Helping visual artists become sustainable businesses
Over the 50 plus years I've been capturing images of people and places I'm consistently asked about my motivation for photography and in particular about my style. Typical of my generation I answered in a way that largely focused on motivation and how. Both age and maturity have led me to know … [Read more...]
How many of you are old enough to remember the days of the “hippie-dippy parking lot art fairs”? For those of you unfortunate enough to be born after that era, let me enlighten you. Similar to what we are experiencing today, it was a time of major social, economic and cultural upheaval, and it … [Read more...]
Over the last several weeks we have taken a trip to discover what a Professional Artist” looks like so we could better understand how potential buyers see us and use that image to decide to buy our stuff. As I’ve discussed many times here, knowing who our work attracts is important, because it … [Read more...]
Being a pro is a mindset, a way of seeing life and the world. Because it is a mindset that can be learned, practiced and improved it lives in constant change and is not the exclusive domain of super stars or any other elite class. A part time artists possessing the desire to grow and willingness to … [Read more...]
Over the last couple of weeks we have begun to see the emergence of what a Professional might look like, what qualities of character or heart she might possess along with how she might live a professional life. We’ve examined qualities like: Mastery Growth Fear Transparency We’ve seen how … [Read more...]
Last week I took our framework to a different level in order to refine the concept of being professional and begin painting an image of what a professional looks like.Describing each characteristic of a professional in behavioral terms helps form the palette for creating a visual foundation of what … [Read more...]
The last two installments addressed two key issues related to success as an artist. The first installment presented the core issue facing artists today.That issue was described as a lack of unified identity that clearly frames the meaning of what an artist is and how that blurred identity is … [Read more...]
Last week’s column ended with a challenge for clarity, to begin to look closer at what you do and how you do it. Clarity is important to identity and identity helps others when they are sorting out where you belong in their minds. When potential buyers are in need of something they automatically … [Read more...]
Today we’ll be starting another series this time looking at language and meaning so we can begin to settle on a way to describe ourselves, what we do and our “value position” in a larger context. We’ll also examine the differences between an amateur and a professional to see how increased … [Read more...]