Paying My Marketing Dues

One thing I really hate about being a 2-D or 3-D artist as opposed to a performance or musical artist is that a manager is VERY hard to find.  I am an artist that wants to focus on my art.

My muse is being in the wild places, seeing the wild thing, reveling in the beauty of all things natural and absorbing the experience of every one of my senses in the moment in order to translate it into my art. Not everyone can do that, therefore, my time for that is very valuable and my highest priority.

Every seminar or workshop or article related to "getting your work out there" demands that I devote as much as half of my time to marketing my art in various social media, blogging, newsletters, emails, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,  Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, websites,  and on and on ad nauseum.  Gawwwwd!!!
I am quite frustrated with this model.

Most marketing people spend eight hours daily doing marketing while workers work, managers manage, producers produce, etc.  People actually get degrees in marketing and rarely do artists get double degrees in Art and Marketing.  It really is two very distinct career paths.  If I could market my work while I am out on a hike in a forest 5 miles from the next human, then I would be an awesome marketer.  But I am not.

It is ludicrous to assume that an artist must be superb at marketing too. I am doing what I can and trying to think outside the box.  My job is creating art and managing my art business.  I also enjoy writing the Obsessive Artist blog, posting to Facebook, Twitter, & Google+, I have an Etsy Shop, and design & maintain my website at vlynnmoore.com.

I can handle this but really I see no added benefit to taking on more social media that locks me in a room behind a computer screen just to get my art seen by hundreds of people that perhaps only 2% (at best) may be moved to a purchase.  I think I need to be in the public eye, face to face with people and talking about my passion in person.  I think eye contact is a better marketing model than a computer screen.  I think that perhaps if I can get other people excited about my work by sharing my passion in person with them, then they will share my art work on their social media.

 I have a good and diverse portfolio that I can use to approach some galleries.  I am trying to build up a body of work that will appeal to two distinct demographics that I know well, which are the waterfront/beach people and  the wilderness/highland folks.  I do analyze the "Who, What, Where, When, & How" for both demographics to decide on the subjects that I paint.  I try to recognize the "What's In It For Me" (WIIFM) factor for my audience. I regularly research and learn new techniques to improve my skill set.  I do my best to create a quality product upon which I am proud to attach my name.  

Sales...

Wow...I just did my taxes and was expecting a big bill for the entire year of sales tax.  *sigh*  Let's just say it was pitiful.  As an artist, my income was beyond abysmal. What is odd is that I thought I was doing pretty well - all year!  I attribute that to my non-consumerism and somewhat "campy" lifestyle.
By campy, I mean that I do like to go camping.  It is cheap, self sufficient and empowering. I am a member of a ladies camping group called Sisters On The Fly (SOTF) and we meet up all over the country.

 I have met some of the most amazing and beautiful characters! It is truly a joy to participate in the events. I went to the great Smokeys and learned how to make biscuits in a dutch oven. I met real wild wolves in the mountains of New Jersey, along with sisters that made me laugh for the whole visit!.  I learned some incredible local customs and emergency camping and flood skills with my friends in Pennsylvania.  I learned the skills and preparation needed to paint in the wild on Assateague, a barrier island in Maryland.
 
 I have a couple of events already planned for this year.  I hope to go fly fishing in Virginia in a couple months and plan to toddle off to one of my favorite waterfall wonderlands in West Virginia for the Camp Like a Girl event.

I tend to stick to my mid-Atlantic area mainly but I am dreaming of more if I can ever afford a newer vehicle. I really want to go to Maine for an event in September. That brings me back to my point...and now I need to decide which point is more important.  Point one is that my income is abysmal.  Point two is that I barely noticed.

So, with regards to point one; I need to make my art more accessible to my audience.  I guess that means that I need to define my audience a bit more and market my work to those folks.  One of my "sisters" gave me a idea, which I intend to follow.  She suggested that I try a different point of view - which is simply brilliant.  Sallianne, I am on it girlfriend!
Another sister/mentor suggested something that I have been missing - YouTube.  So I think that I will ask friends to take video of me working and start creating videos of my process or working plein air or whatever.  Perhaps I will do something inspirational for someone on video.  I like the idea. Thank you Karen! One never knows what will truly connect with the viewer.

