“What other work do you do? You know, for yourself?”

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San Francisco based Artist Ann Rea

San Francisco based Artist Ann Rea, CEO of Ann Rea, Inc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still get this question.  The paintings that I paint are the paintings that I want to paint.  I can’t even imagine having it any other way and calling myself an artist.  Otherwise I would call myself an illustrator.  Who I have a great deal of respect for, by the way.

Now I am very mindful that if I want to exchange my creations for payment then I have to add value beyond selfish self-expression.  I’m not criticizing self-expression as selfish. I’m just saying that as an artist, interested in building a strong business and brand, clearly I have to think beyond me.

This Friday I was at a reception at an incredible contemporary estate in Napa Valley.  And ironically it was two “artists” who asked this question. “What other work do you do?  You know, for yourself?”
One a photographer and her husband, a sculptor, a retired physician.  So I’m assuming that their monetary concerns have been different from my own and that has shaped their perspective.

A former art director,  along with another guest, then asked if this was what I did “full time?” Another asked “Ann, are you here to show your work?”  “Actually, I’m here to develop a strategic partnership with the host.” I responded.

I can’t pretend that I’m not irked by these questions.  I’m a serious full time artist and entrepreneur.  Imagine that!  Is that not obvious?  Or are the stereotypes about artists just too strong for this to be as plain as the nose on your face?

But I accept the perspective of these relatively affluent people who, like many, see art making as an indulgence, maybe a career, and a business, “oh really?”

In my experience I’ve observed two distinct camps.  Those interested in art and music making in exchange for money and those that don’t believe this should happen or have enough confidence and skill to make that exchange.  Guess which camp I belong to?

I know that my brother, the former Dean of a business school, did not take my venture very seriously until my business was profiled by Fortune magazine.  Then suddenly I was a teaching moment, an example of how to live your passion and earn a living.

It’s not only possible, but given the opportunity, I believe that it’s our obligation to live our lives to the fullest, to be fully self expressed, and to provide value so that we can earn as much money as possible doing it.  Then we are in a better position to live a prosperous, healthy, and responsible life. And then to give back.

Perfectionism Kills Creativity

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Perfectionism kills creativity.  It killed mine, off and on throughout art school, and then this disease lingered on until I created no more for over seven years straight.  Perfectionism is, for me, an innate tendency.  Maybe it’s the Virgo in me?  But then I learned that it’s not about quality, it’s about quantity.  Yes, you heard me right.  Art is not about quality, it’s all about quantity.

Malcolm Gladwell demonstrates this point in his book “Outliers, the Story of Success” where he talks about the 10,000-hour rule.  It was only after logging 10,000 hours that The Beatles, Bill Gates, and Mozart found their stride.  I don’t think that they were paining over every minute they logged.  And that’s what perfectionism is, it’s paining over every decision, over editing, or constant second guessing, leading to overwhelm, all caused by self-doubt.

Another book that gets right to the heart of perfection-itis is “Art and Fear”.  This is mandatory reading for the artist clients that I coach and consult with across the globe by phone.  It’s interesting that some issues are universal.

The chapter about perfectionism in “Art and Fear” illustrates a ceramics class that is divided in half at the beginning of the semester.  One half of the class is instructed to make one perfect vessel.  And they will be graded on the quality of that vessel.  That’s it.  This is their sole assignment.

The other half of the class is told that there grade will be based on the total weight of the number of vessels they create.  The more clay they shape, the higher their grade.

Which group at the end of the semester produced the better quality and more creativity?  The group that weighed in, of course.  Why?   Because they where not fussing and paining over the outcome, freeing them to feel, experiment, and to be more spontaneous, and creative.

Thinking Big

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“You are what you think about”.

I’m not sure who to credit this statement of truth but I remind myself of it often.  In order to imagine painting for a living I had to think big, much bigger than I had been thinking throughout my life while I was working away in a cubicle.  And as I continued to look at the stars, think big, and succeed at making these big thoughts into my reality I noticed that the people in my life fell into two camps.  There where those who thought that I was unrealistic or who plainly ignored me when I shared my victories, literally changing the subject, most often to themselves.  Then there where those who cheered my on, and who at times, would hold even more of a belief in my big ideas than I did.

