Taking the month of August off, like they do in Europe, has totally changed my idea of “context.” Suddenly things I wasn’t even aware of are popping into view.

Like posts that are ready to come back around for a second reading.
From now until I return in Sept, I’ll be dishing up yummy leftovers.

Enjoy!

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Once upon a time, an artist I was working with spent a long time priming and polishing her artist statement for a very serious studio exhibition she was planning in Boston.

She had been working for over a year on a series of oil paintings that had taken her in new directions, and she was attending to every detail of the exhibit with loving care.

Her large, abstract work was engaging on its own. But when you got a chance to read about her process and her thoughts as she painted, the work took on an even larger presence.

Part of my job was to coach her on how to present her artist statement so it reflected the same attention to detail that her art did.

But, as the saying goes…you can lead a horse to water…

Have you taken advantage of the FREE Art Career Resources being posted?

Here’s what you get. Remember, I’ll be adding to this list until May 19th:

• #1 – Find Out Exactly How Geoffrey Gorman Became Such A Successful Artist –with my first release of our interview for my brand-new, “Successful Artist Series” of podcasts.
• #2 – Have People Dying To Know Even More About Your Art With This Simple Sentence with my digital worksheet on “How To Write A Descriptive Sentence of Your Art”
• #3 – Will be posted on Sunday, May 16th.

For more information and to grab yours today visit:

http://smartist.com/exclusives/resources/

Remember to check back through May 19th for the next FREE Art Career Resource.

Since art in a closet, or lined up in the studio, is almost as good as no art at all, I’ve always been fascinated by how artist’s perceive their audience.

Over the years, as I’ve listened to hundreds of artists, I began to understand that finding and nurturing collectors had to do with making a paradigm shift from “me” to “them.”

Mosaic artist, George Fishman, talked with me on his “Mosaic of Art Radio Show” about just this topic: “Who is Your Audience: Making the shift from me to them.”

You can listen to our 30 minute broadcast right here!

I’m so excited by what just happened on the First Day of smARTist 2009 that I simply have to share some of it with you.

The five panel members…

as far afield from each other as Molly Gordon in Seattle, Guillermo Cuellar in New England, Nancy Marmalejo and Lucia Cappacionne in Southern California, and artist Shirley Williams in Ontario, Canada…

…seemed to be flowing from an interconnected river of knowledge as they responded to the questions that came straight from this year’s smARTist participants. 

I found the panel’s answers to be practical in their collective wisdom, that only when we…

What many people outside the arts don’t understand, is that succeeding in this profession takes just as much discipline as it does for the CEO, Athlete, Lawyer, Doctor.

In most cases it takes more, since you already have the day job, and for your night job your calling happens to be to a discipline that we almost never feel equal to, in which we regularly disappoint ourselves, and from which…