Art Print Issues by Barney Davey

How to Start Your Own Art Publishing Company

I received a request by email to weigh in on a post at the Wet Canvas General Art Business forum today. The title of the thread is How to Start Your Own Art Publishing Company. My answer turned out to be even more lengthy than the lengthy question. To save you the trouble of logging in over there, I have reposted here:

With advances in technology is it feasible to become your own publishing company today?

Both my wife and I are full-time artists and we feel, and many others have said, that our works would do well as prints and cards. We know this is true, at least on a small scale, as we already do sell prints regionally (printed on our own Epson 2200 printer) and those have done fairly well...but what does it take to go to the national level?

My wife has been with one of the largest art publishing companies for 6 years now. She makes 10% of the wholesale cost, and the results have been disappointing, about $1,000 a year average paid out to us. Also, the company has been hurting recently as they try to figure out this tough economy, and sometimes they even have to miss payments and then will double up on the next payment....obviously not a good sign (payments made quarterly). This is one reason I've been wondering if it's a wise thing to publish ourselves and keep the full profit?

Our niche or specialty is painting animals. Obviously we can't print enough out on our own little Epson printer, so we need to find out:

1) Are there larger personal printers now that can produce prints fast enough and economically enough? Or, do individual images still need to be shipped off to a large commercial printer and printed out in the hundreds or thousands? If so, are there competitive printers in the USA still, or is everything done in China/asia?

2) I realize that the first few years require a lot of work going to gift shows, art shows, trade shows in order to become known. Also, to expand ones web presence as much as possible. Any other venues or ways to get ones name 'out there'?

What are some other thoughts/ideas/considerations on all this?

Do you know of any self-publishers who are doing well? I recently came across http://www.annemadecards.com/ and http://trollart.com/
I assume they do well as I've come across them now in quite a few shops. Of course that's just an assumption as I dont know for sure. You can see that 'AnneMade' sells her cards for $1.50 each....so I'm assuming she's getting these printed in China?

There's also big names like Mary Engelbright and Jodi Bergsma. They are big now and control their own future, but I'd like to learn exactly how they did it when they started out. Of course, today is obviously a much different time than just 10 years ago, so how much would the old ways even work today?

One big reason I'm considering this direction is because we received a relatively small inheritance (less than $25K) and it's the only 'freebie' we're ever going to get really. So do we dink it away on what-not, or invest in this self-publishing idea? I know that's not a lot of money anymore, but perhaps with advances in printer/computer technology...it's enough??

Right now, with the Epson, we print with archival inks, and these are not cheap! I'm thinking more along the lines if one prints out their own images on a high volume personal printer...on card stock, with regular inks...and then perhaps varnish with a UV varnish. I know these will eventually still fade, but will at least be initially cheaper to produce (and sell more reasonably). If there arent good personal printers in this regard, how about getting inexpensive postcards printed (you see their ads in magazines) and turning those into prints or even greeting cards? I'm just kind of thinking out loud now at this point.

If one goes to a big gift show, they need to either have on hand a large inventory, or the ability to go home and produce orders quickly. It would just be so nice to be in control of the entire process rather than have to deal with commercial printers, handing over chunks of money per every image.

I hope I havent rambled too much here. I just wanted to get the ball rolling as I know there are smart/helpful people here who will have some thoughts and insights on this. I was also hoping this could be a thread of interest to the other artists who might also be thinking of doing their own self-publishing on a larger (even national) scale.

Many thanks....

My reply is:

I received a request by email to comment on this thread, which was inspiring. As much as I would like to post regularly, working full-time leaves little time to participate here. Between spending 50 hours weekly on the day gig, maintaining my Art Print Issues blog (now approaching 400 posts), and promoting the newly released second edition of How to Profit from the Art Print Market, where it remains a bestseller on the Amazon.com "Business of Art" category, and a couple of other projects, I run out of time and energy to get here and some other boards where I like to post.

So putting excuses aside, I do have some comments for Olde Bob. Yes, it is still feasible to start your own art publishing company. In many ways, it is the best of times to do this. Yes, the economy and market changes have created huge challenges, but how art is made and marketed has changed also.

As never before, artists now have more new and effective ways to control the direct distribution of their art. With the changes on the gallery scene, I think it is incumbent on every artist to create direct distribution of their art. When you do, you can sell less and keep more. You don't keep the full 50% of retail you pay galleries, a big chunk of that goes to marketing.

There are digital printers that print relatively fast and inexpensive, but not like a four-color offset press. The difference is in inventory. If you bet wrong, you end up with stacks of paper and no where to sell them. I think printing in large quantities only makes sense for established artists who have volume buyers seeking their work. Sending to China creates potential quality issues, expensive shipping and long lead times. Again, more suited for established players than newbies.

Working for a publisher was never going to be something that would pay all the bills for most artists. If you consider, your wife's publisher only made $10,000 from selling her work, you can figure if you were the publisher, it would not be a living from those sales. Publishers have big overhead costs that you would absorb trying to compete with them.

Tradeshows do not pack the same punch as just a few years ago. Look at what has happened to most of them. I am still shell-shocked that the Decor Expo Atlanta show has failed to produce in the past three years. This was once a show with 2,000 exhibitors and an absolute "must attend" for virtually every poster publisher and many self-published artists as well. Art business related trade magazines are hanging on by threads.

Artyczar offers good advice. You would be better served, IMHO, carving out a niche based on quality and uniqueness with the aim of developing a loyal collector base. I wrote a blog post titled, Build an Art Market - Profit from Your Passion. It was about how artist, Ashley Goldberg, built a $100k annual business on Etsy and ended up being featured in an Inc Magazine cover story about how it is possible to follow your passion and create a dream job.

