Warren Chang was our latest guests on our BoldBrush Live! program. As a paid subscriber, we are happy to provide not only the video replay but the full transcript of the insightful session with Warren below. Please keep in mind the transcripts are generated by AI so there may be some typos.
Creatively,
Clint Watson
BoldBrush Founder & Creativity Fanatic
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Olya Konell 00:00
Hello, welcome to BoldBrush Live with our very special guest today, we have Warren Chang on the show, and I'll be introducing him shortly, and with me, I have Angela Agosto, who is our Artist Relations Director. Today's discussion is going to focus on art, creativity and marketing, and we're going to be learning from each other, because listening to a guru, a marketing guru, tell you what you're supposed to do or not supposed to do, might help you learn one or new things, but it's not going to give you that practical advice from somebody who has lived, lived it, you know, and and shown you know through their expertise, like this is how I did this. And so if it's useful information for you, we hope it inspires you and gives you some good advice to help you along your artist journey. So really quickly, something I like to do, and I'm just going to bring it up on my screen, is remind you that Zoom has updated a few of their buttons on their apps and screens, so things look a little different. Familiarize yourself with the different options. A little bit about BoldBrush and who we are. Boldbrush.com and we can share all of these links with you. Is our website. Boldbrush offers we. Our goal is to inspire artists, to inspire the world, like it says, and we do that by providing free and paid resources and tools for artists. One of the big resources that we have is FASO, which is artist websites. And we also offer websites through artful Squarespace by FASO. So if you have a Squarespace site, you can bring it under an umbrella to gain access to our marketing resources and tools. Or if you want a second or new Squarespace site, you can take advantage of our pricing and all the other benefits that come with it. You can reach out to us if you have more questions. But we have our newsletter, we have this free webinar, we have lots of things on our site that you are welcome to to check out. There's some quick links on the right hand side for you, and so that is who we are. So if anybody has any questions, just drop them in the chat. We'll be able to answer them later on and now with, Well, without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and bring Warren on. Hello, sir. How are you doing today? Welcome.
Warren Chang 02:35
Thank you. Good morning, Olya, and good morning everybody. My name is Warren Chang. I'm coming to you from Monterey, California, and I appreciate you all attending this webinar. That's great. It's all about me so
Olya Konell 02:53
well, I always like to start out by asking our guests to tell a little bit about them, them themselves. Sorry I'm stuttering just in general, you know, we, we just some things that you'd like to highlight.
Warren Chang 03:07
Oh, okay, well, I'm, I'm Warren, and I'm a, I'm a fine artist living in Monterey, California, and my career has been spanned two different areas. I was an illustrator, originally for 20 years, and then I transitioned into fine art about the year, maybe 2000 and I've been a fine artist now for little over, maybe under 25 years, over 20 years. And yeah, so as an illustrator, I kind of find a lot of parallels between the illustration work I did and the fine artwork I do, which I'd like I can share with you later. In terms of business, I would like to to kind of get out out there immediately that marketing and business is something that I absolutely hate, and so I don't know if I'm really the appropriate guest to be on this show, but that's probably the least thing I like to talk about and share with other artists. In fact, I'd like to share with you a Chinese proverb that I shared with someone earlier, Olya. I shared it with Olya earlier, and it says, businessman as artist is not as ugly as artist as businessman, you can kind of sort of figure out the meaning of that on your own, yeah, but I basically abre business, yet at the same time, I know that I am a businessman. I mean, I have to have been in order to be able to sell paintings and have a career. So, you know, I was doing interviews like this is basically an exponent exploration of myself, because I'm discovering things about myself that I never think about. So this happened in a previous. Yes, I did a podcast earlier with boldbrush, and the focus was on primarily marketing and sales and and the podcast interviewer continued to circle back to those type of questions, and later on, and it was only after the interview that I realized where the interview was actually trying to go. And so I am now more prepared with notes, and I think I can, I'm better prepared to share these type of informations with you. So yeah, that's a
Olya Konell 05:32
little bit, you know, and I would actually why I think you're quite contrary to what you said, You're the perfect person to have on because the amount of artists that are here today that feel exactly how you feel about the business and marketing, you know, part of it this is like a shared sentiment amongst many artists. They it is something that kind of comes last, you know, something we don't want to do it really. But like you said, it is an important part of, you know, an artist's life, I guess, if they're trying to sell and to anybody who is an artist that has no intention of selling work and is just creating art for the sake of creating art. I just want to let you know that, you know this may or may not apply to you, but you know, I this is why this is perfect, because you've been you've overcome some of the obstacles that people that are here today are struggling with and and when you were saying earlier, you are becoming aware of some of the things you have been doing. It's almost like, I want to use the word mindful. It's almost like you're experiencing, almost like, I becoming very mindful of, like, Hey, how did I get here? Well, this is,
Warren Chang 06:45
yeah, yeah. It's actually very it was, it was a journey of self discovery, to be honest. I mean, that paper that those notes I had shared with you are basically they were coming out of my mind, and almost for the first time, because I didn't even realize that these were the facts of the situation. I have to say that there are probably other artists I know, like throughout my career, and especially teaching, who are very good business people. I think because they've achieved so much and gotten so far, and I believe it's primarily because of their business sense that they've gotten that far. But that is not, I am not that example. So my example will not be illustrating how to be that type of artist. But I kind of believe that you know that selling art is basically a byproduct of creating art. It's not the other way around. Yeah, absolutely, it's just, it's a happenstance.
Angela Agosto 07:45
But that's what's great about it, is that you probably do it as an extension of how you create, so it comes off genuine and part of the creation process. It's just another phase of it, so it doesn't feel probably salesy, either to them or to you, which is why I think it works.
