Colleen Attara

This is the first installment in The Artists Who THRIVE Profile Series.

As I mention in this recording I’m often wondering what to write about next and I’m often focused on business and marketing challenges facing artists.

So I decided to switch my focus, and my medium, to a recorded interview with a thriving artist who I coached, Colleen Attara. Colleen deserves all the credit for her success.  I was only there for a relatively short time to help her build a road map towards her goal and to teach her ways to avoid some of my very expensive lessons.

Colleen is a full time artist with a new scenic studio that she’s always dreamed of, six galleries represent her, and she regularly receives private commissions.  Colleen’s current focus is a significant large-scale commission for 90 foot wall in an innovative new hospital.

Listen to Colleen’s focus and confidence.  She’s developed this by taking planned action.

On the other hand, my artist clients who have clear goals, and updated action plans, who are working their plan every day, don’t complain.  They don’t fret.

Why is this?  I believe that if we give our mind time and space to drift, it will.  And when there’s work to be done, and we are avoiding it, or we don’t know how to tackle it, our minds will often drift into a very dark space. And then, “As you think, so shall you become.”

My artist clients who are focused have a system in place to keep themselves focused.  They have a road map. And they follow this map yet remain flexible and constantly adjust their course.  But they always know where they are going.

How do we construct that road map?  First you have to know where you are going.  And then you define a SMART goal, specific, measurable, attainable, results oriented, and timely.  Then we outline what milestones must be met in order to attain that specific goal.  Then we define what action steps must be taken, and resources secured, to meet each milestone.

It’s all very systematic, a blend of right and left brain thinking.  And a big part of my coaching is just teaching this system so that they can continue to use it long after I’m gone.

I’ve drawn on my project management experience when I was a corporate cubicle dweller.  As much as I hated it, project management has served me well and now it helps my artist clients get things done and become successful too.

Creating a road map towards your goals breaks down what can seem like an insurmountable task to degrees that are manageable on a daily basis. And not so scary after all.

“Why should I have an eCommerce site? Can’t I just have a website to showcase my art?”

So, at the risk of boring some folks, let me just break it down.  Because I too had to learn this lesson.

If you are only interested in showing your work online, then by all means, just have a website.

But if you are interested in selling your work online, in this decade, you need an eCommerce solution.

Let me offer this analogy: what if you walked into a lovely store and you found something that you really wanted to buy.  It spoke to you. It inspired you. You just had to have it.  That’s how art collectors feel when they collect.

But you couldn’t buy it because they just don’t have a cash register in the store.

So a sign might say, call this number.  “Huh?  I don’t want to call that number.  I want to buy this now!  While I’m feeling it.”  Or… “it’s late, I can’t call that number now.”

That’s the kind of obstacle you are throwing your potential online collectors when you show your work on your website.  An art collector’s expectations are the same whether they are online or offline.

Art is most often an impulse buy.  You only have a narrow window to capture these sales.  So don’t make it hard on prospects.

Another online fumble is when an artist proudly displays their work, and yet they mark it as “sold.”

“What?  Why are you showing me this?  Do you want to prove to me that you have sold your art?”

Better to have an archive section for items that are no longer available for sale, because “I’m a collector.  I’m here because I want to know what I can collect from you, not what I can’t.”

eCommerce solutions range drastically in price, quality, and dependability.  But if you get the right solution, and your work is marketable,  it will pay for itself many times over by  generating additional income.

To learn more about the ArtistsWhoTHRIVE eCommerce solution, click here.

Andy Warhol

In 2009, sales on annrea.com grew to 27% of overall sales.  And this percentage is steadily growing.

If I did not have an ecommerce site who knows how many sales I would have missed?!  27%?  Maybe.  Probably more.

What is the difference between an ecommerce site and a website?

An ecommerce contains the functionality that captures payments online, a website does not.  This functionality is called a “shopping cart.”  If you know this, great.  Many don’t.
Why shouldn’t artists just have a website?

A website cannot capture sales.  So if a website is all you have then you could be missing very significant opportunities to increase your revenue.  The question is “Do you want to show your work, or do you want to sell your work?”

Why does an artist need an ecommerce solution?

