Art Print Issues by Barney Davey

Digital Artists & Fine Art Photographers: Are You Making Convergent Media?

Digital Artists and Fine Art Photographers Should Be Using Convergent Media.

Convergent Media is a term I coined in 2007 for Digital Artists. 

 Digital artists and fine art photographers were in attendance when I recently spoke at art business webinars, art marketing panels and podcasts. During those talks, I mentioned why I believe "Convergent Media" is a great term for them to use. 

It Was a Busy Week Talking About Art Marketing and Art Business

My first activity was as a panelist for the 2012 smARTist Telesummit last Thursday. Tuesday this week was very busy. In the morning, I presented my “Boost Your Art Career: Using Publicity, Promotion & Power of Self-Belief to Leverage Your Success” webinar for smARTist attendees.

Download an Informative Art Marketing & Art Business Podcast for FREE

Later that day, I took part in an “Art Marketing & Art Business Podcast” with Jason Horejs. He is the owner of Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, author of "Starving" to Successful: The Fine Artist's Guide to Getting Into Galleries and Selling More Art, (A must read for any artist),and a prolific blogger.  Jason has done more than 100 live workshops designed to help artists learn the insider secrets for getting into galleries. 

More than once when presenting, I suggested using "Convergent Media" to my listeners, who included digital artists, and fine art photographers. The idea is to use “Convergent Media” as a functional term that accurately describes works made using digital technology and printing. I came up with the idea for the term in a 2007 Art Print Issues, "Convergent Media - Is It Time to Bury Digital Art?" blog post. It was a response to a question from a digital painter who was seeking help to describe her work that was not made up marketing hype, and still succinctly descriptive. 

Have You Charted the Steps to Create a Finished Digital Fine Art Piece?

As I thought about the process that is involved in creating a finished creation of digital art, I envisioned the numerous steps to get a piece ready to market. Of course, a fine art photographer, who does not significantly alter the original image, will most likely not want to classify the work as other than fine art photography.

However, digital artists and those fine art photographers who also use advanced Photoshop, digital painting, and other methods to complete a work  are prime candidates for using a term such as “Convergent Media". I think digital artists, photographers and painters will find the term particularly useful.

The “Convergent Media” process runs the technology gamut, including considering a digital fine art print is calibrated, and put through a digital printer to complete the work.  Because of the many steps and processes involved, I was reminded of the well-used art term of “Mixed Media.”

In mixed media, artists use different techniques, artifacts, surfaces and processes to come up with a final piece of art. It struck me digital artists use a similar process that mainly involves digital technology, but might also include hand embellishments or treatments to the printed piece, before it is offered for sale.

I trust this term will help you in describing and marketing your own digitally created works of art. I have a couple of other blog posts, including a guest post on Absolute Arts, covering the idea of using “Convergent Media” in more detail You can read them on these links:

• Convergent Media - Stretching the Imagination
• Convergent Media - Is It Time to Bury Digital Art?
• Brave New Digital World

If You Dig What You Get Here, Please Do Me a Big, Easy Favor.

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Subscribe to Stay Tuned to Art Marketing Ideas

You can keep up on useful, practical, informative ideas like Convergent Media, and stay informed of other podcasts and webinars by subscribing to my blog here.

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2012 smARTist Telesummit Early Bird Closes Friday, Jan 6

Tomorrow is the last day to save $60 on the smARTist Early Bird Special

Get Your Free Download Link Here

If you missed the call with smARTist founder and creative force, Ariane Goodwin, and me, you can listen to it now. Use this link to download the mp3 file:

http://smartist.com/live-telesummit/barney-ariane-recording/

To listen will be worth your time whether you join this year's telesummit. We ran over the hour and could have kept going for another hour or two.

This annual art career and art marketing workshop event has been used by thousands of artists to help them propel their art careers to new levels of success. If you are looking for a way to jump start your art business next year, the smARTist Telesummit is for you!

smARTist Telesummit Is So Successful...

With good reason and with great results. Founder, Ariane Goodwin, has powered and promoted the smARTist Telesummit to make it the best and longest running annual art marketing workshop and art business event. She achieves this with passion, savvy, and the most giant artist's advocate heart you can imagine. When you pack those attributes with solid business savvy, you get great results!

