Let's Be Honest---Are You Insane?
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting different results.”
- Albert Einstein
- Albert Einstein
I will be the first to admit that I have suffered from insanity.
(The drawing above is a self-portrait as per my mental state circa 2002-2005.)
Over the course of my art career, I spent years trying the same “so-called” marketing techniques time and time again even though it was obvious that I wasn’t seeing a return on my investment.
Some forms of insanity I have participated in:
- Paying for expensive “prints” of my work, hoping I could sell them at a lower price point---even though I had no mailing list or existing collector base to even try to market them to.
- Spending hundreds of dollars applying to and shipping artworks to random, poorly publicized and poorly attended juried exhibitions or competitions just because I was panicky about not having enough lines on my resume.
- Investing an enormous amount of money in framing a body of work, even though I had done ZERO marketing and had no exhibitions lined up for said body of work.
- Spending time in Linked-In groups complaining and moaning about how my art sales sucked, when I should have been out at art openings meeting new people, or taking workshops to get better at my craft.
- Blindly sending “gallery packets” year after year to gallery directors that I had never met or to galleries I’d never even visited.
- Paying good money for software to send out incredibly boring and poorly designed e-mail newsletters.
All of these things involved a considerable amount of time, money, and emotional energy, yet even though I knew these things weren’t getting me anywhere I still continued to do them---for years! After all---I had become quite good at them. (Especially the complaining and moaning part.)
Are you currently "insane"?
Have you ever suffered from “insanity”?
What bad habits are you ready to get rid of in the upcoming year?
What will you do differently in your Art business in 2012?
I'm looking forward to reading your replies in comments.
BIG Love,
-Kesha★
If you found this blog post interesting, hit the re-tweet button and then click here to get on the ARTFIX Invite List. You'll thank me later. Trust me.
Plus, if you do this, there is a 99.99% chance that you are awesome.
...But you already know that.
-Kesha★
If you found this blog post interesting, hit the re-tweet button and then click here to get on the ARTFIX Invite List. You'll thank me later. Trust me.
Plus, if you do this, there is a 99.99% chance that you are awesome.
...But you already know that.
yeah Keasha have done it all, occasional results but not consistent sales. "to infinity and beyond" evolve...............
ReplyDeletewww.RubySlippersStudio.net
www.CallahanMcDonough.com
the most insane thing I've done in the past is give up on art entirely when I didn't think i could make a "valid" (read: money making) career out of it.
ReplyDelete2012 is going to be about making the beautiful and inspired things I've been longing to for years.
Kesha I'm so glad that I've found your studio blog before I (re)made some of those costly mistakes. To be honest I was just looking into having some prints made. Years ago I sent slides of my furniture to every arts festival in the north east. $$$$. But I think that's only because I felt like that was what i was "supposed" to do. Really *now* I'm going to start to do what I'm "supposed" to? Thanks for pointing out the insanity in doing what doesn't work.
I have a facebook page, a website, 2 stores and am a member of a few artists social networking sites. Yet the traffic going to my site and my exposure still is low. I feel insane because I know I need to engage my followers and steer them to my sites and continue to create my artwork, but I don't feel I have a good grasp of how to balance the creation/ promotion cycle, so I just stand still. I need a kick in the pants, and to get past the fear of success.
ReplyDeleteGianna (GiannasEye)
the most insane thing I've done is putting off my art because i doubted i that i could make it a career!
ReplyDelete2012 is going to be about getting back to making art work to start. and next to see my own work as a valuable, marketable product. (and then sell the hell out of it)
I think artist (and architects) sometimes feel like we should just sit around waiting to be discovered when that is so rarely the case.
AWESOME post & questions!
ReplyDeleteI plan to use less sites to promote myself & my art, concentrating on my website & my art business. One site with Social Media connecting to it.
I refuse to use Etsy anymore - everyone wants art cheap & I don't make cheap ART. I want to teach online workshops, without having to spend huge amts. of money to have live workshops (have found just the thing) and promote by video emails & newsletters.
I want to continue to make the ART first for me and then expose it to my patrons!
I'm not guilty of any of the above. . . but I must say that there is a very fine balance to be found between making artwork and developing good contacts. I am fairly consistent about making the art. . . but I can be somewhat sporadic about taking that plunge into the social side of the arts! Working on that still. . .
ReplyDeleteSometimes the most insane thing I seem to do is continue pushing around the same ideas. "If" I know what to do - or the many things to do - I should be doing them right? My marketing major daughter's mantra is Know Your Customer. If I create a beautiful contact list of my current contacts, including those who have bought in the past, that's a start, but I should "start" there - or somewhere.
ReplyDeleteKesha, You've spoken to so many artists who could raise their hands and agree that they have done exactly the same thing.
ReplyDeleteNot long ago, I spoke with a professor at an art school who told me about a graduate looking for a gallery to represent her. She was unable to find one; and eventually gave up painting altogether because she mindset said this was the only way to be an artist.
That's so sad. And insane.
Kesha, your blog is a breath of fresh air. The decision to take the artist's path is like tightrope walking - it looks like it would be fun, but there's so much more to it.
ReplyDeleteInsane? No, just a little nuts.
I think one of my biggest insanity acts has been not loving on my existing clients enough...you know the ones who have already proven that they love my work and get my vision. I have done a little follow-up but not enough... I have been consumed with reaching the masses at the expense of nurturing my "tribe".
ReplyDeleteI am working on my client/collector list spread out globally now so that I can devise a "love" campaign for next year.
That is a major focus for me in 2012.
This was a timely post for me to read, as I just made the (executive) decision NOT to spend a couple hundred dollars on a juried opportunity that had accepted me. There would have been no return on the investment.
ReplyDeleteI think like any career, we're all just bound to make some mistakes sometimes.
Callahan- Define "consistent".
ReplyDeleteKisha- A lot of artists give up for this exact reason. When in reality art isn't to blame. The real culprit is bad marketing skills and an unwillingness to learn new tricks that actually work. It's tragic!
Gianna- It sounds like you're spreading yourself too thin. Why not focus all your efforts on one platform before you start expending energy on another? Did you read Dale's comment? ) She commented right after you.) She's got the right idea!
Eddie- Yep! The key is just to start!
Carolyn- That IS insane. Sounds like another case of Art School brainwashing.
Princess- I LOVE the idea of a "love campaign"!! Brilliant!