Warren Chang 08:04
I’m not really in the business of selling my paintings. I don't really do that. I mean, as I mentioned in the notes, that one of the things I really need to just put out there is that, you know, the majority of all my sales happen through art galleries, through art representation, and thus it's the art galleries that you should be asking the questions, because they are the experts at selling art. They're the ones who who interact with the patrons and collectors. They're the ones who build the business. So that's where the majority of all my sales happen. I have made sales on my own, you know, through establishing relationship with collectors, mainly because and probably the collectors, primarily through meeting them, through the art galleries and also the website with BoldBrush video, I've been pleased to See that paintings have sold on my website. It's really quite a shock. I don't know if many of you in the audience also have sell paintings on your website, but for me, it's just an absolute shock when something like that happens. But it does happen occasionally, but I what I noticed for myself is my paintings are very expensive. I don't know if you aware of that or not, and so I think the limit I've seen that collectors or patrons are willing to spend on, you know, buying a painting a site unseen. I mean, meaning they've seen it online, but they've never seen the original, you know, is about, I'd say the limit is about $5,000 and, you know, I says, result, I have paintings I do studies. They're basically color studies for my larger paintings. And those are perhaps the best sellers, because they're priced. They're priced much at a much small, you know, much more modestly, you know, like the original painting might be 20,000 while the color study is three. Or three or 4000 Yeah, and the fact that they then the color studies, it's very identical to the larger painting. So they feel like they're I think what happens is the color studies become they have more importance to them, because not only are they small painting, but they have a purpose behind them. The the patron realizes that there's a purpose, that the painting was created for a different purpose, and has takes on more meaning. So those and I also do, in case any of you are interested, I do do lots of figure studies, figure and portrait studies from life, which I do regularly every month, every week. And I sell those for, they're on my website, and I sell those for very low prices, even as low as, like, $800 or $1,200 there you go. Hey, those type of studies, and those are just done in a couple hours. So that's how I can sort of justify the selling of those studies for, you know, such reduced prices, you know, and so that's, so those are the kinds of things that we'll sell online, as far as for major paintings, nobody will ever spend, you know, huge amounts of money for a major painting online. I think they, yeah, it's really risky. So they would probably, they would contact me personally, or they would contact the gallery, or I would, I would refer them to the art gallery. And so that's how it happens, you know, if it's ever, if it's so that's the extent of my and my marketing. There is no marketing, really. It's just having a website, is the marketing? You know? Yeah, sending newsletters out, yeah. And
Olya Konell 11:39
I would like to add part of the marketing, and this is something that we believe in at boldbrush, and something we like to remind our artists, marketing is just a word that takes on a different persona in different people's minds, on what it actually is, but at the core, all it is is us as an Artist, putting ourselves out there and building a reputation amongst people now that could be online, that could be offline, that could be in person, that could be through galleries, that could be through, you know, the the things that you are doing, just you walking into maybe, maybe an event with some friends, maybe You have some kind of a local community event, and an artist walks in, and they shake some hands and meet some people, and they during casual conversation over some food, people find out you're an artist that is part of your marketing. It's literally just being a human and putting ourselves out there. I mean, that's as simple as it is. So you have been marketing. Your resume tells us you have and I know I haven't even jumped into my questions, but I shared the link and to your website resume, which you described as more of a bibliography, which I like, and I want to make a point to our artists really quickly before I kind of jump into the question. So one thing that we can do is, so if you're trying to figure out, where do I start, where do I begin? What are some opportunities? Where do I find shows to enter? The best way to find out what's worth entering is finding artists that you like and seeing where they have entered, seeing what they have participated in. That could give you so much. You can make a list and start Googling each one and just seeing, Oh, that might be good for me, you know. And so I shared Warren's link for you to just start somewhere. There's magazines and newspapers you know that you've been featured in. You have museum collections, which I'm going to ask about lectures and demonstrations. You know, you literally have everything that you've done, going down to books and catalogs. It really is. It's It's awesome, awards and honors, yeah, exhibition. So the list goes on and on, but that's a that's kind of what the topic is going to be. This is marketing. Marketing is putting yourself out there year after year after year. And
Warren Chang 14:12
That’s my resume is very much since we were speaking before the lot the webinar became live. I'd like to finish that thought, yeah, yeah. The the web, the resume I have on my website, is very encyclopedic. It's more like a bibliography. And for me, my website serves as my a diary. Essentially, I wish I would have started that website when I first started my art career, but I didn't. I started it maybe, I'm guessing, just roughly, you know, 2006 you know, so sort of like just at the beginning of my fine art career. So it doesn't, it's not all encompassing, but up until that point, it's all encompassing. Every painting I've ever created is on that website. Every painting that's ever sold has been. That is documented on that website. So it's, it is a complete, you know, diary of my my career. And that's why I like the reason why I like Facebook as well is because it's a diary of my life. I mean, everything I put down in I post on Facebook is, it's, just documenting every little thing that happens in my life, you know, both career and personally. And there's this thing called passbook that they they that is advertised where they'll take, you know, five or 10 years worth of your Facebook posts and put it in a book. And it's amazing, because then you have an entire record of your life right there in a little album. And so that's part a large reason why I participate in Facebook is because it's a diary, and I and I need to keep documenting my diary, you know, record of my children, the record of my my exhibitions, what? Not? So that's my motivation. It's has nothing to do really with marketing.
Olya Konell 15:59
But the byproduct, naturally, is that you're documenting your life, and people are learning about you, and they're connecting with you. You know, they're, they're, you know, they're appreciating that. As an illustrator, I think you have a strong sense of story and narrative, and you know, because it, it it can it completely. Is in every single one of your paintings, there's a story. And every painting that, I mean, I look, I'm like, What are they doing? You know, their work, you know, where are they from? You know, they have families. They're working. What kind of field is that? You know? And there's immediately a story being told with every single one of your pieces, which I think is, and it transfers to your Facebook. You're doing the same thing there. You're telling your stories.
Warren Chang 16:45
I don't I really don't like social media either, but I do it because I my publisher, my book publisher, once told me this maybe 10 years ago, or more than 10 years ago. He said I would never represent an artist who did not have a social media presence. And it was at that moment I was like, I gotta get on my social media lit a fire under me. So
Angela Agosto 17:12
yeah, I was gonna say, I think it serves as a good reference for collectors, like if you have a collector who walks into a gallery and says, Oh, I love this painting. Oh, well. This is by Warren Chang. Oh, okay. Well, let me what do you what can you tell me about the artists? Then they probably Google you. They go on Facebook, they go on your website. So I feel like you said, like a little diary, they get to to learn more about you, the artists, as well as why you can't paint and so, yeah, it's just all works together.
Warren Chang 17:39
of course, of course, you're
Olya Konell 17:41
my, my favorite thing about having a website, and this is where Faso actually I have a I have a Squarespace site, and I have a Faso site. When I put my own name in my Faso site comes up first. That tells you something so it, you know, a lot of times artists are like, Well, I'm not selling very much through my website. I sell more at galleries, or I sell more in person, and they and the assumption is that none of none of that stuff that comes up on Google matters, but, but like you said, you know, or like Angela said, when people meet you and they get to know you, you know, everybody will, I guarantee you, they've Googled you. And if they've Googled you, they looked they looked at your Facebook, they looked at your site, and then they came back to you and said, Okay, I you know, they went back into the gallery, or they went back to wherever it was to make this larger transaction. They learned a little bit about, you know, your history and all the things that you've been in, involved with, and that kind of just confirms your confirms who you are, you know, and, and I know you mentioned this earlier, well, I know you also had a thought you were I didn't interrupt anything before I jump into the Okay,
Warren Chang 18:56
I'm ready for the questions. Okay, yeah,
Olya Konell 18:59
so you mentioned that 80% of your sales occur through galleries. And so for emerging artists, what are the first practical steps that they should take to establish a relationship with a gallery? You know, how do you maintain these long term and how do you essentially successfully partnership with a gallery?
