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Seeing the Crumbs and Being Grateful

I have been thinking about how I often turn my paintings in a million different directions to see how they appear from different angles.  I am sure I am not any different from any other artist, and also like other artists, I think about how the work I do is also a metaphor for life – at least my life.

You see, typically, I work best silently and in solitude. I often find I like to work when not another person is about or I have to create that environment with headphones and soft music.  This doesn’t mean, however, that I never work with other people or enjoy conversations about my work, their work or art in general.  Quite the contrary, I find those conversations invaluable.  Once I learned I absolutely HAD to live a creative life, a stream of precious and delightful souls have stepped in to show me (and challenge me with) a variety of ways to find myself and my work.  Once I found the true me, the creative types presented themselves in abundance – many just left a few crumbs and exited.  The really strong, supportive ones who had also come into their own have stayed.  Now, I am better able to leave crumbs for those who are willing to see them.  Without these beautiful people appearing in my life, I could not have found myself and would be wandering around completely confused.

It takes looking at life from every direction to be able to find the simple crumbs as well as entire sweet cakes in life, just the way I look at my paintings to understand them better.  The artist and writer, Cathleen Roundtree said, “The creative process gives back tenfold.  It is by definition abundant and unending.”  I also will add, it is very sweet.

Treat Your Customers Well and Gain a Following

Richard Wilde is my guest blogger today in a blog post exchange in which I have participated.

There are no magic quick fixes or techniques when it comes to marketing your artwork, or anything else for that matter. Successful marketers, brands, businesses and creative individuals who achieve sustained success concentrate on providing long term benefits to their customers, treating their customers well over time, and meeting their customer’s needs effectively.

As a creative person looking to get generate business, it is therefore important to treat each and every customer and potential customer well. Doing this will help you to gain a following of loyal fans that truly love what you create, these type of fans can be known as ‘true fans’. The ‘True Fans’ concept was raised by Kevin Kelly on his website; ‘True Fans’ are fans and admirers of your work that will buy and follow just about anything that you produce. They eagerly await your latest work, they buy your latest prints and t shirts, and some of them are likely to buy your latest original pieces of work when you create them.

If you concentrate on developing 1000 True Fans then you can turn a hobby, a tiny business, or a personal struggle to survive into a thriving lifestyle or business for yourself. Let’s say on average a true fan would spend £50 a year on the work you produce, if you have 1000 fans that’s a cool £50,000 a year, not a bad annual take home in anyone’s book, and more than that, it is for doing the thing that you love…producing your artwork.

1000 is an achievable number, if you added one a day it would only take three years, and at the end of it you would be in a fantastic position. 1000 may be too many, if your work sells for a good price then 100 may be enough. Think about this and choose a number that you think you need to reach the goals you desire, and then go for it.

Treat each of your customers well and slowly build up a loyal fan base over time, they will treat you well if you do the same to them, and will also spread word of your work to others, speeding things up very quickly when it comes to expanding your fan base.

On a slightly biased but truly accurate note, a great place to start gaining and developing your fan base is on www.Artybuzz.com. There are loads of people both on this site and who visit this site that have a massive appreciation for art of all kinds, and they buy it. So speak to them, comment on work, create and add work to groups etc. Get involved in websites like this, make an effort, gain a following and get out what you put in.

This article was contributed by Richard Wilde, owner of www.artybuzz.com, an online artists community where anyone can sell and buy art, design and photography as giclee art prints, canvas art prints, t shirts and much more. This particular article is an extract from his free Art Marketing Ebook, which can be downloaded for free and read at http://www.artybuzz.com/ebook.php

Guest Blogging

I am a guest blogger on Artybuzz and would love to have you all visit there to read what I have to say.  Please leave a comment and have a look around.  The site is different from what you might expect:  while it might at first appear similar to other sites, I think you will find the products are different.  However, read my post and let me know what you think.

I also want to thank Richard Wilde for all of his help and insights.  We can look forward to a blog post by him in the future on this blog.

Changing Physical Environments Can Be Interesting

I have been very busy lately.  2009 proved to be a unique year for our family, and since I am typically a very private person I have not shared what was going on with very many people.  Now, I will let you know I have been living a dual life!  It is true, I have been running from the east coast to the southwestern part of the US with amazing regularity.  I have had a studio in both locations and have observed how these different locations has not only caused me to produce vastly different paintings but also how the different studios have encouraged me to work very differently.  It has been an exhausting and fascinating process.  While I have lived and worked in a variety of locations and have done my fair share of traveling, this experience was so different because I was living in both places.  Now that the experience has come to an end, I am spending more time reflecting, and once I can receive shipment of my work to one location I will be trying to decide what was good and what did not turn out so good with these works side-by-side.

Just because the physical experience has ended (and I am not sad for that, because it has been exhausting), I feel I can now relax more and see what I need to take away from it.  This clearly does NOT mean my travel and or moving days are over…far from it!  I will give you the heads up to watch this site for some photos of and reflections on an exciting trip I have planned for early spring.

Do you find it a challenge to work in a variety of places?  Do you think your work changes when you move studios or work in different locations?  I have noted before how vastly different my work is here in the US compared to the work I did when we lived in England.  I can also tell you the work I did in the southwestern US and the work I did in the mid-Atlantic US was very different, although I tried to use the same mediums and supports!  There is a lot of psychology I need to explore here, however I think some very good insights will arise.  Now I am beginning to wonder what Asia might do for my painting!

