts on Mindset…that’s where it all begins! I needed this 🙂
Georgia
Mind set is an interesting topic.
When my art doesn’t sell, my first thought is “What’s wrong with these people?” and second thought is “What’s wrong with my art?”
Sadly, when my art does sell, my first thought is still “What’s wrong with these people?” and second thought is still “What’s wrong with my art?”
So, I’m working on what’s wrong with me.
Thats interesting. Something I’ve come across recently is that there is not you and a problem. There is only you, which is the problem.
Cory, first, thank you!!!
As a fellow coach I know the power of our thoughts. This is why I remind myself and others to be careful with what you think.
I am now a sculptor working at being better at marketing my work but at my core is a coach. As a coach I would be happy to share with you and your readers a fun and creative away to get from your head to your heart about what you want in life, or any other subject. The process uses the power of questions and images. You will be amazed at how powerful this process is!
I hope to hear from you.
Dear Cory,
I appreciate your emails and all the time and effort that has gone into them. You obviously care.
Trouble is the artists you use as examples make ‘tasteful’ work appropriate to interior design – work that makes people feel good.
Being fifty-nine years old with experience of the darker side of human nature, I make art that is challenging (some might say ugly) but is nevertheless ‘true.’ How do I make a living?
Garry
http://www.garrycartlidgeart.com
The same principles apply Garry. There are people interested in all kinds of art. You just have to find those people.
All good stuff but my favorite was your pet peeve at the end. I share your peeve. I’ve seen so much taxpayers money be given to artists who’s art is…..questionable at best. Sometimes really awesome but mostly questionable. And then what happens after the grant? You’ve asked for money, you’ve gotten money, the money runs out….has the artist learned anything? Has the artist learned how to curate? Market? Sell? Be self sustainable or just reliant on handouts that will not last a lifetime? Again, there are occasions where a grant has helped get an artist off their feet, recognized, and continued on the path to “success”, but I’m all for working for what I’ve got, not sneakily getting taxpayers money for it, because let’s face it, it’s never the governments money.
Thank you Cory very insightful. I find starting out has been very challenging. A lot more to it than I thought. I have had major brain overload since starting this venture