HOW TO OPEN STUDIO #21: How to Build Your Mailing List

Email is still the best way to grow a loyal customer base. And…it’s free! (Usually….)

Back in the day before social media became a thing, the best way to let my peeps know about an event was….postcards!

It was a lot of work. First, designing (or paying someone to design) a postcard. Then having postcards printed. And then, buying postage stamps, and applying a postage stamp to each and every postcard. Also printing out the mailing labels, and applying them.

My mailing list grew to well over 1,200 people. (Many artists with a huge following have 5-10x that many.) Yes, postage wasn’t as high back then, but it was still quite an investment. (Today it costs 55 cents, so I would be spending $500 just to mail the darn things.)

Email is soooooo much easier, and a heckuva lot cheaper. (I use Fine Art Studios Online (www.FASO.com) for my website, which offers free emails, up to a limit, depending on what level of site you use.)

And we still need mailing lists for our open studio tours here in Sonoma County, so we can ensure our customers get a free catalog mailed to them.

If you’ve been doing shows, open studios, or other art events, then you probably already have a big list of contacts for email and snail mail.

But if you don’t…   If this is your first event, show, open studio….

How do you get started??

Here are some suggestions, and feel free to add your own in the comments!

Friends and family   Consider the people you already know, and ask them if they’d like to get emails from you. (NEVER sign someone up without their persmission. First, it’s kinda rude, and second, your emails can be reported as spam if they didn’t give you permission.)

For snail mail/catalogs, I don’t sign up many people, especially if they don’t live within driving distance of my studio/event. Yes, getting a catalog with ME in it might be appreciated. But catalogs are expensive to produce, and the cost of mailing tens of thousands can really run up the budget.

So I focus on who’s told me they’d like one, and who’s in our neck of the woods.

Casual acquaintences, social groups, etc.  Are there groups of people you are involved with? Clubs, sports, rallies, etc.? Organizations you volunteer for, events you attend regularly? Hey, ask them if they’d be interested in visiting for your open studio event! Keep it light, don’t twist arms, don’t take offense of people who are lukewarm. But it never hurts to ask, either.

Stores & services you use/patronize   Are you a loyal patron of a local business? Are you in galleries? Do you buy local for your supplies? Ask them if they’d like to here about your events, and if they’d like to get a catalog.

Use your social media connections   Post to your social media sites, letting people know they can go to your website and sign up for emails. And if some of these people are locals, ask if they’d like to get a catalog. (Have them either email you, and/or send you a PM with their address.)

Sign-up sheets in your studio   This is hands-down the best way to build your mail lists, both online and snail mail. Why?

Because if they came to your studio, it means they saw your work in that catalog, and they were interested enough to come and check out you and your work! And if they stay, and engage, and chat, BINGO! Pretty sure they’re gonna want to come back.

Most of my open studio events are under an organization that creates a sign-up sheet for us to print out and display in our space. It asks for their name, their address, and their email.

On mine, I let them know they will receive notices of classes (if and when things get back to “normal”, whatever that is anymore), my next event, etc. and if they also provide their snail mail addy, they’ll get a catalog next year!

Some people say, “Oh, I already get them!” But I told them I was new, and had to turn in x number of snail mail addresses. If they sign up, they’ll still only get ONE catalog, but I’ll get credit for having the minimum number of addresses.

The downside here is, it can be really hard to read people’s handwriting. Some people recommend asking them to TELL you their contact info, and YOU write it down. If this is too much/studio is too crowded/etc., then try to see if you can read their info before they leave.

Want to fine-tune this even more? Clint Watson, founder and creator of FASO.com, has written a slew of articles about email newsletters. Here’s his latest, at FineArtViews.com (a free FASO feature) about how to protect your (email) reputation and make sure your emails aren’t going to be tagged as ‘spam’:  Hit Inboxes Not Spam Folders With Your Newsletters.  (Click this link to sign up for FREE FineArtViews emails.)

Postcards and business cards  I still buy postcards, but I don’t mail them anymore. I need them for galleries and exhibitions, so people can follow up with me if they like my work. And I always carry business cards with me, so if I meet someone who expresses an interest in my work, I can give them one to follow up with me.

There are some great, affordable, design-your-own cards nowadays, including GotPrint.com, VistaPrint.com, PSPrint, and OvernightPrint.com if you’re running late. And again, back in the day, I would order enough postcards with one image, to get me through the year of events.

But my go-to favorite now is Moo.com. (Yes. I don’t know why they decided on “Moo”. Maybe I should ask….??) They aren’t the cheapest, though the more you buy, the better the price gets, and they have sales that make a big difference!

The reason is, I can order as many as 100 postcards, business cards, etc….

With 100 different images! (Or 25 images, 4 of each, or whatever….)

They even have a postcard template that allows you to put TWELVE images on one postcard!

I LOVE my MOO postcards!

And if you are sharing a site or building with other artists, you can easily create a postcard with an image of everyone’s work. (Sites that have multiple artists tend to draw a lot more people, because…artist saturation!)

If designing your own cards is too much, check in with other artists (or the organization managing your event) and ask for recommendations for a graphic designer. This can be very affordable, with wonderful results, too.

Remember, we all started from zero to get to where we are today. If this event is your first open studio, don’t fret too much about how many people even come to your studio, let alone sign up, or even buy anything. Trust me, I know how it feels! My work has always been an outlier, and it took time for people to “get it” (and me!)

Words of wisdom: It’s not who ‘comes by’, it’s who ‘comes back.’ And the more people come back, the more likely they will (eventually) make a purchase.

And even if they don’t, if they love our work, they will still come, and maybe even bring a friend (or three) who will also love our work, and maybe have a bigger budget, too.

Okay, I’m behind on like ten other things that are due tomorrow, so I’ll sign off for now. But I’ll double back as more thoughts and suggestions pop up.

And if you’re a pro at this already, please share your own insights and experience/suggestions/sources. I’d love to hear ’em!

WHY YOU MUST SHARE YOUR ART WITH THE WORLD

Continuing with my last post, ART IS A MIRROR, which ended with:

“My next post coming up soon: Why art in a vacuum isn’t what art is for.”

First, no, not THAT kind of vacuum. Second, OMG even our Euphy is dirty!! 

 

I’m a long-time advocate for artists/creatives of all kinds to share their creative work with the world.

I’ve written about the fears that hold us back from doing that, from the fear of being copied to the worry that it isn’t “good enough” for public consumption.

Sharing our art is like tossing a pebble into a lake. We can’t tell where all the ripples go, but they are certainly going somewhere! (You may get tired of hearing it, I get it. But I will never stop saying it.)

I cannot count the number of times people have reached out to me, with comments, or privately, by email, that something I’ve shared (my writing, my posts on social media, my artwork) has given them the insight, the encouragement, the courage to keep doing the work of their heart.

And when I’m feeling down or less-than, someone crosses my path with just the right message: My words matter, to someone, somewhere, in the world.

If only one person benefits, that’s good enough for me.

But just in case you can’t imagine that YOU matter that much, here are some thoughts.

First, I’ve shared how sitting in my first introductory art history class in a large, dark auditorium (like a cave), surrounded by others who might be on the same path (in my community), seeing those huge and powerful images of the Lascaux Cave (so powerful!) made me feel, for a few precious moments, like I was actually in the Cave. It changed my life, though it took years to understand that, and even more to gain the courage to pursue that path.

I’ve encouraged you find your own creation story, and share the power of finding the WHY behind your work.

I don’t have the credentials, degrees, official recognition, etc. that would “prove” you should believe me. Just my own life experience.

If you don’t believe ME, here’s someone with credentials. An article by Carrie Dedon, Modern and Contemporary Art Curatorial Assistant at the Seattle Art Museum, from June 2016.

“Object of the Week: Untitled” is about the Seattle Art Museum’s 2016 exhibition called “Light and Space”, and much credit is given to artist Larry Bell for his powerful quote:

In my opinion all artwork is stored energy. The art releases its power whenever a viewer becomes a dreamer.

That’s the quote I found through author/artist Austin Kleon’s blog post today. It’s #36 if you don’t have time to read them all.

But IMHO, Dedon’s insight wraps up a whole universe of reasons why sharing our art is so important:

For many of the Light and Space artists, an artwork only reached its full potential when it was engaged in this relationship with a viewer—an object in an empty room without anyone to look at it is, in essence, not doing its job.

Art without an audience, even an audience of one, is not doing its job….

It kind of reminds me about Schrödinger’s cat, or that proverbial tree falling in the forest. It may/may not exist, may/may not make a sound, without eyes to see it or ears to hear it.

The same with art.

Art cannot fufill its true purpose in life if other people can’t experience it.

We all have a unique story, one that only we can tell.

We have a purpose, our creativity, that can take many forms and expressions. Not just making “art”, not just in all our current definitions of “art” (2d and 3d work, music, poetry, drama, stories, dance, song, etc.) but in anything and everything we pursue that a) makes us a better person, and when we share it with the world, makes the world a better place.

When we share it, it can lift the heart of others. It helps them understand our story. It encourages others to share their story, too.

Teaching. Healing. Nourishing. Caretaking. Gardening. Restoring/repairing/mending. Building. Hospice. Creating community, sanctuary, peace, connection, understanding, tolerance, love. And study/research that strives for the same.

If I had never found those powerful images of the Lascaux Cave early in my life, I would not be making the art I make today.

If the caves had not been discovered, what a loss that would have been! And even though our very breath and the heat from our bodies have nearly destroyed those images, they appeared at a time in history when they could be photographed, mapped, reproduced, studied. (We visited Lascaux II two weeks after 9/11, and my bucket list now includes a visit to Lascaux IV.)

And the more we learn about those Painters of the Caves ( a wonderful children’s book written by award-winning author Patricia Lauber) the more we learn about ourselves. The assumptions of the years after the Cave’s discovery that have now been proven wrong. The painters weren’t “cave men”, they were (mostly) women and men who were shamans. It wasn’t hunting magic (most cave art images do not reflect the actual animals each community hunted for food), they were communal ceremonies, with sound and movement.

Most importantly, Lauber’s most powerful sentence admits we may never understand the why, the how, the what about these ancient artists of the distant past. She notes the cave paintings are messages that were not addressed to us. It meant something powerful for those people, in their time. But we may never know for sure what that was.

And yet, we feel the power, the mystery, of those paintings thousands and thousands and thousands of years later. Every single person I ever met who actually saw those paintings in that short window of time they were available to us, confirmed that experience. They were in the presence of something deep, mysterious, and powerful, and they did not know why.

When they say see/feel something similar in my work, something that echoes what they experienced, I know I’m doing it right.

In the end, it’s not the sales, the fame, the recognition, the number of likes. All this can be great, I agree. But how will we be remembered when we are gone? And how will even that last?

We are meant to bring our creative work into the world. It changes us. It helps us grow bigger,  in our hearts, in our sense of purpose in the world, in our ability to tell our story, and to connect with the stories of others. It helps us inspire and encourage others to value their own creative work.

That’s why we must explore  ways to let others see/hear/taste/experience see it, whether through gallery representation, exhibitions, books and magazines, open studios, or through social media, and venues yet to be discovered.

When we empower empower ourselves, we will empower others, too.

I am so grateful for Dedon’s words. Art is not created in, nor can exist in a vacuum. It is created in our human hearts. And when others see the work of our heart, when we share it with the world, art and creativity continue to seed, to grow, to bloom and shine, in them.

I’m grateful for Austin Kleon, (“An artist who draws”), whose blog today listed his top 100 quotes about art for 2021, including #36 by Larry Bell, which led me to Dedon’s blog post.

I’m grateful to those shamans, who created work that was important, powerful, healing, for them. And because it survived, in real time, and now in so many media, images, and now highly-accurate recreations, it is still a source for inspiration, mystery and awe in our modern times.

You can follow in their footsteps by sharing your art, too. As I said in my last article, marketing our art involves sharing. But sharing can simply be that: Letting people see it, online, in our studios, in a gallery, in a book, and spreading the power of our creative hearts.

