Art Print Issues

Shift Happens - Slideshare is Way Cool, Use It Freely!

Recently, I republished a post from the fertile mind of futurist Watts Wacker wrting in his monthly newsletter, First Matter. In his Keep Your Eyes Open I'm Convinced It's About to Happen article, W2, as he playfully signs his emails, explains the enormous impact Peter Max had on the art market in the 20th Century, and how The Beatles played a part in it too.

Watts postulates THE NEXT BIG THING in the art market will come from China. Agreeing with him, I added a comment on his Web site. It notes how things are vastly different from 40 years ago when The Beatles and Peter Max changed the world. I suggest some musical muse might come from the Caribbean or Africa in a collaboration with a Chinese artist that could shake things up in ways we haven't seen since the 60s. It often seems to me the more unlikely a thing one can imagine today makes it more likely to occur. The slideshow below, courtesy of Slideshare, sheds light on Watt's basis for his prediction.

Futurism is not based on crystal ball gazing, but rather distills the future from what is obvious. You just need to know where to look and how to interpret your results. This, being more difficult than it sounds, is why W2 gets the big bucks. The above Shifthappens slideshow illustrates how in the new millennium we are on the precipice of a historic shift where by sheer numbers in our now close knit digital global age, China and India are poised to dominate the way Western Europe and the U.S. respectively did in the early and second half of the 20th Century.

I can't portend exactly what such a monumental shift will mean to your career as a visual artist. But, I can tell you changes you cannot foresee will impact it as the Shifthappens presentation implies. You can judge by your own experiences that technology has changed and shaped how you inform yourself, create, reproduce, market and sell your art today. I encourage you to be open to change, to embrace it, to productively use it however you can.

In 2005, how many thought artists would use blogging for significant learning and marketing experiences? I opened an account with my blogging software, Typepad, in 2005, but didn't quit my PDF style newsletter until a year ago, making me in some ways a poster child for the poignant Kelly Ruger quote below.

A way cool Web 2.0 program you can employ now is SlideShare. Both presentations embedded in this post are from its Web site. SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations & slideshows. You can upload your PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Keynote or PDF files, tag them, embed them into your blog or website, browse others' presentations, and comment on individual slides. What's more, the transcripts of your presentation will be indexed by Internet search engines and show up in search results. It's a great way to share your ideas with others, or to learn from other people. And it's completely free and you choose whether to make your presentations public or private.

To further stimulate your creativity, review the terrific presentation below, which is also found on Slideshare: Visual and Creative Thinking: What We Learned from Peter Pan and Willie Wonka. Here is just one quote from the presentation which I hope will encourage you to review it:

Sometimes an idea loses its meaning over time, but isn't abandoned because of the investment in the past. These ideals are often so immune to criticism that those who challenge them are ignored or marginalized.- Kelly Ruger

View the Visual and Creative Thinking Slideshare presentation

I've suggested here a couple of time to use The Personal Brain, which is a wonderful mind mapping brainstorming tool. If you are beginning to see a pattern here of encouraging creative thinking and tools, you'd be right. Enjoy!

Five Ways to Market Your Art Direct

We pause this blog for a little shameless self-promotion.

An artist friend who I met after he read my book, which resulted in a series of consulting sessions over the past two years, has decided to take up the offer from a publisher to join his ranks. He had long held the notion that with his considerable business expertise and decent financing he would self-publish his work. He had begun to do that and also to shop giclees of his work to galleries in his local area. Additionally, he also managed to get some of his giclees put in the gift shop of a prestigious venue in his area.

I'm being slightly cryptic here because the ink is not dry on the contract and he has what I consider a terrific idea for an approach to working a niche. If all goes well, he will have a coming out party at the upcoming 30th Annual ArtExpo New York show at the end of this month. When I can share more details,I will be happy to do so.

My friend has recently been re-reading my book, How to Profit from the Art Print Market. It was interesting for both of us to observe what he was going through with the development of his print career. In many ways, his circumstances were exactly as I described in the book. This was down to my mention of having a marketing maven full-time to help grow the business as a key component of self-publishing success for many, if not most artists. His wife is a gifted driven very successful designer in the home furnishings field. Their company has for more than a decade supplied household name brands with licensed designs of all sorts. While she would be perfect in this role, she does not have the time to put her career on hold to help his. Nor would it make financial sense for her to do so.