The 2012 SmARTist Telesummit theme perfectly defines why this art marketing workshop works so well:

Connection. Communication. Confidence.
When you know how to connect with collectors and communicate with confidence, you get more sales—every time.

Speakers and Their Information Are the Heart of the Matter, and Why You'll Succeed.

As always, the lineup of speakers represents an eclectic group of entrepreneurship, art marketing and art career training experts. You can expect to learn a host of new ideas and be motivated to personalize them and put them to work on your art business

There is no obligation, just go to the smARTist site and enter your email address to be added to the  Interest list. The names on the list will get priority notification when the registration starts.

Check Out the 2012 smARTIST Telesummit Speaker Lineup!

One glance shows some of the top art marketing minds in the business are presenting. I am back with an all new topic aimed to help ambitious and intelligent visual artists like you enjoy great success in 2012.

1 - Eden Maxwell - Define and Establish Your Value as an Artist with Three Key Questions

2 - Maria Brophy – Putting deals together; A totally out of the box use of creativity!

3 - Barney Davey – Marketing Art in the Digital World; Embracing Change and Using What You've Got to Get Ahead.

4 – Alyson Stanfield – Unforgettable: 6 Actions to Guarantee Collectors Remember You

5 – Denise Wakeman – Blogging for Visual Artists

6 - Jack White – Making and Keeping Collectors for a Lifetime

7 - Deborah Ivanoff, Ph.D. - Reclaim Your Confidence

8 - Corinne Cain - Looking Back : 7 Key Lessons from Dead Artists (Art Career Tips From an Appraiser’s Point of View)

9 - Lori Woodward - How Artists Are Making $$ Right Now!

10- Eden Maxwell – WRAP UP: Define and Establish Your Value as an Artist with Three Key Questions

 Sign Up Today to Save $60 on the 2012 smARTist Telesummit

It is the only way you will have to take advantage of the big discount Early Bird Special. I'm eager to present my information, and to see you there!

 

How to Sell More Art Using Persuasion

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Free Webinar: How to Win Buyers and Influence Collectors

On Thursday, January 5, 2012, I’m going to be hosting Ariane Goodwin, Ed.D., the founder and host of the only professional development conference for visual artists, the smARTist Telesummit 2012.

She and I will be talking about: When You Know How To Communicate with Total Confidence to the Right Buyers and Collectors You Can Sell More Art.

 Sign up now for this free call with me and Ariane.  Thursday, January 5, 2012 - 7pm ET / 4pm PT
Click here -> http://smartist.com/live-telesummit/barney-ariane/

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Sell More Art in 2012!

If selling more art appeals to you, then this blog post will help you. It is about using the art of persuasion to sell more art.

Before we get started, let me say Happy New Year to you! Please accept my best wishes for making the New Year the most healthy, happy, productive and prosperous possible! My fondest wish is for you to sell more art and enjoy tremendous success doing so in 2012.

No Year-end Predictions or Lists Here

At this time of year, you find all kinds of predictions, reviews, lists and resolutions. It is human nature to want to create lists, and lists make writing copy easy. I rarely get anything useful from reading them, and I never make New Year's resolutions. My take is if something is most important then I should not wait for some artificial date to get started making changes.

The business of selling art has undergone many changes in recent years, just as how we interact with all kinds of businesses. We are witnessing changes coming at the fastest pace ever seen. And, for the most part, we are adapting remarkably well to them.

The quicker we accept new ways of doing things, the more the status quo for the old way of doing things gets out of whack. Bankruptcy and downsizing at K-Mart/Sears and the United States Postal Services are recent examples of how changes have disrupted traditional, old school businesses.

Everything Is Different and We're Not Going Back

On a smaller scale, art galleries and art publishers are feeling the pinch of change on their business models. The art trade media and art tradeshow businesses that flourished less than a decade ago are near extinction. As a result, the rules for artists who want to continue to sell more art have changed.

The buzz on social media is so incessant it is sometimes nauseates me. Honestly, there are times I just feel like canceling or just taking a long hiatus from Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn. It just seems like all sizzle and no steak for many users trying to harness these platforms for business.