By your questions and references to various artists, you seem to be more interested in the gift and licensing market than the art print market. That's fine. I advise trying to tackle one or the other, but not both at the same time. It is tough enough to get traction in one of these arenas without trying to manage trying both.

You mention the $25,000 inheritance and then talk about how expensive archival inks are. These are clues to your situation and your thinking about things. My advice would be to decide to put a small portion ($5-7,000?) of that into marketing your work, and putting the rest aside in safe investments for the future.

Regarding printing your own work; there are many hidden costs in printing your own work. There is lost time and money when things do not come out as expected. The investment in high quality image capture equipment can easily exceed $25,000 and then you have to learn how to use it properly. You are adding this time and expense to making your art and marketing it. How much cheaper can you do your own printing? I would not be at all surprised for most artists, after all the costs are included, the lost time from the studio, and hidden expenses are added up, that the savings amount to less than 10% for work produced on the amateur level.

I love your optimism about going to a big show and coming back with a suitcase full of orders. It shows you have the ability to think big about your career. Unfortunately, the reality for most first-timers at shows, even back in the good old days, is that the likelihood is what you learn will be greater than what you earn. In other words, it takes more than one big event to turn on the big orders. It takes consistent marketing.

Perhaps the most important thing to consider, and this is often the hardest thing for artists to do, is to be able to honestly and brutally evaluate the marketability of your work. Your perspective is warped by being too close, your family and friends are not reliable because they love you and want the best for you and they likely have no art marketing experience to weigh the commercial viability of your work.

At the heart of the business every successful artist lies the ability to create work that resonates well with a large section of the potential market. Making stuff people want to buy and want to continue to buy is a crucial ingredient. It is not always about how your work is better than so and so's. It is about how many people are willing to open their wallet and vote with their disposable income on how much they like your work.

I can't judge how well your will do, often experienced publishers can't judge it either. The final arbiter are volume buyers and retail buyers. If you can learn to tap into their needs you can build a successful print career. If your work is less accessible, more esoteric, or just not as commercially viable as others, you can still build a market. You may have to work harder at identifying where your buyers are and how to to reach them.

Learning how to reach them means being a student of the art business. Most artists will seek teachers far and wide to learn how to apply paint, but they won't invest any time in learning how the top producers built their businesses.

The information is not laid out neatly in Wikipedia, you have to do your own sleuthing to ferret out the details and then spend more time figuring how to make them apply to your business. Fortunately, the cost of doing this is more in time than in money, which leaves you more money to spend on your marketing.

Lastly, the tools to get your work directly to your collectors are the best ever. I think every artist should have a website. Period. Most should have a blog. Working on using social media can be the single most important thing you will do for direct distribution of your work.

Whatever you do, don't undercut your partners, galleries and dealers, specifically. Treat them fairly and honestly and with integrity. The best way to find them is by working concentric circles around where you live. How many potential galleries and alternative spaces that could repeatedly sell your art do you have in a 300-mile radius around your home? Probably enough to support your business if you are successful in getting into 10-20% of them.

This has turned into a piece so long, I am going to repost on Art Print Issues. Best wishes to Olde Bob and thanks to TC Steele for inviting my comments.

This has turned into a piece so long, I am going to repost on Art Print Issues. Best wishes to Olde Bob and thanks to TC Steele for inviting my comments. Of course, I would be remiss from my own advice to artists, where I admonish them to be their own best self-promoter, if I did not encourage interested readers here to order my book.

If you want to learn more about the art print market and how to make a go of it in today's changing challenging environment, my book will be a useful resource for you.

Build an Art Market - Profit from Your Passion

I love to read stories about artists who succeed against improbable odds. The news in this post should bring hope, joy and encouragement to visual artists everywhere.

The past five years have been very difficult for artists and publishers in the art print market. The dwindling pages in trade magazines and disappearance of formerly important tradeshows serving the art print market punctuate the point.

Tough times do not mean there are no opportunities

Given current conditions, it is a wonder any artist or publisher is doing well. And, yet here is a story proving when you follow your passion and create something that touches people in a compelling way, you can grow a profitable art business in the most trying times. Such is the case of Ashley Goldberg and her partner Drew. She is an artist who draws whimsical images and turns them into prints sold on her Etsy shop.

Kudos for getting ink from Inc. Magazine!

The result of creating such work and making it available on Etsy is her site is one of the most "hearted" on all of Esty and she and her partner Drew end up as part of a cover story in Inc. magazine. The cover story title is How to Launch a Dream Career and Profit from Your Passion. The aricle within the feature about Ashley and Drew is titled Start-Ups 2010: Building a Market for Art. 

Take heart and take notice.

It's obvious not every artist reading this post is destined to be featured in a national business magazine. Nevertheless, there are unending promotional and publicity opportunities for visual artists willing to work at turning possibilities into realities. You can be one of them if you put your mind, your body and your will to it.

If you want to be noticed, do something worth noting.

I do not know if AshleyG and Drew courted the publicity directly, or if they just got "lucky." Truly, it does not matter. If it is the latter, as I suspect, I would argue their luck is the residue of the hard and dedicated work they have put into making their art print business happen.

I bet the best is yet to come and that we have not heard the last from AshleyG and Drew. What is exciting to me is I know there are many more artists out there who are breaking into the print market on their own terms and enjoying the success that comes with it. If you are one of them, I would love to hear from you.

Wildlife Art - Imitating life & the art business

One of the best side benefits of representing DECOR magazine and the Decor Expo shows in their heyday was the opportunity to get to know so many talented people who helped transform the art print market from a cottage industry to a booming market segment.

While changes to the art print market reflect the same economic, technological and distribution dynamics that in general have disrupted so many industries and careers, past relationships remain strong. Such is the case with Larry Richardson, your guest blogger today, and me.

