I was amazed to find the lawyer who practically invented the concept of Art Law, Attorney Leonard DuBoff. Besides his 15 books on Law in Plain English, his Oregon firm specializes in artists.

You can imagine how happy I was to have him come to the smARTist Telesummit to explain the ins and outs of copyrights in his presentation Art Law: What Artists Must Know About Copyright.

Here are 5 surprises about copyrights that came out of his presentation:

1. If you are living outside the USA, there are 3 multinational treaties that govern 135 countries. To find out if your county is one of them…  …go to> http://www.copyright.gov/

• The Berne Convention provides reciprocal rights, and “moral” rights, for copyright owners in all member nations.
• The Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) protects copyrights using this international symbol © for member nations.
• The Buenos Aires Convention (North & South Americas) protects copyrights using this symbol ©, plus adding the legend, “All Rights Reserved.”

2. Yes, we have the standard, automatic copyright protection. But did you know that you also have to also affixed the symbol ©, your name, and date first made public to all work you plan to sell if you want to be covered under all possible circumstances?

I know, there’s controversy over dating work, but it’s important to weigh this against copyright considerations. One idea is to put this information on the back of paintings, or under the base of sculpture – where it isn’t easily seen and so not likely to affect a sale.

3. Besides the copyright symbol, registering your work means you can get back either your attorney’s fees or “statutory damages (up to $150,000) if you ever have to go to court because someone is stealing your work.

4. Copyright infringement has a 3-year statute of limitations. So pay attention! Goggle your name, titles of your work, anything that might come up as “you” on a regular basis.

5. Garment design, wearable art (think clothes and jewelry), and functional art cannot be copyrighted directly. You can, however, work around the limitations to some degree, like registering the fabric design even when you can’t register the pattern of the garment.

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P.S. Attorney DuBoff goes into more details about how to copyright, how to register, why a trademark is a good idea… and so much more. I’ve put together a cool new smARTist Exclusive bundle where you can get this and 2 more bona fide experts to help you Protect Your Art. Protect Your Income. And Protect Your Health.

A subject dear to all our hearts: keeping the money we work so hard to earn.

Thank goodness I discovered Peter Jason Riley, a certified public accountant who has spent his career fine-tuning the best tax strategies ever for artists.

Here are 7 pointers from his presentation – Watch Your Wallet! Strategic Tax Planning for the Visual Artist that I want to make sure you know about:

1. You have 3 choices for how your business is structured…

Keep reading →

Every year, for the past four years, I’ve poured over your Vision Questionnaires from the previous smARTist Telesummit to see what’s on your mind.

This time, I’d like to include you directly in the process of helping me decide which speakers and which topics will help you the most in January of 2011.

Click here to take a 2-minute poll about What You Want To See For smARTist 2011.

Post Note – Up Front: Because this post highlights the incomparable Molly Gordon, one of the best Self-Employment coaches ever, I wanted to make something very clear right away. Molly has been a strong supporter and keynote speaker the minute the gates opened at my annual smARTist Telesummit. Her work is based on solid and smart practices for how to be self-employed that includes multi-levels of self-awareness.

Now…let’s get personal…

Way back in 2007 I made a critical mistake in judgment that has affected my business practices ever since – I listened.

Don’t get me wrong. I consider listening one of the finer skills in life. I like listening, especially to you—my merry band of artists.

You tell me what’s working, how a smARTip helping you, what you want me to cover at the next Telesummit, sometimes a thank you for featuring your art here on the blog. Listening is a smARTist way of life.

In this case, however, I listened to the wrong information. Worse yet, I constructed the information to fit an emotional agenda that has been pointing me away from who I really am – and what I most desire to share. It’s like I’ve been dancing with the reflection of my deepest truth via smARTist, my coaching, my tweeting, my embrace of this wild and precious life.

The Back Story

Right after my first 2007 smARTist Telesummit, when I was most vulnerable as a start-up art career resource, one of the participants sent me a long, thoughtful email telling me much value he’d found in the conference, but how offended, as a Christian, he was to what he called Molly Gordon’s New Age (not a positive term) approach to her presentation The 3 Inescapable Laws of Selling Art.

