From Silvia Damiano…

Dear Readers,

I want to share with you a venture I am undertaking with my daughter Relmi (photographer and graphic designer), who is 21 years of age.

We are putting together the “First Annual Brain Art Exhibition & Unconference” at Global Gallery in Paddington march 2011. There will be a Brain Art Competition for 15 - 19 and 20 - 30 year olds. Take a look at the website and see what you think.

http://www.aboutmybrain.com/whats-on/brain-art-exhibition

I am currently searching for more ways to connect with lots of people who want to get involved in a project like this so feel free to let people have the link.

Regards Silvia

“My business is dismal, Eric. I haven’t sold a painting in two years. What am I doing wrong?” said this distressed artist who wanted to blame all her problems on the economy.

I have a series of questions I usually ask to help friends solve problems. The conversation went like this:

Eric: What changed? Why do you think you’re selling less?
Lady: I dunno. It must be the economy. Nothing is selling.
Eric: When did your work stop selling?
Lady: About two years ago.
Eric: Why do you think it stopped?
Lady: I really don’t know, but it’s just when the economy got bad.
Eric: What else could it be?
Lady: I dunno. I guess the people in this community simply don’t appreciate art as much as the town we were living in before.
Eric: Huh? You moved? When did you move?
Lady: Yes, we moved about two years ago to a different state.

The light went on. The root of the problem had been discovered.

This artist can blame the economy for her lack of sales, and that is a reality. But in this case there was another main factor: She moved away from her reputation. Not only did she move, she is no longer represented by a gallery in the community where she built that reputation. She would have been smart to keep taking advantage of her reputation there, but instead she’s expecting the same level of sales in her new community, where she hasn’t invested eight years in building her brand as an artist.

Organic Brand Building
For most artists, brand building occurs organically, not by design. They get out in their community, they are seen year after year in art shows and local galleries, they get some publicity, and eventually that visibility works in their favor and their prominence as an artist grows. Believe it or not, your reputation (your brand) has an impact on your sales.

In the community where I grew up, there was a local artist who I thought was famous nationally because everywhere I went, I saw his artwork, over the course of 15 years. I later learned he was a local star, but no one outside of town had ever heard about him. If he’d ever moved away, he’d have lost the cumulative effect of all his decades of visibility.

Will paintings sell without a brand? Of course. But brands create demand, a following, and higher prices.

This woman had failed to create a brand. Her incorrect assumption was that her work was selling in Town A, therefore it would sell equally well in Town B. But it was her reputation (her brand) that was making her work sell so well.

Are You Branded Where You Want To Sell?
It is critical to think of yourself as a brand and create a reputation where you want your work to sell and with whom you want to buy, and then to reinforce that brand with frequent visibility.
What — and where — is your reputation and brand?

If you want to be known in your town, your town needs to know you.
If you want to be known nationally, the nation needs to know you.
If you want to be known among museums, you need visibility among museum professionals.
If you want to be known by galleries, you need visibility among galleries.

Visibility is the key, but it is of little value unless you make it an ongoing effort to create frequent impressions. One-time visibility is of little value anywhere. Brands are built on the accumulation of impressions.

Don’t Take Your Brand For Granted
The woman I spoke with told me, “The people in my town are just not going to buy my work, so I’m going to move elsewhere.” I told her that she is likely to have the same problem unless she moves back to where her brand is already known — and even then she’s been invisible for the last two years and would need to rebuild, though it would be easier than starting from scratch. We often take our brands for granted and don’t understand the value of what we’ve built. Don’t take the importance of your brand for granted. And if you don’t have a brand, start building it now.

Sincerely,

Eric Rhoads

Sign up to receive my art marketing blog at http://ericrhoads.blogs.com/artist_marketing or my gallery marketing blog at http://ericrhoads.blogs.com/gallery_marketing. Follow me on Facebookand Twitter.

Take the standard card you might send to a friend for their birthday and consider how it might be a useful art activity.

Sure you could decorate it in some card type design and say happy birthday, but I would hope you might go further than that.

Consider, how it…

- Folds.

- Unfolds.

- Could use the envelope to say more than the card.

- Could be a series of images, that when put together could create a big image.

- Could use words to express a theme.

- Might be displayed when it is sent… perhaps it comes with instructions.

- Could present a theme.

- Could inspire the receiver to create another one (or 20…) and send them on.

Explore some of these starting points and see what happens next, perhaps a set of blank ones drawn on if differing ways to see if you can create something fresh rather than just exploring basic imagery in a few dimensions. If you create  a few send me a photo or three to see the results.

