Monday July 25, 2016
As I was wandering around the internet this morning I came upon a video on how to sell your art. He stated “The single most important thing an artist needs to do is...be more interesting.(1) And I thought, Oh that is why I have never sold a piece of art. I'm boring.
Then I started thinking, well how can an 74 year old retired office worker become more interesting. Shall I tint my hair pink or maybe jump out of a plane on my first sky-diving experience. Then I hit on the idea to write a blog. I wanted my blog to be hip and interesting but most of the things I read used words that bothered me (such as f**k and I didn't want that.) So I decided to just write about some of my thoughts without the interesting curse words.
My first musings lead me to the question of why we all want to sell our art. First there is the money. We all could use the money to support our habit (paints get hard and good brushes are not cheap). Also many people actually need the money for their livelihood. Those are the people who choose art as a career.
However, I feel there is another reason which is much more relevant and crucial to our need to sell our art than the money. It is the need to be accepted, appreciated and recognized as a valuable asset to the art community. When a person is willing to pay money for something we have created, it is the ultimate acknowledgment that the customer values us and our creations. When someone else sees our value it also confirms our positive acceptance of ourselves—it feeds our psyche. So I guess I agree with Mr. Garratt that the customer is buying the artist as well as the art.
I suppose I have now come full circle. How can an old 74 year old gray-haired great-grandmother become more interesting. I am open to suggestions and if you would like to boost my ego, please visit my website www.ceblankenship.com and buy my art. Or you can email me at PaintwithCarolyn@aol.com
(1.) Owen Garratt, The Fast Start Art Marketing Primer.
As I was wandering around the internet this morning I came upon a video on how to sell your art. He stated “The single most important thing an artist needs to do is...be more interesting.(1) And I thought, Oh that is why I have never sold a piece of art. I'm boring.
Then I started thinking, well how can an 74 year old retired office worker become more interesting. Shall I tint my hair pink or maybe jump out of a plane on my first sky-diving experience. Then I hit on the idea to write a blog. I wanted my blog to be hip and interesting but most of the things I read used words that bothered me (such as f**k and I didn't want that.) So I decided to just write about some of my thoughts without the interesting curse words.
My first musings lead me to the question of why we all want to sell our art. First there is the money. We all could use the money to support our habit (paints get hard and good brushes are not cheap). Also many people actually need the money for their livelihood. Those are the people who choose art as a career.
However, I feel there is another reason which is much more relevant and crucial to our need to sell our art than the money. It is the need to be accepted, appreciated and recognized as a valuable asset to the art community. When a person is willing to pay money for something we have created, it is the ultimate acknowledgment that the customer values us and our creations. When someone else sees our value it also confirms our positive acceptance of ourselves—it feeds our psyche. So I guess I agree with Mr. Garratt that the customer is buying the artist as well as the art.
I suppose I have now come full circle. How can an old 74 year old gray-haired great-grandmother become more interesting. I am open to suggestions and if you would like to boost my ego, please visit my website www.ceblankenship.com and buy my art. Or you can email me at PaintwithCarolyn@aol.com
(1.) Owen Garratt, The Fast Start Art Marketing Primer.
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