He wrote a credible, rationale for how many artists I would unintentionally exclude from important art career information if I continued to invite the Molly Gordons of our world (like there’s more than one?).

What Happened Next

His email was a home run as soon as I read: exclude. I knew all about being excluded (shy, only child in 12 different grade schools by the sixth grade) and that was the last thing I was ever going to do!

On the other hand, I love Molly. Love, love, love everything she does and stands for: authentic promotion. Come on! What could be more important for artists, whose ongoing mission is the very essence of authenticity, than to know that authenticity could also be true for the essence of their career path?

I was caught, as they say, between a rock and a hard place.

I didn’t want to exclude my Christian artists. I didn’t want to exclude Molly. So I did the next best thing: I excluded myself.

Bad idea

It’s always a bad idea to exclude yourself because you show up as only that reflection of self I mentioned earlier.

It’s also bad for business.

When you are not showing up as yourself, there’s no way to find your tribe or for your tribe to find you. Or, they get a glimpse of you and stick around hoping for more – but not forever.

So Here’s The More

I have made it very clear, in my opening smARTist Telesummit remarks each year, that I believe we do our best work when we are clear about, and intentionally cultivate understanding, of two domains: the internal landscape of self, and the external world we live in.

What I have not said openly is that my work, and the work I bring my artists, is based on my very personal understanding of the whole human: mind, body, psyche and soul.

From now on, I pledge…

… to address each of these levels directly. No more dancing with my reflection. If I have something to say that is spiritually based, is a little New Agey and this feels offensive, or doesn’t resonate, there’s that cute little “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of all my emails. Go ahead, hit it.

Or you can come here and speak up on the blog. Respectful disagreement is always welcome because difference is the chili and cinnamon of our lives. Yum.

And for the rest of you who have seen me peek around the corner, hang on. It’s going to get a lot more personal around here.

A recognizable style that appeals to collectors is an obvious asset. We all know it when we see it. That work couldn’t possibly have been done by anyone else other than the artist who created it.

Where does artistic style come from? Is it a calculated decision, like a chosen trademark, or something more organic?

Distinctive style emerges from two things: life experience and mastery of material.

Without life experience, mastery is mere technique. Without mastery, your vocabulary for expressing life experience is limited.

Artists create; then they reshuffle ideas or parts, recycling them into new projects. They continually form and reform art, dancing over and over again with the core elements of color, media, and subject matter.

All the while, they’re living–experiencing the joys and sorrows of being human. The fear, the faith, and the unpredictability of their unique life.

Jazz great, Charlie Parker, once said, “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.”

The same is true of any form of creative expression. Authentic style is a combination of communicating an emotional truth and mastery of your chosen materials. The more you acknowledge and feel the emotional truths in your life, the more they infuse your art.

Distinctive style emerges when you tell the truth about life, using materials that are so familiar that they’re like a language you learned as a child.

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If you could describe your artist’s voice in one sentence, what would you say?

I’d love to hear….

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If you liked this blog post, find out what Barbara Bowen (creativity coach) had to say about how resistance enlivens your creative process at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Check it out.

Question: When is too much creativity a bad thing?

Answer: When it keeps you from selling art.

One of the truly great things about being an artist is living in the daily flow of creativity. We listen carefully to the wellspring of impulses and ideas that arise. We intentionally expose ourselves to things — people, places, experiences — that will change the way we look at the world and the way we make art.

But too much creativity can get in the way of a successful art career and sales.

At the 2010 smARTist® telesummit, experts agreed on the importance of having a consistent body of work. One said, “You have to create something that stays within a range. Otherwise, you’re just going to confuse your collectors and/or your galleries.”

Ideally, every piece of art you make would be instantly recognizable as yours and yours alone. That’s called having a “visual identity.” It’s what makes a van Gogh, a Sargent, a Cindy Sherman identifiable… and soooo desirable.

If you’re an established artist, chances are your visual identity is also well established. Something about your choice of colors, subject matter, media, style — or combination of all of these elements — has a consistent sense about it from piece to piece.

If you’re an emerging artist, it can be tempting to try to experiment your way to success. Instead, trust what you do well and what you enjoy, and form a consistent body of work that collectors will recognize and come to both appreciate and expect.

