Lisa Call

Structures #62    © 2007    33" x 19"

A Slow Reply

Eight or nine months ago Meagan asked me the following question on one of my posts:

Something a little off topic, but still related: How do you know when your art work is “good enough” to start marketing it? (Obviously this isn’t a problem for you, Lisa, since your art is amazing!) Previous commenters (Ed) have mentioned that in the beginning of their career, they sold stuff that really wasn’t very good. How do you know when your art work has reached that particular level?

I’ve had a draft of this question sitting around waiting for an answer ever since. As I wasn’t up to a dissection of my studio newsletter as promised, I decided to go back and deliver on an older unanswered query.

It’s about Growth

The article I wrote was about selling my artwork (click to read). My thoughts have changed over the years and today I will answer this differently than I might have 3 or 5 or 8 years ago when I was not looking to pursue an income generating career from my art.

Today my answer is: You are ready to start marketing your artwork when you are ready to take that bold step and put yourself out there. It’s a big leap as it comes with many risks but also many rewards.

Sure, five years from now you might look back and think "Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I tried to sell that junk." But that’s the future. What matters is right now, today, this moment. How do you feel about your artwork? Are you happy with it? Do you think it is good? Do you want to market it? Great - go for it.

And I don’t think that’s such a bad future, to be a bit embarrassed about your work from years back, because it means you are growing as an artist. This is a great thing. Maybe something to look forward to.

How Will You Handle Set Backs

Artists are often advised to ask others for opinions about their work. Is it good enough? Will it sell? While this isn’t bad advice I’m not sure I’d recommend that. I suggest just going with your intuition. If you have the desire and resources to market your artwork, then go for it!

What’s the worse thing that could happen? You might fail on first try. The question is, what will you do with that failure? Will you let it destroy your dream? If so maybe you aren’t ready. I think this is probably the single most important question to answer.

Sure you might never face rejection, but chances are good you’ll face more than a few "we aren’t interested" situations. As Christine Kane says:

SWSWSWSW: Some will. Some won’t. So what? Someone’s waiting!

[Read her excellent article about not taking things personally here]

Even if you do face failure you might learn something. You might get better and grow. You might find new ways to do things. You might meet people that want to help you over that hurdle.

When you are ready to fall down and get up and keep on going. That’s when you are ready.

I’m Finally Ready

I’ve been making art that I really love for the past 10 years. Yet I’ve never taken the leap to go after an solid income with my art. I always have an excuse:

• I need to build up cash reserves.
• The kids are only at home for a few short (18) years.
• This work isn’t quite good enough yet.
• No one buys art quilts.
• I could never replace my software engineering salary with an art income.

Well, no more. I’m doing whatever it takes to get rid of the day job and replace it with the art income.

First up on the list of to-dos is to sell the house that requires a really big income. If I wait until I have enough money from my art to pay this mortgage it could be a pretty long wait. So I’m short circuiting that problem and downsizing.

It’s a huge task and when I think of all that needs to be done to get this huge home on the market I freak out, which is the reason I’m still here. I thought about moving 6 years ago after my divorce and then again 3 years ago, but I didn’t have the courage to do it.

Now it’s the year of courage, which gives me the focus needed to work through all that needs done. I don’t think about the huge list of to-dos. I make short lists of easily doable tasks. Things I can accomplish in a few hours. I’m just focusing on each step, one and time, and steady progress is made every day.

In the meantime I’m not ignoring my art. I’m in the 7th day of Artist Breakthrough Program with Alyson Stanfield and it’s fabulous. I’ve made huge strides in getting my new website ready to go. Tomorrow I’ll blog about how I did with my goals this week and what’s up for next week.

And yes - at some point I’ll write about all I learned when doing my studio newsletter. Hopefully you will not have to wait 8-9 months for that answer.

The above image was the one I selected for this post 9 months ago, I can’t tell you why. It’s orange. Maybe that was it.

ACEO #6    ©2008    2.5"x3.5"
This card was inspired by Markings #3

Breaking Down the Work

For the next 4 weeks, throughout the Artist Breakthrough Program, I’m going to post my weekly goals. Both to hold me accountable to all of my readers and also to write some about how I get things done. Nothing like doing this in public to inspire me to actually do the work.

I break my larger goals down into small tasks. The more overwhelming the goal feels the smaller I break down the tasks. Sometimes down to 5 minute jobs that are super easy. Doing these simple tasks gives me a sense of accomplishment and the momentum to start tackling some of the larger tasks. Once I get going I get on a roll and can "do things" for hours.