Regarding point two; well, I like my lifestyle.  It minimizes the impact of my own situation and the poverty that is prevalent in my world.  No, I don't wear designer clothes or carry designer bags or dine in fancy restaurants.  But in order to get the photos, the paintings, the artworks that represent my world, I do not need or really desire any of those things.  I like to go camping.  Camping is typically inexpensive, fosters creativity, communication  and is a whole lot of fun.

I do desire and quite possibly need a newer vehicle that I can depend upon to carry me around the country on my little adventures.  My current vehicle is over 10 years old and has over 200k miles.  However, each month my old SUV is free unless I need some maintenance.  I hate to give that up because I am not making enough for a $300 a month payment to some rich banker for a replacement and cannot afford the tires/brakes/upkeep or whatever on top of the payment...So...what to do?  Playing the lottery has odds equivalent to becoming a successful artist in my lifetime so I guess I will keep trying to make beautiful art and improve my sales skills... and play the lottery too.
There;  I just doubled my chances!

Winter Wild

When the land goes dormant and the temperature plummets to where no living thing can feel comfort, I still see beauty and wonder in the wild of my cold mountain.  It is the nature of this planet to have four seasons and I love the winter wild.

Life is everywhere in winter.  Even while chipmunks, turtles, snakes and insects all dig in for a long winter snooze and the bears are sleeping, all the babies are growing strong.
Many birds and other mammals are eeking out their existence in the cold and snow.  Squirrels and nuthatches survive on nuts and seeds that they gathered in the fall.

 Wild turkey meander across the winter fields in search of harvest leftovers.  Deer are wandering and nibbling at the green stems of forest or suburban shrubs.

Cardinals begin their mating rituals, surviving on winter riverside berries and bird feeders.  Eagles and hawks soar above in an endless dance of air borne predator and land bound prey.

This morning I woke to temps around 4 F (-15.5 C) and as I was stoking the fire in the wood stove, I found myself thinking about how wonderful it is to have 4 seasons.

I also think of how appreciative I am for all that I have...a good hubby, warm home, wild critter neighbors, and relative good health to name a few.

 I do worry that the wonderful winters will diminish in this warming world and that I may be one of the last generations of humans to experience and appreciate the beauty of 4 seasons.

 I read that the arctic temps are above freezing and equatorial water temps are approaching the highest ever recorded.   I have seen the world get warmer over the course of my lifetime.
My birthday wish is that all the future years will see a restoration of sanity and that future humans will live in harmony with their world without exploiting it.  It is my birthday wish that the value of wild will be higher than the value of a dollar.

Collateral Damage

Most folks think the term "collateral damage" is only used in the movies or during war.  It is not true.  I see collateral damage far too often on my wild little mountain.  It is mostly due to human depredation.

During hunting season I get every suburban and urban weekend warrior from the northern Virginia and DC area converging on all of the properties surrounding my little mountain.  I live between two large wildlife management areas, which is code for a free for all hunting craze beginning Thanksgiving week.

The locals hunt too but, for the most part, they are following rules, boundaries, and providing for family and neighbors winter food resources as well as culling the herds.  It is the non local weekend warriors that annoy me.  They invade my posted property lines -which is threatening to me and my dopey dawg as we toddle around on our daily hikes across my mountain.  I am required to dress myself and my dog as a pumpkin in order to avoid being mistaken for prey - the "drunk hunter" loophole.
What I find equally irritating is the waste.  In the past 10 years of living here, I have found several wounded animals that I have had to put down. Then there are the complete carcasses (minus a rack or a bear paw) discarded in my stream or on my property.  It is one thing to kill an animal, but to waste the life of that animal  for nothing more than a trophy rack or claw is unforgivable.  One is not a great hunter if you cannot finish kill by dressing out the animal and using as much as possible for the good of your family or your community.

This is a sad collateral damage story.  These twins were born here on my mountain.  Mom did not survive hunting season this year.

 Spot nearly lost her life too. You can see the entrance and exit would on her shoulder.  For the record, there is no "fawn season" in this area.  Spot is healing and the twins are relatively safe as long as they do not wander off my mountain and into the sites of the periodic poachers or an oncoming vehicle.

What does this have to do with art?  Well, as an artist, I "see" things in a different way than most. My gift can be a curse when one is a synesthete.  I feel everything I see both physically and emotionally.  So in that respect I am the collateral damage of the shooting of Spot.

Bucket List Item

Ever since I was 15 years old, I have wanted to go to the land of Misty and Stormy of Chincoteague.  For those that don't know, these were titles of books that I read as an adolescent. I was completely enamored with the stories of these little horses carving out a life on a wild barrier island. 
 It was all so close to me in the south western Maryland shore of the Chesapeake but it was always just beyond my physical reach.  

