Your Vibe & Energy
Element 2 of Art Marketing Circle II
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
We covered this last week and you can catch up here
2. Your Unique Vibe & Energy
this is what makes your art uniquely you - this is what we’ll cover today
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 Vibe & Energy
What makes your art unique
If you’re not the best, you better be unique. If you’re not unique you better be the best.
It’s very difficult to be “the best”, but you likely are already unique in some way. You have a unique vibe and energy about you, and the goal is to get that to reflect in your art. It may not show in your art yet. But push yourself until it does. Not every artist has tapped into this yet: plenty of artists do the same type of landscapes, still lifes, or portraits that thousands of other artists also do. If I go to a plein air competition and everyone’s paintings look basically the same without much uniqueness, then I’d likely look for the best one I could afford (price) or the one painted by the artist that I best connected with (story). But, it’s far more rewarding (and easier) in the long run, to mine your own uniqueness, vibe and energy. But it does take time and experimentation.