Left to his own devices, this artist began to realize the difficulties for an unknown artist to be both marketing maven and full-time artist. Plus, he still puts in time at the design business as needed. The bottom line is the uphill battle was starting to look overwhelming given the plausible vision he has for his art and career. As the luck most often found in the residue of hard work would have it, a contact in one of the galleries led him to perhaps the most ideal publisher for his genre and his circumstances. I'm quite happy for him things are going to work out.

What he found was in reading and re-reading my book was two years after his first reading, the basic advice from what to do, what might happen, what the commission structure offered would be and many other things were still spot on and valuable to him in his decisions and dealings with his new potential publisher. It was heartwarming validation for me the underlying advice continued to hold water even though the business continues to undergo substantial, if not monumental, upheaval and change.

More Signs of Change for the Art Print Market

The state and health of the trade magazines and tradeshows that serve the industry are as much a harbinger of how things are working out as any. In October 2006, I put 20 years of tradeshow experience on the line and predicted the Decor Expo Baltimore show would be a bust. That was harsh given the inaugural show was still six months away in April 2007. While I have no official word, I notice the February issue of Art Business News has omitted the 2008 Baltimore show from its Calendar. Not a good sign things are working out. Further, the Web site for the show has no exhibitor list. Since this is a primary tool for enlisting more exhibitors, one can only conclude the show is being quietly mothballed, or in serious trouble. I'm left wondering if another prediction of a sale for the Art and Framing Group by current owner, Summit Business Media LLC, can be far off.

ArtExpo Booth Sales Appear to Be Well Off Previous Year Figures

Meanwhile, the aforementioned 30th Annual ArtExpo New York show appears to also be struggling to bring in the same number of exhibitors as last year. A check today shows 374 companies listed as exhibitors. The list has been updated regularly over the past month with more than 100 exhibitors added to it. Nevertheless, it remains well behind the 600 exhibitors published by the show producer last month. The trade magazines that serve the business also are showing a decline in ad pages. These are pretty good indicators it's rough patch for the art print market these days. The cover story of the ABN issue was on the state of the art economy interviewing some veteran players in the market. While most found some ways to put a bit of positive spin on their outlook, none was overly optimistic.

Five Ways to Market Your Art Direct

It's a good time to review what you are trying to achieve from a business perspective for your career. I'm not talking about a year end review and goals for the coming months. I'm thinking more about what you want for your career financially and awareness. It could be like that of my friend who seeks to find an audience and appreciation for his work and to get the work to market in a way he could profit from the effort. Besides reaching a vastly larger audience, the appeal of the print market for most successful artists who embrace it is it provides them a way to generate repeat cash flow from the effort in creating an original.

I have said it before, but believe it bears repeating. Artists ought to be developing their own direct revenue streams with collectors. Easy to say, harder to do. But when you consider the traditional means are not nearly as robust as before, it provides extra impetus. Here are some ideas for how that might work:

1. Alternative spaces, such as coffee shops, restaurants, building lobbies and waiting rooms. There is a skin care salon located here in tony Paradise Valley that also offers art from local artists. The patrons are a perfect demographic for art. And, they are spending leisure time in the salon on a repeat basis. It works for the artists and the salon owner on multiple levels.

2. Create your own shows. You don't have to have a gallery to do this for you. Decide you are going to do it and follow though. You can create a show in a public space; perhaps a local community college, a church, a rented hotel room. Build some excitement around the uniqueness of the show with publicity or charitable components. Plan far enough in advance to get a good date not competitive with other activities. Enlist your family and friends to help you generate word-of-mouth.

3. Web sites and blogs. Are you selling direct from either? If not, why? Of course, you don't want to compete with any established galleries with an online site or physical location. Why not have exclusives for the galleries that are promoted on your Web site or blog along with exclusive images available only through you? eBay just announced it has new pricing. Apparently, the past year has been difficult with sellers abandoning the once juggernaut for other venues. It might be worth revisiting it for another shot in 2008.

4. Work with other artists. Get other visual artists, or musicians or poets to create a happening. Find ways to collaborate on art and promotion. The group dynamic could be very dynamic and stimulating. You can use something like Meetup that offers tremendous potential to the person with energy and a good idea and a dash of promotional verve.

