Perspective on Success and Visual Artists ~ It Never Was Easy

It is interesting how one thought leads to another, and sometimes how one blog post inspires someone else to add to the conversation.

This action and reaction is one of the many things that makes interaction on the Internet so compelling. Without question, such occurrences extend well beyond the art business.

Not too long ago, I wrote a post titled What Is the Secondary Art Market? It attempted to give some definition to the what the secondary art market is and speculate on where it is headed. It is lengthy, but worth the read I shamelessly suggest.

The piece attracted the attention of artist Peter Leighton. In addition to being a visual artist, he also is the founder of Penny Prints Press, a 13-year-old fine arts digital press located in Austin, Texas. Peter also pens a blog on his www.PennyPrints.com Website. The image here is from his most recent post.

He had some interesting things to say in response my post. His was titled The Printmaker's Dilemma. Here is an excerpt:

Over the past year, I've certainly seen a dramatic downward trend in giclee print prices online... Original digital art prints, for example, in the 17x22 inch range and once selling for $200-$300 are now being offered at below $100. Many of these images being sold by print-on-demand online galleries attempting to aggregate as much content as they can in one place to get the biggest bang for their buck. Thus feeding the notion that digital art prints, no matter their perceived quality, are disposable art objects, to be enjoyed for the moment, but not collected... My only concern with this trend is that not all digital printmaking processes are equal.

While there are numerous ways digital prints are made, there are yet more sides sides to the issues of how to get the most value for artists and collectors from digital prints. As Peter noted, they are not all equally made, which creates a marketing and perception problem for serious professional artists who publish reproductions using the giclee printing format.

I left this comment on Peter's blog:

We can all pretend things are the same, or we can face they are different and never going back to where they were. Somehow, I believe those truly committed to making a career at something, such as professional artist, always will find a way to make do.

There is no question some big opportunities are gone or diminished, but I see more opportunities now than before. The big fat pipes of distribution are getting smaller as new much smaller, even micro ones, come into play. As I have said before, it was never a walk in the park in the good old days to garner great success. That is one thing that remains the same. 

I still find artists who successfully are managing their careers at a very high level selling originals and limited edition prints of their work. One thing I note is those who have such success have many things in common. In particular, they all built their collector base methodically and over time. There aren't any overnight successes among them. They went down many paths and drilled many dry holes on the way to their success.

As my comment on Peter's art blog indicates, it was not easy back in the day to build an art career. Obviously, it is not easy now. It is just different. I believe trade magazines and tradeshows were instrumental tools in helping artists then build a solid dealer base. I still believe these vehicles have their place and can be used effectively. But, like broadcast television, their reach and influence has peaked.

What artists have today are simply amazing new ways to make and reproduce affordable high quality art reproductions.Print artists also have the means to find collectors on their own and to build a distribution mix of dealers and direct-to-collectors channels that did not exist just a few years ago. Certainly, what we take for granted would astound previous generations.

This at a time when consumers are much more tuned to digital printing, in the form of what is still widely called giclees, as a great way to buy art. I am committed to help you find new ways to capitalize on this interest and the challenge to tap it.

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