Red deer, aurochs, and horsec the hallmarks of the Lascaux Caves.

 

 

 

MAYBE LANGUISHING ISN’T SO BAD?

 

 

The Elk Horn Gate
I don’t know why I picked this image, I just like it, so there.

Let me tell you about my frustrations with social media marketing.

It’s a sad story. On one hand, I applaud the internet, blogs, social media sites. I think of the people throughout history, okay, even before history, people of different cultures, races, times, gender, who had the chance of a snowball in hell of having their work read, seen, shared. I’m pretty sure Emily Dickinson would have given almost anything to have her work published. Vincent Van Gogh finally had his day in the sun, but he died before he actually saw it. (This Doctor Who snip always brings tears to my eyes.)

And for awhile, it was great to be able to share my work and my words so easily. The day I started my first blog at Radio Userland, I felt a surge of freedom I’d never felt before. I didn’t need an editor, a publisher, an agent, nada. All I needed was the courage to tell my stories, share my thoughts, give insights based on my own experience selling/marketing/making and hopefully offer validation and hope to others who felt less-than-successful with their own creative work.

I love Pinterest, because I can create an online scrapbook of images that inspire me, intrigue me, give me ideas for my own projects. ) I love Instagram too. It’s a great venue for artists, I’m told, and I have a pretty big audience there, too. I can share all kinds of images of my work, inspiration, process, etc.

Then Radio Userland died. I moved to WordPress, but I did some great writing on Radio Userland. For awhile, I couldn’t even access my own articles there, until my hubby used his tech skills to create new urls for my blog there. Now I can find them, and republish them occasionally on my WordPress blog.

Then Facebook got bigger, and then it was/is immense. It also became all about the money. Facebook bought Instagram, and now it’s headed the same way.

I read a transcript of a Zoom video by Dave Geada, marketing guru at FineArtStudiosOnline (FASO.com) where I have my own website, and where I wrote a regular column for 12 years for Fine Art Views until a couple months ago. I still love the support structure of FASO for artists, and I’m glad to hold on to my website there.

Dave is as heart-centered as I am when it comes to marketing, I love almost everything he has to share on how to up our marketing skills, and many of the Zoom meetings are free to all. He loves Instagram, too, and has created many videos on how to use it effectively. I’ve gotten great tips and insights about social media markting (especially Instagram) from his Zooms, and many are free to ALL artists. Check out their Art Marketing Playbook here: AMP

But I’m beginning to feel lost in a huge dust storm that is suffocating.

Dave points out that Facebook regularly introduces new algorithms that block who can see our posts, forcing us to consider buying ads so we can grow our audience.  Suddenly, a thousand followers shrinks down to a handful in my Facebook business page. 

Instagram hashtags are a hot mess for a creative like me. I’ve tried hundreds of them over the years, tags that sound extremely descriptive of my style, my subject matter, my materials, etc. And yet, when I take the time to test them out, not very many put me in the company of other work that’s anything like mine.

In other words, it’s a blessing to be making work that’s unique, easily recognizable as mine, etc. But it’s frustrating to realize the tags I use regularly either throw me into a bottomless pit with hundreds of thousands of other people’s images, most nothing like mine, and ensuring I’ll be in someone’s feed about ten thousand posts down. (So, almost zippo visibility.) I’m lost in the shuffle. Or worse…More finely-tuned tags find me in a pond that’s way too small (although the images will hang around longer.) One example: I use #blackhorse for my faux soapstone horses. But I’m the only little handheld black horse sculpture in a sea of images of REAL black horses.

In the end, I can’t think of any way someone could even imagine my work, and look for it, unless they already know it, or they know my name. (Don’t send me suggestions unless you’ve researched them yourselves, okay?) (I mean, thank you for thinking of me, but it’s just not that simple.)

And the biggest surprise of all? I just found out that two superstars in the polymer clay world have quite modest followers on Instagram.

Ford and Forlano have been megastars for decades, two of the first polymer clay makers to hit it big with their work. It’s fabulous, beautifully made, expensive, and carried by the finest galleries in the country. Their Instagram following? 1,500 people. About the same as mine, a relatively-nobody/not nearly as famous nor successful.

Cynthia Tinapple is a polymer clay artist/teacher who has curated polymer clay work for decades with her Polymer Clay Daily newsletter, and her weekly subscription-based Studio Mojo newsletter. (WOW! I just tried to see when PCD first started. It looks like the first post was published on September 11, 2005. MY BIRTHDAY!!) She knows all the top makers in the pc world, she scours the internet for makers old and new, innovators, and whoever is making something intriguing, different, powerful, featuring around 250 makers every year. Her following? Well under a thousand. (To be fair, it looks like she’s just getting started on Instagram. But if every person she’s featured in her newsletters followed her, she’d easily be classified as an “influencer”!) (Six days of incredible posts for closing in on 16 years….) (OH, even more, because Studio Mojo usually has at least half a dozen little features on artists and resources.)

Next, my frustration with most hosting sites for artists, including FASO: Almost all of them focus on 2-D art: Painting, drawing, etc. I took a survey on mine, to get a “roadmap” for my marketing plan, and the first question was, is my work abstract or representational. (Um….jewelry?? And is anyone looking for my work going to use either of those terms to describe it? I don’t think so.)

Last, photographing my work is really, really tricky. Oh, photoing jewelry is okay, and the shrines come out well, if a professional photographer is doing the picture-taking. But decades ago, another polymer clay artist said, “Your photographer is one of the best, and yet they still can’t really capture the look and feel of how wonderful your little artifacts are in person.” That was true then, and it’s still true today. In fact, I believe the biggest factor in building my audience is when people come to my studio, and can actually pick up a little bear, or a horse, and hold it in their hand. It’s magic.

To sum up: I have a powerful creation story. I’m pretty good at telling stories. I’m good at the work I do. Good enough, anyway. I’m good at interacting with studio visitors, and engaging them with my work. I take a lot of pictures, I get professional ones when I need them (and can afford them!), I’ve gotten better at editing them, etc. I’ve done some major fine craft shows in my art career, my work’s been published in dozens of magazines and newspapers over the years, I grew a loving and loyal audience at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen’s Annual Craft Fair, and I have some wonderful followers and collectors here in California, too.

But if I’m struggling on how to get my art to cross the path of people online,struggling to find more people who might also become fans, and maybe even collectors some day, then how is everybody else doing?

I know Cynthia occasionally feels ‘less-than’ as she comes across astounding new, young polymer clay artists. She wonders if she’s doing a good enough job, if what she posts is interesting and relevant. (YES, YOU DO AND YOU ARE, CYNTHIA!)

And in writing this, I just remembered my very first blog post at Radio Userland on December 1, 2002: What Meryl Streep and I Have In Common

Okay, this just blew my mind: I started with how, reading that Meryl Streep struggles to own her own skill and body of work, made me realize this is “normal” for creatives. We all have that little voice that says we’re not good enough, we aren’t as great as others think we are, that we are doing it wrong.

So let’s just kick that little voice outta the park today. Or at least let it out into the backyard so it can take a pee.

I believe, so far, that my art has brought many, many people a bit of joy and wonder into their lives. I love that, and I’m grateful.

I also believe that, from how people respond to my articles and blog posts, that hundreds, maybe thousands of people gain hope from something else I offer the world:

• You matter.
• Your creative work matters.
• It matters because it helps you be the best person you can be. It lifts your heart.
• And when you share it with the world, it will lift someone else’s heart, too.

I’m not the wisest, kindest, smartest, most talented cookie in the box, not by a long shot. But I know how much my creative work means to me, and I know it will call to me until I die. (Or dissolve, or lose my marbles. Whatever. It could happen.)

But I know this:

It’s not about the money.

It’s not about the likes.

It’s not about the number of followers, the number of comments, the awards, the sales, the money.

In fact, the more I learn about “influencers”, the more I don’t want to be one. And let’s face it, some dynamics rule the game. Actors are going to get more publicity/fame/likes than the people who actually help put movies together, right? We just see the actors more easily. There are plenty of people behind the curtain, people who do incredibly powerful, good work in the world, and it’s rare we ever even hear about them.

It’s not about how to game the system, because the system is too big, and makes too much money for the people/corporations who created them.

It’s simply about using the systems to share your work with others, as often as you can.

It’s about doing the work that matters to YOU.

It’s about supporting the people, the causes, the programs that help others, that heal others, that heal our planet.

It’s about doing what you can to be the best person you can be. Even if, like me, you suck at it sometimes.

So use social media to help share your work with others. If you find strategies (and hashtags!) that work for you, good on you! If you don’t, you are not alone. But you can still have a voice in the world. Your audience may be huge, or it may be small. But they love you and your work.

Sales are wonderful, but there are a thousand reasons why people don’t buy our art, probably because there are more artists/creatives in the world right now than in all the rest of human history. If you’re work isn’t selling, don’t take it as a measure of your worth. You just haven’t found your peeps yet, and they haven’t found YOU yet.

Don’t count the likes. Just hang on to that feeling when you realize something you’re working on is finished, and it turned out well, and how happy that makes you.

Works for me!

Now go make something.

(Ahem. If it’s cupcakes, I’d be honored to taste-test them for you.)

 

 

USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL! Another Life Metaphor for Drivers and Artists

My “New England Autumn” art wall.

USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL!

Keep your audience and collectors in touch with your art/life changes!

 On my kitchen wall, the wall that shows up in my Zoom meetings, is a bright red maple leaf. Not a real leaf. It’s hand-carved and painted, in wood. It joins a collection of fall landscape paintings, and like them, holds many memories of living in the Northeast/New England.  (A friend in New Hampshire told me that only three countries in the world host these amazing, colorful trees: The United States, Canada, and Japan.)

There’s a story behind this leaf. (Of course!)

It took place many, many years ago, at a huge 9-day show in New Hampshire, The League of NH Craftsmen’s Annual Fair.

I was still pretty new to the show. Across the aisle from me was a longtime craftsman, who worked in glass. In between the previous year’s show and this one, he switched his medium-of-choice. He now made marvelous nature objects, carved from wood, and painted.

I loved his work, he loved mine, and we had several lovely chats during the show. He had a huge audience, having participated in the show for a long time, and always did well with sales.

Not this year!

His collectors and followers came to his booth. They were stunned to find a completely new body of work. And most of them left fairly quickly, without purchasing anything.

He was stunned to the point of having a panic attack near the end of the first day. (We were told at first he’d had a heart attack, which can mimic the same symptoms, but fortunately a panic attack is non-lethal!) A friend came to cover his booth, (he’s the one who filled me in on the backstory) and a few days later, the artist returned.

He was devastated, of course, and we had another lovely talk.

I told him his new work was beautiful, and in time, he would either regain his audience, or grow a new one. It wasn’t the quality of his work that was failing him. It was catching his long-time audience off-guard. He needed to give them time to adjust.

I know this phenomenon all too well! My work has never fit into anyone else’s “box”, and new work takes time to sell. (Okay, ALL my work takes time. That can get discouraging in hard times, but it has never stopped me.)

He was grateful for my encouragement and insight. The next day, he brought me my carved red maple leaf! And sure enough, even by the end of the fair, his sales were inching up. (Many were new people who were unfamiliar with his former body of work.)

How does this relate to a turn signal while driving? (You know I’ll find a way!)

One of my biggest pet peeves while driving is, when people don’t signal a turn, or a lane change, until they’re actually acting on it. Which isn’t helpful or useful for those of us trying to pass them, or when we’re approaching an intersection. We need to know what you’re going to do.

Turn signals are for letting others know our intentions. 

We need to activate that turn signal to let others know we’re going to get into their lane, or slow down to turn soon. (Yes, some people leave them on, which is also confusing. But it’s better to slow down when we don’t have to, rather than maintain our speed, not knowing what they plan to do.)