Is Social Media All It's Cracked Up to Be?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not going to jump ship on social media, but I am reevaluating how I will continue to use it going forward. That’s not a New Year’s resolution; it is a growing awareness of my limited time and my determination to follow the mandate of one of my heroes, Steven Covey, who says, “Keep the main thing the main thing.”

ROI vs. Profits - It Pays to Know the Difference

You hear talk about Return on Investment, or ROI on social media. That is wrong thinking from my perspective. The way to look at any kind of marketing is to ask if it is profitable. Do you put money in the bank after time and expenses? Can you steadily repeat the same effect? If so, you have a winner. If you are not sure, or you are not generating profits from social media, or other marketing for that matter, then cut bait and look for better spots to fish.

I know there are some artists who are doing well using social media. Going back to the painting-a-day blog, there are those who are able to harness the power of something and then spend considerable energy and creativity to produce outstanding results. Certainly, there are numerous examples of artists using Twitter, Facebook, or other social media to generate sales. But, they are the exception rather than the norm.

Dance with the One Who Brung Ya!

The country saying in the header above applies to artists marketing today. What I see happening is artists are spending more time using social media at the cost of doing other things that are potentially much more rewarding.

If you need to set a goal or a resolution for next year, my advice would be to visualize where you want your art business to be in one year, five years and ten years. Honestly assess your resources, and where you are now, and then set realistic achievable goals based on the assessment. Of course, you will need to review and revise as you go along.

Word-of-mouth Cannot Be Beat - Use It As Often As You Can

The most powerful form of marketing remains word-of-mouth. The unsolicited testimonial from someone you trust, or just know, carries impact and influence that will help you sell art. Despite multi-million dollar marketing budgets, it is word-of-mouth that feeds the success of motion pictures. If you diss the new Sherlock Holmes movie, it will probably cause me to not go, or review my hunch I want to see the film.

This same dynamic works for selling art. If someone tells someone they suggest an artist’s work, it is going to bring more influence on the decision than anything you as an artist can do on your own to market to that person.

If you have read The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell, you know he describes certain individuals as connectors and mavens. Whether you are aware of it or not, you know some of these people, or you know of them. They are the ones you want to persuade in 2012, and it not likely to happen on Facebook or Twitter.

I have written previous posts here about The Power of Believing in Yourself and how to use Six Degrees of Separation to get to the people most capable of helping you further your career. You can use your own determination, persistence and charm to plow through getting to the right people, but if you sweeten the deal, you will get better results.

The Norm of Reciprocity

Researchers have found, and your own intuition would tell you the same, that we are most likely to repay others for favors they have done for us. This phenomenon is called “the norm of reciprocity”.

So if you can do a favor of some sort for those who you target to ask for help in furthering your art career, then you will have conditioned them to react positively to your request.

In a two-part post, fine art photographer, Andrew Darlow, provided some practical ideas on easy affordable ways to use art cards and small prints to promote your art business. Check them because they tie-in perfectly with what I am telling you now:

• Five Ways to Use Affordable Prints to Profitably Promote Your Work
• Five More Specific Ways to Use Affordable Prints to Promote Your Work and Earn Income

Some last thoughts are to take the time to figure out where you are headed with your career. Find out who can best help you achieve your career goals and target them intelligently. Work on these goals for next year, even at the expense of social media and you will enjoy great results.

Finally, a borrowed thought from AdWords guru, Perry Marshall. This is so important and right in line with keeping the main thing the main thing. Learn how to quit pursuing and being distracted by $10 an hour ideas, or even $100 an hour ideas.

Focus instead on those things that can make you $1000 or more dollars an hour. If you don’t think that is possible, then you have abundance blocks you may need to work on. Certainly, if you don’t deem yourself worthy, no one else will either. I have complete faith that if you diligently and intelligently pursue achievable goals that I will see you at the top.

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays & Best Wishes for 2012

Peace On Earth!

 Joy to the World ~ Joy to You

May the New Year bring you joy and prosperity.

While there are obvious difficulties each of us face—some are personal, others related to things we can't control—there are reasons to be optimistic and hopeful for 2012. We are seeing a mild upturn in economic news, the Christmas shopping season is looking good, the War in Iraq is over, and most of all, visual artists continue to find new ways to get their work sold.

