Colleen Attara, mixed media artist
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.
Did you enjoy this article?
Thanks for letting my know Sophia. I’ll see if we can find it.
Hello Ann,
I really enjoyed listening to Kate’s interview packed with great tips and inspiration. Thanks so much for providing these interviews. I was wondering if this particular one was taken down as I am not able to access it. It takes me to an error message on your website when I click on it.
Thanks
Sophia
Hi Ann,
Thank you for the Colleen Atara interview. It was wonderful to hear an artist who is really going for it share about her experience and strategies. I’ve sent a thank you to her too.
It sounds like your coaching helped her focus on and accept what she knew to be true and go for it. That is the best kind of coaching, to help people get in touch with what they know to be true and act on it. I appreciated her ethics and clear sense of herself and her deep respect for her clients and collaborators. And how about the idea that by admitting your best vision for yourself as a person and an artist you have taken the first step toward realizing it.
I look forward to your future post about the people you have in your life that help you do the work of your art business. That idea is a hard one for me (Midwestern farm stock). I think I have to do everything myself. Please post it soon!
Hi Jean,
My pleasure. I would like to point out that 20% is really a generous commission versus a “stipend.” And that this is no way an artist’s obligation. But as you and Colleen have found, this has been worth it because it has increased trust and respect with representatives and that has increased sales and loyalty.
Cheers,
Ann
Thanks Ann for doing this live interview with Colleen Taylor. It was great hearing her story and how she perservered to get where she is today.
Her interview confirmed that I am on the right path as well. When I designed my web site 2+ years ago I also used a white background so my textile artwork stood out. I’ve had many fellow artists tell me I should put up a background color, banner graphics, etc and I keep resisting this as I think that would detract from my work and also make my web site seem like everyone else’s cookie cutter one.
It was also good to hear that Colleen also gives her galleries a stipend if she can trace a sale she makes personally back to her work being seen there. I do the same thing when I’ve had artwork in a juried exhibition and then been contacted after the exhibit closes about a purchase. I always send the hosting gallery a 20% stipend as well. As Colleen says, the gallery director is always surprised to receive this stipend, which I think will go a long way in promoting myself as an artist that is professional and easily to work with.
Looking forward to more of these profiles as well as more blog postings.