Week One Goals

These are my tasks for this week, based on my longer term monthly goals from my previous post. These are to be completed by Sunday, April 20.

1. I work in my studio 5 hours this week
2. I do 3 blog posts
3. I upgrade my 2 wordpress installs for my website to 2.5
4. I complete the template for my website/blog. This is a multi step task - 4.1) I break this down into steps for what is still needed to complete the template and 4.2)I complete the identified tasks from 4.1
5. I define the structure of my website (which pages I will have, what will be on the pages, the menu structure to access the pages)
6. I identify 5 potential galleries for representation (at this point I’m just building a list with contact info)

The First 24 Hours

Yesterday I completed #3 and my wordpress installs are now ready to go. I love wordpress, I’m less enamored with having to manually update my install. I’m looking forward to the day they have a single click upgrade feature.

Today I worked on item 4.1 and have the list of changes needed in my template fairly well settled. I also started in on 5 and defining the pages I want in my new website.

And best of all, this morning I worked in my studio for half an hour before heading to work. The last 6 weeks my studio has been fairly well neglected. I’m looking forward to returning to a routine of making art on a near daily basis.

Oh and blog post #1 for the week is now completed. I know I said it would be about newsletters. I promise - I will get to that this week.

Update on Moving

Much of my motivation for doing this program is to keep me on track with my art while also keeping motivated with getting my house on the market. I spent most of the last week removing a very large amount of stuff from my house. Throwing out a lot, giving away tons and packing up things we can live without until we’ve moved.

I’m very picky about what gets put into a box labeled "I don’t need this for many months". I’m looking to eliminate the majority of these types of things from my life. So far most of these boxes are filled with either 1) my kids stuff (they aren’t as enamored with tossing things as I am) or 2) photo albums and scrapbooking supplies. This is one project I’m sure I will get to some day so I packed it all up and will move it. If I don’t do something with this stuff before the next move I think most of it will end up in the donate pile.

The unfortunate news is the contractor, general fix-it guy that was going to do much of the fix-it type work around my house bailed out on me. Had better offers so I’m left with noone to do the work. I spent much of monday being stressed out, pissed off and generally unhappy with the situation. I decided I needed some time to feel bad but gave myself a deadline of 9pm to just get over it and move on. Great way to experience the emotions but not let them take over my life. I’ve now processed the experience and am getting back on track.

Moving is a lot of work but I’m focusing on enjoying the process, keeping the tasks small and manageable so I don’t get overwhelmed. My morning yoga is a big help in keeping calm.

ACEO #5    ©2008    2.5"x3.5"
This card was inspired by Markings #12

Staying Focused

Tomorrow is the start of ABP - Alyson Stanfield’s Artist Breakthrough Program. When I originally signed up for this class I had no plans on putting my house on the market and had big plans for getting a lot done for my art business.

I thought about not doing the class then decided it was perfect timing. What better way to not lose focus on my art, during a rather hectic time in my life, than to have a group of people holding me accountable.

I’ve scaled back my goals for the 28 day program from my original plan and I’m confident I can complete my new goals, as long as I stayed focused. I’m still several weeks away from getting my house on the market and one of my #1 goals for that process is for it to be effortless and fun. Making sure I’m still thinking about my art will definitely help along those lines.

My ABP Goals

My specific goals for the next 28 days:

1. I work 5 or more hours a week in my studio making art.
2. I complete the rewrite of my website and blog and go live with them by May 12, 2008.
3. I update my resume to include jurors for all juried shows.
4. I create a complete resume for my personal use with every show in my career listed. This list also includes a list of which pieces were included in each of these shows.
5. I design a portfolio package to send to galleries (the package does not have to be complete but I identify all the parts and the format of the package)
6. I start a list of potential galleries to contact for representation. The list has 30 or more galleries listed.

ACEO #5

The Artist Card shown above is one of the 3 new Art Cards/ACEOs I sold through my online newsletter a few weeks ago. With my studio being a bit in disarray over the next few weeks (I’m going to be replacing the carpet before I put the house on the market) it is very likely I’ll be making some more ACEOs over the next month - small quick projects might feel just right.

This week I’m planning on blogging about what I learned with the newsletter as I promised. I got a bit distracted last week with the house stuff but after a weekend of doing house stuff I’m back and focusing on art.

 
ACEO stands for “art cards, editions and originals”. Originally known as ATC, Artist Trading Card, and are traded between artists. When sold to the public they are referred to as ACEOs. The primary rule for an ACEO or ATC is they be 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ - the size of a trading card. They are created in many different mediums and are collectible, trade able and affordable art for everyone.