Bring Back the Good Old Days

Many of us pine for the good old days when things were simpler. But, simplicity aside, it always was a tough row to hoe to become a successful artist. Straight up, it was never easy. What's different now is artists are not dependent on a gallery distribution system to get their work sold. Many still effectively use galleries, but they also are supplementing their sales by including some form of direct sales.

These Are the Good Old Days

Previously, it was nearly impossible for a single artist to amass a large mailing or emailing list of potential collectors. The degree of difficulty and the associated costs were too great for visual artists to handle, especially emerging artists.

Your Gifts from the 21st Century Are Modern Marketing Tools

Affordable websites, blogs, social media and e-commerce solutions have taken marketing art and made it the equivalent of print-on-demand printing technology. No one has to bet the farm on whether they get it right or not these days. You don't have to eat huge inventory costs of prints that don't sell. And for instance, you don't have to spends thousands on trade magazines and tradeshows to gain awareness for your art. Those are still useful marketing vehicles, but not as potent as in the past.

You Will Hear from Me About Marketing in the Digital Age in 2012.

Putney Painters Week - Scottsdale Artist's School.

If you are in Scottsdale this January, I'm speaking at the Putney Painters Week

Date: January 16, 2012 - January 20, 2012 ♦ Location: Scottsdale Artists School and Legacy Gallery

"Outside the Box" Art Marketing Seminar with Lori Woodward and special guest speakers.  Difficult times call for different approaches to selling artwork.  Join Lori, along with guest speakers Jason Horejs and Barney Davey as they present both traditional, as well as unconventional ways artists are actually making a living in today's economy. January 19-20, Thursday and Friday, 9am - 4pm.  $200 for 2 days - In studio at SAS.

2012 smARTist Telesummit

For the third year, I'm back with new ideas to present at the 2012 smARTist Telesummit. This year's lineup of speakers is jam-packed with entrepreneurship, art marketing and art career training experts.

My presentation is:

Marketing Art in the Digital World; Embracing Change and Using What You've Got to Get Ahead. 

For a complete list of speakers, see my blog post about the 2012 smARTist Telesummit. Sign up now to get on the no-obligation Interest List. It's the only way to be advised of the Early Bird Discount.

Last Call for Alyson Stanfield's Art Biz Coach Santa Sale.

Monday, December 19 is the last day to get in on Alyson's fabulous Santa Sale.

When you buy her book she throws in six extra goodies. These bonuses offer value and insights you can use to help you market more effectively in 2012. They make this one heck of a deal!

I should know, one of them is mine. It's my new unreleased How to Sell Art, Make Money and Be Happy – Essays on the Essence of Art Business Success e-book.

Click Here to Order Your Copy

smARTist Telesummit 2012 - Art Career Booster

The 2012 smARTist Telesummit Is Just Around the Corner.

Sign Up for the No Obligation Interest List to Get the Early Bird Offer

This annual art career and art marketing workshop event has been used by thousands of artists to help them propel their art careers to new levels of success. If you are looking for a way to jump start your art business next year, the smARTist Telesummit is for you!

smARTist Telesummit Is So Successful...

With good reason and with great results. Founder, Ariane Goodwin, has powered and promoted the smARTist Telesummit to make it the best and longest running annual art marketing workshop and art business event. She achieves this with passion, savvy, and the most giant artist's advocate heart you can imagine. When you pack those attributes with solid business savvy, you get great results!

The 2012 SmARTist Telesummit theme perfectly defines why this art marketing workshop works so well:

Connection. Communication. Confidence.
When you know how to connect with collectors and communicate with confidence, you get more sales—every time.

Speakers and Their Information Are the Heart of the Matter, and Why You'll Succeed.

As always, the lineup of speakers represents an eclectic group of entrepreneurship, art marketing and art career training experts. You can expect to learn a host of new ideas and be motivated to personalize them and put them to work on your art business

There is no obligation, just go to the smARTist site and enter your email address to be added to the  Interest list. The names on the list will get priority notification when the registration starts.

Check Out the 2012 smARTIST Telesummit Speaker Lineup!