In the coming weeks, look for some posts on this recent experience.  Do let me know if and how your physical environment affects your work.  I will be eager to hear from you.

Does Your Work Make A Difference?

I thought you might be tired of seeing photos of record breaking snowfalls for the Mid-Atlantic region of the US, so I have not posted any here.  We had 30 inches at our house on top of about 8 from earlier in the week.  We are told it is very possible to expect 10 to 20 inches tomorrow, too.  I love the snow!

I recently came across this quote from Maya Angelou:

“You can’t use up creativity.  The more you use, the more you have.”

When I thought about that, I knew I had heard a similar thought expressed about love.  It went something like this: the more you give love away, the more love you have to give.  It made me think about how using one’s creativity is very much an expression of love.  We are putting our heart and soul in the work we do. 

Recently, I was sharing with a friend about how I sometimes paint in response to disaster, but I wasn’t sure why I did it as it never helped anyone.  She responded back to me that I did not know it did not help anyone even if the painting still sat in my studio.  Her thought was the production of a painting was like a prayer and we never know where or how that energy makes a difference in the world.  I am so grateful for having this very wise friend.  She not only made me feel so much better about painting what came out of me, but she encouraged me to move forward with just that kind of work.

When I think about these ideas of generating creativity by creating, having more love the more you give it away and my paintings being like a prayer when I produce them, it absolutely let’s me know I am so on the right path here.

Do you have these kinds of things which bring to light a true knowing you are doing what you are supposed to be doing with your work?  Can you share some examples of what makes it so right for you?

Have a Beautiful Week, Keep Creating those Prayers and Sharing Love!

Subscribe to Creative Influences Via E-mail

With a lot of outside help, I have finally been able to have set up an e-mail subscription form, so you can follow my posts a little easier.  If you look in the left hand column, you will find a box where you can add your email address to have these posts delivered to you!  I am so pleased to have this in place, since I have been asked about it several times.  Subscribe away…

Thank you Elizabeth for all of your work!

Dan Pink and The Artist’s Life

Do you know about the work of Dan Pink?  I first read his book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.  In this book he talks about how creative types have something computers cannot duplicate and how that is what the future is going to need in order to survive and to keep economies going in a positive direction.  He has now written another book called, Drive where he talks about what does and does not drive humans to do their best.

As many wise, popular writers and thinkers have been doing lately, Dan has given a talk on TED and I hope you will take the time to watch it here.  Dan is funny and passionate.  He talks about the division between what science knows and what business is doing.

How does this made a difference for artists? Dan talks about the need for AUTONOMY, MASTERY and PURPOSE in one’s work.  Think about it, isn’t that the way artist’s like to work (in general)?  Actually, as Dan talks if you think about it in relationship to artists, I think you will recognize the model he talks about. He gives good examples and his research actually upholds a lot of what we do and how we live.

So do you think artists and creative types can change the world?  It sounds as though science is on our side…can you believe it?

Keeping Me Going!

Often I paint and have no idea where things come from.  I know they are a part of me and they just need to express themselves, but while I am working I never really know – sometimes, I never know!  Recently I have been going through my photos of our time in Europe, and I think I know what is driving some of the work I am currently doing.  The above photo was taken of a western Belgium sky at dusk and so much of it reminds me of some of the things I am working on.  Consider this one which you have seen before:

Can you see some of the parallels here?  Sometimes my work helps me to understand what the inside part of me is searching for and sometimes I am never aware enough to catch on.  One of the things which has caused discussions lately with some creative friends is how we have to live our lives and often have other creative outlets in order to continue to work.  I have learned with this particular insight how important a particular type of travel is for me and taking lots of detailed photos, too.  I also know if I do not journal the painting becomes very difficult.  I think my family would also tell you that without my journaling, travels and painting, I would become very difficult!  So being an artist is much more than the actual work I do in the studio.  Is this true for you, too?  What other creative endeavors do you need in order to stay on track?  Is your work actually more than meets the eye?

Have a Beautiful Day!

Life’s Mirror

What is your reflection?

Sometimes when we look closely into life’s mirror,

the layers reflected back are ones we do not want to see.

Sometimes we have worked so hard with those layers

they sparkle back at us.

What does your mirror reflect?

My reflection has been dull, however all of that is changing.  I can see the sparkle returning.  The hardest part for me to remember is there is a spirit within needing as much nurturing as I am giving away.  Remembering those people who grace my life and allowing them give makes all the difference in my life which is reflected in my art.  Life or work, it is all the same.  How about you?  Is there any division between your work and your life?

Happy 2010!

I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful beginning to 2010 and enjoyed a Very Happy Holiday Season!  New beginnings are always wonderful and full of hope.  I am looking forward to great things happening this year and I wish the same for all of you.  Since we celebrate Christmas in my family I was graced with several lovely art books and today I wanted to share one with you I am having a great time with at the moment – Inside the Painter’s Studio by Joe Fig.

Fig asks 24 artists a series of questions while visiting them in their New York City area studios.  There are photographs of the studios as well as Joe Fig’s own sculptures of each artist working in the studio.  One of the questions Joe asks is if the artist has a motto or creed they live by?  Many say they do not, but some have responses which have interested me.  I thought this was a great question to pose here at the beginning of 2010, however.  Do you have a personal motto or creed which you follow? For me, it is to be myself.  Being true to the person I am is very important to me.  I have always been this way, and I have found it is appealing to some people and challenging to others.  The thing is, I can’t help it.

I hope you are willing to share your motto, creed or resolution here.  Do you think they are important guides?