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Hi friends,
Of course, the straightforward answer is, no.
Not too long ago, I was asked a really good question about selling and how you would know when you've "made it".
This artist sold a nice pastel piece for a decent price and then later entered what she considered a couple of her better works in a local juried art event. Neither of the pieces was accepted.
So, from the emotional roller coaster of a good sale high to the depths of the dreaded rejection, she was perhaps feeling betrayed on some level.
The hard truth is, one good sale does not guarantee anything. Not continued success, not the top of the mountain. The truth of the matter is that a buyer in the circle of exposure that is this artist's world liked a piece enough to buy it. It was the buyer's opinion that the art was worth owning. Just as the judge(s) that rejected her work for the show didn't like it enough to jury it in. It's still just their opinion. It doesn't or shouldn't then become that artist's reality.
Art is created from the depths of an artist's being...it's a personal thing. Taking the step to put your art on the market leaves you open to as many opinions as there are people. The narrower your "niche" market is, the more people there are that probably won't much care whether you create art or not.
Your mission, if you are still wanting to be in the game, is to find the market that will love your art enough to buy it. It takes perseverance and a lot of fortitude to stick with it, because so much of this is learning the hard way, by doing. Watching people to see what pieces they linger in front of at art shows, listening to comments, talking to them...ask questions for heavens sake! Find out why they like something and, yes, why they don't like something.
An entire world is at your fingertips...get on the internet and go to other artist's web sites (FineArtStudioOnline is a good place to start). Bookmark the art that really catches your eye and then go back and study it carefully. Decide exactly what it is that drew you to it...color? subject matter? Note whether there are a lot of sold signs on the work.
Is there room for your own work to improve? Be honest now. There's always room for improvement. Consider making some changes so that your work becomes more marketable. And this last bit of advice is serious...grow a thicker skin. Don't take rejection personally. Someone out there rejected your work, not you, and there's still a lot of people out there that didn't reject your work.
If you analyze this as a business and find out what can make your "product" better, the sales will come. Will the whole world then love you and your art? Of course they won't. But why should you care. Build your empire.
All my best,
Sandra
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Editor's Note: You can view Sandra's original post here.
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I personally don't care what you think of me, in fact, it's none of my business.
What I care about when I invest in a work of art is what it means to me and if the message of the work has been accomplished. Am I moved or is this just an other happy landscape that matches the drapes and couch? Drapes and couch don't work for me, unless it's the Lichtenstein series that mocks this exact way of thinking.
That being said, there is another aspect to the selling of the work and the selling of the artist that is relevant. As someone who runs an art collective and produces art events, it is important to me that there is a level of professionalism. What I look for is ease of the venue or person in question to work with. Are they on time? Do they fulfill commitments, how are they with people skills. You don't have to be loved or likeable to have fantastic people or sales skills. This is a business that involves being able to work with people.
Show up, be present, engage, and make it easy for me to work with you and we have no issues.
When jurying for an exhibition, we all know entirely too well, that it is about fit. Does the work fit with the overall narrative of the work submitted, does it fit into the level of skill/execution/process expected, does it fit with the curatorial theme or not? To that end, it's not necessarily about is it good or not.
Good isn't always the question.
Jurying my last exhibition had nothing to do with mere opinion. (Ya'll need to get over that.) We all worked hard to understand the artist's body of work, their statement, their resume or pedigree and then what they submitted within the context of our overall theme for exhibition.
It's always good to ask why a work wasn't accepted. We rejected some of our friends and collective members for this particular event. But when our friends and members saw what was accepted, they realized our vision and perhaps the need to step up their own game.