Working as an artist is an ambitious endeavor. Selling art online simply makes it easier.

Online sales are the easiest sales because you:

1. keep all the money
2. don’t even have to be present or awake to receive orders
3. orders  can come from all over the world day and night
4. And you can process and ship these orders from the convenience of your home or studio when you choose.

More and more sales are shifting online.  The Internet gives artists, in particular, a distinct advantage to reach an exponentially larger audience than they ever could have before by just exhibiting in galleries or at shows.

You can be at an art fair or an exhibition and sell the art that you don’t even have on display by using your smart phone or iPad.  I’ve sold two original oil paintings on my new iPad in less than 60 days.  Needless to say it’s paid for itself already, many times over.

What is so important about the design format of an artist’s ecommerce site?

Selling art is purely visual commerce. Extreme care and consideration must go into the design.

Too many artist’s sites are poorly designed and these poor aesthetics detract from the artwork. It’s like going to a fine restaurant only to be presented with a beautiful meal but on a dirty plate.

Will I be inundated with online orders?

Not likely. Having an ecommerce site alone will not ensure sales.  It must be designed professionally and you have to have a basic online marketing plan. Online sales require some investment in time and resources as do offline sales. But you will find that traditional marketing efforts will drive online sales and some online prospects will want to see your work in person and meet you. Once you have an eCommerce site, your list of contacts will immediately have the convenience of buying from you directly online.  Over time you will attract new customers from all over the country and/or from all over the world, day or night.
With easier and increased sales there is more time to create.

Click here to learn more about the turn key ecommerce site available through ArtistsWhoTHRIVE.

The panel was composed of a successful print maker, a painter, a tenured UC Berkeley art professor of painting, me, and someone else.  When the moderator came to the professor to ask his esteemed opinion on the matter of making a living as a fine artist, his general very long-winded response was to “just make art and do not worry about money.”

To my delight, my print making co-panelist dropped an f-bomb and said “F*! that, people are buying art”.  “You said it sister!” I replied.  And easy for you to say Mr. Tenured professor, who’ll never be fired, even though his instruction is completely irresponsible garbage.  “Don’t worry about it?!” So should they not worry about food or shelter either? Good grief!  The ones who seem to be less concerned with money are usually the ones who have plenty of it or who know that ultimately they have a financial back up. Go figure.

I heard this strange disdain for the commerce of art just last week.  I was interviewing marketing consultants to help me craft a new marketing piece and I was met with “you seem to be much more interested in the marketing of art than the making of art.”  “Ah, nooo. I’m very interested in the making of art, but if I want to keep doing that I have to market it.  And ah, aren’t you a marketing consultant?”  I didn’t hire him.

What the heck is this twisted and hypocritical conflict about money and art?  Musicians seem to suffer less from this. Why is that?

Please! Making art and well-being requires money. So let’s make more money!

"Pacific Ocean Deep", Ann Rea, oil on canvas

Although the artist-coaching program helps artists shape their business and marketing strategies we first have to ask why.  “Why” do you want to “be” an artist?  What does that mean to you?  What do you value?  What do you really want?  What would you create if you had a magic wand?

The first assignment that my artist coaching clients receive is to turn on their imagination and to create a dream map.  A dream map is a collage of positive and present-tense words and images that express their vision of the life that they want to create for themselves.  Clearly creating your life’s vision will determine your ultimate happiness and success.  I can attest that it’s worked for me.

These collages are not meant to be a piece of art for show.  This is simply a powerful and personal exercise designed so that each person unearths their passions and expresses what they really want to create in their life, before we get started.

I’m following Michael Gerber’s assertion, author of eMyth. Gerber asserts that you design your business  so it supports your life, and so that you are not spending your life supporting your business.

So the next question is, what do you want that life to look like?

I made a dream map about seven years before it manifested.  I boldly admitted, although I couldn’t really believe it at the time, “I live and have an art studio overlooking the ocean.”  Along with several words and images I tore out a picture of a big poufy bed overlooking the ocean, some random light fixture, because why not?  I can imagine anything.