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Has your artistic voice always come easily to you? Or was the pathway more rocky?

I’d love to hear….

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If you liked this blog post, find out what Jason Horejs (gallery owner & author) had to say about how to create successful relationships with galleries at this year’s smARTist conference. Check it out.

I can’t begin to count how many times I’ve heard an artist complain about paying a gallery their 50% commission. It happens so often that the gallery rip-off mantra has risen to the status of a myth, pitting the world of artists against galleries who reap the lion’s share of profits.

This myth is particularly damaging because artists who believe it lead with resentment in their relationships with galleries. They often view galleries, owners, and managers as necessary evils, instead of business partners.

It also reveals a deep misunderstanding about how the business of art works.

Imagine you’re a gallery owner and you pay $5000 a month rent on a space in which you can display 100 pieces of art. It costs you $50 a month just to hang one piece of art on the wall. And that doesn’t include any other operating expenses, like salaries for your employees, taxes, utilities, or marketing.

Now imagine that it takes four or six months for a piece of art to sell. After four months, you’ve invested $200. After six months, your stake is up to $300.

While artists bear the financial risk of the time it took to make a piece of art, galleries invest cold, hard cash in the expectation that the art they represent will sell. Often, it does. But, sometimes, it doesn’t. If, after several months, a piece just doesn’t sell, you never recover the money you invested.

Owning a gallery is a risky proposition that requires a significant investment. It’s only fair that galleries partner with you so they are compensated for shouldering that risk.

In return, it’s fair for you to receive a contract that spells out exactly what responsibilities you have as a business partner with the gallery.

Together you win.

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Had a positive gallery experience? A negative one?

I’d love to hear about it….

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If you liked this blog post, find out what Jason Horejs (gallery owner & author) had to say about successfully getting into galleries at this year’s smARTist conference. Check it out.

For gallery owners (and other people who sell things), a steady supply is essential. Empty gallery walls are as inconceivable as empty shelves in a supermarket.

So it stands to reason that gallery owners love artists who consistently produce.

Figuring out how to jumpstart sluggish production schedules is an important career-boosting move for emerging and established artists alike. Start by noticing what you’re doing when you’re not making art.

Some activities are essential: sleeping, eating, playing, loving, and occasionally cleaning out the back seat of the car, come to mind.
But when you look at some of the non-essential activities-yikes.

At this moment, you’re looking right at one of the biggest time sinks—your computer. Do you know how long it actually takes to write a thoughtful email?

And the line between career-boosting computer time and a big black hole is a single click wide. Posting pictures of new art on Facebook is one thing; looking at 73 pictures of your niece’s sorority sisters is entirely different.

Three tips to tame this technological time sink (unless you are working digitally, of course):

1. Consider putting your desktop computer away from your studio space. If you have a laptop, don’t take it into your studio, unless you are actually using it for art or productive downtime away from making art. If you have a smartphone, ditto (or turn off the web functions). Use your studio time for art.

2. Create a weekly schedule for everything that needs your attention on the computer, and then pay attention to how well you are sticking to it. If you are not, then you need to align your schedule with your natural workflow—not the other way around.

3. Put a timer by your computer. Decide in advance what you’re going to accomplish and how long it will take. If the project is longer than 20 min, break it up. Forty minutes is the most that brains will stay on a left-brain task, so set the timer and when it dings, log off. Then go fulfill the dreams of your collectors.

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How do you handle goal setting?

I’d love to hear about it….

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If you liked this blog post, find out what Jonathan Talbot (he’s produced 35,000 pieces of artwork!) had to say about passion and your art business at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Check it out.

Being true to your deepest goals is an important part of building a successful art career. But the very notion of tracking your progress toward meeting them can seem tedious and unimaginative.

Goals conjure up images of “To Do” lists that get checked off as you make progress. This might be efficient for some people, but it can also feel like a corset squeezing in your creativity.

What if you found a way to track progress toward your goals that was fun?

Why not offer your brain a process that it understands and likes.

For instance, many artists are visual people. Instead of creating a written list, make a colorful graphic map or drawing of your goals. Start with a large sheet of paper and include images or even cartoons representing your goals and steps along the path toward meeting them. Use this paper dynamically, adding and removing images as you go.