If this artist had prepared his audience, alerted them of his intentions…

If he had send out a postcard, or an email newsletter, letting them know he was switching gears/directions/media…

They would not have been so surprised when he showed up with a totally new body of work.

Instead, he caught them off-guard, unsure what to say, being disappointed the work they’d grown to love was no longer available.

In fact, he could have even staged a sell-off of his other work from his studio. (This was before the days of online shopping and artist websites.) It would have given his faithful collectors a last chance to purchase his work, and generated some excitement and interest in his new work.

Of course, in these days of social media and our intense use of email newsletters, more people can be aware of our own life lane-changes. We can use these powerful tools to keep our audience informed: New work. New media. New techniques. New studio location.

That little red wood leaf is a powerful reminder for me:

Stay in touch!

PROBLEM-SOLVING FOR CREATIVES #6: A New Social Media Opportunity!

Our in-person studio visits are a powerful way to connect with our audience and potential collectors. And now there’s a new platform to make that even easier!

 An artist has solved a huge dilemma around our quirky art studio hours…

 (4 minute read)

 In last week’s column about recognizing our “team”, I shared how we can connect and benefit from our contacts who have skills we lack—and need!

This week, I’m delighted to share a new website that resolves one of my greatest problems as a professional artist: It provides our audience and people who don’t know us yet with the means to visit our studio.

A long-time reader reached out to me a couple weeks ago. Bill Snider is an artist who’s created StudioDoorz, a website featuring a listing of participating artists’ studios across the country, and around the world.  His project was featured in the 12/03/2020 issue of Boulder, CO’s newspaper, Daily Camera.

It’s pretty small right now, with just under a couple hundred participants right now. But it’s a major accomplishment, with the potential for huge growth.

Because one of my biggest pet peeves with Yelp, Google Business listings, Google Maps, and most of the open studio events I’ve been in, is that their listings don’t accommodate “open by appointment” for our business hours.

That may not seem like a big deal, but it is. (When I was in a more public studio, I used, “Open by chance or by appointment”, but in my current situation, I have to know you’re coming in order to even let you into the building.)

And yet artist studios deserve this option.

We’re a small business, with just as much of a presence as a burger joint or a swanky restaurant.

But very few of us keep “regular business hours”.

I’ve asked orgs that publish catalogs for their open studio events to add something, a brief comment or a symbol, that lets people know if an artist can offer an appointment for a studio visit. (Maybe next year? I hope!)

Bill and I are on the same page with this. When people visit our studio, it can be the most powerful way for new visitors to experience, and connect with, our art.

They not only get to see so much of our artwork, they get to meet us. They get to see who we are. We get to have deep conversations about the why and the how of our work. They get to see our sacred creative space.

My work rarely sells at a one-off event. It’s different, it’s not cheap, and it can take people awhile to understand what they’re looking at. Literally! At my very first small art show in Keene NH, visitors who were intrigued would stare deeply at my work. After a bit, I would ask, “What do you think?” They always answered, “It’s beautiful, I’ve never seen anything like it, and I don’t know what I’m looking at.”

From the very beginning, that taught me something important:

Yes, there are plenty of people who couldn’t care less about my work. But there are also plenty of people who do, and even some who love it enough to buy it.

But it takes time. And as a friend told me last year, “Art events aren’t about making money TODAY.”

Galleries help, of course, and social media marketing is an increasingly good way to get our work out into the world.

But a studio visit is the icing on the cake. It creates the most personal, intimate way to engage a potential collector (or passionate admirer) with our work.

Bill has created a website that works like Yelp/Google for artists. Visitors who are traveling, tourists, etc. can use the site to find artists in a specific area or city, or even country.

They can read the artists’ statement/bio/resume. They can view the work.

And they can contact the artist through the website to make a studio appointment, either ahead of time or in the moment.

Now, this isn’t like using Facebook, where anyone and everyone can see our posts. It’s not like an open studio event, which can attract dozens, or even hundreds of visitors, but only take place once or twice a year. It’s not like “First Friday” or whatever, when all galleries and studios in a city are open, (which can quickly wear down the novelty of such events.)

Instead, if someone is traveling to “wine country” in Sonoma County, and they are also interested in art, they can search for that area on StudioDoorz, explore the artists that are compelling to them, and arrange for a studio visit.

I’m so excited about this new website, I joined in a heartbeat. The cost is a mere $5/month, or $50 for a year’s subscription.

It’s not a website host, like FASO. It’s not for buying artwork, though we can upload around two dozen images of our studio and our work.

It’s simply a way for someone to explore the area, find the artists there, reach our website, if they want to learn more, and to discover us in a way that would otherwise be almost impossible to do.

Remember that delightful quote from the animated movie Hercules, when Hades (the villain) visits the three Fates (who can see the future)? “Indoor plumbing. It’s gonna be BIG!!”

StudioDoorz.com. It’s gonna be BIG!

Your shares and comments are always appreciated, and often give me great ideas for future articles! If you know someone who would find this article useful, send it on. If someone sent this to you, and you liked it, either subscribe to my blog or my email newsletter at my website, LuannUdell.com!

 

PROBLEM-SOLVING FOR CREATIVES #1: The Things That Hold Us Back

PROBLEM-SOLVING: The Things That Hold Us Back, Including Our Own Self-Doubt

When we get really good at making our art, it’s easy to forget how hard it was to get there in the first place!

4/6/2021 8:42:05 AM by Luann Udell
16 Comments
Topics: FineArtViews | Luann Udell | sell art

This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

PROBLEM-SOLVING: The Things That Hold Us Back, Including Our Own Self-Doubt

How Thomas Edison, Scarlett O’Hara, and Cake helped me through some hard places.

Years ago, the band Cake came out with an adorable video about their newest song, “Short Skirt/Long Jacket”.

In the video, people on the street are offered a chance to listen to a new song by an unnamed band (Cake) and asked for their opinions.

I love this tune! Every time I hear it, I want to get up and dance. It’s swingy, it’s lush, it’s pure-d fun.

In the video, about a third of the folks hate it, and tell us why. Another third like it, commenting on the parts that work, and don’t work, for them.

And the ones that absolutely love it? They don’t even talk.

They just dance.

They move to the music, oblivious to everyone else around them.

Why bring this up today?

Because I’m in the middle of a dream project I’ve carried in my heart for years.

It’s a new series of box shrines, made with antique, vintage, and distressed new wood boxes, painted, antiqued, screwed together in stacks, and mounted on wood bases. I will fill them with my own handmade artifacts. You can see them here on my Instagram account.

I’ve made them before, big ones. I had access to a friend’s woodworking studio, their tools, and their expertise.

This time, it’s just me.

Many, many things have held me back. Relying on antique and vintage boxes meant it was hard to have exactly the right stock for every configuration. I decided against using construction glue and epoxy this time around, because I found out the hard way that old wood can be more fragile than those glues. I still wasn’t sure how to mount the artifacts in the perfect way.

In short: I believed I couldn’t just start until I had everything figured out.

Which meant I didn’t start for more than seven years.

The pandemic changed everything. I had nowhere to go, no open studio events, no galleries open to selling work.

And also no excuses.

So I changed my attitude and my strategy.

I would start with what I had. If I could only put together a couple shrines, well, okay then.

And I decided I would just keep making and moving forward until I hit the next roadblock. And then I’d figure it out.

Guess what?? It’s working!

Every purchase that was a mistake? That was information on what would work better the next time.

I found sources for new wood boxes that I could distress and texture to look old, to fill in the gaps in my collection. A friend sent me a bunch of small handmade parts drawers.  I bought brackets and braces, experiment until I found the right ones.

Like Thomas Edison, I found hundreds of things that didn’t work.

And then I found exactly what did work.

One of my biggest hang-ups was finding shallower/flatter boxes to use as bases/foundations. They gave the shrines a more ‘finished’ look, but finding ones the right size and price was tricky. Until I finally found these affordable wood painting panels in a variety of sizes and shapes, that worked perfectly.

I agonized about how to make my own museum mounts for positioning and displaying the artifacts. But instead of waiting to find “the perfect one”, I bought one type. Instead of lamenting my inability to weld or braze, I thought of different ways I can make them myself. (And just as I’m writing this, I’m realizing I did a huge favor recently for another artist who is a life-long welder. Hmmmm……I think I know a favor I can ask of them!)

I worried about how many and what kind artifacts I need to make. But I’ve put that off for now because warmer summer months will be better for working with polymer clay. (My studio’s average winter temperature is 48 degrees.)

And the last barrier getting in my way? I wake up at 3:00 a.m., realizing my studio is now filled with soooo many shrines, there’s no room to even adequately display them all. And I’m worried no one will buy them.

My solution to that? I use what I call my “Scarlett O’Hara” approach: “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”

I tell my lizard brain to go back to sleep. It’s not about the selling right now, it’s about the making.

I’m sharing my progress on social media. That helps me not only record my progress, I also get to see the response. Which has been favorable!

Most people seem fascinated. They can’t wait to see where I go with them. Some have been inspired to explore their own versions. Many people are interested in a class, which, now that I have sources for affordable new boxes, could be possible.

And today, I came across an old journal from 2015, with those insights about Cake’s new song, which in turn inspired this article.

There are people who will love these shrines. There will be people who won’t.

And some won’t have any words.

They’ll just dance.

·        Just for today, don’t worry about who will and won’t like your work.

·        Just for today, don’t worry about whether it will sell.

·        Just for today, start that project you’ve always dreamed of. Experiment. Trial-and-error. Tiny steps forward.

·        Just for today, share your progress and process with your audience on social media.

Just for today, make the music that is your art, that makes you want to dance.

Ironically, today I also found this quote on Cake’s website:

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

—Martin Luther King Jr.

Your comments are always welcome, often insightful, and sometimes inspirational, too! Shares, the same. You can find more of my articles at Fine Art Views, and/or visit/subscribe to them at my blog at LuannUdell.wordpress.com.

NEWSLETTERS (AND BLOGS!) 101 #29 Part Deux: Share Your Work (and Let Go of the Fear of Being Copied)

I’d rather spend my time making my art, and let go of controlling copy-cats.

3/23/2021 by Luann Udell
This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

Better question: What is the highest, best use of your time and money?

 (4 minute read)

 Nothing will totally protect your artwork from being copied, not even unlimited time nor deep pockets of money.

In last week’s article about our fear of being copied, I shared how the most commonly used practices to protect our online art images (watermarks, disabling ‘right click’ on our website, etc.) do very little to actually protect us, and end up simply annoying our true collectors and potential buyers.

In the original article that sparked this discussion, I shared how someone may have found my art tagline attractive, and adapted it for their own use. (Again…MAYBE.) After sharing my emotional journey from dismay to acceptance, and moving forward, a reader suggested I ‘trademark’ my slogan.

First, thank you for thinking of me! I know this came from a place of wanting to help fix this problem.

I have no intention of doing that, for many reasons. But I did become curious about what would be involved.

 I looked up what a trademark protects, what resources it gives us, and how much it costs. (Disclosure: Lori Woodward would have dived deeply into this, which is why I miss her highly-informative posts on topics like this. I did a cannonball in the shallow end of the pool instead, so feel free to go further with your own exploration, if you need to.)

Trademarks are indeed a way to protect our ‘slogan’. (Copyright protections do not apply to slogans and short phrases.)

However, they don’t automatically stop people from using our own words. They simply give us the means to increase our power if we decide to pursue our trademark rights.

That means, filing a lawsuit. Which costs time, and money. A lot of money.

·        First, it costs from $225-$400 simply to file a trademark.

·        It only lasts 10 years.

·        There are extra fees for extensions, amendments, and maintenance.

·        And it can take 6 months to a year to be approved.

·        It’s highly recommended to hire a lawyer to do the filing, to make sure everything is done correctly.

·        And lawyer fees typically run $125-$300/hour, and usually get to $500-$2000 per action.

That’s a lot of money to protect six words.