Over the past five years I’ve watched a whole group of small thinkers fade out of my life and a whole group of big thinkers step in.  In fact, they are still showing up.  Bob Proctor who is a personal development guru, and has worked with the likes of Ellen DeGeneres. David Mathison who is a thought leader in the renaissance of new media. Jonathan Fields, author of Career Renegade, to name a few. And lesser known names, but no less important, who are definitely big thinkers and who are leading change, imagining new frontiers, and who I appreciate knowing.

I’m quite sure that it’s thinking bigger that has allowed my path to cross with big thinkers.  I can remember Bob Proctor saying, “I really don’t like small talk, I like big talk.” Although on one level its sad to see some people fade out my life, I recognize that rarely does anyone stay in your life forever, that nothing is permanent, and it’s often for the best because it makes room for people who are positive influences.

Artists Need Legal Contracts even more than most Business Owners

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I’m writing this post in response to an artist’s post in Florida.

Artists need legal contracts more than most business owners.  Why?  Because artists get taken advantage of more than most business owners. And because many artists don’t consider themselves business owners so they allow themselves to be taken advantage of.  Notice I said “many”, not all artists.

One obstacle for many artists is that legal advice is expensive and they don’t know where to start to draft the legal agreements that they need. Nolo Press publishes a book called “Your Crafts Business” and it include basic advice and sample agreements. This is a good place to start but it is by no means the be all and end all.

You must know your terms before you ever engage another in business.  In fairness to them and to you.  For example, do you accept commissions?  Does your patron have to pay up front?  What happens if they write you a bad check?  What happens if they think they own the copyright and they start printing your image on cheap tee shirts without your permission, or worse yet, without paying you?

Think of all the possible scenarios.  Start with a sample agreement in “Your Crafts Business” and then list all the things that could go wrong.  Plan like your getting married but also plan what you will do if you need to get a divorce.

Why?  Because written agreements preserve relationships.  They confirm each party’s understanding.  Agreements around art are highly charged if they are not defined in writing because the product is so personal for both parties.

Once you have an agreement drafted you must have it reviewed by a business attorney, not a real estate attorney or a family law attorney, or a friend who happens to be an attorney. You don’t want to wear out your friendships or be consulting with an attorney outside their area of expertise. The law is too vast and you need the benefit of specific expertise in each area of law.

I use affordable Pre-Paid Legal services to review all of my business contracts.  One of their copyright attorneys even coached me through a small claims court case that I filed because of my previous client’s copyright infringement.  I won.  And guess what?  The client kept infringing!  So I sued again and I won again.  The second time, I think she got the message.  I also received a nice settlement, twice.  So the low monthly fee I’ve paid to Pre-Paid Legal has already been returned to me many times over.

In the interest of full transparency, PrePaid Legal is a multi-level marketing product.  So when I was first presented with the service I cringed.  However, it has been of such great value to me that I’m now an agent.   I’m not planning on getting rich off of my ity bity Pre-Paid Legal sales commissions. But as an agent I’m in a better position to advise artists on the plans that fit them best.  And I know I’m going to save several artists some serious grief and arm them with a vital tool they’ll need to success.

Click here to learn more and email my assistant Amy at [email protected], if you would like me to recommend a plan to you and or enroll you.

Must Artists Suffer for their Art? (optional)

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Oh please.  Those who know me know that’s not my plan.  Now does suffering inform an artist’s work?  Maybe. Art is not literal; it is emotive.  So feelings inform an artist’s work and they are central to the artist’s unique voice. And life experiences and a certain depth of emotion develop an emotional register that I think is necessary if an artist is going to have anything interesting to say or to express. The artist has to feel it if their audience is going to feel it.

I’m not actually a fan of most contemporary art because it expresses a very narrow band of emotions: irony, angst, and shock.  I’m bored with it.  And I don’t relate to these emotions.  Although I do believe that they reflect the broader contemporary culture. I can only express my voice, deepened by my life experiences.

Why is my tag line “Savor the colors of a moment?”  It’s catchy, but it actually goers deeper than that.  Because for most of my life, before I started painting for a living, I suffered from chronic anxiety and deep depression.  I was actually advised that I would suffer from these conditions for the rest of my life.  Thankfully, I told the doctor to stick it and I took charge.

And it’s been many years and I no longer suffer.  If I had to sum up the experience of anxiety I would say that it’s a preoccupation with the future.  And depression is a regret or a continuous review of the past.  I have a friend who had chronic anxiety and then developed stage four breast cancer.  She said the anxiety was harder to cope with than the cancer.  That’s suffering.

When I paint I am the most present that I can be.  So my subject is light expressed as color.  And this single focus gives me peace.  So my suffering did inform my work but I certainly don’t feel obligated to suffer.

