Dear artists,

Here are some great articles we've found on the internet over the past week that are directly applicable to helping you with art, marketing, inspiration and fine living:

Dick Harrison's 10 Commandments for Selling What You Create:

1. YOU CAN’T SELL IT IF YOU DON’T SHOW IT

2. The most effective way to show and sell your art is almost always in person with the art in hand. If you show and sell your own work, you deserve 100% of the profit. If you ask others to help you sell your art, they must be fairly compensated for their knowledge, time, effort and expenses.

(Read Original >>)



Seth Reminds us to ask ourselves if we're getting BETTER:

Are you better at what you do than you were a month or two ago?

A lot better?

How did you get better? What did you read or try? Did you fail at something and learn from it?

(Read Original >>)



43 Folders explains marketing via email and the .001 Challenge:

Imagine that the person receiving the email you’re composing receives 1,000 other message each day more or less identical to yours. What would you do to distinguish yours from the others? What change would make your email amazingly easy to deal with and not insane? Does the content of your email belong someplace else?

(Read Original >>)



Lisa Calls helps artists answer the question, "When are you ready?"

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. . .

(Read Original >>)



Artist Marsha Robinett explores her feelings as she learns to ask for GUI-DANCE:

The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other.

My eyes kept going back to the word Guidance. When I saw "G": I thought of God, followed by "u" and "i". (God, "u" and "i" dance.) . . .

(Read Original >>)




Paul Lawrence of Early to Rise teaches us the All-Time Best Way to Get and Keep Customers:

You develop relationships with your customers the same way that you do it in your personal life. In big part, that means caring for them.

Think about the people you consider to be friends. Aren’t they people you genuinely care about - and who seem to genuinely care about you?

(Read Original >>)



Techcrunch points us to the Brooklyn Museum who is letting the crowd curate an exhibition:

These days everyone is a curator. If you talk to any social media entrepreneurs, chances are they will go on and on about how their Website is all about letting people “curate” the Web, whether that’s photos, videos, or news stories. It is usually code for:”Most people are too lazy to actually produce anything, but we let them organize and remix what other people have produced.” Who doesn’t love to remix? . . .

(Read Original >>)



Enjoy the advice from the minds of these insightful commentators.  We hope you found something inspirational or useful to your own art career.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson
Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic