FineArtViews Newsletter Straight Talk about Art, Marketing, Inspiration and Fine Living For Artists, Collectors and Galleries (and anyone else who loves art)

 

 

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* Focal Point:  aesthetic experience

 

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How to Sell Your Art Without Selling Out

My name is Steve Popkin and I'm a glass artist. I have been working with glass for many years. More than likely you've never heard of me nor seen any of my work and that's OK. Probably much like you, I have always loved creating art. My dream as a child was to create great new "masterpieces" in drawings, paintings, jewelry, photography, clay, etc.

After years of creating artwork & selling it for less than what it cost me to make... or even worse, giving it all away to family and friends...

I figured if I was going to sell my work I needed to invest the time, money & research to do it right and discover the secrets of how well-known artists made their name & living.

It took effort but I finally "Cracked Their Code" and figured out Exactly how they did it and...I started doing it and making money!

My artist friends began questioning me . . .asking what I was doing differently.  It wasn't long before I realized there was a great want & need for this knowledge.

I took everything I learned and organized it into an easy to understand, step-by-step course any artist or craftsman could simply apply and
become successful. . .

Learn How to Sell YOUR Art Without Selling Out:
http://fineartviews.com/offers/popkin

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Art by Adan Lerma
Today's Selected Commenter



http://www.adanlerma.com/

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Dear {{FirstName}},

It's Halloween and, as has become our custom, we take a break from our normal commentary to stop and reflect on the holiday.  Our long-suffering readers know that our reflections run deeper than just the holiday in question and tend to poke around at the innards of our society.  We like to throw in some philosophy for good measure.  Why do we feel compelled to write these diatribes?  Probably because we like to question the status quo, we feel it's healthy to think for ourselves.  So while the rest of the world is content with a simple "Happy Halloween", we present you with our following commentary on Halloween, Gentlemen and Art . . . and how modern society tries to degrade them into mere shadows of their former selves.

We've noticed a trend in modern society, dear artists.  We, as a people, have a way of taking things...good and bad...and hollowing them out.  Like a man carving a Jack-O-Lantern, we take the meat out of the pumpkin and we're left with nothing but a pretty (or ugly) face on top of an empty shell.

Take the word "gentleman" for example.  The word has lost it's meaning.  Today, of course, we think of a "gentleman" as  a "nice guy."  But, it once was a word to describe a man who had a title and owned land...but, ironically, such a man could be a complete ass and still be considered a "gentleman."  

We see this "hollowing out" in art too.  As enlightened artists, you of course understand that "art" means something.  For something to be "art", it must accomplish something.  It must be "good" or "beautiful" ... at least if it's to be good or beautiful art.  But society has tried to tell us that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"...that art is "subjective"....that it's all "relative."

But, that doesn't seem quite right to us who really "get" art.  Because if art is "subjective" then there really can't be a concept of "better."  And once you throw out the concept of one piece being "better" than another, then it really wouldn't matter any more what you do with your art.   If there's no "better", then every brush stroke you make would be equally as "good" as another.

And, if that were true, as Paul Graham points out then, "You could just go out and buy a ready-made blank canvas.  If there's no such thing as good, that would be just as great an achievement as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel."

Halloween, in it's modern-day incarnation, is sort of the "gentleman" of holidays.  We don't stop to wonder what we're doing or why.  We just do it because everyone else is.  It's sort-of lost it's true meaning, although it seems it was derived from many different types of celebrations.  So, in essence, Halloween is the empty shell of several old celebrations....some good, some bad.

In the western world, the most-probable parent of Halloween would be "All Saints Day."  That would have been a celebration of Christian "saints."  We're not naive enough to believe that the celebrated "saints" were all saintly all the time, after all they were real people.  But that's the point, "All Saints Day" stands for something REAL ... real people with sins and failures alongside their goodness and triumphs.  

As Bill Bonner writes, "...regardless of your views on the afterlife, All Saints' requires at least some reflection...on the lives of our forebears, on the challenges they faced and perhaps the lessons that could be learned from them."

But Halloween has become "subjective", just like the powers-that-be would have us think about art.  It has become a day that is not "good" or "bad" - just a day that we confuse our kids and tell them that today . . . unlike the other 364 days a year . . . it's OK to take candy from strangers.

We think that the underlying "motivation" that causes this "hollowing out" effect is a desire to avoid the ugly or the bad.  People prefer the word "gentleman"  to mean a "nice guy" because then one doesn't have to acknowledge that a "gentleman" can be a real ass.  And in art, why have to admit that some "art" really does stink?  It's much more positive to simply say it's "subjective" and that "we're all winners."  And why have to muck up the works on Halloween by talking about the shortcomings and failures of real people?  It's much more fun to dress up and go get some candy!