Or create a mobile. Or a fold-out, hand-made book. This doesn’t have to be time consuming – go for the rough ‘n ready version.

If a written list appeals to you, then try writing it out longhand. In silver ink on fuschia paper. In a notebook bound with golden ribbons.

Some people find that a partnership works best for tracking goals. Partner with another artist or with a friend who’s also working toward a set of personal goals.  Commit to regular meetings by phone or in person to talk about your progress.

And…maybe you have already discovered a way to track your progress that is off the beaten track.

If so, I’d love to hear about it…

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If you liked this blog post, you will love what Jennifer Hofmann had to say about gentle organizing for creative spirits at this year’s smARTist conference. Check it out.

One of the biggest myths about making art is that inspiration is a necessary ingredient. People who don’t make art often glorify it. Sometimes even artists do.

Most often, inspiration comes and goes. Unpredictably. Randomly. There are days when making art is the most marvelous thing on earth. There are few things as joyful as flowing in a river of creativity.

And then there are days when making art just can’t fit into your hectic schedule, much less feel inspired.

The key to a successful art career isn’t manipulating your circumstances or yourself to increase your communication with the Muses.

The best approach to inspiration is non-attachment. Appreciate the moments and days when you feel fueled by passion, even as you acknowledge that they’re fleeting.

Your job is to show up and just keep making the art and building your business.

People who build successful art careers aren’t more inspired than other artists; they’re more committed.

They keep showing up at the easel or wheel or behind the camera, even when they don’t really want to. Even when they feel about as inspired as a pair of old socks.

Keep showing up. Sometimes, inspiration will meet you there.

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What’s your experience of inspiration? Do you depend upon it to produce your work? Are there any tricks you’ve discovered to stay in the inspired zone? I’d love to hear about it….

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If you liked this blog post, you may really like what Robert Fritz had to say about the creative process at this year’s smARTist conference. Check it out.

In my book The Path of Least Resistance, I describe two distinct orientations: Reactive/Responsive and Creative/Generative.

Reactive/Responsive is when circumstances are the driving force in your life. You either react against or respond to the situation. The circumstances, rather than your aspirations and values, are the driving force.  Most of us were raised to be reactive/responsive. In fact, we are told that we have made progress if we move from reacting against to responding to the circumstances. But there is little difference when the circumstances are in control.

The Creative/Generative orientation is vastly different. Here the driving force is not the situation you are in, but your desires, your aspirations, your vision, and your values.

Most artists are in a creative/generative orientation when they make their art.  They organize their actions around the vision they have for the piece they are making.  They compare their vision with the current state of the work, and then they take strategic actions to bring the current state of the work to the desired outcome they envision.

But when it comes to career and business, they fall back into a reactive/responsive orientation.  It doesn’t occur to them to use the very same creative process that is so effective in their art in the rest of their lives.

The great advantage artists have is they have mastered their own creative process – the most successful process for accomplishment in history.  Most non-artists have little understanding of what it takes to bring a creation into being.  But this is the stock in trade of every artist.

Ironically, artists often don’t know what they have.  The creative process may be a result of unconscious competence and innate talent.  They know how to create intuitively, so they are not consciously aware of their own creative process. Yet, all artists strive to grow their talents.  The reason for this is that their artistic vision often outpaces their technique.

This motivates learning, discipline, innovation, creativity, experimentation, and, in the end, what was once only intuitive, becomes both intuitive and conscious awareness of the creative process.

For an artist to move from a reactive/responsive to a generative/creative orientation in his or her life-building process is profound transformation.  Suddenly the division between your artistic life and your personal and professional life is gone.

Everything, including your own life, becomes the subject matter of the creative process: a work in progress.

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If you want to hear more from Robert Fritz, he will be presenting “Your Life as Art” on January 25th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.

Four time, returning smARTist Alumni, Amadea Bailey, tells us exactly why she keeps coming back!

Is your art career sitting on the fence because you are?

Register for the smARTist Telesummit 2010. (It starts in 2 days!)

Your art career will thank you—and that’s a promise!

Have you been listening to the “Art ‘n’ Soul Radio” interviews of the 2010 smARTist Telesummit speakers?