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Buyer profiles:

I like it - Colours, lines, shapes, tones, subject matter, scale, composition, price,. Any and or all of these (and maybe a few others) become the motivation for buying a piece, this is usually supported by a justification “It will look good where I want to put it.” Mostly it’s about decoration or showing something they believe is beautiful. Long term value as an appreciating artwork, negligible. “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like…”

I like the artist - They probably like the artworks created by the artist, the style etc as well as the person… Perhaps they have not met the artist but have been told about them by a gallery. “You really should look at the work of..” These buyers often connect with the person, then the art, they will then have a story to tell, “We met this artist and wow!) They are not so interested in the longer term value of the work, perhaps wishing it’s value may rise as well as having decoration value. “We met the Artist at the gallery, got to see their studio later on and now we know more about them and their inspiration, we really like the work too!” - “The Artist is a good friend of ours and we love their work as well as them, great to have one of their works in our collection.”

I like the price - An art work is purchased above a certain amount, the gallery is renown for having works which are above a certain value, the buyer knows that, the buyers friends know it too. so to have one from “X Gallery” becomes a status symbol. No mention of the price is made and any interest in the artist is often cursory. This can happen at any level in the art field from decorative works, through to contemporary art and prices though to many thousands of dollars. They say they are informed by the gallery the value of the artists work will rise, but who knows… “The gallery has taught me a lot about this Artist and their work…”

Secondary market buyers - “I like works already with some value to them, the artist is often better known, has a track record of success in some way and their works are valued by others enough to make it to the secondary market.” Auctions of artworks are usually the way these buyers get the works. They could be building an investment portfolio and are linking their budget to the works and the propensity for the art to appreciate in value. “I put into action my knowledge of the Artist and art-world, coupled with information from the catalogue and other sources.”

Institutional - These are Gallerists and Curators buying for larger organistations. They may be looking for works of significance from certain art eras, works and or artists whose value may have had critical acclaim, or their works may hold some deeper cultural or contemporary interest, providing some measure of value, perhaps as an investment and as a culturally valuable piece. “We buy works of broader cultural value first and foremost, the fact many of these may appreciate in financial value is often secondary but a nice bonus.”

Patrons - “We buy works by specific artists sometimes and also because we like the works and or we like the concepts communicated.” Call them rich, eccentric or whatever, these people are great patrons of the arts, often holding large collections revered by the art community at higher levels. It could be a show of status but often in a more demure manner. “We love following the work of Artist X, but we also buy others too, we don’t flaunt the collection to others we just love to support the wider cultural fabric of society.”

Investors - “We want works, which will appreciate in value, yes we buy what we like too so if we get ‘stuck with it’ we can live with it.” Using a broad range of information to make (hopefully) effective buying decisions to collect works which will provide a financial return. Coupling knowledge of works, academic information and investment trends for the works to make informed decisions. The works can be sourced from the primary or secondary markets and sold at auction later on. “It’s an investment first and foremost.”

Copyright © Steve Gray 2010+

Del Kathryn Barton - Painter

Diane Savona - Textile Artist

With this definition in mind Artists might find themselves saying, “So when am I not exploring culture…” Great point, and while you are pondering that let me get on with some other bits… Thanks…

Patterns of human activity, things we might do repeatedly, things, which have significance or importance, which are repeated.

Therefore there are a lot of things, which could fall into these category’s, the Artist using these to communicate and or explore “stuff” about them could find some interesting starting points, here are a few, I am sure there is more.

• Popular culture - Looking at the popular things of the time and their impact - Social - Sports - Politics - Art - Philosophy
• Religious culture - The history - The rituals - The beliefs - Structures - Development
• Historic culture -  The things that happened of significance - Wars - Natural disasters - Other
• Social/Organisational culture - Shared knowledge - Values and beliefs - Cultivation of concepts and philosophies.

Take any of these and consider ways to utilise them as a starting theme, then figure a few ways to make art with the “cultural” starting point.

© Steve Gray 2010+

How about this as an example, War - There are many ways to depict war in art, but what if I was to collect copies of war time newspaper articles and create a collage of the cut up articles… I could cut out shapes of guns and overlay them, I could make patterns out of the collage of guns, the result is a starting point on the theme of war. Of note here is the way I can explore the idea and fit it to the cultural theme, therefore I can explore the theme in a range of ways which may lead me to examining the topic at a deeper level and hopefully communicate that to others visually.

© Jesse Nivens 2010+

So there’s a start, you could take almost ANYTHING you are interested in and explore it this way. Perhaps a collage might lead you to thinking about a drawing or painting, or ideas for photographs themed from the collage.

By following a train of thought, then exploring it further, you could be creating your own level of significance and importnace about something, so you would be creating your own culture! I figure that’s why art is a called a cultural activity. Hmm if I use that sort of thinking sport could be art… or at least the catalyst to the way we might explore the culture of sport.

Activities to take the concept further;

Exploring the definition of “Culture”.

1. Find at least five definitions of the term culture (Dictionary and or Internet search) and from those distill a series of points to assist in strengthening your understanding of the term “culture” (make sure you do all this in your visual diaries to reference it later on.)
2. As you explored the definitions of culture, did anything relate to a topic or subject of interest to you? Do a quick brainstorm and see what happens, based around your interests, asking the question, “What things am I interested in which can clearly relate to “culture”? (Make your brainstorm, at least 21 points long).
3. From your brainstorming, pick out a few points which are of strong interest to you… Now jot a few points in your visual diary on ways you might be able to use these points.
4. Create a word based mind map of whats been happening since you started this process.
5. Make a purely visual mind map to go with the text based one, perhaps search the net for images you can copy and paste, print out and then paste into your visual diary.
6. Make some notes and or drawings on any key themes you have come across which might be showing up… Are there any strong enough for you to explore as an art work?