An avid conservationist and artist, Larry has been involved with funding conservation programs through sales of wildlife art for two decades. He provides perspective on the wildlife art market today. Here are Larry's thoughts:

Wildlife art - a specialty market

Wildlife art in recent years has become very much a specialty market, not like the surge in the 1970s and '80s when buyers were grabbing handfuls or whole editions for investment. When the boom ended, most art fanciers and speculators quickly learned much of the art they had rat-holed was worth about as much as the cost of paper, sometimes less. The current economic conditions make it extremely difficult to move the flat line for wildlife upward on the chart, particularly for art prints on paper.

Giclees and print-on-demand dominate the wildlife art market

Marketers have shifted to canvas, perhaps to avoid the paper glut and create a new spin to entice potential collectors.Giclee canvas and paper has become the buzz, especially now that artists can set up shop in their back room for the cost of running a conventional paper print edition. Printing tons of paper seems to be a thing of the past. Print-on-demand avoids overrun and storage of unwanted paper. If you can sell the original and get a good return on your look-alike giclee….why not?!

Non-profit sector remains vibrant for wildlife art prints

The exception for wildlife art lies in the non-profit sector where some organizations still enjoy success in selling framed prints at their fundraisers. Most organizations have gone to a selection process where they get a good number of entries and they can select the cream of the crop. More canvas transfers and giclee canvas are showing up in these venues. Some of the canvas reproductions are signed and numbered, however, that’s no guarantee that higher prices will be paid at auction.

Outlook for becoming a known artist with a publisher is sketchy

The short-term outlook - - nothing replaces hard work and becoming savvy to the market trends. Aspiring wildlife painters will find it hard to “become published” by the few big houses that remain. Let’s face it…the target market for these publishers has also changed, and they are looking for the very best work and unique approaches to enhance sales to the retail trade. As always, talent will open some doors, but even then only the most aggressive entrepreneurs will keep them open. The competition is stiff. 

Internet and social media offer new opportunities for wildlife artists

The growth and continuing development e-commerce, personal websites for artists, email marketing and social networking have extended the contemporary walk-in gallery approach. Still, the trick is driving the buyer to your site specifically. That too requires a lot of work to set up and keep up. How many hours does that leave to be creative and paint?  Of well, who sleeps these days?  Unfortunately, wildlife artists, for the most part, need a “real job” to bring home the bread.

Many thanks to Larry for taking his time to provide insights into the wildlife art market these days. Something that seems the same to me, no matter which genre an artist uses, is the transition to full-time artist requires the same amount of energy, talent and ambition as in the past.

Larry has been involved in the wildlife art profession for over 35 years. Currently, Larry heads up Larry R Richardson & Associates. It is a public relations and communications firm. The company provides exclusive representation for Wild Wings, a 40-year old leading wildlife art publishing company, to conservation organizations in North America. He previously worked as Director, Field Operations, Ducks Unlimited for more than a decade. Ducks Unlimited conserves, restores and manages wetlands and associated habitats for North America's waterfowl. These habitats also benefit other wildlife and people.

One constant over the years is the most acclaimed wildlife artists manage to paint realistically while adding a majestic artistic quality to their subject matter and their work. James Hautman's work above is a perfect example.

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What Is the Secondary Art Market?

In order to address the question of what constitutes the secondary fine art market, you must first know what makes the primary art market. The answer, as with many things in the broad art market, is complicated. Since the broad secondary art market includes very expensive work by contemporary masters to relatively inexpensive four-color offset lithographs, you will find the terminology is used differently depending on circumstances.

The essence of a primary sale is the first transaction where art is sold, in most cases. However, complexities arise when you study the distribution chain.

It is simple when a deal is made between artist and collector. The situation is less clear when an artist makes a wholesale sale to a gallery that then offers the work at full retail. In this instance, the retail transaction made by the gallery is considered the primary market transaction. Of course, there are other methods of first sale to consider.

Defining a secondary market sale

A secondary market sale occurs when the original buyer decides to put the work for sale a second time. Whereas this sale is most often initiated by a collector seeking to sell the work, there are cases when a gallery will put pieces directly into the secondary market. This usually not good because it means the gallery has too much inventory and too little demand for the work. No gallery is going to sell through the secondary market when it has buyers for pieces in the primary market.

The venues for the secondary art market range from the toniest auction houses and private dealers to established brokers and galleries all the way down to eBay. In November 2009, The Economist ran a piece titled “New or Secondhand?” that accurately depicted the upper end of the market. The information and concepts the article discusses do not apply to most readers here. Alan Bamberger has an useful illustrative article, "Retail Gallery Prices May be More Than Art is Worth," on his ArtBusiness.com Website.

The art print market is divided

For our purposes, we are here to discuss the secondary art market as it pertains to the art print market that includes selling reproductions as prints. In the art business, there is a bifurcation in the print market. That is, there are those fine art prints made in time-honored fashion which, by the nature of their creation, are limited. These would include etchings, woodcuts, aquatints, engravings, serigraphs, stone lithographs and so forth. See Wikipedia for more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printmaking.

The other component of the print market primarily is made up of reproductions of original art. Some would call this the decorative art market, while others reserve that term for the open edition and poster market. How you describe it has as much to do with what end of the market you derive your income as anything.

If you are an artist, dealer or collector involved with etchings, your view of a giclée is likely to be a decorative reproduction. On the other hand, if you make your living selling giclees, or some other form or fine art reproductions, you may take issue with your work being called decorative art. Unfortunately, you can only control how you market your work.

Different processes create different perspectives

If you study the work and promotional information offered over the years by artists and galleries at the New York ArtExpo, I doubt you would find one exhibitor characterizing their work as decorative art – especially those who sell limited editions. It completely natural they would use descriptions designed to help sell their work.