Then I lost track of this creation until seven years later when I moved into my private live work studio overlooking the ocean.  After my friends helped me move in, and arranged my furniture, I discovered the dream map.  My bed was in the same position as the photo.  The headboard was on the same side of the room and the bed’s position was the same relative to the ocean.  The nautically styled light fixture hangs above my dinning room table today.

I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to make it all happen, live in pricey San Francisco and paint for a living?  Yikes!  But I knew in that instant that I was on the right path.

The first step to living a fulfilled and happy live is to boldly admit what you truly desire.

"Mick Jagger 1975/76" Andy Warhol

Once Wayne Thiebaud, an American Art icon, wrote in a letter of recommendation that I possessed “confidence and inner resources”, I suddenly had more.  Why are these qualities so important?  Because it’s what separates the “men from the boys” in the wild and hypercritical world of art.

Artists often battle their inner critic.  Although criticism is necessary to editing one’s creative expressions, it can also eat you alive, if you let it.  The successful book “The Artist’s Way” brilliantly deals with the subject of the “inner critic.”  Yet there was nothing in my prestigious fine art education that ever helped prepare me to balance confidence and criticism.

An artist client of mine told me a story of her son who was given an art class assignment to go to an art gallery or museum and to write about a painting.  At the last minute her son approached her with his unfinished homework.  There where no museums or galleries open so off they went to an ever-open Thomas Kinkade Gallery.

Her son turned in his completed assignment and his teacher proceeded to tear him in two.   Proclaiming, “this is not art!”  Now I tend to agree, but this is a kid, and he did complete the assignment. He was penalized for the rest of the year and his passion for art completely evaporated.

But would this have happened if it was a math test?  I assert that the answer is no.

Art is so very personal that we often see it as representing ourselves.  So when it’s torn to shreds or even mildly criticized, artists can be devastated, their ego pummeled.

As an artist you have to be open to criticism; there’s no way around it.  And if you’re in business you need to welcome and respond to it.  Particularly if your business is selling your art because your confidence will inspire collectors to purchase.

You also have to maintain perspective.  Not everyone is going to like your work.  Not everyone likes mine and I don’t care.  Because I only need a few select collectors every month to like it enough to buy it.

Do you like every song you hear on the radio or every outfit you see?  No.  It’s a matter of personal preference.

Mic Jagger, the front man for one of the most popular long lasting rock groups of all time, explained to Larry King that he has always listened to the critics.  Jagger stated that the key is discerning between criticism that is really only about a subjective preference and criticism that is actually constructive or insightful.

And this is because my mission is to empower artists so that they have full creative control and so that they keep more or all of the money they earn.

Now I’m not against working with reputable art galleries and or art consultants.  But I am asserting that artists are in a better position to work with them when they have built their own platforms and have cultivated a following.

Artists make more money and have more satisfaction when they work with collectors directly.  If you manage it right.  People want to know the artist and learn the story behind the creation.  It offers collectors a much more meaningful experience, and that is valuable.

So I’d rather share my hard earned art business lessons and resources and help artists avoid the pot holes that I’ve stepped in and teach artists to fish for themselves.

If artists just don’t want to do this, then I obviously can’t help.  But I’m finding that more and more artists and craftspeople, even those who have earned their livings through the traditional routes of art galleries and shows, are really ready for a change.  The galleries are not doing as well and artists are tired of being on the road.

There’s no magic pill to success in any business but people are buying art.  So if you’re creating art of quality and interest, take heart and take charge.  Represent yourself and find your collectors.

This landscape painting is by John Signer Sargent, an American painter who celebrated the British aristocracy.  He knew his tribe and he was rewarded by earning over a million dollars in the 18th century.

Of course you know that the tile of this domain is ArtistsWhoTHRIVE and the subtitle, “a community of entrepreneurial creatives.”  Yes.  We are talking about capitalism for creatives.

So if you are an artist who thinks that there’s any virtue in poverty, then you’re in the wrong place.  This all too common and twisted belief is simply just a cop out that too many artists can lean on.  And it feeds a negative and disrespectful cultural sterotype of the “starving artist”.

I say take responsibility for building your success and then you’ll thrive and be in a better position to be your brother’s keeper.