The Chesapeake Bay is a pretty big barrier.  Ticking off a bucket list item was the original plan but upon arrival on Assateague for the first time in May of  2015, I fell in love with the charm and beauty of this wild place. 

During my most recent visit in the fall, I participated in plein air workshops and discovered this new passionate pursuit.  


 Next spring, I will be spending 3 days in the back country painting the wild denizens of this beautiful barrier island.  I can hardly wait to return to see all of the wonderful and wild creatures that are beginning to seem like amusing old friends. 

Networking

Well, it has been a while since my last post and I am sorry about that...It is summer and computer problems tend to take a backseat to sun, fun, & sailing.  Anyway, if there is one piece of advice that I would offer any aspiring artist, aside from taking time for some sun, fun, and sailing,  it would be to start networking with the local artisans.

 Get involved with your local arts councils.  In fact, get involved with the arts councils for the surrounding counties or regions as well. There is no better resource for meeting inspirational artists or discovering venues or participating in artisan events in your area, all of which gets your work seen by the public.  Most arts organizations are a low cost and highly valuable resource for any artisan.  Get involved! It is worth it.  Often, the arts councils will have resources for their members such as venues and events for displaying and/or selling your work, juried shows which may include awards and cash prizes and newsletters that let you know about local and regional opportunities.


If there is an artisan co-op in your area, you should get involved with that as well.  A co-op is a perfect venue for both local traffic as well as opportunity for tourist exposure.  Tourism is an excellent way to get your art seen beyond the local city limits.  Another benefit of the artisan co-op is that you will be working with a wider variety of artisans, crafters, farmers, and musicians.  It often becomes a center for learning and entertainment, thus drawing in a wider audience which is a valuable resource for any artist, regardless of their medium.

Nowadays, it should go without saying; get yourself a website.  The most economical and useful site that I have found is Etsy.  Etsy is a web company for artisan, crafts, and vintage items.  All arts and crafts are required to be hand made.  They will set you up to make sales online and the cost is truly minimal.  It costs a 20 cents to create a listing that lasts for 3 months.  Yes, that is right - 20 cents.  I usually keep around 25 listings which costs me around $5 every 3 months but there are no limits.  The trick to using Etsy though is to create a new listing every week which keeps your shop in the spotlight of the search engine for new stuff.  Also you can get involved with teams or groups of fellow "Etsyans" in your area or style of arts.

Most artists cherish their time in the studio and are accustomed to working alone for long hours in obsessive detail and fervor.  I would remind the artist, as I occasionally have to remind myself,  that no one can do it alone.  Cast a wide net and it will work for you.  An artist needs an audience to appreciate their work.  An audience needs the artist to touch their soul.  Taking the time to network is the only way an artist and an audience can find one another.

Creating & Marketing Your Unique Artistic Style

The struggle that almost every artisan faces in this business is creating a style that is unique and then marketing that aspect.  I am not the greatest salesperson but I do recognize the value of a good market strategy. There are hundreds of jewelry makers, gourd makers, artists & craftsmen out there.  My market strategy is simple.  There is no one out there, that I have found, that does those things they way I do or can do it better than me.

For example, There are folks that buy beads & parts at craft stores make jewelry and vendors that get jewelry and sell it for a company like a franchise.  I, on the other hand, order my parts online in bulk and make my own pendants and earrings by cutting, shaping & melting the raw materials in my kiln.  I also find local semiprecious gemstones for making into jewelry. My designs are truly hand made and unique one of a kind pieces.

 My artwork is also uniquely my style.  I like to do portraits of people or animals or both.  What makes mine unique is that I usually do them in pencil - not paint and I sometimes add pops of color with colored pencil.  I have done some in full color that end up looking more like a watercolor.  When I choose a subject, I can see it completed in my head before it is finished so I have already decided how much color, if any will be involved.

When an artist begins to develop their own style, it is like taking a creative journey.  While it is a simple process sometimes it can be difficult to master.  The key (as in anything) is practice, practice, and more practice.




 Once you have developed your skill set and understand the rules of the medium you can then become experimental with the skills or bend rules to foster the creation of your style.  The process takes time.  The beauty is seeing your personal progression and it is very rewarding for most artists.  It is like life itself...It is all about the journey.