Second, trademark action is only supported if the copied usage creates confusion. Hence, we have Delta Airlines and Delta faucets, because very few people would be confused by the two companies. (I was going to say something funny here, but I decided not to.) (Actually, I couldn’t think of anything funny, but if you can, be sure to share it in the comments!)

I don’t think I’ll be filing a trademark application anytime soon.

So back to my original point: This person’s bio echoed my tagline. But their work did not. In fact, their body of work doesn’t even echo their tagline. (What I could find of it, anyway.)

And I don’t think anyone looking at their work, and my work, would ever confuse the two.

Furthermore, I never would have even seen the wordy resemblance, if a friend/artist back in New Hampshire hadn’t pointed it out to me.

So for a minimum of $725 up to $2,400 for protection, for ten years’ protection, is it worth it?

And again, that protection only makes my legal action more solid. I would still have to file a lawsuit, pay lawyer fees, take a lot of time off work, and a pile of energy I don’t have right now, to make that legal action stick. (Yes, sometimes a cease-and-desist letter will have the same effect, but that costs lawyer fees, too.)

Even if I won my case, and won damages, whoops, here comes another copy-cat! Let’s do it all over again! Oy.

We artists are not multi-million dollar franchises with corporate lawyers to manage this for us. Most of us are sole proprietors (or “soul” proprietors) squeaking through, hope to earn a nice income from our work. Or at least enough to break even every year. A very few may be lucky to have a spouse handling the business end of our art making, but I’m guessing even fewer have copyright/trademark lawyers for partners.

So I repeat:

How do you want to make the best use of your time and energy?

Dealing with those people who consciously or unconsciously tread on our toes? Defending our art like an angry, indignant meerkat, sending cease-and-desist letters, scouring the web for instances of people copying our work, our words, spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on “protection” we probably can’t afford, that won’t work anyway?

Or could we choose to count our blessings? Give thanks for our ability to create the work that makes us whole, that brings us joy?

Could we choose to be grateful for the ease of sharing it with the world freely (literally!), daily, in ways that lift the hearts of others?

Could we rejoice in the fact that we can choose every single day what we make, where we make it, how we make it, and know that, if we’re doing it right, our audience will instantly know, “That’s a Luann Udell!”?

I know what I will choose, every single day.

What will YOU choose, today?

Next week, another article on true forgeries, and what made me smack my head in disbelief. (If you haven’t already watched “Made You Look” on Netflix, you still have time!)

Your comments are always welcome, often insightful, and sometimes inspirational, too! Shares, the same. You can find more of my articles at Fine Art Views, and/or visit/subscribe to them through my blog.

NEWSLETTERS (AND BLOGS) 101 #25: Share Your Wonder!

And we get used to ‘normal’, we don’t think of it as unusual at all. Swift birds bring songs of hope from the far corners of the earth. They urge me to tell more stories.

2/16/2021 by Luann Udell
This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

You may offer new joy to those who take such things for granted!
(4 minute read)

 I have lived in the Midwest, the East Coast, New England, as far north as New Hampshire and as far south as Baltimore.

In over sixty years, I never saw a hummingbird at rest. Never once.

Oh, I get there could be “reasons”. We’ve had bird feeders, but never hummer feeders. I don’t think they winter over in places like Michigan, Massachusetts, or New Hampshire, though I could be wrong. (I could stop to research this, but that’s not the point of this article. You can, though! And let me know.) (Never mind, I did look it up, and no, they don’t winter over in northern climates.)

Then we moved to California six years ago, and that changed.

The first house we lived in, we still had no feeder. But we soon learned that a hummingbird came to a tree in front of our porch, every single night, at the exact same time (relative to sunset) to sleep for the night. He sat in exactly the same spot, too, though he would take different routes/paths to get there every night, too.

We could set our watches by his pattern, and we often ran to the porch to see him “turn in” for the night.

Then in October, our little neighborhood had a Halloween parade. It was joyful and noisy. It annoyed the hummer, and he left for the rest of the winter.

Now, in our new rental home, we have feeders, and so do neighbors. I see hummingbirds all day, every day, at rest—and everywhere else!
They perch on telephone wires. They rest in trees, one that’s outside our bathroom window. I get to brush my teeth and watch the little guy groom, scritch, hop around from branch to branch, and fend off intruders and rivals regularly. One had residence in a shrubby space outside my old studio door. He would duke it out regularly with the California scrub jay and the mated pair of Steller’s jays that hung out there, too.

A little bird that used to be a complete (visual) mystery has now become a wonderful part of our everyday life here.

Others have even more intimate experiences. A hummer-lover here has one of those hand-feeders, and the patience to get hummers to sip the nectar from her hand!

Sharing that here in California, maybe that would get a “meh” reaction. Because it’s ‘normal’ here. But I’m guessing much of my audience back in those states we used to call home? Would be gaga at what I’m sharing today.

Now, if you are someone who paints/draws/writes about birds regularly, you might already be sharing stories like these.

But if you’ve relocated once/twice/a heckuva lot in your life, you have a powerful access to what is unusual, intriguing, and different. You experience first-hand a whole slew of little miracles, every day. (My first was having to go for a run in Baltimore at 6 a.m., in April, to avoid the heat. IN APRIL. If you grew up in Michigan, like I did, your jaw may be dropping right now.)

Every place/time/state/city/etc. has its own ‘normal’. And we get used to ‘normal’, we don’t think of it as unusual at all.

When we realize what we’re experiencing is special, in and of itself, it widens our appreciation of life. It lifts our heart. It can bring joy in hard times. (Remember that little maple seed pod in SOUL?)

And what better way to share that little insight in our social media? In our email newsletters, our blog posts, our Facebook and Instagram posts?

Bonus feature: Do you hate starlings and pigeons because they are ‘useless, annoying city birds”? You might have more respect for pigeons after reading this article and more awe for starlings after watching this stunning video. (Watch this full-screen for the best experience.)

Your shares and comments are always welcomed!

Share this link from FineArtViews.com or view my blog at luannudell.wordpress.com.

If someone shared this article with you, and you’d like to read more in this series, visit my articles at FineArtViews.com.

PS:  Help stop the Salmonella epidemic during migration season!

NEWSLETTERS (AND BLOGS) 101 #24 and a half: Don’t Do This!

2/9/2021 by Luann Udell

This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

When it comes to email newsletters, asking for permission is a heckuva lot more professional than asking for forgiveness!

(4 minute read)

A couple of things that really bug me popped up in my email inbox lately. They are related, but separate.

And I realized, if they annoy me, they will probably annoy your fans, too.

The first one is:

Don’t cc everyone on your email list! Use bcc instead, please!

Lately, I’ve been added to some unusual email lists, ones I didn’t sign up for. (More on that below.) They were mostly friends who wanted to ‘get the word out’ about something specific.

They included everyone’s email address in the “cc” section.

This may seem like a harmless issue, or perhaps even too picky.

But this IS an issue for several reasons:

• Some of those people might be very protective of their privacy and contact info. And you just shared it with dozens, maybe hundreds of people they don’t even know.
• Someone may be protective of their privacy because of abuse, physical harm they’ve suffered, scammers, etc.
• There may be someone in that group they want to avoid, for many reasons, large and small.
• And some people may be tempted to do the second thing I hate:

Please don’t sign me up for your email newsletters unless I specifically ASK to be signed up.

When people ask a question about my articles, I usually ask them to send an example. And since I’ve been writing about email newsletters, that’s what I get.

Except, many people signed me up for their newsletters, permanently.

And other people included in that “cc list” may do that, too.

I know for sure this is what happened to me. I signed up for a workshop a couple years ago, with a local artist hosting a meet-up for a nationally-based art consultant. The consultant and the host sent updates. I ended up not being able to attend.

But the host added me to their email newsletter. And that really, really annoyed me! I signed up for something they were hosting, not for their work.

Now, emails don’t take up much space on our desktops, nor even our laptops. They are usually very small in size. So deleting them doesn’t really save any space.

And I’m not one of those people who deletes everything (except accidentally!), and I usually keep stuff I think I might want to refer back to someday.

But:

• It’s still a lot of stuff in my inbox, and can be distracting if I don’t have time to read them.
• Though I support everyone’s creative work, that doesn’t mean I want to hear from them every week.
• And there are people I simply don’t like, who I’d rather not hear from.
• I hesitate to unsubscribe, for the reasons I listed above. Though I know I shouldn’t get upset when some people unsubscribe from MY newsletters, it makes me hesitate to unsubscribe, even from the folks I don’t like.

So don’t put your email subscribers in this position.

I know sometimes we have to go out on a limb in order to build our email list, especially at the beginning. Every article about email newsletters suggests great ways to get people on board, telling us reaching out to friends, family, customers, studio visitors, etc.

I know it’s easy to unsubscribe, too.

I know it’s easy to ask for forgiveness rather than to ask for permission.

But there are consequences.

FASO’s email newsletter service is very ethical. Even when you add someone who’s TOLD me they want to sign up, it will still ask that person if I have that permission. Unsubscribing is clear and easy, and sometimes people will even share why they’ve made that decision.

Most of the ‘professional level’ email programs follow the same guidelines.

But when it comes to forgiveness vs. permission, go with the latter. Please.

Protect your followers’ privacy, and respect their boundaries.

Use “bcc”, and only sign up those who ASK.

As always, your shares and comments are welcome!

Link back to it here on Fine Art Views, or my blog at luannudell.wordpress.com. I repost my FAV articles on my blog, so if you have trouble leaving a comment at FAV, you can subscribe to my blog here and/or leave a comment on my blog.

If someone shared this article with you, and you’d like to read more in this series, here are all my articles at FineArtViews.com.

NEWSLETTERS 101 #23: Share Because You Matter

I don’t have an image of the comet wall hanging, as I made it before making digital images were even possible for me. So, a moon one instead!

1/26/2021  by Luann Udell

This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

It’s easier than ever to get our work, our spirit, our ethos, the things that matter to us, out into the world. And sharing on social media is the best way to do it.

(4 minute read)

Schedules change, deadlines move forward and back, and here I am writing today’s column before I even had a topic in mind.

But what a gift this last-minute situation has given me today!

Because I found out that a classic poem, one of my favorites since I memorized it for a high school drama class, has almost disappeared from the internet.

It was written in 1931 by Conrad Aiken, it has always resonated with me, and now it’s hard to find, except in other blogs.

It’s still in poetry books, of course. So it’s not gone gone. But for some reason, it seems to have fallen below the fold for most poetry websites.

And having something become invisible on the internet is a good lesson for me, today. And maybe for you.

I don’t have the skills to unwrap Aiken’s purpose with these words. I only know they have always rocked my soul when I read it, especially aloud. That is the power of poetry. Maybe it popped up in my head today because of Amanda Gorman’s deeply moving poem, “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration ceremony on January 20. What I do know is this: If I hadn’t found links to personal websites republishing this poem, I may not have been able to easily share it with you today.

Which is why social media is so vital today. Why using social media to market our work is more important than ever. Why doing our best to share our own work, our art, no matter what form it takes, is so important right now.

If the only way I could share my work was in books, newspapers, and magazines it’s been published in, it would be harder for potential collectors to find it. A lot harder.

Social media isn’t the only way to find stuff (poems, people, art), of course. I could go through my collection of poetry books to find that poem. I could search through our library’s poetry collection, although that is harder now, too. The poem is certainly out there somewhere.

But it sure wasn’t easy to find it quickly, today, now, when I needed it.

So for today, here is that poem. And thank you to all the individuals and organizations (a church, a grief counseling website, blogs, etc.) who love this poem as much as I do, who decided to share it with others on social media today.

(Coincidentally, my very first stitched fiber wall hanging was inspired by the comet Hale-Bopp in 1997, and Mary Chapin Carpenter’s appropriate and beautiful “When Halley Came to Jackson” which we played in the car as we drove our two young children out into the country to see it. Yeah, it still makes me cry.)

As always, and speaking of sharing (hint, hint) if you found this article helpful, share it!

