A couple of years ago, I made a very special piece for my boyfriend’s birthday. I made it almost entirely at the Art-A-Fair Festival so lot of people got to see the work in progress. Now, I am completely comfortable sharing my process of creation with people.

What was so difficult with this piece was that I could not share the process with my boyfriend since it was a surprise. Well, later on I was telling him about some of the behind the scenes details that I couldn’t share with him during the creation process.

As I was talking, I started to realize just how special that piece is. What made it so special was that I created it with a very specific, very special person in mind.

Many times when you are creating your work, you end up very much inside yourself. The work is so much a part of you that you sometimes don’t consider the audience as part of the process. What often happens is that you end up creating the work for yourself and not the audience.

The thing you have to remember, though, is that the artwork needs the audience in order to be complete. So, when you are creating, think about your ideal customer. Think about how much they will appreciate your art. Think about how much they are going to enjoy looking at your art every day. Think about the happiness your art is going to bring to their life.

What this does is turns the process of production into a process of creation. And don’t you think your customers would rather purchase a creation than a product?

When you’ve been doing shows long enough, you start to hear things like, “I’ve seen your work before somewhere.” They may not remember the actual show where they saw your work, but they remember the work.
 
What a compliment!
 
For someone to recognize your work like that means that you are doing something right. And, the thing you have done is what is called “having a voice.”
 
Now, I don’t mean your speaking voice; I mean your art voice. You see, part of becoming a successful working artist is developing your own style, method, subject matter, niche, or whatever else you want call it. It’s what makes your art recognizable as coming from you and no one else. For example, when you look at a Van Gogh, you immediately recognize it as a Van Gogh.
 
You want to be able to have this recognizability for your work. Why?
 
Well, the main reason is that your work is memorable. And, if you are trying to sell your work, the more memorable you are the better. And, when people see your work at many different venues they assume that you must be successful because your work is all over the place.
 
So, if another artist doing the same shows as you does not have a recognizable voice, they just blend in with the rest of the art. The show visitors may like the work, but they probably won’t remember it later. Whereas if you have a voice, you are recognizable and therefore memorable.
 
So the next time you hear the words, “I saw your work at another show,” it might be followed by, “… and I should have bought that piece with the sailboat.” Well, look here, I just happen to have one that is very similar. Will that be cash or charge?

With the holiday season upon us artwork tends to fall by the wayside. There are parties to attend, gifts to purchase, relatives to visit, and all the other myriad of things that need to be done. What's an artist to do?

A painter friend of mine has a rule. He finishes at least one painting per day. Yes, you read that right. He is disciplined. He completes one painting so that it is ready to be sold every single day of the year.

Now, he is a rather fast painter. I certainly can't work that quickly. My type of art requires a much longer time to complete. However, I could create a rule that I have to work on my art for a certain amount of time every day.

Yeah, right. I've gone almost seven weeks without doing any artwork. But, but, but, I had valid reasons. I had to make a wedding gown. And we've been remodeling. And there were a couple of migraine days. And, and, and...

There will always be excuses. Yes, I understand, life intrudes. However, if you are serious about your work, then why aren't you devoting time to it?

I am going to take my own advice and work on some art. TODAY!

I recently started coaching a fellow artist. Although she has a background in marketing, she is not sure how to apply all of that to selling her own artwork. She knows she needs to do something, but she i't sure what. Her first thought was that it was her website that needed updating and she asked me to work on it.

She was right, her website was just a bunch of photos with no story behind them. I started out by asking what her objective was. She wants to sell her art.

Okay! Now that I know the objective, I can ask some questions.

• Do you have an email list? Sort of.
• Do you send emails out a on regular basis? No.
• Do you have stories written about each of your art pieces that gives the viewer an emotional connection to the art? No.
• Do you want to only sell your originals or do you want to also include print-on-demand items? Ummm, what?
• Do you have a hook to get people to want to continue to visit your website? No.

Turns out she needs a lot more than just her website fixed. In this case, this artist is in need of an extreme makeover. All of the above mentioned stuff needs to be done all at once. Each of those puzzle pieces fits with all of the others.

Let's break them down...
Your mailing list is a list of pre-qualified leads. These are people who saw your work at a show or who have visited your website and liked what they saw. These people are gold.

That mailing list needs to be nurtured. Sending out a newsletter or other communications on a periodic basis will keep you at the top of their mind. And maybe give them a nudge to visit your website again.

When they do get to your website, if you have a story to tell, they will have a reason to make more of a connection to your work rather than just looking at a pretty pictures. The more emotional the connection, the more likely that they will buy.

Not all artists can or want to have print-on-demand products available for sale, but for those who do, you are giving your customers an easy way to purchase your work. And you're giving yourself an easy way to sell your work. If you're not familiar with print-on-demand sites have a look at FineArtAmerica.com, CafePress,com. or Zazzle.com. There are many other sites of this type, but this should give you a good idea of how they work.

And, if your customers don't buy from you right away, you need to have something to entice them to continue to visit your website. There are many ways to do this. You could have a blog on your site that answers some of the common questions that you get. You could offer them a freebie like a free calendar that they can download and print themselves (click here to see mine). Or you could send them to a page on your website that has an easy tutorial.

All of these pieces feed on each other and should be done concurrently. Unfortunately, that is not always possible. And there is no right answer to which one to do first. My answer is pick one and do it!

I recently started putting out calls for entry. I am doing monthly online themed exhibits. The winner for each month gets to be a featured artist on The Shy Artist website. I've just put up the next two calls for the months of October and November. It's free to enter, so what are you waiting for?!?!?

Over the past several weeks, I have been participating in The Book Marketing Challenge. It has been an information packed experience. I have learned so much about marketing and I’d like to share my favorite strategy.