Warren Chang 19:19
Well, I think I mentioned that each gallery is completely a different entity. It's like a different artist. Each each gallery is very, very unique and different. Do they have their own personality? The owners of a gallery, think of it. I mean, I don't think that people really see it this way, but the owner of a gallery. They want art. They want control of their own gallery. So the art that they're going to show is going to be the art that they like. It's their, it's their choice. It's their, it's their, it's an extension of them. So you have to see that that the. Are very individual in that way. And so I feel like a relationship between an artist and a gallery is like a marriage. It really is. It's, it has to it's very subtly and very complex. And, you know, it's and as far as for emerging artists, I would give them I don't really have. I could tell you what I did, and I'm happy to share what happened with me. But I've been teaching at the Academy of Art now, and which is a very commercial art school in San Francisco for over 20 years. And they're very commercial school, and what they espouse to their students, even in the fine art department, is to basically approach as many galleries as possible, you know, basically play the odds. And so you approach, you know, 100 galleries, send out 100 resumes, or 100 you know, examples of your work and and try to play, play the play the odds, essentially, and get as much gallery representation is possible. And then you disperse your your paintings around, and you're able to, you know, basically, have your hands in a lot of different things. I mean, that seems to be the the the go to marketing advice in the art school for for aspiring artists. But from my point of view, my career built very slowly, you know, very gradually, and it was about working with each gallery one at a time, and sometimes it would it would be a bust. I had many failed relationships with galleries that seemed to be so promising, and I was like on the moon, and then it all just collapsed. And part of that class might also be the fact that you have to find an HONEST gallery, because there are a lot of galleries out there that are dishonest. They'll take your money and run I mean, they'll take your painting, sell it, and they'll run with it. Or a lot of the galleries, they don't even consider the money that they get from your painting as your money to them, it's their money, and they'll pay you when they feel like it, you know. So it's, you know, it's very I've had a lot, I've had a lot of horror stories, Art Gallery horror stories. So I went through a lot of trial and error, and, you know, and that sort of thing, that was my experience. But I preferred going through one gallery at a time. And if I can just, if you can just find one good gallery that you have a good relationship with that is able to sell, which is usually the, you know, I mean, that's the bottom line, is, Can They Sell your work? And then if they sell, you know, I would be very content with just having one gallery, especially when you're starting off. Once you start to grow, and you keep your your career starts to, you know, advance, you'll find it very natural that you'll be adding on more galleries as time goes by. That's my point of view. But, you know, from the Art School point of view, they say, basically, approach as many as possible. You know, you just go out there and just throw away the rejection letters and send another one out and blah, blah, blah. So that's maybe that's the way to go, but I did. I didn't do it that way, yeah, but I caution again, there's a lot of unethical gallery owners out there. They're the kind of things where you'll have an art painting in their gallery. I had a gallery in New York City, and I had been living in New York City, and I'd moved out to California back which is where I'm originally from. And I'd call them up and say, you know, could I have the return of this painting or that, that painting? And they'd say, Oh, it just sold yesterday. Oh my gosh. But, of course, it probably sold, you know, six months ago or six years ago even. But, oh, wow. And they'll when they're asked to return it, then they'll tell you that it's sold. And galleries, you know, good galleries, really, really, really major galleries that they just don't pay. They won't give you the money, because, in their mind, they when they sold the painting, you know, it's, it's their money, and they have all these other bills to pay. And so when they make money and they're ready to pay you, they'll pay you or not, you know, so that, so it's really hopefully, if you do find a gallery, they're an honest gallery, because they're far, I'm not going to say they're far and few between, but they're maybe a few bad apples can give you, you know, a bad
Olya Konell 24:16
experience, yeah, and you, you're, You're, you're, example that it's almost like a good gallery relationship is almost like a marriage, and based on what you just described, sounds like the dating phase. Sorry, my voice, and you have a couple traumatic dating experiences along the way, yeah,
Warren Chang 24:34
but I've had good relationships galleries. I've been with one gallery now for about 20, you know, two or three years, another gallery I've been with for maybe 12 years. So that's pretty that's a pretty good run, yeah, and, you know, I've had galleries that I've been with for short periods, and then I ended. It probably not wisely, but circumstances happened. And for instance, at a gallery in in Alexandria, Virginia of the principal gallery shouldn't say, oops, shouldn't say, pick up any names. But they, you know, they had some paintings in mind, and they sold, they had sold a few, but I needed the paintings back for a museum venue, and once they returned, them back to me, I didn't give them back to them. So, yeah, just, I just let it go. And I kind of regret having let it go, but that's, you know, so things come and go and but, you know, right now, I have some good relationship with art galleries, and you know, it's they're having, I kind of see a real strong parallel between my illustration career, which was for 20 years, and my fine art career. In that, in my illustration career, the the majority of my of my commissions occurred through art representation. They have artist representation in illustration, illustrators and again, the same thing in fine art. The majority of my sales happen through art representation, through art galleries. Yeah. One thing I'd like to share is that when I was an illustrator, I would always wanted to be with the top art represent representatives, and I coveted them, thinking that if I could only be represented by this representative, then everything would be great. I'd be I'd be successful, and my career would be perfect. And, you know, everything would be a happy ending. And same thing as a fine artist, and what I found as an illustrator was I couldn't get the representation from those high profile representatives. But eventually, what happens is my career started to grow as an illustrator to the point where I don't need the representation anymore, you know, or maybe have some other lesser, lower profile representative, and then I'm also involved, hands in, in my career, and then suddenly those representatives are not needed anymore. It's like, I don't care about them. And so it's the same thing with the fine art. I always wanted to be in certain high profile art galleries. And I could never get into any of those high profile art galleries if everybody and then you reach a point in your career where you like, who cares, you know, because you don't really need them. Once you It's you don't need them anymore after a certain period. So once you my journey,
Olya Konell 27:39
once and this kind of segues into our next kind of more deeper dive into the resume again, but like once you've built up your reputation, and you know, if you we were to look at your bibliography page on your website, once you've built every interaction you've had with a with a person, a collector, a gallery, anybody that's bought anything from you, you know that builds your reputation and and again, to reiterate, marketing is everything that we do as an artist, to put ourselves out there. Now, a lot of people, younger people, will focus on Instagram or Facebook only, and they'll just discount galleries completely. And one of the reasons we're focusing on this today is because not everybody wants to be a social media expert. Like you said yourself, you're not a huge fan of it, but you know, you have to have a presence online. And you've chosen Facebook, you know, and this is a message to our artists as well. Pick what you kind of have to play into your strengths and and if your strengths are this, then utilize those tools. If your strengths are this, then, yes, utilize those other, other tools. Otherwise, you know you're not doing neither. You know what I mean? You're kind of trying to do it all, but you're doing neither. So, yeah, so the then we have, I'm sorry.
Angela Agosto 29:00
I was gonna just say just, seems like with the social media, it's a lot more work, like, maybe you have to engage daily, or you were safe born for galleries. Is it like the relationship you have? Because you said it's like a marriage. So you do have to maintain a communication it's probably like, I don't know if you do it monthly, the communication check in with them every quarter, or how it is. But I feel with social media, because there's so many artists on there, and everything's moving so fast, you probably have to do daily engagement,
Warren Chang 29:30
yeah, so I don't do daily engagement at all.
Angela Agosto 29:33
And that’s okay because you're in a gallery, so you kind of don’t need to be, it's just for those people who are not. I was saying, where they're going to do either or not, but probably not both.
