TUESDAY MARKETING TIPS

THE ELEVATOR SPEECH

It has probably happened to you. You tell someone you are an artist, and inevitably you are asked, what do you do?  "I um paint, many ah um different things, whatever strikes my mood at the - ah - time".  You have lost your opportunity for a 30-60 second commercial about your work.

What is an elevator speech?   It is when the opportunity is given to make a point in a timely manner in the time is takes for a normal elevator to ride from the top to the bottom floor.

It is important for all artists to develop an elevator speech so you are not  stumped the next time someone asks you about your art. It should be 30-60 seconds and it is your chance to tell who you are and describe your artwork SUCCINCTLY to the audience.

I must admit, I have gotten lazy about working on my "elevator speech".   Thus,  I have missed a few opportunities to connect with someone that is interested in my art. 

It is your chance to tell someone how your art is different, tell them what you are trying to convey, or what your goals are.  

You can use this at gallery openings, networking events, or at the dog park when you casually mention you are an artist to someone. 

Here are some tips:

Write is down and keep it to a few sentences.   

Always identify yourself. 

Talk directly to the listener

Practice your story until it sounds unrehearsed while you sound confident.

Have different variations of the speech so you can adjust it for your audience.

 "Hi, my name is Vickie, I work with mixed media on canvas.  Using acrylic paint and also collage and household items, like coffee, tea, alcohol, I create texture and layers. Lately I have been experimenting with fire, using a blow torch and actually burning gunpowder to create more texture".   I'm still working on it!

Don't miss your chance for a :30 to :60 commercial about your artwork.

Do you have a killer elevator speech?  I'd like to see some good examples!

DECATUR ART WALK

 

Mar's Rising 36x48

I have always thought of the Decatur Art Festival  as the beginning of the summer!   It does, after all, take place Memorial Day weekend wich the Decatur Art Walk  kicking the festivies off.   Taking place on Friday, May 25 from 5-10P, many business in downtown Decatur will feature artists.  Because of my represention at The Seen Gallery, I was invited to display my work at the Cook's Warehouse, located on Ponce De Leon Avenue.  In fact, the pieces featured above will be on display on Friday night.

Decatur has managed to keep it's small town atmosphere, while tapping into the sophistication of being part of a major metropolitan area as well as being a college town.

Some facts about Decatur:

1.  Emory University, Columbia Theology School and Agnes Scott College are both located in Decatur

2.  Decatur is older than Atlanta - founded in 1822

3.  It was founded at the crossroad of two Native American trails.

4.  When the Western and Atlantic railroad wanted to make Decatur the southernmost stop on their line, the citizens of Decatur said no, and Atlanta was founded 6.2 miles Southwest. 

5.  And, most importantly, Decatur is my home!

So, come out on Friday and enjoy a leisurely walk around the Decatur square,   Be sure to stop into The Cook's Warehouse and say hello!

FUN FACTS ABOUT ME

I've been reading ALOT of blogs by artists lately, and I find the most interesting ones are the ones where I learn a little about the person that is writing the blog - the ones that go beyond the actual artwork.   I found a post called 8 Random Things About Me written by Robin Jane Fingher that really gave me some insight into the person behind the artwork.  I realize I have never really written about ME.  So here goes!

1.  I am left-handed and proud of it!  Left-handed people tend to be right brained.  Knowing this, you can understand why I became curious when I kept seeing the popular book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  A local art center offered a class with the same name, and the rest is history!

2.  I learned to play the piano at age five. My grandfather had a music store and was a piano tuner.  My dad re-built pianos for a hobby.  Many of my cousins (I have 34 first cousins) play an instrument or know how to tune a piano.

3.  My family has a long history in Georgia - we go back over 200 years.   This is unusual living in Atlanta, which is a city of transplants.  

4.  I love to learn about the history of Atlanta.  In fact, I used to give historical walking tours  for the Atlanta Preservation Center.  Among the tours I gave were of the Fox Theater, one of less than ten atmospheric theaters left in the United States.

5.  I've taken tango lessons.

6.  I love love love to read.  I read - on the average - two books a week.  In fact, I read EVERY day.

My favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird, in fact I named a dog after the character Scout!