The International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) also holds an annual show in Manhattan. You will find this small, but important, group of dealers generally eschews representing much of the work found at shows such as ArtExpo New York. Most will contend, as Kathryn Markel does on her Website, that the work found there is “wall decor."

While not stating wall decor is necessarily a bad thing, dealers, such as Kathryn Markel, would not encourage buyers to participate in paying the set prices for much of the higher priced work at ArtExpo. Their reasons are the works primarily are reproductions and that much of it these days is digital art. And, there you have the bifurcation in the art print market.

The diminishing secondary art market

When it comes to the secondary market, there is an active market for many artists whose work is found at shows such as ArtExpo New York. You will also find many other artists whose work has transcended the "wall decor" mentality. In other words, it is a mixed bag. Arguably, the best example of a secondary market player is Art Brokerage. It carries a huge selection of work from a wide range of artists, including many who have exhibited at ArtExpo over the years and many others who have never set foot inside it.

There is an implication that art reaching the secondary market will have appreciated in value having become more collectible along the way. For some artists, this is accurate, but for the few who enjoy seeing their art selling well above initial prices, finding an active secondary market for most is not a reality, especially in their lifetime. It is one of the reasons I have argued for not having limited editions of fine art digital reproductions.

There is a bit of a conundrum here

In today’s market, if an artist is productive and continues to put new editions in the market place, it tends to lower the resale of earlier pieces. Although in the boom years of limited editions prints, this dynamic was not always the case, and is not now for select artists. If artists combats the problem of lowered prices on the secondary market with small editions, of say 200 or less, they cap their income for that work and need to either generate higher and higher prices for their new work or put more editions in the pipeline to maintain a steady income, both actions have consequences.

Should artists be paid a resale royalty?

When it comes to the secondary market, artists do not participate in the inflated prices. Only California has droit de suite laws where artists are legally ensured a cut of the proceeds when it is resold in the state. The legislation is known as the California Resale Royalty Act. This type of law is more common in European Union countries. I doubt they will ever move beyond the borders of California.

Until the past few years, you could go to the back of Art Business News or Art World News and find several pages of small ads from dealers in the secondary art market. In a very telling sign of the times, those publications are today much smaller in overall ad pages and secondary market ads have nearly vanished. Coincidentally, in another telling sign, if you research art prints, particularly giclée prints on the sites of secondary market art brokers, you will find many pieces being offered well below their original price.

In the art business, more than secondary market is hurting

Another factor in the market that has diminished with trade magazine ad pages are secondary art market  Websites offering works while having very little inventory. Attorney, Joshua Kaufman, a long time columnist for Art Business News, wrote, “The Online Secondary Market: Resource or Parasite?” It is an informative piece detailing how some rouges operators business methods were having a negative effect on the market place. It also warned that much of the way they were operating was illegal.

While we like to think it was the industry policing itself that drove many of them out of the market, it was eroding market and economic conditions that took away their incentive. What remains to be seen for the industry is whether the market will return to a point where artists using the giclée medium will see an active market with rising prices for their work on the secondary market.

Where is the print market headed?

My estimation is it will be very difficult for the market to bring us back to the old days of a booming profitable secondary art market for several reasons. First, most artists working in multiple these days are using the giclée or digital printing format. I do not believe the public clamors for limited edition giclées. I think it would rather pay a little less and get to enjoy the art. This notion is supported by evidence some longtime publishers in the giclée market are moving away from creating limited editions in this market. Lastly, once there is a widespread established pattern of digital prints not increasing in value, it will be very difficult to reverse such a trend.

This may be a market with a beautiful creative product, but it also a business that follows trends. If the trend grows stronger to open editions, it will depress the secondary market for fine art print reproductions. That is not all bad. I think it will force the art to be sold for its enjoyment rather than the implied notion it will increase in value. Buyers of giclees found before the current economic crunch they could not recover close to the sale price of prints they bought when they tried to take them back to galleries, sell them on eBay, or through an art broker. Things surely have not improved in recent years.

How should an artist thinking about getting into the print market proceed?

I think giclees are a wonderful medium to help sell more work. Rather than looking to maximize the sale of a limited edition, I suggest keeping the edition open. There is no reason the pieces cannot still be numbered using your own open numbering convention. If the artist’s work does become collectible, then the lower numbers will likely have some higher than retail secondary market value.

For those who feel a need for limited editions, I would consider producing a small edition of 200 or less that is hand-embellished by the artist. I believe if it is clearly stated the edition will be accompanied by lower-priced open edition pieces, there would not be conflict with buyers. Certainly, recently retired artist, Terry Redlin, was able for decades to sell both open and limited editions of the same images without creating a problem for his self-publishing company or the dealers who carried his work. I am guessing and would suggest that in such a situation the limited edition have exclusive dimensions.

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Decade in Review for the Art Print Market

There have been numerous reviews of the past decade in print, broadcast and online media such as this one from Newsweek: Decade in Review (It is seven minutes long).

 

Here is my take on The Decade in Review for the Art Print Market. The dates and information supplied are subjective, arbitrary, approximate and included to the best of my ability, but not guaranteed for accuracy.