Further concepts…

1. Look at the project 1000 journals this will give you a range of ideas on how others have created journals and make a mini journal on your efforts so far for exploring “culture”…
2. Create a large drawing using one of the pages from your mini journal as inspiration. (tape together a bunch of pieces of paper to make the image BIG.)
3. Write about the process thus far in your visual diary and the things you have discovered, what has stood out to you?
4. Select two of the interviews on Contemporary Visual Artists at our sister site. Take notes about their work and their way of working and how they explore the concept of “culture?”…
5. Create a few quick drawings or actual pieces in any medium to abstractly explore some more random notions about the term culture.
6. The culture of various societies is often developed from their history, can you find any links to what you have done in this exploration of the topic and the history of your social background (Country of origin, social position etc.?)

Copyright © Steve Gray 2010+

I then thought… Wow what a great way for students to get ideas for ways to approach a visual diary.

Then it went further as I began pondering the possibilities, as the doco explored how people had connected through the journal, passing it on etc.

I liked the connection aspect to it and thought the idea of connecting in art would be a useful one to explore contemporary themes.

Connect… (Feel free to add some other ideas via the comments…)

Mail Art - Connect with other artists by making a postcard and sending it to them and seeing what (if anything) they sendback - find them on the internet, you may well send an ecard of some kind or a scanned image of a card you made.

Invite - Invite people to create something and send it to you, from a postcard, to a letter, artwork etc. put the invites up on noticeboards where  you think you will get some interesting responses. perhaps aim for them to send things to a gmail or hotmail email account to protect your privacy or even a PO box.

Ok now you think of some ways you can connect with people to create a project which might engage others. Discuss some of the issues you may face then brainstorm some ideas, remember to share them!

I was shown another way years later which I like more, as it involves students at least cutting and pasting info they need and therefore see of value, over time the resource builds to suit their needs and interests.

Here’s how…

1. Take a quick internet search for a glossary of art terms (probably just heading points at this stage) or create your own ready to use.
2. Take the list and put it in your favourite word processor.
3. Use the headings as starting points, get the info on the headings which interest you and paste it in.
4. Save the info and keep adding to it, over time some of the headings will have multiple entries. Encourage web links and pictures as well. Make it into a PDF file and get the students to hand it in online…

After a few weeks the glossary will be a few pages long, then more and more can be added.

Extension activities

1. Invite the students to share new or interesting points they have found which they have added to their glossary of terms. What a great way to get students chatting about art and using art terminology.
2. Start Junior students with one and build on it year by year, by the time they get to be senior students they will have a solid resource and a great connection with the language and terminology of the subject.
3. Want to avoid setting homework… or want to set some… simply give them this task and ask them to add to it week by week. In class you can remind them to add to it each week and put a note in their Student diary/organiser to remind them.

Often one of the tricky areas in art education is getting students to be involved in looking at artworks and providing some form of analysis of artworks, even in a fairly formal sense. The probem seems to come when Teachers say “Today we are going to do some Art History” this turns some of them off straight away… Here’s a way to hopefully break the cycle.

Make up a slide show (power point or the like) of about 15 - 20+ artworks of varying styles and types (prefereably images your students may connect with), then run a BRIEF session with the students where you flip quickly through the slides asking what the students see. When a few points have been raised about one image, move on and do the same thing with the next image. The aim is to get them to quickly see the basics, developing the skill of seeing basic “formal” elements. The key is doing it fairly fast, for a twist, flash an image up for 5 seconds, take it off and ask what they saw.

In the end the students will have had to think quickly about what they saw without making too many judgements, like “I didn’t like it…” stick to the basics and give them a few points, like… “What colours did you see, were there lines? Subject matter? Tones, Shapes, Form, Texture, Composition etc…

Eventually you should be able to show them a bunch of images and say nothing as they will call out what they see as they will be used to the process. (sneaky huh…)

Over time you could even create a series of these slideshows, to build a repertoire of images students can discuss in more depth. You could also add some details like the name of the artist, dates etc when the more in depth discussion and analysis needs to take place.

It could be a quick start to a practical art session where you might want to catch them off guard and cause them to think in a different direction for a while.

For more points to discuss and analyse with try this. or this…

A savvy teacher might also set up a series of online images on a school intranet and ask different questions for different year levels, just food for thought! Perhaps a great way to introduce homework for students via the internet, add a pdf file for parents to get involved too outlining the same process I have above, Enjoy!

Extension activities.

• When you take students to a gallery to see works live, ask the same questions, get quick responses and move on, you could go around one gallery space a few times going for more depth with each viewing.
• Invite students to make up their own set of slides to share with fellow classmates.