One glance shows some of the top art marketing minds in the business are presenting. I am back with an all new topic aimed to help ambitious and intelligent visual artists like you enjoy great success in 2012.

1 - Eden Maxwell - Define and Establish Your Value as an Artist with Three Key Questions

2 - Maria Brophy – Putting deals together; A totally out of the box use of creativity!

3 - Barney Davey – Marketing Art in the Digital World; Embracing Change and Using What You've Got to Get Ahead.

4 – Alyson Stanfield – Unforgettable: 6 Actions to Guarantee Collectors Remember You

5 – Denise Wakeman – Blogging for Visual Artists

6 - Jack White – Making and Keeping Collectors for a Lifetime

7 - Deborah Ivanoff, Ph.D. - Reclaim Your Confidence

8 - Corinne Cain - Looking Back : 7 Key Lessons from Dead Artists (Art Career Tips From an Appraiser’s Point of View)

9 - Lori Woodward - How Artists Are Making $$ Right Now!

10- Eden Maxwell – WRAP UP: Define and Establish Your Value as an Artist with Three Key Questions

 Sign Up Today to Get on the smARTist 2012 Interest List.

It is the only way you will have to take advantage of the big discount Early Bird Special. I'm eager to present my information, and to see you there!

 

 

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Digital Artists - Discover New Ways to Create Print Sales Opportunities

Want to sell more giclees and fine art prints of your work?

If you don't see the You Tube video above, here is the link: http://youtu.be/Hhp8Vp33fvM

Join me on Tuesday, June 28th for an art print marketing webinar.

The 2-hour program is packed with useful practical information designed to boost your career. It will run at 7 pm Central Daylight Time.  Click here to register now. There is limited seating, act now to claim your spot.

My friend and colleague, Tim O'Neill, contacted me about producing a webinar on selling digital paintings in the art print market. He is a wonderful supporter of digital artists and quite successful as one on his own. He is the publisher of Digital Paint Magazine and also operates the Digital Art Academy. His suggestion hit home with me as a great idea and I readily agreed.

I hope you can join and use the information provided to boost your giclee and fine art print sales.

Click Here to Register today!

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How to Sell Art, Make Money and Be Happy

If you can learn to sell your art at regularly increasing prices, consistently make more money and be happy with the results that would make a great art career. 

We all know the amount of money we make is not the real reason for our true happiness.

It is natural to conclude if you sell enough art your earnings will make you happy.  Certainly, selling art regularly makes life pleasant. And, undoubtedly, when the stress of worrying about money is relieved, it is easier to be happy. There is just more to it than sitting on a pile of dough. Money can just as easily be the cause of problems.

“Money won’t buy you happiness, but it will help you look for it in lots of places.”

There are many artists who have modest means, modest sales and who enjoy a high happiness quotient. They are the ones who have achieved balance where making art and selling art both provide pleasure.

It is undeniable there is so much more to being happy than being successful in an art career. Health, family, friends, faith spirituality and sense of purpose all contribute. Nevertheless, for visual artists, there is no getting around if your goal is to live a comfortable life based on the fruits of your creative artistic endeavor, then you must be able to effectively sell your artwork.

I have extensively written about how to sell art here. Some of the most popular posts are:

• How to Sell Art: Use the Five "C"s for Success
• How to Sell Art with No Fear
• Shhh! How to Sell Art with Silence
• How to Sell Art Prints - a reader question answered
• Seven Great Ways to Sell More Art

These days, selling art is different than in the past. For sure, the traditional means of getting work to market through galleries, dealers and consumer shows remains a staple for many career artists. However, print-on-demand technology (POD), social media, email marketing, e-commerce, changing consumer buying habits, and other factors have changed the rules and opened the door for artists to directly sell work to their collectors.

New Rules Create New Opportunities

These new rules apply to musicians and authors. My book, How to Profit from the Art Print Market – 2nd Edition, is a result of POD availability in the book market. The similarities in selling a POD book and selling giclees helps me walk the same path as artists who read this blog. I sell direct, and am listed on all the electronic bookseller sites. That compares to an artist selling directly from his or her website and blog and also listing on sites such Zazzle, Fine Art America, ImageKind, Etsy, et cetera.