 

1999 (These items in this year are not officially part of the 2000 Decade, but close and significant enough to include)

• Commerce Publishing Company sold to Pfingsten Partners LLC. Properties include Decor magazine, and its sister Art Buyers Caravan, Frame-o-rama and Galeria tradeshow division.

o Actually happened in mid-1999, but most changes due to new ownership started in the new decade

o Many longtime employees leave Decor and Decor Expo

• Getty Images buys Art.com for $115 million in May 1999

2000

• Art Buyers Caravan (ABC), Frame-o-rama and Galeria shows rebranded as Decor Expo

• Cafepress.com gets initial VC funding

• West Coast Art & Frame Show in second year continues to grow with nearly 250 booths

2001

• Terrorist attacks on 9-11-2001 cause Atlanta Decor Expo show to be cancelled

o This singular event was a turning point for the industry

o Although some shows continued to grow in size, the industry never fully recovered its momentum as other factors compounded to stymie its growth

• In the wake of the dotcom bomb stock implosion, the founders of Allwall.com purchase Art.com from Getty Images for a fraction of Getty’s purchase price

2002

• Pfingsten Publishing & Advanstar Communications agree to single registration fee, to share registration and shuttle buses expenses between venues at the Jacob Javits Centerwhere ArtExpo is held and the Westside Piers where Decor Expo Art & Framing shows are held

• Art Copyright Coalition is formed by Art Publisher's Association members

• Alyson Stanfield launches www.ArtBizCoach.com

2003

• Pfingsten Publishing & Advanstar Communications agree to co-exist in the Jacob Javits Center putting ArtExpo, Decor Expo in the same location for the first time ever

• West Coast Art & Frame Show fills void in exhibit space as it grows with more art publishers finding success at its show

• Digital art begins to get traction in fine art print market

2004

• ArtExpo New York and the Atlanta Decor Expo (formerly Atlanta ABC Show) continue to grow in size and importance

• Internet retailers command growing sales from consumers and in orders from poster publishers

• Thomas Kinkade featured on CBS News "60 Minutes" show

• Increasing volume of Chinese assembly line oil paintings create concerns

2005

• Barney Davey launches Art Print News; publishing it as an online newsletter

• Atlanta Decor Expo lands at # 145 on the Tradeshow Week 200 signifying it is one of the largest tradeshows in the US

• Advanstar Communications agrees to sell its art properties, including ArtExpo shows and Art Business News magazine to Pfingsten Publishing LLC

• Print-on-demand technology proves to be a game changer as giclée sales eclipse all other media in the limited edition market

• Sharp decline in the number of independent art retailers brought on by the rise of Internet shopping, growth of big box stores, flood of cheap Chinese oil paintings and changes in consumer tastes wreak havoc on the poster publishing business

• Allposters.com and Art.com merge. Allposters.com is #145 on Internet Retailer Top 400 and Art.com is #95. Both sites continue to operate independently to date

• Etsy.com is launched

• Marilyn Sholin launches www.DigitalPaintingForum.com

2006

• Art Print News changes format from online newsletter to blog

• Summit Business Media LLC acquires Pfingsten Publishing LLC for the latter’s financial publishing properties. Art group gets short shrift as management unsuccessfully seeks a new buyer for it

• Imagekind.com is founded

• Thomas Kinkade is reported to have earned $53 million in the period 1997 to May 2005

• West Coast Art & Frame Show continues strong appeal to art exhibitor grows to more than 500 booths

2007

• Changing economic and market conditions continue to cause dramatic declines in booth space at tradeshows and ad space in trade magazines

• Decor Expo New York is cancelled and move to Baltimore. For the first time in three decades there is not a spring international picture framing and poster publishing tradeshow in New York

• Inaugural ArtExpo Las Vegas show opens to mixed signals

• Blogging for independent artists takes on growing use and importance

2008

• Decor Expo Baltimore is canceled

• Imagekind.com is acquired by Cafepress.com

• Etsy Raises $27 Million to Expand Marketplace for handmade goods

• ArtExpo Las Vegas opens on day Dow drops 600 points. Show never recovers

• Limited edition Shepard Fairey art available exclusively at CafePress through partnership with Rock The Vote

• Wyland paints 99th Whaling Wall "Water for Life” in North Lauderdale, Florida

2009

• Kim Feager, publisher of Decor, Art Business News and Volume magazines, and Eric Smith, Art Group Vice-President purchase the art group properties from Summit Business Media LLC. Feager gets magazines and Decor Expo shows. Smith gets ArtExpo shows.

• Decor Expo Atlanta cancels 2009 show. New owners vow to return stronger in 2010

• ArtExpo Las Vegas show canceled, future is doubtful

• ArtExpo New York announces it will move to Pier 94 from the Jacob Javits Center

• Social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn rise to become important marketing vehicles for artists and publishers

 

Undoubtedly, there were other momentous events affecting the art print market in the past decade. These mentioned where what easily came to mind for me, thus making this list both arbitrary and potentially inaccurate. I welcome all comments with corrections and additional items worthy of mention in the past decade.

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Start your year off with the learning and inspiration you will get from the 2010 SmARTist Telesummit in January!

If you want more help on you career from me, I will be one of the eleven speakers the 4th Annual SmARTist Telesummit. Click here to sign up now or to get more information about the topnotch panel of presenters who are ready to help you catapult your career this January. With the impressive lineup Arianne Goodwin has put together, you are sure to get a very positive career boost from your investment in time and money.

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Pursuing Style and Success as a Visual Artist

Many of you have read my book, How to Profit from the Art Print Market, so you know one of it main tenets is to have the ability, temperament and willingness to paint thematically. While this is true for artists seeking gallery representation for the their originals, I believe it is crucial for artists who wish to have a successful career in the print market. Basically, you have to be known for something.

Robert Genn's recent post in his Twice-Weekly Letter reminded me of this with his topic, A Methodical Pursuit of Style. Here's the first paragraph that gets the ball rolling for him:

"In 1947, the eclectic French author and theorist Raymond Queneau wrote a small classic called 'Exercises in Style.' It tells a simple fictional story over and over in 99 literary styles. Introducing writers to an almost mathematical formula for creating style, journalism and authorship hasn't been the same since. Queneau's demonstrated styles are loaded with fun. The concept may have benefits for visual artists."

I don't know about you, but as a writer, that sounds like a fun, challenging and stimulating exercise to me. But, only if I got to do it my my time and terms. Standing over me waiting for results would kill the fun.

