September 12, 2005

Last week I finished reading Paul Dorrell's book, Living the Artist's Life. As I intimated in my blog, there's not a lot that's new here, but you'll appreciate the author's candor. The most interesting insight by far is his frank discussion of commissions, dollars, sales, etc. He gives hard figures and those are refreshing to see in black-and-white.

He had some good quotes, too. Among my favorites: "Connections will sell anything, including bad work." (page 102)

There's that word again: connections! And you heard him say how important they are. Important enough that the right connections can even sell bad work. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. There's enough good work to go around.

Of course, he's telling you (my readers) what you should already know. Sadly, there are still a few holdouts who refuse to believe that connections are critical. I'd even go so far as to say that connections are often more important to your marketing efforts than the work itself. Sorry, but it's true. You have to do everything you can to get noticed in the vast sea of artists today.

Connections can introduce you to:
 
: : The new museum curator or director who is organizing an exhibit of local artists.
: : The president of the museum board, who just so happens to collect works by regional
    artists.
: : The gallery dealer you've identified as being the best fit for your work.
: : The politician who loves to buy crafts by local artists to give as gifts.
: : The interior designer who is looking for a mural artist for the wealthy beach homes she's
    working on.
: : The artist who will be your mentor.
 
See what I mean? Connections can make your career, but only if you recognize their value.

Connections cannot:
 
: : Make you get out of bed or pick up a chisel.
: : Follow up on leads for you.
: : Write thank-you notes for you.
: : Add new names to your database for you.
: : Talk or write about your work better than you can.
: : Submit the grant in time.
: : Make the curator fall in love with your art.
 
When has a connection really paid off for you? We're blogging about it at ArtBizBlog.

I received numerous responses to last week's issue on responding to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As a reminder, for artists who are interested in organizing a sale or exhibition to raise funds for relief efforts, I have developed a number of free tools to help you. Those can be found at http://www.artbizconnection.com/artistshelping
 
Cecilia Henle wrote:
 
"I am also auctioning art from my live journal art blog, through eBay and missionfish. There is a whole group of artists on eBay who are doing it. The group artists 4 hole-in-the-wall camps have geared up to pull together all of the artists from our last national effort for the Paul Newman kids camps. Here is a logo that artists can place in their auctions that will unite the efforts of eBay artists working to help Katrina victims:
http://www.eartstop.com/esh/art4help.jpg
 
"Here is the eBay Group url for the group, where artists can get help with listing art for helping Katrina victims:
http://groups.ebay.com/forum.jspa?forumID=100026029
 
"It's a smart idea to include the logo "A2H" (art to help) in the auction title, because then people searching for artwork that donates to these charities can find them all at once. I believe eBay also has placed an ad on the front page regarding this. It's such a smart idea for artists to come together like this, the last time, we got national news coverage for the Bids-4-Kids art auctions. I just wanted to connect you two groups.
 
"I will also be adding new auctions, and all of my future ones will have a percent going to this."
 
See Cecilia's blog, GroovyHotTalentedDialed.

Read about other efforts at ArtBizBlog.com.