These days, authors like me who have a message and an audience to deliver can totally bypass the traditional book publisher means of getting work to interested buyers. Musicians can create their own CDs, sell them on the road, via Facebook and MySpace and cut out the recording companies.

Sell less art, make more money is totally possible with POD and Web 2.0

The upshot of the convergence of POD technology and Web 2.0 phenomena, such as Facebook, means artists can sell for the same price to far fewer buyers and still make a substantial income from the effort. In my case, I make considerably more on each book sold than I would if I were getting a royalty from a publisher. I can't imagine an offer a publisher could make me to publish this book that would entice me.

Traditional means to get your work to market are the best in certain circumstances

Don’t get me wrong; with the right book and right deal, I would be all over working with a publisher. When it comes to the mass market, they still are the preferred path. But, with the narrow focus of interest my book has, and the relatively paltry royalties publishers can afford to pay, it makes no sense for me to have publisher in the mix.

Working with galleries remains a viable choice for many artists, just not exclusively

It is only in recent time with the advent of above mentioned developments that it is possible for creative people to take their work directly to the buyer. In a series of blog posts last year, artist and blogger extraordinaire, Lori McNee, and I explored whether artists should sell direct, work with galleries, or do some combination of both.

We each came to the conclusion that the best course for most artists was to find the balance and strive to do both. We came to that conclusion independently without debating before we started the series. Here are links to the my posts in the series:

• Visual Artist’s Challenge: Should I Work with Galleries, Go Direct to Collectors or Both?
• More Thoughts on Artists and Galleries Working Together
• The Art of Self-promotion for Visual Artists

Artists should make controlling direct distribution of the their work a top priority

However, the ways things are these days, it is my strongly held conviction that artists should seek to control as much direct distribution of their work as possible. In the end, the artist is only person he or she can fully rely upon to carry their water. And, if you grow your own viable list of interested collectors, you put yourself in strong bargaining positions with galleries and dealer who might want to work with you.

It’s a far different thing to say come into a negotiation being able to say I can help you sell my work versus I hope you have everything you need to sell my work. What a relief it is to know you are not desperate to make the connection. That is a huge byproduct being in control of the distribution of your artwork.

The resources for artists to learn how to sell and make more money are abundant

The good news is besides the wonderful array of tools to help you sell your work, there also is an abundance of help from a stellar lineup of artist advocates who offer a steady stream of great ideas, information and inspiration. Your success is there for you to take and to make. These include:

• Jason Horejs, author of 'Starving to Successful: The Fine Artist's Guide to Getting into Galleries
• Alyson Stanfield, author of I'd Rather Be in the Studio
• Ariane Goodwin, founder and organizer of the long-running smARTist Telesummit
• Tara Reed, author of How to Be a Press Friendly Artist and numerous other helpful books, article and courses on succeeding in the print market
• Tamra Fleming, founder and coordinator of the Creative Souls Telesummit

Of course, these are just a few of the talented and hard working artists advocates. Folks who by and large could make more money working in other fields, but who have chosen to help artists instead. I'm sure there is a happiness quotient at work here, too.

Success Is Personal - So Is Happiness

I believe success is personal. There is no one universal description of it and the same is true of happiness. It is strictly your choice. When you achieve it, which you will if you plan and execute like you truly want it, you will find happiness is the fine residue of the hard work you put in to accomplish your goals.

I wish I could tell you how to be happy, but it is too personal. Your definition is going to be as unique as your personality and your art. You will know it when you have it, and without question, enjoying success in your art career is a big step towards achieving it.

There are a few spots left for the Catch a Star - How to Sell Fine Art Giclee Prints Webinar

You can’t learn how to sell art, make money and be successful by reading a single blog post, but you can get a serious jump on creating success in the giclee print market when you participate in one of my upcoming two-hour Catch a Star - How to Sell Fine Art Giclee Prints - Art Career Webinar. Seating is limited, there are some spots left, act now to reserve yours.

The dates and times are:

•    Tuesday, May 24, 4 – 6 pm (Pacific Daylight Time) 
•    Saturday, May 28, 9 – 11 am (Pacific Daylight Time)

The price is only $24.95 and will include handouts from the presentation, including dozens of resource links to help you research your next moves. My guarantee is I will do my best to help you learn how to sell more art, make more money and will leave the finding happiness to your own making.

