Once you start looking for advice about art marketing and the art business, the firehose of information gets turned on. You quickly realize everybody has a plan or formula, and they’re eager to share it with you. All that well-intended advice can become overwhelming, especially when it concerns something important but incidental to being an artist.
I know. I’m one of those people.
I’ve been writing weekly blog posts for artists for more than 20 years. Most of my nine books on art marketing start with or include “how to” in the title. And if they don’t say it specifically, it’s inferred.
Maybe it’s the privilege of getting older that I seem to be getting wiser. There’s an old line attributed to Mark Twain about how his father was a complete fool when Twain was young and how smart his father had become by the time Twain turned 21. I may be butchering the story, but you get the point.
What I’m finding at age 78 is that I feel wiser because I’ve become more informed and gained experience. And one of my wisest revelations is that I’ve come around to thinking that everything starts with you.
Whatever success you attain begins with you. It begins as the seed of an idea that grows into a vision, turns into action, creates momentum, and puts you into the marketplace, where you have a chance to fulfill your dreams, whatever they might be.
Some people get lucky. Through kismet, things start clicking. People show up, systems arrive, and it all seems magical, particularly when viewed from the outside.
My reality is that it never happened for me. And it didn’t happen for nearly any artist I ever met. The ones whose success was noticeable to others did it through skill and hard work. It included a little luck, a great deal of talent, and a lot of perseverance.
But what I really want to talk to you about is this:
What’s your take on your art business?
It’s a challenge to question yourself, beginning with something that seems elemental. I’ve long said that everything good that happens in an art career begins with a conversation.
That includes getting into a gallery, negotiating for a better booth at a fine art show, getting a grant, getting into a school, reaching out to a docent, developing relationships with influencers, and, most importantly, developing relationships with collectors—the people who may buy multiple pieces of your work and refer your art to others over the course of your career.
Every one of those encounters and relationships requires conversation.
But the longer I thought about it, the more I realized that I was jumping into the middle of the stream, even though it seemed like the beginning. And it is the beginning, to a degree. But there is something before it.
I recently wrote a post for Older Artists called “The Thing Beneath the Thing.” It came from my penchant for wanting to understand the why and look beneath what’s going on.
I’ve always felt that if you can deconstruct what happened, you can understand it better. As you begin to understand what truly motivates you first and others second, you find ways to apply those insights in your life or business.
That tendency to be curious about the thing beneath the thing has helped me understand myself and other people. For example, when I see someone acting in their own best interest in a way that also serves others, I wonder why. How did that happen? What motivated them? Where did it come from?
Sometimes I file the insights away, but more often I wonder how I can model that to make myself a better person, a better artist, a more competent marketer, or all three.
And it inspires me to encourage you to think about the thing beneath the thing before you engage in marketing, and to remember that the first conversation begins with yourself.
That’s why I’m asking: What’s your take on your art business?
There are probably many other ways to ask the same question. Some would sound more polished. But I prefer to be blunt sometimes and write the way I think rather than worry about making everything grammatically perfect or precise.
The question gets to the point. It’s also open-ended because I don’t want to guide your answer. I want you to take the question and think about it for yourself. Here’s a method that can help you.
If you use an AI tool for brainstorming, as I do, sit somewhere quiet, turn on the microphone, and give it an unfiltered answer. Just start talking. It’s just you and a machine, and you can express yourself freely about your take on your art business without feeling judged. More likely, you’ll get useful feedback and never get the blank, trapped look because you’re bringing up the same topic and want to go deeper into it.
This process works for me. That is, speaking instead of typing because it lets my mind keep pace with my thoughts, and good things often come from it. When I’m finished, I have my words in front of me and a conversation ready to begin. It’s often a raw brain dump that contains nuggets sprung from my subconscious.
Whatever you say may lead you to something useful and valuable, and often a new perspective on something that might not have even been what you had in mind when you began. Saying what you really think without a filter or concern over anyone’s opinion is a way to understand yourself.
The idea is to open your mind to your own possibilities and perhaps expose some preferences and assumptions you’ve inherited that aren’t actually yours. One of the biggest problems artists face is trying to perform to someone else’s standards.
You read one of my how-to articles—or somebody else’s—and it tells you the key to freedom is building an email list, blogging, using social media, or whatever else the author recommends.
All that stuff can work. It can all be useful, but it needs context.
I wrote my bestselling Guerrilla Marketing for Artists more than 15 years ago, and nearly every one of its close to 20 chapters describes something you can do to improve your art business: networking, promotions, publicity, self-promotion, email marketing, direct marketing, gallery marketing, website marketing, and social media.
Just reading that list is enough to make anybody crazy. How are you supposed to manage all of it?
And if you don’t have a firm grasp on what you’re trying to achieve, it gets worse. You’re using a shotgun when the job requires a rifle, especially if you’re trying to market your work directly to buyers and collectors.
You don’t have time to find a new buyer for every piece of art you want to sell. And you don’t have the time or resources to mass-market to strangers, hoping the right buyers eventually enter your circle of influence.
There has to be something better.
And that brings us back to relationships and conversations. They start with you and then emanate outward. Once you have a clearer understanding of your own take on your art business, you can begin thinking about how to have conversations with people who are likely to appreciate what you do or who are simply worth knowing.
We’re going to talk much more about this in upcoming issues of Art Marketing News. I’m working on something new around these ideas, and I’m excited to see where it goes.
See you next week.
— Barney
PS: If you missed last week’s post, it introduced the Art Business Brief, which offers details and insights worth knowing.
Announcing the Inaugural Older Artist Get Together in Phoenix!
Many of you know I also publish the weekly Older Artist blog on Substack. This week’s post includes an invitation to join me and fellow artists for a lunch date. It will be casual. No agenda, just fellow artists sharing a few minutes with each other. The date is September 23 at 11:00 AM. Since this is the first, I don’t know how many will show. If you can come, please reply so I can get a count and then find a place. I’m thinking of O.S.H.O Brewery - Paradise Valley on Tatum & Shea, near the 51.
Not just art but ALL business is a conversation. Yet we have an entire generation who simply refuses to talk to other humans. I wonder where they'll go?