Six Things each Day – Balancing Creativity and Business

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I’m often asked, “How can you make art and run a business at the same time? How do you balance your creativity and business?”  My answer, “I have to manage my priorities.”  Notice I didn’t say, “I have to manage my time.”  That’s impossible.  We’re always interrupted.  The phone rings, the FedEx deliveryman is knocking on the door, or this morning there was a Great Blue Heron walking slowly on top of the carport. I had to stand for a while and watch him.

So I focus on my priorities and those priorities are six action steps that I’m going to complete each day, action steps that will move me towards attaining my annual goal.  My annual goal is my company’s 2010 sales goal, which I aim to at least double.

Each night before I go to bed I list six action steps that I’m going to complete the following day.  They are numbered one through six in order of their priority.  I get up and I focus on the first one and I work on it until it’s done. Allowing for appointments, I move to number two. I try my best to get through all six but if I don’t, I at least know that I have worked on the most important action items first.

Generally I like to divide my day in half.  The mornings are for left-brain related business and marketing tasks.  Then if I have time, I go for a run to help shift into my creative right brain.  I find the repetitive and meditative motion of running, and the tranquil natural setting of The Presidio, to be very helpful.

When I return, it’s time to paint.  Painting is not always listed as number one and I don’t spend every afternoon in front of my easel. But as I get closer to my sales goal, it will be number one most every day.

 

Ann Rea (Inc)

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Many people ask me, “Who’s your representative?”  The answer is that Ann Rea, Inc. is the legal entity that represents the artist Ann Rea.

How did this come about?  Well, while I was being mentored by American art icons Wayne Thiebaud and Gregory Kondos they encouraged me to make a go of it and to explore my talent full time, and to quit that boring and unrelated day job that I wanted quit.  “It’s not too late” they both advised.  But each of them began their careers as academics.

“How do I make a living?” I asked of Wayne Thiebaud.  Mr. Thiebaud replied, “I don’t know, I’m not a business man. But I can give you a letter of recommendation and refer you to some galleries, one in particular. You can use my name, you’ll probably get in. But the owner, I’ll warn you, she’s a pill.”   A pill, that was a very polite understatement.

Wayne Thiebaud’s letter did get me an entrance into that gallery to review my work.  But when the gallery owner revealed her terms, actually illegal but common terms, it was no wonder  why artists are starving.  The gallery owner insisted on geographic market exclusivity, and demanded that the best of my painting inventory was left on consignment.  The art gallery may never sell a thing and I was handcuffed from selling my own work through other galleries.

It gets better.  I would be paid 50% of the sale price or less because the gallery owner wanted the right to negotiate a discount to patrons, a discount that I would have to eat.  I could not work with any other galleries in Northern California even though this gallery may or may not sell a thing and they could give me the boot at any time they pleased. The gallery also wanted to be listed as the single representative on my website and she really didn’t want me selling from my own site.

And the art galleries illegal demands are common terms demanded by many galleries.

So I thought, “Oh, I don’t think so!  I want to make a living.”  And no profitable business would agree to these terms.  “I’ll make my own market, thank you very much. I don’t know how, but I’ll figure it out.”

I was advised by the successful artist Donna Billick, yes the sister of the famed football coach, “Take the reins, it’s the only way you’ll succeed.”  How true!

So I reflected on the lack of business advice from Wayne Thiebaud, and from my brother, the Dean of a business school, and my sister, a self made multi-millionaire.  Then I decided to write a business plan and a marketing plan anyway.  I sat with a dear friend to do this.  I didn’t have experience in writing business plans but realized that it was an unconventional approach for an artist that could offer a distinct advantage.  Why not try?

They all thought that she I crazy.  But then, they always did think she I crazy.

So in 2005, I launched my business as a sole proprietorship. And without the benefit of a PR agent my business was profiled by the national media, including, “Fortune”,  “The Wine Enthusiast”, “Practical Winery and Vineyard Management” magazines, and the “Fine Living” channel.

So I’m is happy to work with art galleries and art consultants but only if the terms are profitable and mutually beneficial, like any good business owner.

In late 2008, I learned more about our federal tax structure and the IRS code and with my CPA’s advise I changed my business structure to a corporation.

Now you know the history of Ann Rea, Inc. and you have a little insight into the art market.

And hopefully this story has encouraged you to support independent artists just like Ann Rea, who have decided to “take the reins.”