Warren Chang 29:41
Well one of the things about social media is they're people that are watching. They're following you, and they're seeing your every move, your little every move you don't know they are, because they're not engaging with you, but they're there watching and they and it's you know. So you have to be really aware of that. You know, maybe, maybe it seems like nobody's engaged, nobody seems like nobody's aware, but they are, they are, yeah, they're looking and they're, you know,
Olya Konell 30:09
they're watching the story. They're watching what you where you're going, what you're participating in. Actually, there was an audience question. There's a couple, but I'm going to call a couple out. So somebody had asked, you know, what are some key characteristics that you might look for upfront to determine perhaps what is a good or bad gallery? Are there any things off the top of your mind that you could first
Warren Chang 30:32
of all, I'd like to say, if you're interested in an art gallery, then visit that gallery. Go over there and you don't have to talk to the director. I mean, you could, but, um, just get to know who that gallery is. Just like an artist when I don't like I would prefer that anyone who approaches me gets to know who I am, yeah, rather. And so same thing for museums, because that's something I feel is really important in my career. I value museum venues more than gallery venues. Go visit that that museum find out who they are. They you don't. You have to get to know who they are first. And so that's that's been, would be my advice there. I'd like to back up a little bit here. We're all we're talking so much about marketing and sales, things of that nature. If you're a starting artist, and I've seen so many artists that are actually fairly accomplished. They've learned to draw and paint a landscape very well or a portrait, yet they're not really doing anything with their careers, and they're not really branching off. And I think the starting point for every artist is to build a body of work, before you build a website, before you do Instagram, before you do those things, create a body of work, maybe 20 paintings that define who you are as an artist. And only when you've done that should you then embark onto your career. And if that means it takes you 10 years, then maybe you should wait 10 years and continue your studies in building that body of work. I've been teaching at the Academy of Art, as I mentioned, for over 20 years, and those entire entirety of those teaching were in the graduate department. So I actually dealt with students who were getting their graduate degrees, and their thesis was creating a body of work, you know, maybe anywhere from 10 to 20 paintings. And they had to come up with a concept. They had to come up with an idea that defined them. So maybe they're saying, I want to be a portrait artist, so I'm going to do 20 portraits, you know, 10 of them full figure, and five of them, you know, little head studies. And that's what I'm going to do. And then so they spend, you know, two, three years building this body of work, and then when they graduate with their degree, they're now written, now, now ready to embark on their career? Yeah, I say the same thing to you guys. If you whether you're in art school or not, before you start to embark on your art career, build your body work first, become the artist you want to be first before you start that journey. Because if you start before that happens, you could end up burning bridges. You'll, you'll be too you'll be, you approach art galleries or venues before you're ready, and they will, you'll get rejected, and then you'll, you're, you don't want to burn bridges too early, because then, then when you are ready, I don't think, I'm not so sure that they're going to be willing to give you another look. Yeah, I really, I really think that's the bottom line. So really, this whole marketing thing is really about being the best artist you can be, you know, creating that body work. And in creating that body work, great, you have to have some kind of identity. And I say that particularly because all of us, I assume, are artists of representational art, and so we're not abstract artists, we're not installation artists, we're, I'm assuming, we're all realism, and whether it's some of it's more abstracted, or whether it's it's more hyper realist, or whether it's photo realist, whatever. So but when you are doing representational art, the subject matter becomes of great importance, and because it's very recognizable. And so I think that you need to have some kind of idea. You know, I think there was a famous art critic, Michael Killeman, out of New York City, and he said, all the best artists have usually have one good idea, sometimes two, and that's enough for a lifetime. So you have to find yourself, you'd think of, I sort of see a representational artist, the same as an author of literature. You know, you have to find your subject. You have to find something that you want to say, and so build a body of work. Work that's along those that that theme, and hopefully it's painted well and whatnot, and so that's what you're that's that's ground zero. So all of you guys, maybe you know we're putting the cart before the horse. You know when you really need to build that, you need to become the artist that you know you can be before you start doing all this marketing mumbo jumbo,
Olya Konell 35:25
which is, you know, you know it, which is so such a great reminder. And you actually, I think, answered a question somebody had in in the chat you said to, you know, it's almost similar to illustration. You have to know what you want to say. So I guess, would it be helpful for an artist to really sit down, dig deep and find out what they want to say, and, almost like describe this short story in a sentence or two, you know, what do they want to say to the world, and then have their work, you know, have a, kind of a central theme of some sort, or repetitive characters. So a good example, if you're doing a body of work, if somebody was to look it, you wouldn't have a dog, animals, humans land like you wouldn't have these diverse there
Warren Chang 36:12
are a lot of artists that do that. They're like they do. They become very skilled at their, you know, their painting skills. And then they paint everything under the sun. They go, Oh, I can paint landscapes, I could do still lives, I could do portraits, I can do and they do all everything, and maybe, and I guess, their, their appeal would be the the skill of the artist, their virtuosity, and that's the appeal of the paintings.
Olya Konell 36:39
But, I don't, but if you're starting, then having that, if
Warren Chang 36:43
you're starting, then, yeah, yeah, well, hopefully you have some ideas, but if you don't, then you can't force that. Oh, yeah, that's something you cannot force. But there's another Chinese proverb I'd like to share with you, yeah, which is, read 100 books, paint one picture, sort of delve into the meaning behind that, which is, you know, basically you have to live some life. You know, you have to experience things before you can paint anything with any meaning. Yeah, so I also wise. I've also used that as an example to students that you know quantity over quality. A lot of times. There's a lot of artists I know who have boasted to me, well, they paint 100 paintings a year. Well, what they've done is they've painted 100 trivial pictures. I mean, I yeah, I think, take your time. And if you look at someone like Vermeer, who's attributed for painting maybe 35 paintings in his lifetime. Yet everybody knows who Vermeer is. He's now considered, you know, one of the greatest artists in our in our history. And he only distributed maybe 3035. Paintings are attributed to him. So you don't need to paint, you know, 5000 pictures to become a significant artist. You'll, you'll paint 5000 pictures that are absolutely insignificant. So, you know, that's something I'd like that I shared with in the podcast as well. Yeah,
Angela Agosto 38:10
and you actually answered a couple of questions with that too. Yeah,
Olya Konell 38:14
you did. You answered a couple of questions that people had in the chat. And I wanted to also highlight something that Clint writes a lot about, and we have whole sections on this, but he, he calls it finding the sovereign artist within. And it's like finding your true self. And you know, before, before mastery, it starts with you, and you have to figure out, you know, you really have to get to know yourself, who, what are you trying to say? You know, everything that you're describing right now really is, you know, it's 100% at at the core, it's you what you want to say. Then comes mastery. Then becomes getting good at what you're doing. And it's,
Warren Chang 38:58
I don't think it goes in that sequence, so to speak. I think it all kind of fills together same time. Or, you know, it's, it's, I often say that, that, and maybe I'm kind of giving some answers to some of your questions.