Link back to it here on Fine Art Views, or my blog at luannudell.wordpress.com.

If someone shared this article with you, and you’d like to read more in this series, here are all my articles at FineArtViews.com.

One Star Fell and Another 

One star fell and another as we walked.
Lifting his hand towards the west, he said
”How prodigal that sky is of its stars!
They fall and fall, and still the sky is sky.
Two more have gone, but heaven is heaven still.

Then let us not be precious of our thought,
Nor of our words, nor hoard them up as though
We thought our minds a heaven which might change
And lose its virtue, when the word had fallen.
Let us be prodigal, as heaven is:
Lose what we lose, and give what we may give,
Ourselves are still the same. Lost you a planet?
Is Saturn gone? Then let him take his rings
Into the Limbo of forgotten things.

O little foplings of the pride of mind,
Who wrap the phrase in lavender, and keep it
In order to display it: and you, who save our loves
As if we had not worlds of love enough!

Let us be reckless of our words and worlds,
And spend them freely as the tree his leaves;
And give them where the giving is most blest.
What should we save them for, a night of frost? …
All lost for nothing, and ourselves a ghost.”

(Conrad Aiken, 1931)

NEWSLETTERS 101 #22: Share Your Galleries

SUNSET by Luann Udell

1/22/2021 7:36:40 AM by Luann Udell
This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

Your chance to support your customers AND the small businesses that support YOU!

(4 minute read)    

 Today’s big insight for me: All these newsletter topic suggestions will also work for blog posts!

And today’s column will also be a lot shorter, because I won’t have to go into deep explanation mode on why this would be such a great topic for your email newsletters. Because it’s pretty obvious!

I wish I’d thought of this back in the day when I did wholesale fine craft shows, and my work was carried by galleries all across the country. Dang!

But it’s not too late. I still have galleries in New Hampshire, and several here in Sonoma County that carry my work. And now I can help promote them!

•  I can talk a bit about the owners/managers. Like the co-managers of the League of NH Craftsmen gallery in Littleton (except pandemic shut-downs have addled my brain that I can’t remember Beth’s partner-in-crime art! Ack!) who brought homemade chocolate chip cookies to all the craftspeople at the week-long Annual Craftsmen’s Fair who had work in their gallery. Let’s just say I was always glad to see them, not just because they are awesome people, but because homemade chocolate chip cookies!! 

•  I can share the gallery location. Not only so people know that my work is available nearby (and certainly closer than California!), but I can also share where they can stop for lunch, other cool shops nearby, sight-seeing, etc. Because usually when I made the trek to delivery new work, that’s what I did, too.

•  I can share pics of the work available. Soooooo much easier these days! Yet another gift of online marketing/social media.

•  I can share my gratitude that they’ve chosen to carry my work. Corrick’s is just one of the wonderful stores that carry my work here in Sonoma County. Corrick’s is a highly-respected family-owned biz (four generations!) here in Santa Rosa, whose history goes back generations. They are avid art-lovers in all its forms (opera!), and they are terrific supporters of the art organization that sponsors our open studio tours. (In fact, they have an entire gallery for those artists!) They offer custom framing, and quality gifts, office supplies, books, and collectibles. Their employees are stellar!

•  I can share other art forms they support. The Cloverdale Arts Alliance also hosts musical events. Sebastopol Center for the Arts also features musical and performance arts, and they host a film festival.

•  They deserve a shout–out during these difficult times. Although some people complain about “visual art exhibits” not being as engaging, and many artists complain that their sales have suffered from them, all my galleries are making tremendous efforts to support us all while also keeping us safe, often a thankless job. I consider them heroes!

•  We are “vetting” these great galleries for other artists. Galleries are always on the look-out for artists whose work would be a great fit. And both galleries and artists value our validation that these are good people to work with.

•  A prestigious gallery is good for OUR reputation, too. For years before my work became better known, people would ask me what kind of art I made. And when I described it (which was and still is hard, because it’s out-of-the-box), they’d go, “Oh, okay.” Then they’d ask what galleries I was in. I’d say, “I’m a member of the League of NH Craftsmen” and their whole attitude would change from, “Yeah, sure” to a heartfelt “Wow! Where can I see it??” (This was before smart phones, so I couldn’t easily show them my work.)

• Sharing our personal experience is seen as more ‘truthy’ than an ad. Anyone can purchase an ad, which is why most of skip over ads in newspapers and magazines. But an article is seen as having “outside validation”, and that’s the role our email newsletters play. In other words, we artists validate our galleries, for our audience.

Sharing our galleries is a win/win for everyone!

 Speaking of sharing (hint, hint) if you found this article helpful, share it!

Link back to it here on Fine Art Views, or my blog at luannudell.wordpress.com.

If someone shared this article with you, and you’d like to read more in this series, here are all my articles at FineArtViews.com. 

NEWSLETTERS 101: #19 Share a Family Tradition!

I did get a LITTLE work done in my studio today. Found the perfect bear for my newest restored-box shrine!

12/29/2020  by Luann Udell
This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

The little things we take for granted may lift the hearts and spirits of others!

It’s been a funky day-before-Christmas, to be sure.

My partner and I are in the middle of a huge spat. (No worries, we’ve been doing this for decades. Neighborhood friends nicknamed us “The Bickersons” almost 40 years ago!)

I finally pulled out and went to my studio, my always-happy place. Twenty minutes later, I got a call from Jon. He’d left his wallet at the supermarket, could I drive him there to get it? (No driver’s license.) No luck. But when we got home, ready to call and cancel all our credit cards, he found his wallet. On his dresser.

Grumbling, I drove back to my studio. But I could only get a little work done before the cold and the dark got to me, and so I headed home again.

I’m sitting here, trying to think about why this hardly even seems like Christmas. Aha! Covid-19! No parties. No Yankee Swap, our biggest, most memorable Christmas event. Our Christmas tree was so last-minute this year. I wasn’t even going to get one, but Jon wanted a tree, so I got a tiny one. Then I couldn’t find my ornaments. It’s decorated with some small thrift shop finds, cat toys, a box of Christmas cards I found at the thrift shop (puppies in Santa hats) and colorful fabric masks….

Okay, so this will be a Christmas-to-remember-for-all-the-wrong-reasons. On the other hand, it inspired this article, so here goes!

All through my childhood, I wanted to open a present on Christmas Eve. It was a hard NO growing up. So guess what Christmas tradition I started with OUR family?

Yup. We all got to pick one present to open on Christmas Eve! It was great!

My husband’s father was Jewish, his mother was Catholic. Actual religious practices were few and far between, but our daughter is none-the-less very proud of her Jewish heritage. So I bought her a dinosaur menorah I found on Etsy a few years go. She loves it!

No Yankee Swap. In past years, this was quite the occasion. Everyone brings an unwanted gift, a White Elephant, (undamaged, not used, etc.) wrapped and beribboned, and placed it under the tree. Then everyone picks a number from a hat/bowl/bag. #1 person picks a gift and unwraps it. #2 person picks a gift, then gets to choose whether to a) keep it, or b) swap with person #1. #3 person does the same, only they can swap with anyone who already has a present. Obviously, the best number to get is the last one! And it’s amazing how someone’s White Elephant is exactly what someone else will love.

It’s also good for everyone to have plenty of Gary Spykman’s handmade “spoonable eggnog” (recipe at the end) because sometimes fights break out. (Well, not FIGHTS, exactly, but just sayin’, don’t get too attached to your gift!

And of course, my Grandma Paxton’s yummy iced brown sugar Christmas cookies. They are the best!

In another family we’ve known for years, everyone gets new pajamas, and wears them on Christmas Day. (I can’t remember if they were matching pajamas??)

A friend told me how their family would go to movies on Christmas Day. (Movies! In a movie theater!)

Why would you share this in your newsletter?

Because regardless of religion, region, etc., holidays are a time for family-and-friend gatherings. In the best of circumstances, there are plenty of laughs and hugs, joy and eggnog (LOTS of eggnog, and don’t forget the brandy!) Being human, there might also be lots of spats and tantrums, sadness and envy, some disappointment (DO NOT GET YOUR PARTNER A VACUUM CLEANER FOR CHRISTMAS!).

There are loved ones who will be missed, for this year, or, sadly, forever.

Family traditions can be sweet. Simple. Complex and frustrating. Unusual. Fun. Embarrassing. (Mistletoe? No thank you!) Informal. Or scheduled down to the last minute.

Sharing a family tradition in our marketing newsletters allows our audience a little peek into our life, outside of the art we make. It reminds us that we are connected in all the subtleties of being human…and that we are not alone.

Of course, we can also share a funny pet story, or a beautiful sunset, or a moment of insight, as I’ve suggested in this series.

But if you get a kick out of our Yankee Swap party, or fall in love with Gary’s eggnog, or find a new passion with my Grandma’s cookie recipe (which I’ll post on my blog), imagine how YOUR audience will feel!

SPOONABLE EGGNOG BY GARY SPYKMAN (Note: If the name sounds familiar, Gary is the person who taught me how to clean, repair, and restore antique and vintage wood boxes for my Shrine Series, and offered me the use of his studio, his toolks, and his expertise to make them! You can see his work at his website:  Spykman Design

This will put a little (or a lot of) Christmas Spirit(s) in you! Thick, rich, potent… irresistible!

4 eggs, separated
2 cups heavy cream (whipping cream)
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup top-shelf rum or bourbon (really, the good stuff)
1/4 cup brandy
whole nutmeg

You’ll need three mixing bowls for this.
Bowl #1: Beat egg whites until stiff.
Bowl #2: Beat egg yolks, sugar, and salt until thick and lemon-colored, stir in the booze.
Bowl #3: Whip the cream.
Gently fold the egg yolk mixture into the whipped cream, then fold in the egg whites.
Chill for an hour or two.
Scoop into individual cups, grate fresh nutmeg over the top, and serve with spoons.

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GRANDMA PAXTON’S CHRISTMAS COOKIES

1 1/2 c. brown sugar

1 c. butter

2 eggs

4 TBS. sour milk (you can add a teensy bit of vinegar to get it ‘sour’)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

4 c. flour

Preheat oven at 350 degrees

Cream butter and sugar.

Add eggs and vanilla.

Combine dry ingredients. Add alternately with milk.

Roll and cut cookies on a lightly-floured surface. (Keep your rolling pin lightly-floured, too!)

Bake about 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned.

FROSTING

Beat 2 egg whites till fluffy. (My recipe says you may need to add cream of tartar, but I’m not sure why…?)

Add enough powdered sugar to make stiff frosting.

Spread on cookies and decorate!

****************************************************

Your shares and comments are always welcomed!

Copy this link FineArtViews.com to share, or view my blog at luannudell.wordpress.com.

If someone shared this article with you, and you’d like to read more in this series, visit my articles at FineArtViews.com.

NEWSLETTERS 101 #17: Share an “Aha!” Moment

My biggest “aha” moment was what put me on the path to becoming a “real” artist. Still powerful. Still works.

12/15/2020 by Luann Udell

This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

Was there a moment when everything changed for you? Share it!

(4 minute read)

One of the taglines in my Fine Art Views (and elsewhere) is this:

“I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”

Yep, I’m hoping it made you laugh a little. But I am also here to reassure you, that when we have our own “aha!” moment, aka “the Eureka effect”, that miraculous gift of insight where we see what’s really going on, what the solution is, how to move forward from a stuck place, it’s good to share it.

It may be just what someone else needs to get out of a hole today.

Here’s one of my favorites I love to share. It’s about fear. How fear can dominate our lives, inside and out. How it can paralyze us.

And ironically, how shallow it can really be. (Yes, pun intended!)

This story is over 15 years old, and the fear I described was already almost 15 years old. If my husband hadn’t cajoled me to take a dip in the lake on that hot summer day, I might still be holding that fear in my heart.

My intention in sharing this story was to encourage others who are in the same boat. Paralyzed with fear, palpable fear. Impossible to ignore. Only “diving in” (figuratively and literally!) helped me get to the bottom of that scary lake. (Again, pun intended.)

