Art Marketing Circle II
Element 1: Your Art's Inspiration
Today’s members-only article is a continuation of our series, The Circles of Art Marketing, which is our unique art marketing framework that has proven itself to sell art, without all the grift and hype you normally see from art blogs, coaches and gurus. This framework has been developed over the 30 years I’ve been in the art business, as a gallery director, gallery owner, and, for over two decades, the founder of FASO Artist Websites, where we have seen what works and what doesn’t work in our dealings with well over 20,000 artists in that time. We are updating the framework in real time in 2023 with these articles.
If you would like to read everything we’ve covered so far, please visit the following page: The Circles of Art Marketing. (Please note - this framework is for premium members only. If you are a paid member, we kindly ask you do not share this information with anyone else.)
OK, with that out of the way, let’s get to today’s article….
When you decide you want to sell your art, everything changes.
Prior to that decision, you are creating solely because you have the insatiable hunger to create. You are feeding your soul. You are making the world better, from your perspective, because you are making yourself better, and your external world is a reflection of your internal world. As I have said before, an artist cannot serve two masters, so you must serve your soul first, before you sell your art, so that you have no inner conflict.
Once you decide to sell your art, however, you walk a fine line. You must, in short, turn your offering which consists of you, your art and the stories and context in which you talk about all of it into a saleable product, without losing your focus on your own vision and your own inspiration. We’ll talk about many of the product elements when we get to the next circle, Art Marketing Circle III: Products, but, to maximize your chances that your art will sell, there are several places you can give yourself a tailwind if you nail them in the art itself.
There are four elements that will make your art magical, unique, and something that captures people’s attention.
1. Your Inspiration
The art captures and transmits the ideas that inspired you in the first place
2. Your Unique Vibe & Energy
this is what makes your art uniquely you
3. Timelessness
There is something to your art that can work across time and space
4. Mastery & Quality
Your mastery of your technique plays a huge role in how well you will sell
Nail these four elements and you will give yourself a huge tailwind when you start offering your art for sale.
Let’s take a deep dive into these four elements….
Your Inspiration
The deeper, non-verbal story your art tells.
The best art manages to tell a “story” within the artwork itself.
This particular story can’t be told at the marketing stage, this deeper, non-verbal part of this story happens in the creation phase of the artwork. As I reflect upon it, I firmly believe it is the most important “story” your piece of art will tell. This is the “story” that has the potential to live and reach far beyond your lifetime, and, as such, it deserves its own section. The story about each artwork we will talk about later is a written story, a story that you add after the artwork is finished to share practical and interesting details with a potential buyer. But this story is different and deeper.