Olya Konell 39:14
Yeah, you are, which is fine,
Warren Chang 39:17
which I kind of think that aspiring artists, like all of you are, I'm assuming it's good, it's important not to get discouraged, because each artist, they will reach their fruition at a different time in their life. So could be that one of you out there is you may be working as an artist for five years, but you will not really reach full maturity for another 10 or even 20 years from now. And so it's I'm saying this so that you don't give up, because each artist at some point in time will reach that perfect storm where they're Technical skills, their their thought process, their understanding, their their beliefs, everything, their their personal life, everything lines up perfectly so they're able to create the best work of their lives. In fact, I often, I've I read this from a art curator who said that you could argue that these artists like Rembrandt or Velasquez or these each artist, sort of peaked at a different time in their life. Some of them peaked very young, you know, maybe in the age of 20 or 25 and then there are others that peaked at 65 or 55 so it's important, it's you could argue that if all the work of these artists were lost and only the work that they did in those peak years, those five peak years, their importance in art history, would not be diminished. It would be the same. So, you know, it's just keep that in mind. You know, as you progress in your career, because I've witnessed artists, younger artists, who have been at this their career for maybe 20 years, and I won't name any names, but, you know, I've been around long enough to witness younger, younger artists, and they've been at their career for 20 years, and they did reach some success in their 20s, and, you know, got some recognition, and there did fairly well, but they didn't really reach their peak until 20 years later. You know, maybe they were 25 at that time, and now they're, what is it? 2025? 45 now, you know, so and then now they're finally reaching their their goals, because they become mature artists. Everything's peaking is kind of all kind of combining together, right? So I think maybe they had to go through some suffering. Maybe they had to go through some, you know, hard knocks and life experience before they actually reached that maturity. That's what I've witnessed myself, you know, with, anyways, yeah,
Angela Agosto 42:02
no, that's it does, yeah, fits, yeah.
Olya Konell 42:04
That is, sorry, Angela, I mean to talk over you, there's a team sometimes, yeah, no, that is extremely well described. You know, advice as far as, like, the number one thing we see on our end working with artists, is we see the frustration that artists are experiencing, and your encouragement you know about this pivotal moment that occurs is, I think, extremely useful, because artists, you know, and somebody else had this in the chat, they said, oh, there's these people promising quick results, But you know, on social media or this or that there is no quick art, the art, the art career, the art journey, success in art is, there is no quick fix for that. I mean, maybe there's a unicorn that occurred. Somebody
Warren Chang 42:55
has there's, there are artists who reach success at a very young age. Yeah, the unicorns that throughout my 67 years? Yeah, I've just, what I can honestly confess is I'm not one of them. So I was not a prodigy, but I have seen prodigies, and I see them say, and, you know, they're not very there's not a lot of them, you know, it's like so but you can probably, if you sort of operate your career, that you can sort of count on the fact that you're probably you're probably not a prodigy. But, yeah, you know, it's possible. You know, you might be, yeah, but, and then I've seen them, but even a prodigy, what will happen is they'll peak at 25 but, and then, you know, at 30, at 55 they're like, things calm down, and they're basically one of the rest of the human everyone. They're like the rest of us. Well,
Olya Konell 43:49
their uniqueness becomes less significant when you're young and you're a prodigy that is more exciting, or more, you know, unique, than an older person who's been who was a prodigy, well, it, you know, it's just at first glance, you see this young person making these incredible paintings that's going to gain more attention than that same person 40 years later. And
Warren Chang 44:14
I'd like to talk talk about that for those of you out there who are younger artists, the art galleries are. They're just, they're looking for you. They're the art galleries they want. They so much want to discover a young and talented artist. It's that, that's they. They will favor that, because they want to be able to be the one responsible for your success. So they want to be able to say that they found you, they discovered you. And so the art galleries are so they're, they're they want to, they want to be a mentor to you, especially if you're young and talented. That's who they're looking for. Like I started my fine art career when I was in my early 40s, and so I found it a little more difficult. To get art representation and have getting any attention from people, because they just saw me as this old guy who was, like, already over the hill, and there was no fun in trying to help me, you know, so but there, if you're like, 23 years old and you're pretty and you're good looking or whatever, and you're talented to boot, then it's like, oh yes, and the art magazines too, are just going to just fall all over you, because that's what they want. That's what they're looking for. They're looking for the next rock star. And that rock star is not a 50 year old man who's like, that's funny.
Angela Agosto 45:34
You say that and it’s true. I'm not going to name his name, but we have an artist like that, very, very young. Was still in school, and he just got discovered by people and other older established artists kind of started to mentor him and wanted to work with him. And I started seeing posts everywhere, and he just blew up. And he got on our radar, you know, we work with him and everything. But then he he peaked. I mean, like, I started seeing him in New York galleries and with all these big artist buying his paintings. And I was like, wow. Well, then fast forward, we talked to him, and he said, I'm kind of going to take a break and see if this is what I want to do the rest of my because he was still so young. Eventually he did come back, but it kind of goes back to what you said, that sometimes they peak, and then maybe they get a little bit like, where do I go from here? I've already reached every height. Well, in his case, you know, he is coming back, and he's, he said, I after some self discovery and time off, he's, now, this is what I want to do. But I think, like, because he peaked so young, and it was crazy when all these big galleries started representing him right away, I was like, Wow. I mean, and his skill just got better and better. So he really did earn all that. But yeah, sometimes, like you said, it could be too early.
Warren Chang 46:41
I just, I know that gallery directors, that's, that's, that's who they want to mentor somebody. They want to find a young person they can mentor and be responsible for their success. They want, if they're the directors, have huge egos, and they want to, they want to prove how, you know, insightful they are. And you know, saying so someone like an older artist like myself there, there's not that much opportunity for older, older artists, but it kind of reminds me of statement by Degas. He once said that everybody's an a genius at the age of 25 but the key is to be called a genius at the age of 50, yeah, because it's but when you're young like that, everyone say, Oh, he's so talented, you know? He said, Yeah, and they and every and so stand out, yeah for the but then, to get that attention, when you're an old guy, an old
Angela Agosto 47:37
guy, everybody's wise, and everybody's kind of saying, Yeah,
Olya Konell 47:40
you really have to work at it a little more. You have to level up your level of genius or skill, or whatever it is that's that's true. I you know one thing, and you mentioned this earlier, and I want to circle back to your career moment. You of having your work so you've had the unique experience of having your work purchased by museums, which elevated your career and credibility. And you mentioned you actually like museums even more, you know. I want to hear about that, you know. And what specifically, what steps can artists take to make their work attractive to me, to to both museums and collectors? Or, how does one get on the radar? Like, how did
Warren Chang 48:22
that goes back to the first thing about building your body work and trying to create some kind of meaning in your work. Because if you're if all you're relegated to is painting landscapes and pet pictures, I don't think anybody's going to take you seriously. I mean, in terms of the museums and art critics, I mean, so I don't know how. So what was the question? So,
Olya Konell 48:47
you know, for like, what steps can artists take to make their work? Well, you've answered that. And how, you know, my question was, how do you get your museum to look at your work like, did you go in? Like you said, Did you go it? How did it all come about? Like, if I'm an artist that see has a local museum that I think would be hypothetically, my work would be great for because I paint the subject matter, maybe that they feature the stories that they tell at this location. How do I even approach them like
Warren Chang 49:20
you got me when you find out the answer, let me know, because
Olya Konell 49:25
how did you get yours in there? Did they approach you? Or each
Warren Chang 49:30
venue was a complete different story and entity. You know my local museum, the Monterey Museum of Art, I was working as a fine artist living here. And I was born in this town for 10 years, more than 10 years, and they completely ignored my existence. So it wasn't until I the, you know, the turnaround of directors was just so prolific. It's that once a director, a certain director, got in there, and the director. Happened to have a background in historical 19th century painting. Then they took notice of my work. But prior to that, I couldn't. They didn't even I didn't even exist. So how I I can't? I wouldn't know how to get the attention of except maybe to participate in their usually, the museums will have more community shows, like a miniature show where you're donating, yeah, that's good.