Expand your style, just not at the expense of your audience

What Genn is getting at is to try different styles to expand an artist's talent and ability. He is suggesting pushing oneself to grow as an artist. This is laudable and I commend the idea. How boring would The Rolling Stones have been if they stuck to covering the blues instead of venturing into rock, country, reggae and more? Yet, despite their shifts in sampling other forms of music, they always were undeniably recognizable for their unique sound or style. When they did get to far out of bounds as with some Middle Eastern influences, their fans did not follow.

Painting using various styles is different than painting thematically, but it is closely related. It is hard to imagine getting gallery or collector attention if one is noted for painting graffiti art such as with Banksy, or marine-based art as with Christian Pierre Lassen, or even Thomas Kinkade's cottages if each piece came out as an experimentation in style with a succession of realism, impressionism, primtivism and so forth. Can there be significant influences of style on an artist who steadily mines a vein? Absolutely, the hallmark of successful artists is they manage to change, but do so in a way to bring their collectors and dealers along with them.

There is no shame and lots to gain by sticking to your knitting

Perhaps those at the pinnacle can do whatever they want and still have success. The reality for most artists working to make their art pay is they don't have the luxury to not feed the beast. The beast being their own creation of a marketing machine comprised of eager dealers, galleries and collectors who have their own expectations.

For most artists, this is not really a burden. They got into the business because they enjoy what they do. Having to paint yet another beautiful still life, landscape or portrait is not a chore. If it has become one, then paying attention to Genn's thoughts on expanding a methodical style will be the respite from the mundane they seek.

Different theme, different name; a time-honored practice

More than one artist has found the way to beat being pigeon-holed by painting under a "Nom de Brusse", if you will. I've known poster publishers who had artists with a range of talent paint widely different styles using another name. A gallery where I worked in Scottsdale represented several artists who were also in other local galleries, just under a different name and style at each. So, if your yen to stretch your creativity is there, you need not despair; just be as creative in pursuing different distribution points as you are in making your art.

Artist Drew Friedman Launches Fine Art Print Publishing Company

Dean Martin - by Drew Friedman 

Renowned illustrator Drew Friedman, in collaboration with Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon, has launched a new Web site at: DrewFriedman.net. The site is the exclusive source of fine art prints featuring new works by the iconic illustrator.

The art, much like the artist's career, is exceptional and eclectic. In our age of celebrity worship, e.g., 3 million Twitter followers for Ashton Kutcher, (no offense AK, I get you are riding the wave, but really, who cares and who are those people?), it's refreshing to find an artist who chooses mostly offbeat, anti-celebrity subjects to immortalize in his unique style.

Many who have followed this blog for the past three years know I am not a fan of limited editions for digitally printed art. That is, with the exception of very low numbers. It's arbitrary, but I have put the number at 100. Otherwise, it's just a marketing gimmick in my humble opinion.

Friedman and his experienced art professional partners have launched the site and the publishing business on a model of using the extremely low number of 30 in their editions. Now, if you are an artist who creates slowly, this can be a financial problem. On the other hand, if you can turn out the work quickly enough, a low-numbered edition model puts you in a league of your own. Friedman's achievements and oeuvre already put him in such a league. Following up with this daring and unique idea of very small edition sizes is sure to create devoted collectors for his work.

The flip side of low numbers is unlimited numbers. I'm not necessarily suggesting the idea for Drew Friedman and company, although I think it could work for them with the right image. As always, I feel the way to make unlimited editions have value is to number them sequentially. If the artist sells thousands of an image, everyone in the distribution channel, including buyers, gets to enjoy the art.

With nothing but brave conjecture to back up the theory, I go out on limb to say the low numbers of a sequentially numbered edition would have more value than higher numbers. In other words, they would be collectible despite freshly minted reproductions being available. Perhaps some other numbers would be valuable as well. If a date was painted in the picture, or perhaps the number correlating with subject's birth, death or debut date would have more value. Collectors tend to make up their own rules about what aspects make an item dear to them.

Best wishes to Drew, Irwin and Barbara for tremendous success in their new art publishing venture!

Retweetables Volume One - The Humor of Wild Apple Graphics

Social media phenoms Facebook and Twitter continue to attract outsize attention as they increase members and traffic. Naturally, such attention has to draw its share of humor. Here is one of the funnier things I've seen poking great fun at both.

It comes courtesy of John Chester, president, publisher and janitor at Wild Apple Graphics. For more than two decades, he and his wife, Laurie, have managed a topnotch innovative art publishing business. Check out the company's Almost News page for an idea how a serious successful company can display a smart sense of humor. It puts the graphic here in perspective.

For the years I've written this blog, I've been collecting tidbits of news, events and opinions I filed with the idea one might be useful in this blog. But, I've always wished for a way to easily share them with you. Twitter fills the bill for me to pass along these items with the occasional nod to musical gems and heroes. I have my Tweets setup to simultaneously publish on Facebook. In case you missed any there, I present them here and trust you will find an interesting bit or two among them:

