image by aristocrats-hat
What if you could create a situation where you sell your art, you help people in need, and the people who bought your art felt like they were doing a good deed? I have personally spoken to a half dozen artists who are in just that situation.
Over the past few weeks I’ve had the privilege of speaking to some artists and entrepreneurs who have created situations where everybody walks away better than they started. It kinda blows my mind. Eleatta Diver’s Durham Dreams project and her other charity work are growing at a ferocious pace. We’ll have more from Eleatta in a future post. Naysawn Naderi’s Art Sumo business is just 3 months old, but has already helped many artists from developing nations gain international exposure. Gwenn Seemel has been blogging about infertility and disability on her own blog. Each other these individuals are doing work that is important, using their artistic voice to shine light on a cause.
It seems like the artists I know, as a whole, are heavily involved in charity work. Perhaps its the sensitive artist soul. Perhaps charities see artists as great ways to grow their cache (boy does that sound cynical). Perhaps artists are as prophetic as some historians make them sound.
Tap Into Your Soul
I’m a fan of Plato’s Forms as a secular way of explaining spiritual things. For every object in our physical world, there is the idea of that physical object in the metaphysical world of the mind. The Greeks were smart people, and it’s fun to reach back into their world to explain some of the things that we experience on a day to day basis. A chair has chair-ness in the metaphysical world, thus one person creates a wooden rocking chair and Herman Miller creates the Aeron chair. They both work as a chair, but they are vastly different.
An art business is just that – a business. Until you tap into the Form of an art business. What is the metaphysical idea of selling your art for money? What is the manifestation of the exchange of value for your work? How can you reimagine what you are doing now?
I recently had the pleasure of exchanging several emails and conversations with Kitty Kilian. Kitty took the question, “What makes you different from all the other artists?” very seriously. She agonized over it. She asked friends. She blogged about it. We spent some coaching time together. Finally she settled on a unique selling position of “100% Cynicism Free Art.” If you know Kitty, it makes sense. It’s her.
I don’t know how she finally made the decision to go with that phrase. I should ask her some time. I think it had something to do with blog comments and going with her gut.
There should be an element of Spirit in everyone’s work. The way that artists do their work forces them to be a little bit closer to the unseen than most people are on a daily basis. Truly great art comes from within – and truly great businesses come from within as well.
Lead with Your Heart
All in all, I don’t do a ton here at The Abundant Artist. I give people some tools to operate on the Internet, and I give them permission to be great. Sometimes when I receive praise from artists I’ve worked with, I want to deflect it, because these artists don’t see that they’ve truly done most of the work themselves.
Whether you are a supreme genius marketer, the most success will always come from leading with your heart. If your art touches people’s lives, if your business practices are in line with your value system, and you feel happy and energized doing what you do, good things will always come. Abundance will flow.
So – how do you lead your art business with your heart?
*Hi Cory- to answer your question: that tagline came as a gift by one of the subscribers to my newsletter. From her vacation address she sent me an email with this suggestion. I was so touched – that she took the time to think about it at all, and also that she got it so totally right – because I do different things but irony is indeed the connection. The hard thing with art is that it is almost impossible to describe in a few words how it looks. So going for the content is the wisest thing, And then it also has to be catchy.
*About deflecting praise: if things come easy, they always seem like nothing special. That you lay out this entire online marketing world in 8 sessions, within everyone’s grasp and doable in maybe 8 weeks, is pretty awesome though. I have not found anything like it so packed with information yet.
Inspiring article Cory. This forces me to reach for a phrase for my photography, what is the essence of what I wish to create? It is somewhat more difficult since I don’t put brush to canvas, still one seeks an expression. Perhaps I’ll need to put more time into this thought. Kitty’s slant, or element of Spirit, as you put it, is indeed a worthwhile one. Don’t know if I can reach that as I work in so many different categories. Thanks for a great post.
@boxomail Don’t sell yourself short. You might be able to reach it. @KittyKilian works in several different mediums. She paints, draws, as well as stitches cloth paper.
I really enjoyed reading this article. To have a successful business, you really do have to lead with your heart and your values. My wife is a good example; she never had any business training, but has a growing infant and children expressive arts business! She definitely leads with her heart and gut. I’ve recently begun donating a percentage of my art sales to charities, as it feels right to me. I look forward to thinking more about how I can lead with my heart with my painting business! Thanks again.
@davewhitepaint Thanks Dave. I’d love to have your wife stop by and talk about how she’s leading her business with her heart.
Loved the article. I read a book talking about living the life that you love and the rest will follow. Because if your out there your path will cross with like minded people and It grows from there. Your leading from the heart article reminds me of that. The things in life I have a passion for are first. everything else takes a back seat and because I am happy it shows in my art, and my life. As I truly live the life I love.
@katcarrier @stepheybaker glad you liked it. thx for the RT!
The articles tells about theories. Does theories and hypotheses sell art?
One year back I got in touch with a art marketer. She instead of helping
me to sell art, used me to promote herself, her website and her other business.
I am yet trying to recover from the trauma I have to face whole of the 2014.
I was just talking to a colleague this morning where he was explaining the Virtuous Cycle. Which, in a way, is what I think the conversations are leaning towards. I found this quote from a website explaing the virtuous cycle.
“…a loop of actions or events whereby results allow the loop to be repeated with ever increasing results. It is associated with self-reinforcing practices and processes that gain strength from their outputs.”
I really want to create an art practice that allows me to not only benefit me and my family but others outside of my direct circle of influence. Eventually I will figure out what art I want to make. ?