ART - repre - neurship

Being an Artist and Entrepreneur: What I learned, What worked and What failed.

Being an artist and entrepreneur sounds fun but to be honest it's a really sad and difficult existence (in the beginning at least). That was a joke. This is the life I chose for myself and I love everything about artrepreneurship and my journey. I can’t speak on other artist entrepreneurial journeys, I can only tell you about what I know so well which is my experience. 

SO… When I graduated college it was established that I was an artist. I mean since I was 10 years old I knew that but with my new degree I knew I wanted to be an artist professionally. The problem is when you’re in art school they don’t tell you how to do that. They do a great job at teaching you all the things about your art. The techniques, how to think about what you’re creating and why. In their defense they do help in a business sense by teaching you how to talk about your art. That is very important when it comes to connecting with art lovers and making some sales but they don’t  teach you how or where to place your art and actually sell it.

SO… When I graduated I just wanted to make art and sell it. Simple as that. I graduated with a BFA in photography. The goal was to work as a professional photographer and sell photography for a living while making & selling original paintings. Not only did I not know how to do this, but I had no idea how I was going to get people to pay the price that I needed them to pay. Through trial  & error and lots and lots of failures, eventually I was able to create a system and make enough to pay my rent, buy supplies and keep my art business going. 

That took me 4 years … 

Leading up to that point I did everything I could to learn how to sell artwork. I researched tons of artists and became their fan. I read specific books about art sales, finding your artistic voice and researched popular styles that were more likely to sell. I searched for the answer to the 1 million dollar question. What makes people want to buy my art? I dug down deep and had to figure out what I wanted to paint and who I was through the art that I would create. I made hundreds of paintings and I finally narrowed down my subject matter, my voice and what my brand stands for. I absorbed and applied so much knowledge to creating artwork and a business around it I can now show other artists exactly what to do to build, run and grow a successful art business. 

How did I get there? 

Because I had to teach myself, it all came from watching the trends of the art world, learning by doing and consistently making the work. 

What worked and what didn’t work… (for me)

This part is for the artists. There are a lot of different resources out there and ways you can springboard your career. In my opinion, these things are all situational and speak directly to who you are as an artist and what type of art you create. None of these resources are off limits, but I think you need to know who you are and what you make so that you can make the right combination of choices.

Grant money

Coming from an academic background, Grants, Scholarships and Scholastic funding is a common resource for anyone doing project based work.

Starting out, when I thought “How am I going to fund my career?” This was the first thing that came to mind. 

If you have artwork or projects that fit into the specific grant guidelines then the Grant path is the path for you. For some reason this never worked for me.

I’d spend hours drafting up proposal after proposal. Even creating artworks to generate a Portfolio to submit. At the end of it all, I’d still be left with an unsure feeling of whether I would get the grant or not. If I did that would be a huge win, but if I didn’t I’d be in the same predicament not knowing what I would do to get the money I needed to produce the amazing paintings that were in my head.

Crowdfunding

I saw crowdfunding as an opportunity for me to tell my story, connect with other people and in turn sell artwork that I truly believed in while sharing that belief with the patrons that buy in.

Now, crowdfunding is a very complex and, in my opinion, difficult way to fund your art practice.

In my first crowdfunding campaign I was brutally honest about what I wanted and needed. I think I could have delivered my message in a softer, less vulnerable way. Anyway, I told my story and I let it all hang out. It kind of worked… I did successfully raise about $10,000 but my goal was a little too high. For the particular crowdfunding platform that I used the campaigns were “All or Nothing” campaigns. I had a goal of about $15,000 and if I didn’t raise the total amount or more then I’d get none of the money and all of the funding would go back to the patrons.

The first thing that I needed to know about crowdfunding was to set my goal according to what I needed. Not what I wanted. Next, I needed to know who my audience was specifically. I thought I needed to share my story with anyone and everyone and hopefully they would give to my cause. I also needed to focus on my project and not the money that could help me create the project. When running a crowdfunding campaign it was so easy to focus on how much money I wanted to raise and lose sight of the true reason why I was running it in the first place. I lost focus of the project and did not take the time to explain the intricate details of my project, why it was important to me and why the patrons should care.

I just didn’t know enough about crowdfunding and that brings me to my last and most important point. 

I NEEDED HELP.

As artists most of us are solitary creatures. We come up with ideas on our own, create our work on our own and go through the rejection or praise of said creation on our own. It was only natural for me to see a new challenge and try to take it on all by myself.

Collaborations

Collaborating with other artists has to be not only one of my favorite things to do but also one of the best decisions that I’ve made as an artist and entrepreneur. 

Artist collaborations helped me to fine tune my collaborative process, sell more art and expand my audience. The cool part about working with someone else to create a piece of art or a series is you get to see what your styles look like together and you both benefit from overlapping fan bases. 

It doesn’t matter if you're a collaborative artist or not. I recommend collaborating with an art friend or an artist that you admire. There are so many benefits and so much to learn.

Learn How to Sell

For the most part as artists we know how to make the art. We spend so much time working on our subject matter, refining our style and what we want to say. We become pros at the art making part really quickly. In order to have a financially successful art business you need to sell art. The most important thing I did for myself and my business was invest in opportunities that taught me how to sell. This skill is arguably just as important or more important than the quality or subject matter of the art itself. 

The thing about selling is that it is virtually the same across all products. Sales is sales and if you learn the basics of sales and your style of sales ( how YOU specifically sell) then that can be applied to your art practice and there you go! The sky's the limit for you and whatever goals you have for your artwork or art business. 

Overall I love being an Entrepreneur and an artist. When I started out on the journey I had no idea what it would be like. I imagined it would be the dream, making artwork that everyone loves and happily hands over their hard earned cash for. To my surprise it was not that but it ended up being a lot more rewarding than that pipe dream. I was pushed to try new things, take classes to expand my knowledge, invest my own money into “things” that made my business run smoother and more efficiently and use all of the different skills I have. I went from the mindset of “I’m here to make and sell paintings” to “I am building a household brand”. That is what this experience has pushed me too. It's more than just making beautiful, thought provoking artwork. It’s about connection, reach and inspiration for all while pointing out the reality that we all have multiple things to offer the world. If we can collectively wake up to that truth and put our efforts into refining those offerings then we will all see growth like never before.

-Von