• Chelsea galleries hold up during downturn Though 25 galleries have shuttered in the past year at least 10 have opened http://twurl.nl/tgnxo6
• Sam Maloof dies at 93; designer and builder of simple, beautiful furniture http://twurl.nl/nva416
• New Wholesale Art Company Captures Attention with "Fresh Vintage" Approach http://twurl.nl/1l7fkq
• Milton Glaser Documentary Premiers May 22: You can win a signed poster promoting it or his book! ' http://bit.ly/bBxor
• Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah - at age 74 w/more inspiring soul stirring passion than others half his age http://twurl.nl/1njb7g
• Joe Cocker breaks down this 1926 song into an R&B masterpiece. Jimmy Page's guitar punctuates the song perfectly. http://twurl.nl/fovy1f
• 10 Great Places for Big-City Art, Small-Town Feel http://twurl.nl/iosywt
•  http://twitpic.com/5gqpf - Here's the Milton Glaser poster you can register 
• Google Business Development Manager Jaime Casap: Nonprofits advised to expand resources via social media http://twurl.nl/6upg8j
• Arts & the Economy - Creative inspiration - determined collectors make a difference in their hometown http://twurl.nl/vn3ehx
• @ArtThatFits Entertainment influences tastes in art. Here is another example. I'll bet the outcome is more interest. http://twurl.nl/fht571
• Art dealer indicted in Ponzi scheme - No Bernie Madoff, but the scum bum still got 100 peeps for $3.2 million http://twurl.nl/iojfnk
• Listening to 'You Were Never Mine' by Delbert McClinton @imeem http://x.imeem.com/4Qm69PRrra. Deeply plumbing the hurt & depths of love lost
• Great example why counter intuitive marketing works: Philadelphia couple right at home with Southwestern design http://twurl.nl/yraxze
• @ArtCareerDeva Choice, Confidence and Contrast - pillars of success for visual artists http://twurl.nl/p0rb7j
• Inkd - bills as The First Market for Original Print Design -purchase/contribute customizable designs in popular formats http://inkd.com/
• Telluride Festival of the Arts Announces 2009 Juried Artists - what I would give to be there in August :) http://twurl.nl/dkm845
• RT digitalpaint: REGISTER FREE Auto Painting Digital Painting with Corel Painter 11Webinar http://tinyurl.com/cmnkvh & Painter Master
  11:06 PM May 14th from TweetDeck   
• Alvin Lee - The Bluest Blues - An emotional testament to love lost. You can feel it in every note sung and played http://twurl.nl/2tujzd
  10:54 PM May 13th from TweetDeck
• Stunning Surreal Photography Rankin’s Iconic Images Are Slightly Off the Wall http://twurl.nl/dt30do
• Candy Dulfer& Dave Stewart Lily Was Here -You ain't never ever heard anyone named Candy wail an alto sax like this http://twurl.nl/xd523c
• @Clintavo #Art Marketing with Email Newsletters - Stories frrom the Wild http://clintwatson.net/blog
• Crop of new businesses open on hopeful note in P-town, including severals galleries. Huzzah to their chutzpah http://twurl.nl/to838z
• David Hockney’s iPhone art exhibited in London’s Annely Juda Fine Art Gallery http://twurl.nl/x5iumx
• ArtsBoston Debuts as First Online Arts Concierge to help patrons find the arts and entertainment options in Boston. http://twurl.nl/j6sjwm
• Art collector suing fashion designer Louis Vuitton over some leather prints he purchased for $12,000 http://twurl.nl/vnbkp8 
• @drewbrophy License Your #Art Part II - Make a Plan - Straightforward solid advice here http://twurl.nl/mf56ct http://twurl.nl/vcggim
• @ancientartist How to Survive Series: Curating the Artist Website http://twurl.nl/xum31d
  12:03 AM May 11th from TweetDeck   
• @EmptyEasel: How to Write Blog Post Titles (for Search Engines AND People) http://twurl.nl/ffn6ck
• @jess_bennett Marketing Art: Attract the Right Audience: A Guide to Attracting the Best Traffic to the Artist Website http://twurl.nl/nb3cdy
• Sante Fe #Art World May 2009 Newsletter and the Collectors Choice Awards http://twurl.nl/nijdjj
• Women Prefer Blogs/Facebook To Twitter http://twurl.nl/uxi06q
• Marketing Art Online: Promoting the Artist Site: A Guide to Five Simple Things to Do Now to Promote Art Online http://twurl.nl/sgmw1f
• Adidas Urban Art Guide to Berlin is an iPhone travel guide listing Berlin’s best graffiti. http://twurl.nl/4dggp2
• @ ArtistTaraReed Paul Brent License! Magazine’s Top 100 licensors for 2008 Estimated $67 million in art sales http://twurl.nl/8tv2bj
• Blues Festival Calendar 2009 Where to hear the best blues music this year http://twurl.nl/icinww
• RT What Is Twitter About in One Word? http://bit.ly/Ds6eC
• RT @rhdesign: Over 40 Beautiful Portfolios: http://tinyurl.com/ckm3tp Prepare to be inspired Web designs
• @NYTimes Genius: The Modern View - The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is ...practice http://twurl.nl/058lly 
• RT @annesart: @LesRinchen thanks! Great link: http://artistswhoblog.blogs
• Here's an interesting debate. Conceptual artist Scott Kildall is a troll, says Wikipedia founder http://twurl.nl/xrhaj2
• Thanks to @ArtCantHurtU for this: Small Business Survival - Market Online or Die - http://twurl.nl/wyv5ov
• Creative businesses get a marketing hand, Visual #artists add to the economy and help drive tourism http://twurl.nl/vqki22

Jack Vettriano Paints Sexiness, Establishes Heartbreak Publishing

The Temptress - Jack Vettriano

"Jack Vettriano is the nation's most successful living artist – his prints outselling the likes of Klimt and Monet. In a frank interview the 'people's painter' talks about his obsession with women of a certain type, why he felt he had to leave Scotland and his ongoing battle to be taken seriously" -

 

Anne Mackenzie in Scotland on Sunday, March 18, 2008

 

Jack Vettriano is more than Scotland's most successful living artist. He is one of the most successful living artists of his era. Sales of his most famous work, The Singing Butler, are reported to make it the best-selling print in the world.

 

As with virtually all visual artists who have enjoyed astronomical art print sales, Vettriano has the uncanny knack of communicating viscerally, emotionally and cerebrally with his collectors. There is no way to fabricate such a connection. It has to come instinctively from the artist.