The two artists who co-host the show – Catherine Foster and Sheryl Allen – have been doing a great job!

On Monday, they interviewed two more smARTist keynote speakers:  art-marketing guru Barney Davey, and compassionate organizing expert Jen Hofmann. (You’ll hear me there too, doing the introductions and talking about smARTist.)

Creating a second income stream from the art print market and inspired, compassionate organizing?  Interesting combination – and they made it work beautifully!

You’ll want paper and pencil in hand before you click the audio player and listen!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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There’s even more to come from Jen, Barney, and 9 other art-career experts at the smARTist® Telesummit 2010, January 21 – 29.  It’s the only professional development art-career conference anywhere, online or off.  Give your career the attention it deserves!  http://www.smartist.com

Please enjoy this narration from my brain while I was attempting to work:

Argh! The cat’s driving me crazy! I wonder what’s on Twitter? (opens Twitter)

Argh! Quit farting around! (closes Twitter)

I wonder why those bees are hanging around outside my window…

What’s in my email inbox?

Wait – what was I doing – oh yes…

It’s normal. Bouts of distraction happen. Everyone has different symptoms, but the outcome is the same: you’re busy but not purposeful.

What’s distracting you?  Once you realize what’s pulling you off track, you can manage your experience by removing the attention-grabbers.  For me, it was the sun’s glare, the cat’s repetitious grooming, and open project folders on my desk.

I closed the blinds, moved the cat off my lap, cleared the folders off my desk, and then closed more blinds because the sun moved (well, technically, the earth moved).  And sat down to work.

But even that doesn’t always help.  I got distracted. Again.

And I humbly realized: I can’t bend focus to my will. Even in the clearest, most refreshing spaces, sometimes people still can’t concentrate.

Once upon a time, people moved around. They walked places, moved their bodies for work, rode animals, collected their own food.

Today, I know a lot of people who sit at desks for a large portion of the day.  Me, for one.  In itself, that’s not such a bad thing.  But for many people that natural, vital movement is gone.

Taking movement breaks is vital to creativity.  Who hasn’t gotten a good idea in the shower? Or out walking?

If you’re distracted, and making adjustments to your space hasn’t helped, move.  Get up and get away from your desk. Do something you like.

You’ll be surprised how much better you’ll concentrate when you get back.

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If you want to hear more from Jennifer Hofmann, she will be presenting “It’s Not as Bad as You Think: Gentle organizing for creative spirits” on January 25th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.

In 1870 Jules Verne published a fictional novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which told the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus.

Eighty-eight years later, in 1958, the real Nautilus made the first voyage under the polar ice pack, traveling more than 1800 miles in just six days and passing directly under the north pole.

But Verne was only traveling in the footsteps of another artist. Nearly four hundred years before Verne wrote his book, artist Leonardo DaVinci had sketched out plans for a submarine.

Around 1563 flemish artist Peter Breugel (he had dropped the “h” from his name in 1559) painted this imaginary picture of the Tower of Babel.

Four hundred years later artist/architect Frank Lloyd Wright turned Breugel’s imaginary concept upside down and made it real when, in 1959, the Guggenheim Museum opened in New York.

How far is the iPhone from the “wrist radio” that artist/cartoonist Chester Gould first drew for Dick Tracy in 1946 and which was updated to a “wrist TV” in 1964 and a “wrist computer” in 1986? Not far!

I know we are not all DaVincis, Breugels, Frank Lloyd Wrights, or Chester Goulds. but I do know that the paintings of Georgia O’Keefe have helped us to comprehend our intimate relationship with plants, that the works of Cindy Sherman have shown us how we each can realize our dreams, and that the etchings of Kathe Kollwitz have helped us to better understand the horrors of war, thus providing motivation for avoiding it.

Each one of us, every time we make a mark, assemble a collage, or carve an image, has the opportunity to model some portion of a better future for humankind. How we use that opportunity is, of course, up to us – but it helps to know that we are part of a larger process and it helps to understand how the creativity of those who have preceded us can guide and inspire our own artistic intentions.

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If you want to hear more from Jonathan Talbot, he will be presenting “Making Passion Your Business” on January 29th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.