The Art of going Pro: the missing piece

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...]

The Art of Going Pro: an identity crisis

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...]

Part 2: Preparing to do wholesale. My initial questions.

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  As soon as I knew I was attending the Buyer's Market of American Craft (BMAC), I wrote a couple of notes to Wendy Rosen. She’s an amazing woman and a terrific advocate for the artist. She is the founder of the Rosen Group and the Buyer’s Market of American Craft. She immediately suggested … [Read more...]

Save the Artist Save the World

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    What exactly is art? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Sure...probably everyday you walk into your studio and I’ll bet you never thought of yourself as a super hero...well think again. Let’s face it, art is more than brushing paint onto a canvas, or throwing that perfect pot... … [Read more...]

Leading your followers, sliced bread, whales, Twitter,and history

Note: This was originally posted Tuesday 2/9/10 but taken down due to code conflicts that were effecting the site's performance. I've fixed the bugs so these outstanding TED talks could be available to you. The following TED talks occurred last year, they talk mostly about change and the shift we … [Read more...]

Getting Started on the right foot: part III

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  Start investing in yourself because you are your business While this may feel like it belongs in last week’s Mindset section it also belongs here as one of most important cornerstones of best business practices, especially for very small businesses. Why? Because, small businesses tend to sell … [Read more...]

Drawing is a way of seeing better

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As a graduate student in design I was able to see how my much younger classmates were able to see the world with much more clarity than traditional liberal arts students. The more I observed this phenomenon the more I believed that a design/visual arts education was far better at equipping young … [Read more...]

Lorrie talks about business and art

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One of the my primary reasons for initiating the Featured Artist series last year was to spot light artists who are successfully selling their work so other artists, whether emerging or veterans, could have examples and role models. Each of the artists selected are in various stages of turning their … [Read more...]

Jan talks about lessons learned

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 What are the most important lessons you have learned about being an artist and selling your work? Selling your work takes a lot of time! It’s an entirely new area for most artists. You need to get educated about sales, marketing and the business end of art, that’s as important as taking … [Read more...]