7.  Speaking of dogs, I can't imagine not having one.  I have two dogs right now - Waylon and Ziggy.

Ziggy is currently the number one dog in his agility class (okay, it is a class of one!).

8.  I have had the same "day" job for over 23 years.  I place "time" for advertising on both television and radio.

9.  My favorite food is salsa - I could eat it with anything.

This is it for now - it is time to go paint!!!

I look forward to hearing some fun facts about you guys!!!!

TUEDAY'S ART MARKETING TIPS

New Feature!

What I hear the most from struggling artists is they want to "create" (insert dramatic movement here, we tend to be dramatic after all) and not spend their time marketing.  I disagree - marketing comes in all shapes and sizes, from the way you define your art to the way your present yourself. As someone who has spent over 25 years in the world of advertising, I understand the value of advertising and public relations.  It has, after all, paid bills my entire adult life.  

What do I do in my day job? I place broadcast advertising (TV, cable, radio) for major clients (Home Depot, Kia, Hyundai, Trader Joe's to name a few)  while digital advertising is butting it's head against the door.  Advertising is a great indicator of the economy, so much so I could chart it based on layoffs and hirings.  Rule of thumb, when the economy is good, advertisers spend money. Savvy advertisers know to spend money in a down economy, but they are few and far between.

Because advertising is an industry for the young, to stay on top of my game I decided professionally to become an authority on social media - more on that at a later post.

With that said, I had an "aha" moment and decided it was time to share some of my insights with fellow artists.

First of all - what is marketing?  The American Marketing Association defined marketing in 2007 as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customs, clients, partners and society at large".   Are you still not understanding the value of marketing?

First and foremost are the 4P's of marketing:  PRODUCT (defining your product and your audience), PLACEMENT (where will your audience see it), PRICING (an on-going discussion for artists), and PRESENCE (the result of marketing, both advertising and public relations).

To make this artist friendly, I am going to write an on-going feature that will define many of these mysteries for you - and how it relates it back to your art-marketing.   Some of the topics include:

1. Your elevator speech - how to respond to what you create in the time it takes to descent ten floors or so.

1. The value of branding - creating a body of work

1. Evaluating opportunities - making money vs. exposure

1. Saying No, No, No - when to donate and why not to donate

1. The importance of the artist statement - defining your relationship with your art

1. Creating your reputation

1. Juried Shows - when to submit and when not tor

1. Growing a backbone - how to take rejection

1. Why the way you present yourself always matters

1. Social Media- every advertiser is there - why not you?

This is just the beginning - if you have more topics - I'd like to know.  Next up will be a blog about the elevator speech, which is so important there is a wikipedia page about it (and I'd like to know how many people actually looked it up!).

WHERE TO FIND UNIQUE GIFTS

I don't know if getting your mom a gift for Mother's Day is as hard for you as it is for me.  My mother insists she doesn't want anything.   While I can always give her a plant or flowers, I feel I've overdone that over the years.   A couple of years ago I tried getting her a gift certificate to a restaurant she likes to go to.  Wouldn't you know - six months later while we were out, she wanted to go to that restaurant and then whipped out the gift certificate I had given her.  I tried giving her a gift card to a grocery store, and I still don't know how that gift card landed back in my purse!I think most mom's like to get things handmade. But, if it is already too late to start on something of your own, or you aren't a artsy craftsy kind of person,  I know of a place you can go!  I suggest you head over to InsideOut Accessories, located in Vinings Jubilee.  InsideOut is an artisan boutique, carrying everything from jewelry to original paintings (mine included), pottery, glassware, fiber work, wood work and much more!   Everything in the store is original and is created by artisans that live in Georgia!

This delightful store is owned and operated by D'Ree Harris, who will say she is not an artist, but she does have an eye and a deep passion for art.  She spent 23 years in radio finance and human resources, most recently the Corporate Controller of WQXI-AM radio in Atlanta (that is another story, as I am a media buyer, and we did not meet in the world of Atlanta radio!).  When WQXI-AM was sold, she decided to take a chance and pursue something she really loved, and thus InsideOut was born!