As I linked to the Dublin Lake story, I found another related story in the sidebar, entitled “Breakthrough”. Here is where a bunch of fears, and one random comment, came together into one beautiful solution.

Now my latest insight, that came from revisiting my old blog, today:

Radio Userland was an early blog hosting site (now-defunc) site. I wrote on it from 2002 to mid-2007. (I couldn’t even access it for ages after I left, until my techie husband recoded all the urls into something I could get to easily.) (Thank you, sweetie/love of my life!)

In five years, I got maybe three comments. THREE.

Was it because I was a terrible writer? Or an uninteresting writer? I’ll leave that for you to decide! But I do know the platform had its drawbacks, for me.

It was hard to comment. I don’t even know if I could have responded to those comments. I had no way of knowing how many people visited my blog. I never thought to ask the ones that did, to share it with others.

So: No comments. No likes. No way to measure “hits”. No way to know if anyone ever even read anything. No way to know if what I wrote, helped someone else.

And yet, I wrote. I process hard places in my life, through writing. So I wrote for myself, first. I love having had all those ‘lessons learned’, insights, and free advice.

I love it when I come across them again.

Because I still need them.

As a good friend said a few years ago, “I love all my life lessons! I love them so much, I learn them again, and again, and again.”

And when I share them with the world? Priceless. As in, “free” because you get to read them here at no cost to you.

And “priceless” as in “powerful”, as in “if it helped me, and when I shared it, it helped you, then that has incredible, endless value.”

Is it coincidence that I had this realization so soon after last week’s article, on how the numbers ultimately don’t matter?

I don’t think so.

So consider sharing an insight that helped you move forward in life. An insight that helped you find your way in the dark, towards the light, and a mug of hot milk.

If it helps even one of your subscribers do the same, well, that’s pretty cool.

One suggestion: Stick with the positive, or at least end on a positive note. Not all life experiences are good ones. But when we learn something fundamental, something beautiful because of them, that inspires hope.

Of course it okay to share something we’re struggling with right now, too: Health issues, difficult life events, etc. Believe me, if you’re going through something really hard, someone else out there is, too.

And it’s okay to just gritch now and then. (That’s a word from an old high school friend, a blend of “gripe” and “bitch”, and I love it almost as much as “blort”.) In fact, it might be an opportunity for readers to make suggestions or express sympathy, which may or may not help.

But just knowing they care can mean a lot to us, too.

But don’t be too much of a Debbie/Danny Downer, either. Yeah, we all have our moments, but we also all have enough on our plates.

What is one of YOUR favorite “aha!” moments? Try it out on us, in the comments!

If you enjoyed this article, if you enjoyed this article, share it! Link back to it here on Fine Art Views, or my blog at luannudell.wordpress.com.

If someone shared this article with you, and you’d like to read more in this series, visit my articles at FineArtViews.com.

NEWSLETTERS 101 #16: The Numbers Don’t Matter!

If I measured my success by how fast my work sold, I would be at zero. One of my best pieces didn’t sell until the month before we left for Cali.

12/8/2020 by Luann Udell

This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

Do what you love, share what you want, and put down the measuring stick.

(4 minute read)

 In last week’s Fine Art Views article about possible newsletter topics (sharing our resources), I mentioned Thea Fiore-Bloom, PhD’s website, which is where that idea came from.

I ran the article by Thea first, to make sure I got it right. She mentioned she was inspired to create a resource page by another artist, Sara Paxton, whose most popular post was about how to speed up the drying time for oil paints. Which is logical and inspiring, right?

But my most popular post was about repairing a huge chip in my spongeware bowl with polymer clay.

And Quinn McDonald, a highly-respected artist/writer/life coach/corporate trainer? Her most popular post was about how to cook steel cut oats faster in the morning.

Irony: Last week’s post also had one comment. One. Comment.

But then I had more than half a dozen responses, from people who a) subscribe to my blog, where I republish my FAV articles; and b) got my newsletter referencing that article, with a link to my blog.

That number of responses is new for me, in a good way. My subscriber numbers are big-ish, but nowhere near “influencer” levels.

Until Thea told me THE NEXT DAY that her website visitors hit almost 1,000, resulting in a ton of new subscribers to her blog. She made a guestimate about the number of people who’d probably READ my article/blog/newsletter, but didn’t ‘respond’, and estimated I am truly at those ‘influencer’ levels. Which is….stunning.

The moral of this story is, numbers are everything. And…nothing.

 Sometimes our ‘most popular’ numbers can reflect our true audience.

Or they can have nothing to do with our true audience. (Trust me, Quinn has given the world huge gifts over the years, and cooking steel cut oats is not her greatest legacy. Not in my book!)

Sometimes our numbers can seem so abysmally low, we question our own worth.

And 24 hours later, we see the actual impact we have in the world.

Or not. As I’ve said so many times in my articles, we do the work of our heart because it matters to us.

Then we put it out into the world, whether by selling, teaching, or sharing on social media. This is the proverbial toss-a-pebble-into-the-pond, not knowing where, nor how far, the ripples will go.

Money is lovely (yum!) and numbers can be reassuring. But they are not the only measure of our success, with our art, with our influence, with our lives.

Case in point: There’s one reason I now love to attend memorial services for those who have passed on.

It’s the stories people share about that person.

 A funeral service draws people from every stage and arena of our life: Family, relatives, groups (neighbors, co-workers, customers, fellow church members, etc.) If they’re well-known, or even famous, even people who never knew them in person, may have a story.

And when they share their memories and stories, we have a peek into a life we never fully knew, or appreciated, or understood. We see moments of kindness, generosity, humor, and grace.

Even then, we still won’t know the whole story.

 Because…that’s life. Even we can’t see our whole story.

 When we rely on pure metrics, it can muddy the story.

 In fact, when I looked up metrics, I found this:

met·rics  /’metriks/

noun 

1.     the use or study of poetic meters; prosody

2.     a method of measuring something, or the results obtained from this.

Do you see it?

The first definition is a form of art.

How do we measure our art?

How do we measure our worth? Our life?

How do we measure the impact we’ve had on others? Whether the good we do outweighs the mistakes we’ve made, the hurt we’ve caused, the things we’ve left undone and the things we ought NOT to have done?

We can’t.

We can only do our best, with all our heart, and let the rest go. Make amends as we can. Try to better. Help others do better.

Social media and social media marketing has been a game-changer, especially during this pandemic. It allows us to stay connected, and create connection, despite everything.

But how we measure our ‘success’ with that, is another matter altogether.

If you enjoyed this article, if you enjoyed this article, share it! Link back to it here on Fine Art Views, or my blog at luannudell.wordpress.com.

If someone shared this article with you, and you’d like to read more in this series, visit my articles at FineArtViews.com.

NEWSLETTERS 101 #15: Share Your Resources!

I’m sharing this for all my studio visitors over the years who ask me if I actually work in my studio space. Mmmmm, yup!

12/1/2020 by Luann Udell
This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

Help your readers take a step forward, just like someone did for YOU.

(4 minute read)

 In last week’s Fine Art Views article, I wrote how the gift of laughter is a precious commodity in our world right now, and how easy it is to share. This week, let’s talk about sharing what’s helped US move forward, in our art and in our lives.

Today, let me share another writer/artist from the FAV team, Thea Fiore-Bloom, PhD, creator of The Charmed Studio blog. I first met Thea through her Fine Art Views columns. (Actually, Thea just reminded me that our paths crossed years ago, before either of us wrote for FAV! Thank you for the memory reboot, Thea!) I found articles both endearing and powerful. She gets right to the heart of what she writes about, and all of it is geared to helping artists and writers get better at writing/making.

But what really blew my mind was her website.

It’s not just filled with generous helpings of articles, offering insights for creatives.  She also shares links to websites and articles she’s found to be game-changers. She’s opened a window on how we can create more powerful and connect-able blog posts and newsletters. (Disclaimer: I just found out I’m on her resource page! Thank you, Thea!)

The generosity of this, Thea sharing what’s worked for her, is a game-changer in and of itself.

I’ve written blog posts of how-to’s in the past. Some of them I published, others languish in the sea of forgotten ideas. But after discovering who Thea is at heart—authentic and generous—I find I now want to follow her example.

I’ve given little ‘peeks’ into my process from time to time. Lately, I’ve gone a little deeper. On Instagram (which reposts to my Facebook biz page, Luann Udell, Artist and Writer, I’ve shared more of my process (restoring vintage and antique wood boxes for my shrine series). A reader messaged me, asking me for my sources for these boxes, and I wrote a reply that will probably become a future blog post.

Why have I hesitated to do this in the past? Perhaps it’s the fear we all have, that someone will snag our ideas and make them their own. That someone will take our process and do it even better. That someone will gain more fame and fortune than we do.

But isn’t that what I’ve done? (Albeit on a good level of integrity.)

I did not invent my faux ivory technique. Tory Hughes, who unfortunately died in 2018, was a pioneer in exploring and creating imitative techniques with polymer clay: Faux ivory, turquoise, amber, coral, etc. Yes, I’ve made my own adaptations and created some of my own as well. I’ve taken it to a new, very personal level, too.

But I have always acknowledged Tory as my first inspiration and as a great resource for information. Now I’m realizing it might be even more inspirational to create my own Resources Page, to honor her memory, and those of others who have helped me ‘up my game’ over the years.

Also, in my humble experience, it’s really hard to exactly copy another person’s techniques. And it’s almost impossible to copy another creative’s story. Our energy is better spent on our work, and the knowledge that a copycat can’t create new ideas like we can. They can only follow, and therefore, will always be a step behind.

To reiterate: This isn’t about ‘having to share’ our ‘how’.

It’s about sharing what helped us get to where we are, today, through inspiration, clarity, insights, and okay, a couple trade secrets here and there, and/or acknowledging where we got OUR trade secrets from, especially if they’re actually public knowledge. Share a teacher, a class, an art organization, where we grew our own skills. Share the writing that inspired us, and kept us moving forward until we got where we are today—or will be tomorrow.

Be a big-hearted person like Thea. Share what makes you, YOU.

 Your words may help another creative person move forward with THEIR work, and bring light, and good, and joy into the world. What a beautiful gift!

If you enjoyed this article, share it! Link back to it here on Fine Art Views, or my blog at luannudell.wordpress.com.

If someone shared this article with you, and you’d like to read more in this series, visit my articles at FineArtViews.com.

And if you decide I would be a good fit for YOUR resource page/next newsletter, go for it!

APOLLO 13, FREE ADVICE, AND YOU: What a Failed Moon Landing Mission Can Teach Us During These Hard Times

What a Failed Moon Landing Mission Can Teach Us During These Hard Times.

APOLLO 13, FREE ADVICE, AND YOU

11/17/2020 by Luann Udell

Topics: art marketing | FineArtViews | Luann Udell

This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

What a Failed Moon Landing Mission Can Teach Us During These Hard Times.

 (5 minute read)

 We interrupt this series Newsletters 101 for this public service announcement…

 All Fine Art Views writers have been encouraged to focus on online marketing/social media marketing during the pandemic. It gets harder to keep that up as time goes on. I’m weary of it, and I’m sure you are, too.

This week, I struggled to think of a fresh idea for a column.

So here we are in a situation that has not happened since the Spanish Flu, more than 100 years ago. It has changed everything, worldwide. Everyone on this planet has been affected, some more harshly than others, for many different reasons.

For artists, that means virtual events instead of gallery shows, open studios, or art fairs. For many of us, it means not even being able to go to the studio. Sales have fallen drastically. And there’s no end in sight, yet.

Yesterday, for some reason I can’t even remember, I paged through my daily schedule/to-do list notebook. On September 7, I’d written a few thoughts from one of my favorite advice columnists, Carolyn Hax in the Washington Post newspaper. (I think I must have gone on a Hax spree through the archives, because the mention of Apollo 13 was actually from her April 4, 2017 column.)