A lot of people, I’m not just picking on a few artists, have highly charged negative and fearful emotions around money and commerce.  They equate money with dishonesty, control, and power.  Money is neutral, it’s just a tool.  Like a hammer you can build something with it or knock someone in the head.

I don’t have the patience, or a license, to council ever-suffering or bitter artists.  And that’s not why I founded ArtistsWhoTHRIVE.  Note the word THRIVE in all caps.  And this is why I maintain a no whining policy.  If you think you must suffer, have at it.  Just please don’t bore me or this community with it because I won’t feed the negative energy or post your comments.

If you have something constructive to say or a real question, then please, do tell.

Now I don’t want to give the impression that I have no compassion because I have suffered in my lifetime. And I’ve helped others who are genuinely suffering when I worked at a shelter for abused women and children and for disaster relief.

The point is, there’s good news!  We are in the midst of a cultural and economic revolution.  The scarcity model of artist representation is dissolving before our eyes with the power of the Internet fueling it.  We see this clearly in the music industry.  American Idol celebrates the old scarcity model that represents only a tiny fraction of formulaic talent.  But the Internet has given us the freedom to fully express ourselves and to reach those who are like us and who want to buy from us.

Do you want to get paid well for doing what you love?  Then you’re going to have to learn, just like I’ve had to. And those who whine less get more done. And in my case, drink more good wine.

ArtistsWhoTHRIVE Seminar

The ArtistsWhoTHRIVE seminar that I delivered last Tuesday earned record attendance and reviews, according to the directors of the Small Business Development Center of Alameda County.

The room was absolutely packed with an eager audience of over 130 creative people, all looking for ways to offer their creative talents in ways that will support them economically and creatively.

As promised, we completed three mini marketing makeovers that included:

1. a painter whose passion is painting drag queens

2. an illustrator of who loves botanicals

3. and a spiritual painter who meditates and then paints the color energy of her subjects

Does it sound impossible to identify a viable market for these three artists?  It’s not! During our live “blue sky” session, these artists, and the entire audience, clearly described their market, who I refer to as a “tribe”, ways to celebrate the tribal culture and serve their tribe, and where their tribe might be found.

The economic health of a city is closely tied to its cultural capital.  As local artists thrive so does the community.  Think of most famous destinations and you think of the art.

There are many economic studies that prove this assertion. Read this New York Times article about a business development program in New York City for artists:

“The city’s cultural sector “attracts very, very creative people who have incredible ideas, but they don’t always know how to turn their ideas into financial sustainable entities,” said Seth W. Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

His agency is spending $50,000 on this program and a similar one being run by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, with Creative Capital.   Read more….

Here are a few of the messages I’ve received and that I’d like to share, with permission.

And they are still coming!

“Thank YOU so much.  It was the best workshop I’ve been to.   Honestly, yesterday changed my life.”

-Mary Lonergan

“Your seminar was just AWESOME!  I learned so much, and got so much inspiration.” -  Lisa Baker

“Thank you for the great information you gave at your seminar! It really got me motivated.” - Nat Jackson

“I enjoyed the seminar. I made an Action Plan of notes I took during class. I was tickled at how many people in the room are having some of the same struggles. Why are some of us conditioned to believe a struggling artist is the thing to be?” -D. Jean Collins

“Thank you for your wonderful presentation yesterday. I learned new things and enjoyed your lively interaction with us. I am inspired to take action.” – Pauline C. Nishi

“I can’t begin to express how much it all meant to me. Within the hour after I left, I was telling my friends about you. I will be waiting patiently anticipating the weekly newsletter.” – James Walker

“It was a relief to have someone talk about making a living as an artist instead of wringing their hands about how to pay the rent.” - Susan Troy

My thanks to the seminar sponsors:

• The United States Small Business Administration

• The Small Business Development Center of Alameda County

• The Peralta Community College District

• The Berkeley Public Library

Sponsor an ArtistsWhoTHRIVE seminar for your Artist Group or Organization

Seminars are generally three hours with a break but they can be shaped to fit your audience.

By using an existing a cross promotional program, an ArtistsWhoTHRIVE seminar can also generate additional revenue for your group or organization.