Artist? Marketer? How about both?

Last weekend my mom came out for a visit from Los Angeles. She is an emerging watercolor artist and as such, art is frequently the topic of conversation between us. One of our chats led us to the concept of marketing oneself and their artwork. We talked a lot about why certain artists make it into the limelight when comparable artists might never break the surface.

In what feels like a previous life, I considered myself an artist. I have now adjusted that to an arts administrator (more about all of this another time!). My mom realizes this and as much as she would like to see me going back to making art, she’s no fool and realizes that with the arts administrator title, comes some “inside” information. This is of course just my opinion but I thought I’d share some of those same things I shared with her.

Here are a few of my personal thoughts, some more obvious than others, on how a few artists manage to float to the top…

1. The work has to speak for itself. Plain and simple. I know of artists who I would consider to be better marketers than artists. Sometimes they get shows or some sort of buzz as a result of this, but it doesn’t last (or sell, for that matter) unless they’ve got the goods to back the talk.

2. It doesn’t matter if you consider yourself a card-carrying technophobe or neo-luddite; you need to make yourself and your work easily accessible to the public. Like it or not, most people are reaching for the Internet for information these days, so hop on board! If you don’t already have a website, you should probably get one. Even if you don’t know how to use your website, have someone help you get started. This is your portfolio for the public.

3. Like it or not, there are probably a lot of other artists out there in the world (if not your own community) that have similar work to yours. If someone can’t find info on your work, they’re going to buy or show someone else’s.

4. For that matter, what makes your work stand out? Do you know how to explain that to people when you talk about it? You hear about these elevator speeches when referring to businesses and such, you might want to work on one of these too.

5. You know earlier when I said that some artists are better marketers than artists? Well…you gotta be both. Learn to talk yourself up, or in the case of many reserved artists, find some cheerleaders for your work. Maybe you hire someone to do this work for you, but maybe it’s your spouse, grown children, or friends. Someone is going to have to get out there and brag about you. If you’re not comfortable doing this for yourself, see if someone you know might be.

6. I’ll end it with my favorite: don’t forget why you’re doing this. If you’re not passionate about your artwork, its going to be hard for others to jump on board. Making money is great, but in my opinion, nothing kills artwork more than hearing an artist describe theirs as a business plan.

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