In discussing how good marriages aren’t about a perfect fit, but are about couples working with what they’ve got, Hax said this:

“In a memorable part of (the movie) “Apollo 13,” engineers have to build a carbon-dioxide filter with only material (the astronauts have) on hand. That applies to marriage, too: Understand what you need, see what you actually have, then try to build something that works.”

Let me repeat that:

Understand what you need. See what you actually have. Try to build something that works.

Bingo!

What do we need right now?

What we need is connection with our audience. Yes, we want sales, too. But that comes from the connection, right?

What do we actually have?

Let’s see…. Open studios? Nope. Gallery shows? Nope. Art fairs? Nope.

What’s left?

Social media.

 Facebook. Instagram. Email. Our websites. Virtual events.

This is why we’ve been asked to focus on social media insights for you. It’s all we got!

So what can we do with it? What can we build that will work?

 We can create a website.

We can create a website on a platform that is specially built for artists. (FASO!)

It will showcase our art, yes. But we can also tell our creation story, how we came to do what we do, why we do it, and how we do it.

We can create email newsletters that lets our audience stay up-to-date about what we’re up to.

We can show stages of where we are with our new works-in-progress. Instagram is PERFECT for this! This week, I had a breakthrough that’s held me back on several big projects for years. I’ve been posting updates on IG. (Okay, today I realized I haven’t actually solved the holding-me-back thing, but I’m excited by how close I am to fixing it!)

We can share on Facebook, especially our business page. We can share updates, thoughts, stories, images, etc. (And you can post on Instagram, and have it re-posted on Facebook.)

Virtual events are more common. Do they work? Yes and no. I participated in three virtual events in August and September. I didn’t think I’d made any significant sales, especially with the two that took place here in California. But afterwards, I realized this strong uptick in several larger-than-normal online sales during that period came from…a virtual event in New Hampshire!

The people that have followed me for years suddenly leaped at the chance to buy my work, and it was very satisfying. (The sales didn’t occur through the online channels of those events, which is what threw me. People found me there, then went to my online store and made their purchases directly from me.) These virtual events didn’t cost much, and I consider what fees I did pay, as my online marketing budget.

Social media marketing is what will get us through this ‘new normal’, until something like the ‘old normal’ returns.

And yet, from some of the comments made during this time, Fine Art Views readers often remind me how tired they are with all this focus on social media.

I try to remember to check back on where commenters are coming from, so I check their website and their work. Seems like the unhappiest folks didn’t have an online store/shop, or even prices on their work. Some don’t even have a website.

In my volunteer work for one major virtual event, I created captions/sentences for over 140 artists, describing their work, their inspiration, and what made their work unique.

I was shocked how many of them didn’t have a website. Or they didn’t have a correct link to their website. (I had to Google them.) Or they only had a bare-bones website, not even featuring more than one image of their work.

So many people had ‘resumes’ instead of actual artist statements. I had to dig deep to find anything of interest to say about their work, or simply go with what I thought of their work. (Don’t worry, I was kind to everyone.)

So many people didn’t have any social media accounts—no Facebook, no Instagram, even though Instagram, based on images, feels made for visual artists.

I know hundreds of artists and craftspeople. Yet in my own email feed, I get email newsletters from less than a handful of fellow artists. And some of those are not newsletters I signed up for.  They got my address from events I signed up for, or a group activity I was in. (DO NOT sign up people without their permission!)

And some artists didn’t even share their email address.

To continue the metaphor, if these folks were astronauts, they’d be dying for lack of oxygen.

Now, if your intention during this pandemic is to step back, focus on your work, and let go of sales and marketing until the ‘old normal’ is back, it’s okay, and I don’t blame you. It’s definitely a great time to dig in and make our art. Fewer distractions, fewer obligations, and I can’t go thrift shopping. (Did I say that out loud??)

But if you want to boldly go where you’ve never gone before, now is the time to bump up your social media marketing game.

Don’t complain, up your game!

If you enjoyed this article, share it! Link back to it here on Fine Art Views, or my blog at luannudell.wordpress.com.

If someone shared this article with you, and you’d like to read more in this series, visit my articles at FineArtViews.com.

NEWSLETTERS 101: Share Your Events – the Right Way!

An event with multiple artists with a core topic may attract a different audience than our open studio event.

11/10/2020 by Luann Udell
This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

Do it how bands do it! 

(5 minute read)

Today’s suggestion for newsletter topics is short and sweet:

One event at a time.

I learned this one the hard way.

One year, I had three events in one month.

This was almost two decades ago, when postcard mailings were the way we stayed in touch with our audience. I had a huge mailing list, so even postcards could run into hundreds of dollars to promote events.

And if people couldn’t make it to one event, they would have the opportunity to catch the next one, or the next, right?

And so I combined all three events in one postcard.

I was very proud of myself for keeping my marketing costs down. But I paid for it dearly.

All three events were total duds. NO ONE showed up. I mean, crickets.

I was devastated. How had I lost such a huge audience in a handful of weeks?? What was going on???

At the time, I wrote a monthly column for a fine crafts magazine, The Crafts Report (now known as Handmade Business.) I became friends with my editor, Larry Hornung. (Not the hockey player!) We had wonderful phone chats from time to time. I loved his insights and his wacky sense of humor.

And fortunately for me, he also had a side-gig as a musician in a band.

I sadly shared how nobody liked my work anymore, and he set me straight in a jiffy. Starting with, “No, no, NO!…”

“Never, NEVER promote more than one event at a time!!!”

They said it’s common knowledge in the music industry (on the level where you’re not doing world tours!) to promote only one gig at a time. He reiterated this points many times in our conversation.

Our audience is comprised of human beings. Human beings, when told they have not one, but two, or even three opportunities to attend an event will do this:

They’ll say, “Ooh, the first one’s on a Friday night, but I’ve got another thing I might go do, so I’ll just go to the second one.”

The second date approaches, and they’ll say, “I could go tonight, but now I’m tired, so I’ll go to the third one.”

Then something comes up between now and the third event, and they can’t go at all.

This is sooooo normal. In fact, I scheduled a meet-up (socially-distanced, open windows, masks) recently with a potential customer. They suggested two possible days/times, and I said, “Let’s go with the first one so if something comes up, we have a back-up plan. Sure enough, something came up that was juuuuust important enough to push that back.

Unfortunately, something had come up for them, too, so they were not sure they could make it. Then fortunately, they found out they could, but unfortunately I’d already started an errand that was hard to bail on. Fortunately,  I did bail, and fortunately,  they hadn’t gotten my message that I couldn’t make it.

We arrived at my studio within minutes of each other.

We had a good laugh, they found their perfect piece and had to leave sooner than they’d planned, because guess what? They had to be somewhere else.

When you give people too many opportunities to opt out easily, they will.

And when you create a little urgency with your event, they are more likely NOT to opt out.

As I’ve said before, ‘urgency’ in sales tactics can be overdone. We’ve all seen the little timer counting down on a website, telling us we only have 20 minutes to take advantage of this amazing offer. I grit my teeth and move on, as most of us do. So don’t overuse this.

But do focus on one event. Especially now, when it’s hard to have in-person events at all. And especially when we get through these times, and we’ll again have infinite opportunities for so many social functions.

Note: I know that it’s common to post such a list of events on our websites, especially if we do a lot of fairs and shows. But in many cases, these are spread out over a state or region, or even across the country. So we are actually still focusing on one event in one area, as opposed to multiple events within 20 miles of each other.

Also, be sure to share what will be unique and special about each event. For an author’s audience, it could be an opportunity to meet the writer and have our book signed by them. If it’s in our studio, there’s not just the opportunity for visitors to experience our sacred creative place, it’s a chance to watch us demo our process. If it’s a gallery show, it’s an opportunity to see a full display of our best work (solo show) or a lot of other favorite artists (group show.) Let people know if the event will also support a cause you and your audience cares about. (See last week’s article in this series about that.)

All of these details may attract different people, which is fine.

And if you’ve already created different groups in your email newsletters, which is a FASO email newsletter feature, then you can send out different emails to each group, focusing on their stated interests. (For example, people who are only interested in workshop might be more inclined to attend a demo event.) (Me? I’m not that organized, so I send ‘em to everyone on my list.)

I’m so glad I shared my woes with my editor that day, with the exact person who had the perfect insight to my problem. One creative reaching out to another creative to share what we both had in common.

Promote one event at a time.

Three events? Three different notifications, spaced just enough in time so people can make good choices, for us, and them!

And speaking of sharing, if you enjoyed this article, share it! Link back to it here on Fine Art Views, or my blog at luannudell.wordpress.com.

If someone shared this article with you, and you’d like to read more in this series, visit my articles at FineArtViews.com.

Newsletter 101 #11: Share Your Skills and Knowledge!

Email newsletters are a terrific way to share our classes and workshops.

NEWSLETTERS 101 #11: Share Your Skills and Knowledge!

10/27/2020 by Luann Udell
This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

Email newsletters are a terrific way to share our classes and workshops.  

Last week’s Newsletter 101 Fine Art Views article, on sharing our process, is a natural lead-in to our next email newsletter topic: Our classes and workshops.

In her refreshingly honest book, SCRATCH: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living, editor Manjula Martin discovered that most writers, even famous ones, rarely make a living on their books alone. Most of them sustain their livelihood with public speaking events and workshops. I suspect this applies to all creatives across the board, including artists. So never feel ‘less than’ when we can’t support ourselves with our art alone. You and me and almost everyone we know!

Newsletters are a great way to create and/or rekindle interest in our teaching opportunities. Yep, you can—and should—include them on your website. But a kindly reminder a month or so before you run the class might just generate a whirlwind of sign-ups, too, by creating a sense of urgency without applying pressure.

People hate pressure when they purchase something. A little push is fine. But trying to make people desperate with FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is a highly-recognizable pressure tactic we’ve all been subjected to.  I hate it. Yes, I feel the pressure, but my resentment is often enough to offset that.

Instead, when promoting your teaching skills, proceed as if talking to a friend. Would you strong-arm a friend into buying something from you? Then don’t do it to your followers and collectors, either.

Our current world situation means we probably won’t be offering in-person workshops anytime soon, unless we can hold them outdoors or in spacious, well-ventilated buildings. But there are still ways to share our skills and knowledge, through Zoom meetings, video demonstrations, downloadable digital tutorials/books/instructions, etc.

And these strange times also give us time to prepare our future workshops. If you haven’t considered teaching, now is the time to explore, research, and plan accordingly.

So, what should we teach?

We control what we teach. Sounds redundant, but true.

Last week, we touched on how uncomfortable we can feel when we sense someone wants to learn how to make exactly what we make. When people pressure me with “I want to a make a horse just like yours!” here’s where I gently lead the discussion in another direction with these words:

“Thank you, but the world doesn’t need more people making my horses.

The world needs more people who find—and make—their own individual, unique art. The world needs to hear your voice, to see your work.

I’m happy to get you started, and share the basics. The rest is your art journey.”

I tell them we are ALL inspired by the work of others, and it’s human to want to do the same thing. But if we simply copy what other people do, we are cheating not only that artist (from the proceeds for their own hard work) but we are also cheating ourselves.

Instead, I encourage them to take a class, attend a workshop, read a book, watch a video, experiment—and let the process be transformed by their own creativity and story.*

Whenever I’ve taken a class or copied someone else’s work, it’s as an exercise only. I try to figure out how they did it, and in the process, come up with something completely different. I never represent those experiments as my own work, nor do I sell them. (Okay, once, under very special circumstances, and to another professional in that field who knew it was a classroom piece and promised to respect both the teacher and me.)

And so, when I teach classes, I focus on introductory skills: Helping people get started, asking them to consider if it speaks to them, and then urging them to find their own unique aesthetic and journey. So, for example, in my case, I choose to offer introductory classes in all my media: How to work with polymer clay; how to carve a rubberstamp; how to make jewelry; professional development skills for creatives, etc.