The problem is, of course, that you can't really have good without bad....or, more specifically, you can't have amazingly beautiful without the real stinkers.  You need both ends of the spectrum to truly appreciate those on the "amazingly beautiful" side.  

So, you can't truly appreciate a nice guy until you've after you've met a few real asses, the skill of Michaelangelo becomes apparent when put his works next to the childish dribblings of a "modernist."

And on, "All Saints Day", celebrating the lives of real people, with with real shortcomings make apparent the amazing beauty of the Creator and the glimpses of His beauty that occasionally...just occasionally peek through in all of us.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson
Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic

PS - We forgot to tell you, "Happy Halloween!"


Related Pages and Posts:

How Art Can be Good (Paul Graham)

It's All Saints Day (Bill Bonner/DailyReckoning)

Editor's Note:  Each day we republish selected comments and artwork by artists who comment about the previous day's article.  If you would like to share your thoughts, artwork and views with thousands of artists and collectors, (not to mention getting a valuable inbound link to your website) be sure to post a comment on today's article at the following link.  To be considered, be sure to provide your comment through the link NOT by simply replying to this email.  Make sure to comment before the end of the day to be considered for inclusion in tomorrow's newsletter:

A chance to get your views and web site featured in tomorrow's letter:
http://fineartviews.com/483

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Adan Lerma Wrote:

i won't say i wouldn't've come as far with my website as i have without your newsletter tips re driving traffic to one's site, but i can say without a doubt your articles are providing a roadmap through some tricky twists and turns and roads littered with "closed for construction" type detours

adding one's photo (in my case i opted for a series of pictures to get to more of gestalt that is "me") to one's website; developing and nurturing one's own personal mailing list; doing then improving the delivery and look of the available email newsletter; adding content and links that expand dramatically the reach that one's website can grasp for; and now, the "thing" i see and avert my eyes from so frequently 'cause i know it's gonna take another "upgrade" in my efforts, knowledge, and implementation: the rss feed

though i really should acknowledge the cumulative positive effect of the information in your newsletter todate on the effectiveness of my website, this particular piece (and we need more info on this, please :-) is the tipping point where i have to break silence

and so no one thinks this is some unabashed gooey nothing-could-be-better review/comment regarding your newsletter, i'll simply add one example of a differing viewpoint, differing with you and with robert genn, whom i admire tremendously: not presenting oneself or work to non-art lovers, like the classical musicians playing in the new york subway (i think) is not always a given of what not to do; i think sometimes advertising oneself beyond the strict bounds of the art world, but knowing it's for "promotion" first before sales (and you may have mentioned this) is not only valid, but can be profitable and encouraging

all that said, it's great to know we (the artist) still gets to pick the destination, but you're still willing to give us road conditions :-)

that's it, thank you much!

adan lerma
www.adanlerma.com 


More Comments:
http://fineartviews.com/481

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Make Your Opinion Count!

If you would like to comment or share your own opinions, additional information or observations to this or other issues, please do so. Just click visit the link below:

http://fineartviews.com/483

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The Artist-Gallery Partnership
A Practical Guide to Consigning Art:
http://fineartviews.com/offers/crawford.asp

Business and Legal Forms for Fine Artists:
http://fineartviews.com/offers/crawford1.asp

The Practice and Science of Drawing
by Harold Speed:
http://fineartviews.com/offers/speed.asp

The Road to Excellence
by K. Anders Ericsson:
the Acquisition of Expert Performance in the Arts and Sciences, Sports, and Games
http://fineartviews.com/offers/ericsson1.asp


Duct Tape Marketing
by John Jantsch:
http://fineartviews.com/offers/jantsch1.asp


Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light and Color
by Kevin Macpherson:
http://fineartviews.com/offers/macpherson1.asp

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From the FineArtViews Blogs:

Summer Leftovers by cooper
http://fineartviews.com/blogs/1765
(Karen Cooper)
Posted: 10/31/2007 9:37:06 AM

Mere Shadows of Halloween, Art and Gentlemen by Clint Watson
http://fineartviews.com/blogs/1764
(FineArtViews Blog
by Clint Watson)
Posted: 10/31/2007 9:20:25 AM

OOPS! by
http://fineartviews.com/blogs/1763
(PATSI HUGHES (C) Southwest Artist)
Posted: 10/31/2007 8:59:55 AM

SCARY ARTWORK by PAT QUINN
http://fineartviews.com/blogs/1762
(PAT QUINN CUSTOM FINE ART)
Posted: 10/31/2007 5:08:45 AM

Second day........ by Marie K Godwin
http://fineartviews.com/blogs/1761
(Marie K Godwin)
Posted: 10/30/2007 6:06:23 PM

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