Olya Konell 50:28
That's a good way. Yeah, on the door and support them, yeah?
Warren Chang 50:32
So they can now, at least they can make maybe they'll know who you are. So, yeah. So that's one way, other ways for me was just complete, just luck. You know, each one of them was different, where maybe some somebody introduced me to that, that museum, you know, maybe it was a patron, or I remember I went out to a show out in the I went to the retrospective of my mentor, my former teacher and good friend, Max Ginsburg, and he had a retrospective in the butler Museum of Art in Butler, Ohio. Is it Butler? No, it's not Butler. It's Youngstown, Ohio, okay? And so I went out there to attend it, because, at the time, he was in his late 80s, or Leno his 80s. And I thought, wow, I don't know if I'll have an opportunity to do this again, and I really want to honor him. So I flew out there and attended the reception, and there was a lady that was there and and she just came up to me and was just saying, Are you Warren Chang and yeah. And since she was a big fan of my work, and she was just like, just fawning over me. And Max's wife came up to me and said, Oh, don't talk to that lady. She's crazy. Don't talk to that lady. And I said, and I said, No, I think I'm going to keep talking to this lady. So I kept talking to her, and she kept talking to me and telling me how much she was a big fan of my work. And it turned out that she was, like, the largest donor of that museum. Wow. She sponsored a show for me to have there at the Butler, which is like me going straight to the top right from the very beginning of my career. You know? I mean, this is should be just happened at the end of your career, and not at the beginning, so, I mean, least find our career. So yeah, that's just all just a matter of happenstance and luck.
Olya Konell 52:26
I think you just answered my question, and I don't think this is going to be, might be a moment of self discovery. So I love this story you you know, and this artist, if you're listening the value and importance of having artist relationships, with mentors, with other artists, because this is how having those relationships allows for things like this to happen. You went out there to participate in this, and just by being there, putting yourself out there, attending a live event, you shook some hands, you had a conversation. So in other words, if an artist wants to increase the chances of them having these serendipitous opportunities or these moments of luck, the only way of you won't find that if you just stay in your house or in your studio at all times, you have to put yourself out there. Just be a human, be a person, smile, shake a hand.
Warren Chang 53:20
You're absolutely correct. And I think that for me as artists, my life, our lives are so lonely. We're, I'm, you know, 80% of my life is in my studio. Yeah, you know, working by myself. So the opportunity to go to a reception, you know, to a art function, you know, it's a chance to get out there. And, you know, see other human beings get out to the public once in a while, so I find them to be very fun, especially when you're participating in the exhibit. Um, but like you
Angela Agosto 53:49
said, even if it's not you participating, you went to go honor a mentor. And, yeah, so, yeah, well,
Warren Chang 53:55
yeah, yeah. But, you know, I see lot there are, there are people out there who I see, and they, they really do the whole smoothing. They tend all the, you know, the shows, and they're, they're trying to get, you know, I don't know that that's, they're just out there like crazy, and I don't do that,
Olya Konell 54:14
but, yeah, but genuine
Angela Agosto 54:16
and kind of be there, whether it's because, you know somebody or because maybe the work they're going to be
Warren Chang 54:22
because there's a reason for you being there, yeah?
Angela Agosto 54:25
So it’s more than not just like weird that you're at every single event. Yeah, you're not related to anything happening in there.
Olya Konell 54:31
this is, this is going to take a little psychological or scientific turn. I recently read a book off topic. It's called the mindful body by Harvard professor, Dr Ellen Langer, or Lang Lang I think Langer and she did some incredible experiments on the topic of mindfulness, which is basically sincerity, authenticity, like what you just said, you know, attend. Having a bunch of events just for the sake of schnoozing, or attending an event that means something to you, and you're present. You're being very aware, you're being very intentional. You're being it's authentic to you at the same time, there's some interesting observations that they have made when people are operating in that state, the people you meet, the people around you, can sense it, and it can be measured on machines, like the electromagnetic signals that the body gives off are actually measurable. I know it sounds a little woowoo, but it's not, trust me. You can research this yourself. They're really good, really good book, and the experiments she the experiments that she did, you know, were just mind blowing. I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole, but I wanted to throw that out there. But it really just kind of speaks to the fact that that what you just said, being authentic, being you obviously don't, not being fake, you know, but actually participating when it is authentic and true to you, you know, is, is basically how going to help us, introverts, which most of us are, you know, get ourselves out there. Like you said, there's a few people that are maybe overkill, but most of us struggle getting ourselves out the door
Angela Agosto 56:22
when you're in that, like you said, that mindful state where you're doing something for you, you're genuine, and then somebody will take notice instead of, I mean, I don't know who this person is, but that was just there schmoozing. Yeah, probably don't talk to him, because maybe I think, Oh, he's gonna try to sell me something, or he's not wanting to approach but I feel like you were there for your for your friend, your mentor, and you were approachable. And probably, you know, like she knew who you were already. But still, I feel like you were it gave her the sense, like I'm going to go and approach him because I want to know and something about her she liked.
Warren Chang 57:00
But I do feel it relates to exactly what I was saying, Yeah, I think that people can feel your energy, you know, yes,
Angela Agosto 57:05
yes, exactly, yeah. Vibes, you give off. There's
Olya Konell 57:08
another thing for people to Google. It's called the heart and Math Institute. And yes, they can sense your energy, your your heart has an electromagnetic field that extends three feet outside the human body. A Hort, a horse heart is bigger and it extends further. But they've put animals and humans into a room, and the electromagnetic signals your energy, it actually is measurable, and it affects the people around you, animals and humans. Mind blowing. This is not art related, but I do feel like the crossovers are there.
Warren Chang 57:39
That's really, that's really interesting. Yeah,
Olya Konell 57:43
I told
Angela Agosto 57:44
me, if they gave off that wonderful, yeah, yeah, true
Olya Konell 57:47
and so, and this goes back to, like, you know, authenticity and sincerity. You know, you, you've spoken a lot about the importance of sincerity in in art, and, you know, we've kind of talked about it. So I'm not going to read that whole question, but I do feel that when it comes to creating your body of work, making sure that all that authenticity and sincerity is there, because the audience, the or the viewers of your work, are going to see that they're going to sense it, versus you just creating what you think is going to work well, but you really Don't care about it, you know what I mean.