Money and Stomach

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Yesterday I had a phone meeting with a great gal from Texas.  Unbeknownst to me she’s been a fan from the Lone Star state, where I have a number of collectors, and where she’s been watching my career via annrea.com.

She and her local wine industry colleagues are interested in commissioning me to paint vineyards in Texas.  Yes, there are vineyards in Texas, not just California.  And Texas is actually an established and growing wine region with spectacular landscapes in the hill country.

She asked me how I came to do what it is that I do.  I explained how I came up with my initial marketing strategy and how I started my business.  One comment that she made, sounding like a true Texan, was that to be in business “you have to have two things, money and stomach.”  I laughed and replied “If you don’t have money you can get it if you have enough stomach.”

Many people have told me that they think it was brave of me to move to San Francisco and to paint full time.  Ironically, looking back it took more bravery to endure a disimpassioned day job and to let my passion and talents go to waste.  I simply made a choice of commitment.

The conversation yesterday reminded me of the complete commitment required to develop any enterprise and the other level of commitment required to honing one’s creative skill and artistic voice.  Despite the inevitable ups and downs of growing a business and the economy one thing remains constant, I’m committed.  And I don’t have the stomach for anything else but my art business.

 

Confidence and Personal Inner Resources

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OK I admit it. I watch American Idol.  And when I do,  part of my fascination is watching what’s required of these emerging artists.  Many haven’t found their true voice and clearly their skill requires honing.  Obviously it’s about their talent but the underlying story is their ability to weather the very public humiliation and rejection and still keep going.  It’s like being in a Roman Colosseum battling emotion and ego.

Artists engage in their craft because they are passionate about it.  It gets them high, so to speak.  What an artist shares comes from the depths of their heart.  So rejection and criticism can be biting, at the very least.  Of course, we don’t have to put ourselves out there. Except if you want to get paid, you do.  A plumber, a doctor, a financial analyst never has to deal with such deeply personal matters of rejection or acceptance.

And when we place our treasured craft into the world of commerce we are subject to the market’s whims and we have to understand and play by the complex rules of business.  This does sometimes leave me feeling like I maintain a split personality.

But I not only accept this, I embrace it.  The good news is that I’m only trying to win over a very select few, a clearly defined targeted market of art and wine enthusiasts. In fact, I thought that David Mathison, author of “Be the Media” put it well.  He said you really only need a 1000 fans.  This is also a lesson taught by Chris Anderson, author of the “The Long Tail”. Anderson explains the new economics of culture and commerce and “why the future of business is selling less of more.”

Once I read my letter of recommendation from Wayne Thiebaud in 1999, I found one part most flattering, but also the most important thing I always remember is “She has a well-developed confidence and personal inner resources allowing her to use critical confrontation for positive results.”  Without this I think I’d be headed straight for the lions.

Reach your Audience, Your Collectors

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David Mathison, author of “Be the Media”, began his presentation talking about the dwindling six major publishing houses and the troubles that they’re facing because of the fundamental shift in the publishing market.  “They’re like the Titanic. They can’t turn around.”

The opportunity to publish is no longer just in the hands of a few select publishers; it’s in the hands of the nimble artists.  The market is moving away from a scarce model of a powerful few and placing that power into the hands of a number of independent artists, including authors, musicians, and film producers.  More specifically, the power belongs to those with creative capital who effectively leverage relatively easy and free access to their audience through new media.

David Mathison intoned “Don’t chase the media, be the media.” And the artists who take the initiative to craft a meaningful message and engage their audience can do this.  I have and I will.  My website sales averaged 8% of my overall income in the past four years.  In 2009, that number jumped to 27%.  I sold while I slept.  But I had to plant the seeds for that harvest through consistent online and offline marketing.  The two work hand in hand.

This is exciting stuff.  A revolution is a foot.  And for those artists who recognize the creative capital that they hold in their hands and who are willing to do some left-brain thinking, they will rule the world.  This is also according to Daniel Pink, author of a Whole New Mind, about the current conceptual economy.

I would argue that fine artists are the last in this line to catch on to the good news.  But it makes no difference.  The internet gives us marketing tools that are available to most everyone at any time, at a relatively low cost.  I mentioned this to David Mathison and he offered to interview me on his radio show.  That proved my motto, “asking is free.”

What does this all really mean to fine artists?  The playing field is being leveled and artists do not have to chase a scarcity model of gallery representation.   You can be the media and reach your audience, your collectors.