 

I paint what moves me - sexiness

 

In an article titled, "I paint what moves me - sexiness - Jack Vettriano interview", and from which the opening quote is taken, the painter has this to say, "I could turn out an abstract painting for you but it wouldn't be coming from the heart. What I paint is what moves me." With the sales of his prints and licensing deals that move astonishing amounts of work, it is apparent what moves Vettriano also moves many consumers worldwide as well.

 

Jack Vettriano establishes new art publishing company, Heartbreak Publishing

 

In February 2009, Vettriano established his own publishing company where he is co-owner. It is appropriately named Heartbreak Publishing.Unlike the most typical pattern of many successful artists who go off to start their own solo publishing venture, Vettriano's business model was established to publish his works  and other artists, photographers and designers including: Johanna Basford, David Brayne, Michael Clark, Jacqui Denby, Paul Manousso and Fredi Marcarini. Given the degree of difficulty in launching any publishing business, it is a remarkable and commendable undertaking for Vettriano to cast his net and include other artists.

 

It seems unlikely to me Jack Vettriano plotted to make paintings that would tap the zeitgeist of a generation in such a way to sell incredible amounts of prints and simultaneously pull in a half million or more in USD for his originals. It seems equally unlikely any artist could successfully calculate and execute such a plan. As with great success in any of the arts, there has to be an intersection where talent, ambition, the ability to touch and influence buyers and a bit of luck all come together to produce it.

 

Talent of another sort is required to continually create new works that sell well

 

The trick is to not be a one-trick pony, but rather to continue to mine the mother-lode. That requires staying in tune with collector tastes and  keeping interest in continuing to create new interesting compelling images that reflect an artist's style, but which also show growth. I don't think there is an art school or a business school that can teach such skills. Some of it is inherent or instinctual, some of it comes from gaining business knowledge, some comes from being managed in a way that leverages the interest in the artist's work without overcooking it, but rather a steady simmer.

 

At the end of the day, no one can simply coach Vettriano or any other really successful artist to flatly follow some pre-disposed plan marketing plan to create success. That is well and good, but it takes more. The smart artists take clues from wherever they come. It can be from family, friends and rivals. It can be from business partners, the daily news or notes from collectors. However, ultimately when Vettriano or any other artist sit at the easel, it becomes a solitary task to wring an image from imagination and talent.

 

The desire to sit at the easel and work on the painting has to be compellingly strong. In Vettriano's case it pulled him away from an engineering career and a marriage. You see it over and over where the need to create is so compelling it is life altering. Under the right circumstances you get a Jack Vettriano, or maybe a Bruce Springsteen who reportedly wrote 1500 songs before breaking into the big time with his music career.

 

The best bait will not make the fish bite. They come on their own terms.

 

When the magic that is in a would be best-selling image is released to the public, it gets a life of its own. Yes, it can be expertly advertised, publicized and skillfully promoted, but if the fish aren't biting, no amount bait will bring them in. Vettriano is a perfect example of that notion that the most successful artists help us define ourselves, express ourselves and connect us in communal ways.

 

Jack Vettriano has proven the community that shares an interest in his work can be vast and be vastly profitable for him. It will be fun to observe the success of his new publishing venture boldly launched in a most financially disturbing time. I wish him well and hope his success helps keep the interest in the art print market strong for artists, dealers, retailers, consumers and other new publishers too.

Three Art Marketing & Art Publishing Links to Make You Think!

It goes without saying, there is a great amount of very good information for visual artists to be found on the Internet. That so many put forth the effort to share what they know is remarkable. These folks, all of whom have full lives, are to be commended for their efforts.

We'll start with post from Myron Arndt. He has been a publisher in the art print market for many years. Long enough to have observed the many twists and turns this market segment has taken. I'm sure he's like me and would not have predicted a few years back how much the open edition print market has changed. Undaunted, he provides some straightforward advice in his Art Business Thoughts blog post titled: 10 Simple Things Artists Should Know About Reproductions. As the title implies, the information is simple, but knowing and paying attention to it can make a big difference when you are gearing up for the print market.

The art market is full of terms that have multiple meanings. For instance, ask 10 people what is a print and you get my drift. This next link, Getting Your Artwork Published, is from gifted pen of Lori Woodward Simons. Now, when I hear getting art published, I go straight to thinking about someone like Myron Arndt at his Island Art Publishers taking on an artist's work.

Not so fast, Lori's article is all about getting your work published in a print magazine. The same term takes a different meaning under her tutelage. Her article, published on Clint Watson's splendid Fine Art Views blog, where she is a regular contributor, gives great insight borne from years of her personal experience and observation.

I've long been a proponent of getting publicity wherever possible. Lori's advice on how to go about it should be must reading for any artist seeking to get wider exposure via traditional media. Good publicity is worth its weight in gold. You just can't buy the credibility that comes with the strong implied third-party endorsement of a well placed media piece.

Now that you have some ideas for making prints and how to go about getting recognition for your work, you need some ideas on how to get it to market. Who better to give you a unique twist, one you probably haven't given much thought, than Alyson Stanfield, in her Art Marketing Action newsletter? Recently, she published a piece titled, Get People to Sell Your Art for You. The article has great ideas and links to dig further into affiliate marketing.

True to form, after hearing from her readers, she followed up with more thoughts in her Art Biz Blog to offer more clarity on the subject. You can read Is Affiliate Marketing for You? there. It asks and answers the questions about whether such marketing techniques are useful for everyone. The answer, is of course, no. As with any serious undertaking, you have to judge your fitness and desire to take on projects no matter how promising they seem. One thing is for certain, getting good solid advice from art industry veterans such as the fine folks featured here can only help your cause.