Warren Chang 58:24
So everything just sort of from my life, has been very authentic. I mean, when I, when I was I was studying painting in New York City with Max Ginsburg, who I'd mentioned, he was my teacher in the beginning. And what I got out of it was not so much technical skills, yeah. What I got out of it was his sort of philosophy, his take on art in general, and actually being in New York City itself, also had the same kind of ambiance to it that, you know, what was important was that you be honest, that your artwork is honest, that it's sincere and it's honest and it's true, it's the truth. So, like when I would paint a nude model or a person, I never tried to paint an idealized version of that person. I tried to paint them exactly as they are. So if they have a little bit of middle aged fat, then include that, you know, I mean, be authentic. Yeah. That was just something that I was, you know, taught to be as an artist, and that was so it's always been there in terms of the term sincerity, in my reading of the philosophy of Leo Tolstoy, he wrote a book called what is art, and one of the things that he keeps circling back to is the word sincerity, that that is the most important factor in art is this is sincerity. So that's just, it's been all pretty much part of who I am. And it's all kind of just, it's all kind of just fell in place perfectly, because all the things I ever read that I believe in are. I believed in all along it just simply, it kind of reinforced it or confirmed it, you know, for me, yeah,
Olya Konell 1:00:07
it confirmed it, and reinforced it in some ways, maybe made you just more aware of it, you know, and allows you to then share that information with others as well, I'm sure, to your students, and, you know, to us today as well. Like, I think that that's awesome. I and I know we're a little bit over, but I I kind of wanted to ask a question in the chat, and I had a couple more. So thank you, somebody. There's a few people that were commenting, I'm 70 plus two, and I'm 70, you know, isn't, you know. So there's a few others that are in in the camp, and somebody asked, Have I also, have I missed the boat at 70 plus? I cannot get out a lot. I need to find a way to get my work out without, you know, art in the parks and holiday markets. Do you have any advice? Yeah,
Warren Chang 1:00:55
well, I think that. No, I don't think that you have your it's missed the boat or whatever you want to say, because I think that each artist is an individual, and each of us are going to write our own story and our every and I think it's most important that we be authentic to ourselves and and that art that we create will be authentic to you and to everybody else looking at it. And if your story is that you were you grew up and you raised that, maybe you were a teenager and you loved art, and then you abandoned it because you went to college and got married and raised a family, and then now you're only now that you're retired, that you're able to sort of pursue your childhood dream. Maybe that's your story and, um, you know that that's who you are. That's exactly you're you are where you're supposed to be, you know, and so you're doing, you're pursuing your passion. And what happens, what success occurs, is purely your own. And, you know, I think it's, it's each person is going to have a different story, a different journey. Nobody's going to have this. Nobody's going to have the same journey I have. And you're going to have, you're going to write a completely different story. And I think that that's the process. Is what you enjoys, is your life. So, you know, stick with it and enjoy it every every minute of it. Lovely.
Olya Konell 1:02:16
I have somebody that says I hear the term miss the boat. I guess it depends whether where you are going is more important than the journey. I hope I never quite get there enjoying the journey too much. That was from Barbara. That was, I think, exit comments, compliments to what you just said. Right now is to enjoy the journey. And everybody has a unique story, and knowing what that story is is maybe part of discovering, you know, discovering that story is part of the journey, I think, as well. So I want to ask so if you were, if you were starting your art career today with all the knowledge that you have now, what steps would you take to jumpstart grow your art career?
Warren Chang 1:03:04
Well, I saw that I had a prelude to all your questions, so I had a chance before a lot of them, yeah, and so I if I had to change anything, honestly, I don't think I'd change anything. Everything went I mean, I everything happened for reason. Everything that happened good and bad. All happened for reason, and it made me who I am today. And so I don't think I'd want to change anything. But as a young man, young artist, I always thought that I didn't really I was too ambitious. I was trying to I was I felt like I was basically in a race. It felt like a race when I was in art school, like, who could get to this point, A to B, A to C, the fastest so I was, I never took a break. I just was to put my foot on the pedal, and was accelerating. And I regret that I would. I regret that I, in some ways, I felt like I like I was giving you advice that I I embarked on my career too early. I should have continued working on my studies and continued try to be the artist I wanted to be, but because I thought it was some kind of race, I had to get on the track as fast as possible. And I think, like I mentioned, I think I a lot of bridges were burned along the way because I wasn't ready for the opportunities that arised. And so I think that that's what maybe one of the regrets I have is I would have spent more time in preparation and trying to be the artist i i wanted to be prior to embarking into the profession of artist. That's it. Goes back to my advice that I gave in the very beginning.
Olya Konell 1:04:47
Yeah, I love how it actually has come full circle. And one thing that I did not get a chance to highlight, and I want to do that now, and we will have this in the recording part of. We encourage artists to do again is connect with other artists and continue learning, you know, continue becoming that artist that you want to be. And sometimes that means, you know, working on your technique or skill some sometimes it's other things. You are going to be presenting some learning opportunities, some new ones in 2025 where people can learn with you, so we're sharing your to to find out when that is and what that will be. The best way to do that is to sign up to his newsletter and he'll just send an email out when that when that is ready.
Warren Chang 1:05:32
I'm in the talks with two places. One is in Burling game, which is just south of San Francisco, and the other is closer, also fairly close to that area. It's in Saratoga, which is in south of San Francisco, near Silicon Valley. So I'm having talks with two, you know, art schools or art organizations about doing workshops there in 2025 at this moment. So if you, if you So, if you check on my events or subscribe to my newsletter, then you'll be kept, you know, abreast of that activity.
Olya Konell 1:06:13
Yeah, exciting. That's awesome. And this is I, I like to spend some time learning at the beginning of the year, I encourage others to kind of look for those opportunities. I think learning should never stop. It's fun. You know? I think it's, there's always it's it keeps us young at the same time. So it doesn't matter if we're always learning, we're always young. So, so there's a lot of opportunity there. So we've shared those links, and I, and I'm I know you've prepared for this, and we've jumped around a little bit, so I was looking through my questions to see what, what we had missed. But I think for the most part, you know, you've kind of addressed through our conversation, the one thing we didn't talk about was contests, and so really quickly, besides galleries in your experience, how important are our competitions and awards in building an artist's credibility? And then, you know, how can artists really strategically approach entering contests to maximize their exposure? Because you've entered quite a few yourself. You've taken some awards, mostly,
Warren Chang 1:07:20
mostly earlier in my career. Okay, yeah, not so much lately. I don't really, although I think this last year I decided to enter a couple, Oh, that's right, yeah, yeah. But I, I haven't done it in a while, but I think it really everything you do, you know, builds your resume and gives you more credibility amongst galleries and collectors and other artists. So but what I find is a lot of artists, not a lot. There are some artists who become fairly accomplished in their skills, but they're continually doubting themselves. So they don't want to expose themselves, they don't want to enter contest or afraid to, they don't want to get out there and show their work, because they're just they, they're bench I would there are people I would describe as being perpetual art students. And there comes a time where you can, you need to spread your wings and get out there and start to build a body of work. Start to, you know, try to be your own artist. But a lot of artists, some are not say, I say a lot, but I know artists that are fairly accomplished, their skills are have reached a fairly high level, yet they are still afraid to spread their wings. They They always think that they're still not good enough, and they still want to study under so and so artists, and they still want to be, you know, like somebody else, but you know, you need to be the best you can be, rather than, you know, copy of another artist. And you know, to be unafraid to get out there. And part of doing that is entering contests like that, like we mentioned, which is really arbitrary. I mean, I think the boldbrush contest is a great way to start, because it's great. It's, yeah, it's, I don't know, it's sort of a mid level, and I don't know, I think that the boldbrush is a good is a good venue.