Click here to register now!

How to Sell Fine Art Giclee Prints - An Art Career Success Webinar

Art Print Market Expert Barney Davey Presents a Live Art Print Career Webinar Sponsored by Xanadu Gallery

As a visual artist, you can learn to successfully create and sell reproductions of your original artwork as fine art giclee prints on canvas, paper, and other digital art print substrates.

The plentiful benefits for visual artists who create a successful art print market career include:

• Increased awareness for you and your work.
• Getting paid multiple times from the your original artwork.
• Diversifying your price points.
• Broadening your product line.
• Gaining entry to the lucrative licensing field.
• Selling art into the home furnishing, hospitality, corporate and healthcare markets.

Is Good the New Great in the Art Business?

It seems not that long ago things in the art print market were booming. Housing was going through the roof, consumers were lavishly spending like drunk sailors, using the artificially inflated equity in their homes like ATMs with an endless balance.

When you get drunk, the price you pay is a hangover.

This economy we are in now is the massive hangover we are now suffering due to believing things were different and there was no end in sight to the good times ahead. The art print market was in a great position to take advantage of the upbeat and free spending economy. It was a good time while the party lasted.

It's not all bad news for the art business

There have been recent positive signs on jobs and spending and housing. The numbers have turned positive but not with the same bounce we have seen in past recoveries.

Companies like Go Daddy, the a leading Web hosting provider and domain name registrar, now employs more than 3,000 people and is looking to hire at least 350 more in the weeks ahead. If people weren't feeling good about their outlook, they wouldn't be spending on the basic tools of starting a business, which include a domain name, email address and website -- just the products Go Daddy provides.

Many of us are still suffering too much to take much solace in hearing positive numbers. We can still see empty houses in just about every neighborhood. We are reluctant to buy in too quickly on any prognostications about coming good times. So, for many consumers it is more a minor relief to realize the numbers we are seeing now are more of sign of the bleeding having stopped than they are the patient is recovered. It's not a reason to jump for joy.

We spend less, so do art collectors

So now with a more sober eye, we tend to be more conservative with our purchases for our businesses and for ourselves. Although we have relaxed our personal tight money policy to a degree, we are far from going back to our free spending ways.

Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads, one of my advertising guru heroes, recently published in his weekly Monday Morning Memo a piece titled, How I Know the Recession Is Over. He bases his claim on reports from his elite advertising clientele, which chiefly consists of well-run small businesses. They have been reporting things turned up in the last quarter and are continuing to go that route.

Williams is convinced his feedback is an accurate predictor we have turned the corner and are heading for better days. I hope he's right. I trust he's right. While I won't bet against his outlook, the recent past has taught me to be more cautious when it comes to making moves that require a heavy investment. I'm not against such ideas, I just believe they need to be well researched and solid on every front before moving on.

Is good the new great?

I recently read the quote, "Is good the new great?" It is attributed to Greg Bloch, owner of Triad Art Group. Bloch built his art print publishing company into a marketing power house to publish and promote the work of Spanish artist Royo, and now others.

What he was able to do with his marketing savvy in quickly building a multi-million dollar art print marketing business with a very small group of employees and a single terrific artist was fantastic. His success embodied the greatness of the times in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As such, it is fitting he would come up with a phrase that adroitly captures the essence of our times.

Half the people you know are below average - comic Steven Wright

Sometimes it takes a comic like Steven Wright with his ironic philosophical twist on things to get us to pause long enough to question what is going on with our lives and careers. Wright's simple funny, biting and all too true statement is a perfect example.

If you stop to think about it, the world is full of ordinary people who consider themselves average, which is good in this regard. While as rocker Tom Petty once mused, "It's Good to Be King," society would not function were we all kings and queens. However, for an artist to seek to be average, it's a prescription for career disaster. Not if that artist desires to build a substantial body of work owned and appreciated by collectors on a large scale.

