It’s easy to deride Artist Statements. I’ve done it myself countless times when they are pompous, self-congratulatory, or badly written and trite, trite, trite.

But like the About section of any website, where we click in the hopes of connecting with the human being behind the virtual page, an artist statement has only one purpose…

Keep reading →

Are there parameters for “great” art that we can identify?

Years ago, a survey I read named three elements that all great artists shared: being prolific, having an artist statement, and having strong support systems.

So it was no surprise when I ran across this video, a preview for a longer documentary of the painter Fritz Rauh, and discovered that Rauh indeed hit all three elements.

But this post isn’t really about what makes great art. It’s about this video.

Even though this was done by master documentary film makers, there are elements here that you could use in creating your own master ‘art’ video. What do you see?

Keep reading →

The Superior Court of Fresno County, California ruled against a blogger,  Cynthia Moreno, whose family suffered (business loss, death threats, etc.) as a result of her blog entry on MySpace,”Ode to Coalinga,” where she criticized the city of Coalinga and its residents.

Her blog post had been harvested off the Internet and reprinted in the local paper. Ms. Moreno…

Keep reading →

I’ve heard it a million times: ask the busiest person you know to do something and they’ll get it done. I’ve even watched this in real life at my kid’s school. You could reasonably ask the busiest mother to run a bake sale, she’d say yes, and the next week up would go the bake sale!

So when a local artist called today and asked me to mentor a local group of five artists, I could have been that mother with the bake sale. I love…

Keep reading →

In the old days it was location, location, location.

Now, it’s attitude, attitude, attitude.

We know this is true, especially as social media marketing takes over the traditional way of doing business.

I mean, it’s always been true that our attitude…

Keep reading →

There are three reasons I’ve seen for why artists won’t ask for what they want:

1. They already expect rejection, so why waste the time.

2. They think asking is a kind of weakness; a lessing of individuality.

3. In some well-hidden corner of self, they secretly believe…

Keep reading →

It’s not unusual for me to hear the following artist lamentation:

“I love what I do. I could spend weeks in my studio and never miss the outside world. When I do come out, I have to face a mess of bills, call back an old collector I know, order supplies, figure out how to update my website, and I begin to feel like this other reality is crushing me. I don’t even know where to begin. Can you give me any suggestions?” 

I understand this plight all too well. It’s like trying to get somewhere when you haven’t even figured out a destination, so you just keep driving around hoping some street corner of recognition will spontaneously pop into view.

In truth, though, business is no different than…

Keep reading →

I’ve been feeling the crunch of time lately; chewing away at emails, tasting the flavor of helping clients, swallowing whole chunks of I’m-not-getting-to-what-I-want-to-do.

And now that smARTist 2009 is over, one of the consistent messages I hear from artists is, How can I do it all?

Given the vast range of art career information that smARTISTs encounter over the 7 days of the conference, I’m not surprised that suddenly they have even more on their plates than before.

So I thought the perfect remedy, for all of us, would be Waverly Fitzgerald, our Slow Time Lady expert from the smARTist Telesummit 2008

This post is one in a series of her time-tested ideas about helping time work for you!

She has a unique take on time, and our relationship to it. Instead of the more traditional ”management” approach to all things hourly, daily, and monthly, Waverly advocates a sense of…

Keep reading →

Upwind Flames by Louis Copt

I was asked to speak before an influential group of retired businessmen and women this past summer. By “influential” I basically mean millionaires. But listen, not all rich folks are jerks.  Many started with nothing, never forgot where they came from, and are…

Keep reading →

After spending the last five months figuring out this Social Media thing, getting set up on Facebook, finding an expert for smARTist Telesummit 2009, and encouraging artists to jump into this vast and ever expanding ocean, the predictably unpredictable  world of all things online has thrown me, and you, not just a curve ball, but…

Keep reading →

Being concerned for the safety of your work is just plain old good business sense.

Here’s a short discussion from one of my magazine column, where I answered the following question about galleries insuring your work.

Artist’s question

All four galleries I’ve dealt with during my career have provided insurance. Is it commonplace for artists to…

Keep reading →

As some artists know, but as many unfortunately do not, by law, you own copyright on every work of art you produce, regardless of whether you register the copyright, regardless if you sign the piece or not.

Because copyright belongs to you, I advise that you never allow a client, especially a corporate one, to reproduce one of your works without a written agreement signed by you.

Especially, do not allow a corporation to produce greeting cards, brochures, posters, or…

Keep reading →

One of the burning questions, for a large number of artists, is, Are galleries worth their 50% cut?

One way to look at this is a simple check list of what the gallery is going to do for you, in an ideal relationship:

• Pay for the space to show your work, and all the attending overhead costs:

              –Rent for a good location 

              –Heat/light/insurance/decor/administrative costs/staff

              –Advertising

              –Exhibition costs: display, brochures, ads, opening night expenses, etc.

• Create lasting relationships with buyers and collectors for your work

And yes, you could…

Keep reading →

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…

Keep reading →

smARTist Resource Directory

Here’s a gift, no strings attached, from the smARTist Telesummit 2009:

Our brand spankin’ new smARTist Resource Directory.

You’ll find a clickable TOC. And, after the 2009 Keynote Speakers, there are categories for you to browse: Art Magazines, Art Organizations, Art Supplies, Blogs, Book Recommendations, Education, Displays, Trends…and much more.

All of these resources come straight from your fellow artists.

You can download and enjoy it here.
smARTist Resource Directory

The core of smARTist is pulling together, in one place, the best art career information that we can find.

So, on top of 7-Days of art career presentations and panel discussion, I decided to create a directory that would give you resources to explore at your convenience.

Since a spoonful of art makes the “learning” go down, I’ve sprinkled pieces from our illustrious smARTist alumni throughout the directory to soothe your artist eye.

I hope you like it. I had a lot of fun creating it.

Wishing you an abundant, joyful 2009!
Ariane