So, introductory classes on the basics of our craft are great starts. From there, we can offer more challenging classes (for people looking to improve their skills), specific techniques (perhaps ones we ourselves have created or perfected) and advanced classes. One fiber artist friend in New Hampshire taught beginning weaving classes. Her students enjoyed her classes so much, they became an ongoing process, with students signing up over and over, becoming more advanced in their skills and techniques. What a beautiful legacy! And a source of guaranteed income.

We don’t always have to be an expert, or award-winning, or even “the best” at what we do, especially for introductory courses or specific techniques. We just have to know enough to get everyone started on their new creative journey.

When I offer a workshop, and when I begin a workshop, I tell people there is usually no “one way” to use what they’ll learn in it. And making mistakes is not only normal, it can be educational in itself. When they goof up, I can help them erase it, fix it, cover it up, disguise it, incorporate it into the design, or cut out entirely. I discovered my newest crackle effect in last week’s article by simply changing brands of clay. Who knew?! Well, I do, now!

If, like me, you send your newsletter to everyone who signed up for one, give enough specifics for people to know whether it will meet their own interests or needs. If it’s super expensive, try not to scare them off with the sticker price. But use a page on your website to outline the details (tools and materials, etc.) and elaborate on the value gained.

If you have a specific newsletter audience that signed up for notifications about classes**, go deep with your announcement! Time/date, of course, location or platform (digital, video, YouTube, download, etc.), materials and tools needed, what will be provided by you, etc.

Also share what the goal/expected outcome will be, what they will accomplish, what they will leave with. Follow-up: After the class, encourage them to share their thoughts about the class with you. If they’re good, encourage them to also share them on their own social media. Ask for permission to use their praise in your own marketing, in your next workshop newsletter, on your website, etc. Testimonials are powerful stuff!

Re: Credentials, these can help establish our ‘authority’, i.e., we are who we say we are. But that isn’t absolutely necessary. If people love what we do, and want to learn more about it, that may be the only credentialing they need.

How should we price workshops? I am the last person you should ask. Mine were always too inexpensive, but I always charge for materials.

A neighboring artist in my building charges a minimum of $45/hour. Explore what the rate is where you live, or experiment on what people are willing to pay YOU. If your prices are high, be sure to emphasize what people will come away with from their experience. One caveat: I had one student who refused to pay for materials, insisting they already had them on hand. But when they showed up, they had it all wrong. This resulted in a lot of extra time and energy on my part, them borrowing materials from me and other students, and created a lot of resentment in the process. I have learned my lesson, and I share this with you so you don’t have to make the same mistake I did.

Last, share an important concept a customer gave me: Classes are a way to create a COMMUNITY.

This person had visited my studio last year, and love love loved my work. She asked if I taught classes, and I said I had in New Hampshire, but hadn’t in California yet. They take a lot of work, a lot of prep, and in my old studio, there wasn’t enough room to host a class. So renting a room was another hassle, especially if it was “off-premises”, because I over-prepare with tools and suppliers and I always, always leave something critical at home.***

So when people ask, “How do you….” I tend to refer them to a book, another artist, etc.

But, on impulse, I asked them, “Why do you value a class so much?” And they replied, “Community.”

So powerful! I’d never thought of workshops that way. But it’s true, isn’t it? In a great class, we are not only in the presence of someone whose skills and expertise we value.

We are in the company of like-minded people, people with similar interests and abilities. It’s a place to share thoughts, feedback (IF asked-for!), praise, and encouragement, for ourselves and others. I’ve made life-long friends through classes and workshops. And that’s a beautiful way to encourage a hesitant client to engage.

As usual, I have a jillion thoughts on this, and probably missed a lot of good ones, too. If you’ve used your email newsletter to promote your teaching, let me know what I missed! Share what’s worked for YOU, and what hasn’t.

If you know someone who would enjoy this article, please pass it on. And if someone sent you this, and you found it helpful, check out more at FineArtViews.com, and at my blog at my website LuannUdell.com.

*Does this work? YES!! I’ve had this talk with people at a major show who came back the following year to show me where they went with that advice. It was wonderful! They took my words to heart, and found their own unique story and path. Or they took one of my classes and found the same. Yippee!!!

**This is a feature FASO.com offers with its email newsletter service: You can set up newsletters to go to specific groups of your own choosing. (Me? Too lazy to figure it out right now.)

***My new art studio is not only big enough for small classes, our building has a spacious classroom available to us at an extremely reasonable fee. So I would only be a hop, skip, and a jump away from that critical item I left behind!

NEWSLETTERS 101 #8: Share Your Work

This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews. She’s blogged since 2002 about the business side–and the spiritual inside–of art. She says, “I share my experiences so you won’t have to make ALL the same mistakes I did….”  For ten years, Luann also wrote a column (“Craft Matters”) for The Crafts Report magazine (a monthly business resource for the crafts professional) where she explored the funnier side of her life in craft. She’s a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (fiber & art jewelry). Her work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the country and she is a published writer.

Start with the EASIEST news first!

I’m giving you a break from finding your creation story this week. I don’t mean I’m done poking you yet, though. So keep trying the tips and exercises. In the meantime, we’ll explore what you can write about in your email newsletters.

The easiest topic is, share your work.

Remember the days when it was impossible to add an image to an email? And when we finally could, too big a pic, or too many, could crash someone else’s email software. (Ask me how I know.)

Now it’s so easy to send multiple images. Layout and design have gotten easier.  FASO’s email newsletter templates have a learning curve, but so do all email newsletter services. It’s the extra features FASO provides that make their program so useful and efficient. For example, when you upload a new work of art onto your website, an automatic email goes out to your designated addresses. (I’m still learning about this feature, so I’m not sure how to ‘tell more’ about that work, as I would in a regular email newsletter created by me.)

People who are interested in us, and our work, are happy to see what we’re up to, especially the ones who actually collect our work.

Things we can share about our work:

What we’re working on now. A painter friend in New Hampshire shares the latest wildlife images they’re working on, and the direction and backstory of their newest series.

Brief updates that share our progress on a piece. Another friend shares the steps that go into creating their work, showing the work at varying stages of progress, and notes about what they were striving to achieve at each step.

Work being submitted to a gallery or an event. This is especially exciting if it’s a venue that we’re excited about: That highly-reputable gallery we’ve gotten into, a prestigious exhibit, a solo show, etc. (It’s also a subtle way of sharing our latest ‘credentials’, i.e., our work was ‘good enough’ to be accepted.)

A new direction we’re taking in our process, subject matter, etc. A new color palette. New interest in other subjects. A new technique we’re working on.

One caveat here: Remember that not all followers know ‘art jargon’, or will understand the challenges of using, say, watercolor, or the quirks and outcomes of using different substrates in your paintings.

I mean, don’t assume people are stupid. But if you’re sharing in a way ONLY another artist in your field would understand, you’re doing it wrong. A noted speaker/consultant who gave a presentation on how to talk to customers said that most customers don’t care whether your clay is porcelain or stoneware, nor that it was fired with a cone 10 glaze. But they DO want to know if the glaze is lead-free, and if that bowl is safe to put in the microwave.

Recently Clint Watson mentioned something interesting in one of his Fine Art View columns. Details are shaky (and now I can’t find that article!!) but short story, “room views” are not that effective in marketing our artwork. Which surprised me, but Clint knows the numbers.

In which case, what about taking a pic of your work on an easel? Or another in situ shot, from your studio? Or a pic of you at work on that painting at your easel?

When I was exploring high-end fine craft shows on the East Coast, trying to figure if they were a good fit for my work, I remember a large poster/framed photographed image in one booth featuring a enlarged image of a group of carved figural wood sculptures, brightly painted.

It pulled me right in from the aisle. It was a great way of showing the variety of the work. Consider try mixing it up if your work is ceramic, jewelry, etc., anything that is made in multiples even if they are not identical. One of my most-commented on images was staged this way—informal, up close, a variety of styles and colors.

Now here’s the tiny piece that will get you a good response. Ask what people think. But don’t just say, “What do you think?” Be more specific. Recently, I updated a box shrine I made a few years ago, adding more artifacts and elements, swapping some out, etc. I shared a before-and-after image. I said which one I liked better, and why. I asked people to choose their favorite, and share why.

I got some very thoughtful responses, and more than I usually get when I send out an email newsletter. And speaking of engagement, the insights were huge! The preferences for both versions were split right down the middle. Some people actually preferred the “less finished” shadow box, because it would allow them to add their own artifacts. Interesting! Which also goes to show, there’s no ‘wrong way’ to decide when something is finished, except how it feels to us.

Do you already share new work with your customers? What has the response been? I hope this article has inspired you to encourage engagement in a stronger way, and if so, share how that went!

Stay tuned for more suggestions next week, and ways to mix it up to keep your newsletters interesting!

This assortment drew a lot more comments than a single item, something to consider if your artwork lends itself to this.

NEWSLETTERS 101 #4: Know Your Creation Story

 The moment you chose to live your life and make your art with intention is the heart of everything you do, write, say.

(4 minute read)    

Last week, I shared how introverts can shine in the world, thanks to email art marketing newsletters.

Today, I had a long article planned. But, lucky you! I realized it was about two different topics I had squished into one:

Your Most Important Story of All

Before we get to suggestions about this, let’s talk about the most important topic of all of this:

The Story of YOU.

Here’s the biggest obstacle when it comes to every aspect of marketing and selling our art:

Sooooo many people don’t know their own story!

Let’s back up a little. There are two powerful stories in every creative person.

The first is what I call the ‘creation story’.

The second is our artist statement, which I’ll tackle next week. Because it helps to know your creation story first.

What’s the difference?

Your creation story marks your first step, the moment you knew you were meant to be an artist. It’s that aha moment when we realized we had to be an artist. The moment where we completely embrace what we want, regardless of whether we even know how, or why. It’s the point in your life where your deepest intention occurred.

Dave Geada, FASO’s marketing guru, talks about this story in almost every webinar I’ve watched so far. He phrased it perfectly: After a near-death experience, he vowed to live his life with intent. With INTENTION. I’ve called it our “hero’s journey story” for years, and Dave calls it that, too. (Whew! I love it when the experts and I are on the same page!)

That’s what your first step was: Your intention to make your art. Here’s mine. It’s what made me take the leap, and it still resonates with me today.

Unlike your artist statement, it doesn’t have to be public (though there are ways to modify it so it can, so don’t rule that out.)

You DO have to know it. Because once you realize it, it will provide the foundation of everything you do, write, make, talk about, going forward with your artwork. It will ground you when you are lost. It will reassure you when you are discouraged. It will lift you up when life gets hard.

Knowing it will help you lift others, too. Because when we speak our truth, it not only resonates with others, it can inspire them to see theirs.

Years ago, I created a workshop designed to help people write their artist statement. It was powerful, and eye-opening. I got to hear how several dozen people got their start, and why. My favorite was the artist who started with, “I had a baby. I nearly died. Everything changed…” I exclaimed, “THAT’s your artist statement!” What I meant was, this was the foundation of her artist statement.

To frame this better: That may or may not be what she decides to use, publicly. But it was that point in time where “everything changed.” It would inspire her artist statement, however she chose to frame it. It was her creation story, it was powerful, and she knew it.

Another great creation story was one I’ve written about before, which illustrates that our creation story will evolve. It’s about long-time artist who lost their sight late in life—and everything changed. Did they stop making? Nope. But it’s different, now. Because everything changed. But it was compelling enough for me to go back to that ‘weird crappy’ piece of “art” hanging on the gallery wall, and find something beautiful in it. Courage. Perseverance. Letting go of what was, and embracing the new ‘what is’.

Your homework: What is your creation story? Write it out, if only for your private use.

If you enjoyed this article, and know someone else who might like it, too, feel free to pass it on. And if someone sent you this and you did like it, see more of my articles at FineArtViews.com, other art marketing topics at Fine Art Views art marketing newsletter, and my blog at LuannUdell.wordpress.com.