5. Get in catalogs. The Guild, which is one of my most favorite for indie artists, offers a tremendous platform for sales and visibility for artists through its Artful Home catalog and Guild Sourcebook. It is by far not the only one, but if you are interested, you can act now to submit to its annual juried entry submission process. The competition runs through February 29 and is administered by Juried Art Services, which you should check out for all its offerings. A catalog or sourcebook such as this is one degree of separation, but you ship directly and you get promoted and create a relationship with your customers.

Bottom line is now more than ever, you have to think and act for yourself. The more you take your situation under your own control, the better off you will be. I'm sure there are plenty of other great ideas. If you have any and want to share, the comments section below beckons.

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Visual Art Marketing Tool, the Vlog

Unless you are a first time blog reader, or a new reader of this blog, you know the idea of blogging as an effective marketing tool for artists has been pounded, expounded and nearly ground to death. That's not to say give up on the idea, au contraire, if you haven't yet started blogging get with it post haste.

For those of you who want something more, who can visualize that YouTube is a force to be reckoned with and harnessed, there is video blogging, or vlogging, as it is known. I like the idea myself quite a bit, but haven't conjured how to make it work for this blog. Perhaps that day will come later this year.

Here are a couple of contemporary artists who are effectively vlogging. One is Natasha Wescoat. She is a natural in that there is not much she hasn't done or touched in the electronic media world to help further her career. If you have followed her career and realize she has achieved her success by dint of talent and perseverance on a budget and with other constraints that would have stymied most, it's that much more impressive. An early pioneer in selling art in volume on eBay, she's gone on to continue to develop an avid fan base via the Internet and the tools that come with it, including using vlogging. She has a wide range of video offerings. Here is a sample from her Natasha Wescoat's ArtCandy Web site:

Another artist effectively vlogging is Valentina on her Val's Art Diary site. She sells prints on eBay and DeviantArt as well as her prints. She also has a weekly drawing for a free prize using a clever dart throw selection. Watch the whole video to see how she does it. She uses the videos to give her viewers insight into her as a person and her thoughts about the paintings she creates. Viewer comments for her and Natasha substantiate it's working for both of them. Here is one of Val's weekly vlogs:

These are just two artists exploring how using vlogs can make their art much more accessible and real to their collectors. It's a brave new world out there. Whatever you do, don't forget Val's weekly admonition to eat your cookie. Explore her site and she'll generously show you in another video the tricks she used to make her trademark silhouette "Eat Your Cookie" video.

With the advent of blog and now vlogs, collectors can get to know the artists whose work they admire. Instead of reading the bio sheet and a couple of press clippings, they can get to see the artist, watch work created in time lapse videos and hear in the artist's own words what the the motivation is and what the meaning is behind their imagery. More and more people are spending time on sites like YouTube in lieu of watching reality TV shows. With the interminable Writers Guild strike, who knows how many more devotees the likes of Natasha and Val will be developed.

Jen Bekman's Hip Happening 20X200 Art Print Gallery & Website

One of the most highly promoted and talked about art print ventures this year was the launch of Artaissance. With the ownership and accompanying marketing muscle and budget of the world's largest picture framing company, Berkshire Hathaway owned Larson-Juhl, it was certain to make an impact on the business. It's still too early to know just how extensive the impact will be. But, it's a corporate play and while there is nothing inherently wrong with it as the art business needs captial injection from that sector, what the art print market most needs to move the market and stir things is energy that comes from entrepreurial innovation and investment.

Jen Bekman is the kind of artrepreneur that gets your attention. One you instantly root for and admire for doing what she does. For the past four years, she has championed emerging artists in photography, art on paper and original works promoting them in her pocket-sized Lower East Side Manhattan jen bekman gallery. In an effort to help more artists find collectors and get to market, she acted on a brainstorm and launched the 20X200 Web site based on this proposition:

large editions + low prices + the internet = art for everyone

The art print market could use many more innovators like Jen Bekman, especially ones with her vigor and drive. She also produces the Hey, Hot Shot! photography competition and publishes the influential design blog Personism. We wish much success with the gallery, Web site, competition, blogs and any other worthy projects she finds herself doing.