This is the wrong time to be an average artist

If you believe good is the new great, then you must also realize this is the wrong time to be average, or worse, below average. It is more important for us now more than ever to perform an honest self-assessment of our strengths and resources. It can sometimes be difficult to get a grip on where we stand when it comes to how good is the work. But, however you do it, if you get an accurate assessment of your situation, you can begin to work on an authentic plan to move your career.

Even the term good is arbitrary. Are we talking technical merit or commercial value or some intrinsic, yet intangible value. In terms of making a career in the print market, you have to have a grip on the commercial appeal of the work. If you have studied the market, you are fully aware some of the best known names are not the most gifted artists. This is true in other areas of the arts. No one would argue that Madonna is the best vocalist of her era. Yet, despite average vocal talent, she has remained a dominant force on the music scene in a decades long career.

It's quite easy to think we are better than we are about almost anything subjectively judged.

To some extent, each of us practices self-deception. Perhaps it's a coping mechanism that helps keep us from feeling or sensing too deeply harsh reality. It comes down not what, or not to where, but to who. Or, more personally put, it's down to you.

If you think Greg Bloch's quote, "Good is the new great" through, then you have to consider if good is the new great, then what the heck is the new good? For anyone trying to move forward and upward with an art career, anything less than good, as in great according this post, just won't work.

Introspection, investigation and planning are in order

Figure out what makes you unique. It might not be your look, your style or your genre. It more likely is something intrinsic. When you find it, without question, it will be your ability to tap your ambition that drives your uniqueness to new heights. Madonna took average singing and dancing skills and combined them with a compelling personality and an ambition as big as any celebrity of her generation. 

Stirring your ambition in equal parts to your imagination is the key

I'm sure anyone reading this has zero ambition to become an internationally successful pop music star. Nevertheless, there is no reason why you can't take clues from what Madonna did to build her career. Smart choices on her music, a willingness to shock her fans and the public, and the restless spirit to keep reinventing herself.

You don't have to use such a polarizing person as Madonna to investigate for how to take your career to new heights. There are plenty of examples you can use in the art world to help you ratchet up your art business.

New art print marketing webinart showcases successful print artists

You can find a bunch of them profiled in my just released, available free for a limited time only, webinart titled, "Harnessing the Art Print Market - Catch a Star." I put it together for Digital Arts Studio, the premier giclee printer in Atlanta. It is part of the benefits of being a sponsor of the recently released second edition of my How to Profit from the Art Print Market book. Check it out and comment below after you do. It will help me do my own assessment of my work.

Free Art Print Marketing Webinar: Success Stories,Trends & Visions

Digital Arts Studio is a premier giclee printer in Atlanta, GA. If you are seeking a digital fine art printing company to handle your work, you would be hard pressed to find a better operation.

DAS is remarkably devoted to helping its artists succeed, as evidenced by both its physical gallery and online Fine Art Marketplace showcase. 

DAS also is an advertising sponsor in my recently published second edition of How to Profit from the Art Print Market book and of the new GicleeBusiness.com directory. It provides free and paid listings of giclee printers and fine art market business resources.

Free Webinar Courtesy of Digital Arts Studio

One of the book sponsor benefits package is an Exclusive Free Webinar on a topic of the advertiser's choosing. DAS wanted its customers to learn more about "Success Stories, Trends & Vision in the Art Print Market."

Here is the copy from its promotional email for the webinar:

For those of you fortunate enough to have participated in the standing room only live presentation by Barney a couple years back at Digital Arts Studio, you know that his practical advice for artists is indispensable. This webinar will discuss what happens when his advice is implemented to advance your art career, highlighting true-to-life success stories, industry trends and the future of the art print market.

Limited seating still available

Although space is limited, there currently is some additional limited capacity, DAS has graciously offered to open the webinar on a first-come first-served basis to Art Print Issues readers. Seating is limited, so you will need to act now to grab a spot for the webinar. It will take place on Monday, April 4 at 8:00 pm Eastern time - 5:00 pm Pacific time.

I am excited about the presentation and hope to see you there.

YOU MUST RSVP to secure a spot in the webinar. Use this link to request your space with DAS. Or, your can use the DAS Contact page to request your spot. Once you are accepted, you will receive an email with the call-in number and login ID. The call-in number is local, so you may incur long distance charges.