To say Atlanta is a festival town is an understatement.  Beginning mid-April, there is virtually a festival somewhere within metro Atlanta every weekend through mid-November.   On some weekends there might be as many as four or five festivals.   The crowds are HUGE,  the prices are high and parking is always a premium.

This shop is a welcome an alternative to the festival scene, and many of the artists in the store are from the festival circuit.  Parking is not a problem, and the pace is relaxed.

There are many things to choose from in the store, and as stated previously, everything is handmade in Georgia!   By supporting this, you are also supporting the 3/50 PROJECT, you have not only supported a locally owned business, but the artists that are in the store!

The store is open seven days a week!   

SEEING RED

Every once in a while I see or read something that really gets under my skin and makes me want  to learn more.  This happened recently upon seeing a production of the play RED in Atlanta, with Mark Rothko in the center.   This is not a review of the play (even though I thoroughly enjoyed it), but some of the things I learned from reading about both the play and Rothko.

RED is a two person play set in the late 1950's when Rothko was painting his murals for the Four Seasons in New York.  If you don't know this story, Rothko accepted a commission to paint a series of murals for the Four Season's Restaurant, located in the Seagrams Building on Park Avenue designed by Mies Van Der Rohe and Philip Johnson.  Rothko completed 40 paintings, three series in dark red and brown and even altered his horizontal format to vertical to go with the columns, walls, and windows in the restaurant.  After a trip to Europe and a visit to the restaurant, he abruptly changed his mind and returned the $35,000 (roughly two million dollars today) he'd been given for the paintings.   He kept them in storage until 1968, and they now hang in the Tate Modern in London, a museum in Tokyo, and the National Gallery of Art  in Washington D.C.

He never fully explained this decision, but many felt after visiting the restaurant, he found it pretentious and not the best place to view his meditative paintings.  He was quoted as saying they would end up in a space "where the richest bastards in New York will come and feed and show off" (told to a Harper's Bazaar editor).

The play was written by John Logan, who also co-wrote The Gladiator, Rango, and most recently Hugo. After seeing the paintings at the Tate that were  intended for the Four Seasons, Logan was inspired to pen the play.  He was in London finishing up the screenplay for Sweeney Todd and found "they had a vibrancy, a severe and somber power to them".

During the play, Rothko quotes Nietzche and  Freud   He talked about commercialism and how Dali and Picasso would sign menus to make money - even after he had accepted a $35,000 commission.

The play portrayed Rothko as a hard drinker, heavy smoker, and an intellectual with disdain for lesser minds, in short - an egomaniac.  

The rectangles floating  - often using a palette of red and brown and black -  were meant to be seen in a contemplative environment, not on the walls of a restaurant where people went to see and be seen.

Rothko suffered from depression, and ended up committing suicide in 1970.   Surprisingly, his suicide coincided to the day the murals arrived at the Tate Modern in London.

I admit to downloading the play and re-reading it later.  I wondered how much of the dialogue came from Rothko's own writings - because his spirit was there.  Some of the quotes I remembered and have read in reviews were:

"Selling a painting is like sending a blind child into a room of razor blades" - which showed he had a vulnerable side.  

"One day the black will swallow the red."

The murals are "a continuous narrative, each a new chapter".

Painting is  "10% putting on paint, 90% waiting".

"You cannot be an artist until you are civilized.  You cannot be civilized until you learn."

In reading about Rothko's paintings, the word repeated is "pulsates".  As Rothko himself said:

"The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions...the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them.  And if you say you are moved only by their color relationships then you miss the point."

What have you seen or read lately that inspired you to learn more about the subject or person?

VOYAGES ON VIEW AT THE SEEN GALLERY

I am amazed how wonderful this show ended up looking after it was hung.  Having a store front window, along with great lighting (thanks Bill Bibb!) added to the drama of the work.   I have to admit I am proud of the way it turned out!

The Seen Gallery is conveniently located on Church Street in Decatur, Georgia.   There is ALOT of foot-trafffic along here - this area is a real foodie destination.  The award winning Cakes And Ale  (recently winning a James Beard award, as well as awards from Food and Wine Magazine) and Leons Full Service are loccated across the street.

The show will be up until the end of March, so make Decatur your destination during the next month and stop in and see my solo show!   

Outside looking in