Rather than rehash her story, the copy below is straight from the OUR STORY page of her Web site. She can tell in her own words better than I to let you in on what a great idea she has developed:

Blog Rush - Generate Targeted Traffic to Your Blog

There are numerous tools one can use to drive blog traffic and find new readers. Obviously, some will work better than others. The folks at Blog Rush have developed a program that looks like a winner to me. If you have a blog, take a look at how Blog Rush can help you find new readers for it. If you have a favorite blog, let its publisher know about Blog Rush. I am certain they will thank you.

You will find the Blog Rush widget on the left side of my blog. Click on the link on the bottom to learn how you can use Blog Rush to help you grow your traffic and awareness. Or click on the image below.

Banksy Gives Prints Away and Fakes Still Get Sold on Ebay

The anonymous (well almost) British graffiti artist, Banksy, who has made a career of setting the art market on its ear hit the news again with this article in The Art Newspaper: Revealed: the eBay Banksy print fraud. The paper claims to have been tipped off by insiders into a scheme to sell fraudulent limited edition copies of Banksy's work on eBay using shills to up the bidding in the process. Read the story, these fakes were selling for thousands of dollars.

Spray Can Rodeo Girl - Banksy

This guy is fascinating. Callen Bair, who blogs about art for the Conde Nast publication Portfolio has written about him. Here's a quote from her initial Banksy post:

It seems ludicrous, then, that collectors are shelling out tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars for Banksy's works at auction, even if they are painted versions of his designs as opposed to prints. (Pie face done in oil on canvas got $379,446 at Sotheby's London in June.) Of course, Banksy agrees: After Sotheby's made a (relative) killing off seven Banksys it put in a February auction of contemporary art, the artist made a new work that shows an auctioneer directing a lively salesroom accompanied by the caption "I can't believe you morons actually buy this shit."

Do You Have a Second Life? Do You Need a Second Life?

If you want to be somebody else,
If you're tired of fighting battles with yourself.
If you want to be somebody else
Change your mind, change your mind. - lyrics to Change Your Mind by Sister Hazel

If you answer is yes, you likely are one of the 8.5 million plus people who have created a virtual alter ego on Second Life. Here is the description of what Second Life is from its Web site:

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 8,558,745 Residents from around the globe.

There are who find it hard to imagine one having enough time for a rich involved second life when their real life is so hectic already, while for others the escape from the clamor of reality is the lure. Me, I signed up and got an avatar, but was fairly bored before I got off Help Island where you learn to walk, talk, drive and fly and get an appearrance and find and move stuff. I did go to some galleries and cafes, but still was anxious to get back to RL (real life) in SL parlance.

Despite my personal experience, I don't underestimate the power of such software to transform people's lives and businesses. That actual countries are setting up consulates on Diplomacy Island gives you another glimpse of the depth of involvement and the potential others see in the virtual world. If you can find a way to make this work for you, go for it and please report back here when you do or if you already have.

Before you think I'm crazy and wonder why I'm posting about Second Life, you should know it is in the press for many reasons. For example, it was featured as a cover story in the May 6, 2006 BusinessWeek magazine with this headline: My Virtual Life - A journey into a place in cyberspace where thousands of people have imaginary lives. Some even make a good living. Big advertisers are taking notice.

The July 4, 2007 edition of The Art Newspaper carried this article: Art Makes a Scene on Second Life - The online virtual world is becoming one of the best places for for artists, curators and dealers to meet. The article mentions the island of Artropolis where artists have set up galleries that sell both virtual and actual art online. One artist claims to have made more than $10,000 offline from contacts made in Second life.

The blog, Business Communicators of Second Life recently announced Sanpellegrino's pool party launch for those whoever wanted to be part of the high brow Italian art and club scene. Wow and darnit! I missed it on July 25. Before you laugh, consider its sponsor is international consulting firm Accenture. So, if you are just bored, want to kill some time in a virtual world and perhaps pick up some sales and contacts you would not otherwise get, Second Life just might be the ticket for you. 

Prince and the Art of Monetizing Free Stuff

Alyson Stanfield, the Art Biz Coach, had an interesting post on her blog today about Prince. She points to an online article from the New York times titled, The Once and Future Prince. The article points out how he changed his name to an unpronounceable glyph and set up his own music club to circumvent the restrictions of his label. This before Napster and iPods, when broadband was strictly a business application. It was an interesting and brave choice. But then those are hallmarks of his career, which now in its third decade shows no signs of slowing down or relying on replaying oldies to pad his retirement. The article details how Prince has been giving his music away and using the exposure to make money, (in his case millions) in other areas.