Olya Konell 1:09:18
We actually get quite a few galleries that look at those entries, not even the winners, but they'll look through to see the entries. And you know, for speaking to what you were saying earlier about they want to find that next artist they want. They especially younger artists. The other thing you know you said you entered them more earlier in your career, versus now you do it periodically. This might be a great I guess, strategy, I guess, is the best word for it, for somebody who is starting out in their career, you know, maybe focus on entering some conscious, getting a few things on your resume. And for resumes, I would like if, if you don't have one, I'm sharing a link to Warren's his actual professional, I guess, his CV, which is like, what, you know, this is what a collector would want to look at. And then on his website, we'll share the link to his actual detailed list that is more useful for us artists. So this is what's on his website, and then that's what a collector would look at that's on one of his gallery sites. The reason why I want to highlight that is, if you don't have some kind of a list like this, start building it, start entering things, start creating this resume, and then put together one that you can have, you know, for your collectors, for galleries, and then you have a more detailed one on your website. But if you're like, Well, I don't have anything to put on there, well this will hopefully help get you started.
Warren Chang 1:10:48
Yeah, the one the gallery of CVS, is the more professional version. That's the one that you know other galleries will look at, collectors will look at, museums will look at. So it has to be very simplified and easily understood. The one in my website is very, almost, like, more, like a bibliography of my life. It's different. Yeah, take the time to look through that all. But it's,
Angela Agosto 1:11:12
I was gonna say, I think it's important for like, the ones who were saying, Oh, well, I'm 70. I'm 70 plus you can do enter, like Warren said, you can enter the contest. These are online so you don't have to go anywhere. Because I know there was a couple artists who said I can't travel or I don't want to go. This is just a good way to still get out there, virtually.
Olya Konell 1:11:30
Yeah, absolutely. See. And the other thing, Lauren, I wanted to highlight that I really liked, I loved looking at your blog. You know, I love, because I love looking at artists studios. I just liked, like, Oh, what do they got there? Look at all those books, you know. But I love that, you know, even though you you know, like, and you can go to archives, you can click on the different months and years. So, like you were saying earlier. It's almost like it's part of your story. So when a collector meets you, then they go to your website, then they click on this, and they're like, Wow, look at all the different stuff that he's doing. This is just a great way of compiling your story, your history. And I encourage artists that haven't taken the time to even if you're only posting something once a month or once quarterly, just to give an update of what's going on in your world. This is a really great way to keep people in the loop, or to kind of just,
Warren Chang 1:12:31
this is really news to me, because I've been doing the blog. I mean, sometimes I'll only post once a year, yeah, or even once every two years. But I'm surprised that anyone's ever looked at it. Laura. Laura was Laura who did the podcast interview with me. She said she went through my entire blog. She knew so much about me through that blog, that's basically how she learned everything about me. And I was like, Yeah, somebody's actually looking at it. I couldn't believe it. That
Olya Konell 1:13:02
is the first thing I did when I so I was talking to Laura, and I'm like, hey, who would you recommend? You know, because we like to work together sometimes, to and anyway, so she recommended you. And so I went, that's the first thing I did. I went to your website. My natural instinct was to click on art and to click on blog and then read the bio, and, you know, and I'm no different than any other person that's going to go to your website, if they see blog, they're going to see what's he up to. It's an opportunity to kind of see a little bit into your life. And if you're only posting once a year or quarterly, it's, it's it's archived, it's, it's there, and it's a chance for people to see your story progress. And I think it's cool. And I love those candid shots. I just loved seeing your house. I live in a little cottage style house as well. Like, that's kind of set in the woods, in the trees, and, well,
Warren Chang 1:13:53
that's so that's not a picture of my house. That's my studio. The studio, okay,
Olya Konell 1:13:57
yeah, that's, I think that's awesome to see. When
Angela Agosto 1:14:00
was the last time you blogged? I was like, oh, recently, just last month. Yeah. So, yeah,
Olya Konell 1:14:07
no, that's that's awesome. And then we wanted to share that with everybody so they could grab those links. If you we shared a link and you didn't get a chance to grab it during the webinar, when we post the recording, we will have a little a doc that has every link that was shared and, you know, just to kind of wrap, wrap things up and land the plane, last words of advice. If there was one, only one thing someone could take away from this conversation, and you've shared so much wisdom, but what would be that one piece of wisdom that you would like to highlight for us,
Warren Chang 1:14:44
that's, that's the hardest question of I covered everything
Olya Konell 1:14:49
you did, and you gave us so much wisdom, but any last words of advice could be another proverb that comes to mind.
Warren Chang 1:14:55
Well, just, I'm just going to repeat what I feel like I already said, which is, be true. Yourself and write your own story. You know, if you're 75 and you're painting, how wonderful that you're 75 and you're painting, maybe enter a contest that's, um, that's age restricted, because they do have sometimes contest to say artists over 70 you know, I, in fact, I think I entered one that was artists over 65 and awesome. Yeah. So, I mean, there's still so much more to explore and, and, you know, I, you know, this is write your own story. You, you redefine who you are, you, you define to everybody what you're doing and, and it's just never too late. That would be my that would be my.
Olya Konell 1:15:42
I love that. I don't know about you guys, but I found this really inspiring, wherein, honestly, you have so much wisdom. I feel like this could have gone on. We could keep talking, because you have so much to share, and you present everything in such a, you know, authentic kind way. And I know your students are truly blessed, the ones that get to learn from you when you teach, because I can only imagine that through the process of teaching them how to become great artists, you're also in imparting or imprinting some of some of these experiences and this wisdom that you've collected over the years, so they truly have the privilege. I
Warren Chang 1:16:23
now that, now that you just said that I want to add an addendum, yeah, to what I would said earlier, and that's, well, I guess, I guess, well, never mind
Angela Agosto 1:16:38
I could tell you were a teacher with the way you were sharing things today, that it was just inspirational. And I just wanted to point out that the audience that started with us, the bigger number, stayed with us, and just a few minutes ago. So yeah,
Olya Konell 1:16:52
and if, if anybody wants to pass on a thank you message or anything at all to Warren, drop it in the chat, we'll just hang on for another you know, little few seconds here, drop your messages in the chat. If you want me to pass anything on, I always like to leave that at the very end for our audience. I will pass these on after the webinar to them. And we really, again, appreciate you all attending. If you have any artist friend that could benefit from this conversation. Maybe they need a little bit of inspiration themselves. If you share the link to boldbrush.com if they're not a customer of ours, you know, with our websites or anything, if you tell them to go to boldbrush.com and just subscribe to the to the newsletter for your or or paid next week or the week after, usually next week, we will send out the recording to everybody that's subscribed, so that way you can, you know, hopefully, help somebody out that's feeling stuck, because I have been through that actually quite recently, gone through some life changes and things like that, and these conversations that We've had with, you know, our artist, and you know, sharing this kind of information has honestly been so uplifting and have helped me personally exponentially. So
Warren Chang 1:18:13
thanks everybody, and thanks for having me.
Olya Konell 1:18:15
Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you everybody as well. Thank you Angela and thank you, Warren, we will go ahead and sign off and to all those that attended, thank you as well, and I will pass your messages on Join us next time bye bye
Warren Chang 1:18:32
bye bye.
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