I often refer to Prince when speaking about POD (Print On Demand) technology because as with so many other things in his career, as the NY Times article indicates, he was well ahead of the curve in seeing how new developments become the norm. Inarguably, POD technology is revolutionizing nearly all of the arts. These days, musicians, artists and writers can all self-publish and with the available help of e-commerce and Internet marketing, they can create a previously unavailable profit stream. Only a few years back, I would have had to shop my book to publishers and hope one would want to take a  chance on the very narrow interest title, How to Profit from the Art Print Market.

Is the Art.com IPO for Real?

Art.com is not acting like a company in pre-IPO mode, or at least that's how it appears to this observer. The company recently announced changes to its contract with self-representing artists only to get a loud, rancorous response as typified by a month long 13-page thread on the Online Visual Artists board titled AR & Sistino firings. Apparently, many staff members of Art.com subsidiary sites, Sistino and Artist Rising were fired en masse on May 10, 2007. These firings might be construed belt tightening as the company moved closer to its IPO. But, in concert with other goings on, it seems less likely the case.

The company bumped the commission on art from 10% to 15% at the same time it took away the lucrative 10% it formerly paid for framing sales. Anyone who has been around the print business, or had a print custom framed for that matter, knows the larger portion of the cost is in the framing. The change has the net effect of cutting artist's income from Art.com.

Further exacerbating the situation are new policies governing which art gets shown on Art.com. When artists originally signed up for paid galleries, it was with the assumption their art would be seen on Art.com. Now the company is saying it will move some art and artists exclusively to the ArtistRising.com site. Also, traffic to the Sistino.com will be integrated into the ArtistRising.com site making it easier for buyers to find art on either site. But, for artists it's a blow to be moved to ArtistRising.com's site when they have come to rely on the visibility from the heavily trafficked Art.com site.

There are also reports of artists whose rankings on the Art.com Web site to have been relegated well off the top. This has the effect of chilling sales for those artists. There are reports of artists receiving favoritism, which while perhaps not democratic or maybe even the best way to operate, is the company's choice to make. Whatever right the company has to rank artist's work, it can be said it's not good public relations to do so in a way to anger artists and without explanation of why some are treated better than others when all are paying the same gallery subscription fees. You can only imagine the reaction this Non-Disparagement clause that has been added to the artist's contract:

You shall not make any negative or disparaging statements (orally or in writing or in any medium, including the internet) about us, the Website or the Program.

Dan, the intrepid erudite blogger who pens Empty Easel offers insightful commentary on the changes in these posts: Is Artist Rising Dead? and Changes in the Works for Artist Rising. If this weren't enough bad press, there are a couple of notable ongoing threads on Wet Canvas: Changes at Art.com/Sistino/ArtistRising and, An analysis of Web sites selling art online that delve into the changes going on at Art.com. Stirring up this much animus and angst is not what most would consider smart action for a pre-IPO company.

Painting is Art, Publishing is Business

The Buzz, Balls & Hype blog recently got my attention with a multi-part series of posts titled, Writing is Art, Publishing is Business. The blog author, M.J. Rose, is a successful author of eight books and numerous magazine articles. She has a program called Author Buzz that helps authors get noticed and find readers. Wouldn't it be great to have a service like that for painters and self-represented print artists?

Wishful thinking aside, my admittedly creatively borrowed title (with homage and apologies to M.J. Rose) applies equally as well to the art biz as it does the book biz. The more authors and artists come to grips with the fact that getting work sold requires a business approach that has little do with the creative product being promoted, the sooner they understand their success quotient. I've said it too many times to have counted, "Artists who have attained success in the print market are not in the art business. They are in the business of building, nourishing and replenishing a dealer network."

It goes without saying the art must resonate or the book be a compelling read, but beyond the likability factor, there has to be buzz, balls & hype. There has to be the three Ds: Discipline, Desire and Details. When these factors are in place with an adequate budget and persistent smart marketing, success ensues. Go forth and paint. But also go forth and build ye an awesome dealer network that will love to sell your work.