For those of us who live immersed in the digital world, which certainly includes you as an Absolute Arts blog reader, it is most likely nearly incomprehensible how a modern day artist, or businessperson of any sort, could not be partially, if not fully, connected in the social marketing world. Truly, these days most would think how can anyone serious about getting ahead not be wholly represented on “The Social Marketing Grid” with a Facebook page, Twitter and Linkedin accounts et cetera?

The reality is there are plenty of people with serious careers and serious career ambitions who have not and are not interested in joining the minions on the great social networking experiment that consumes so many others. Is it really possible to be successful or to grow a meaningful career without issuing a single tweet? The simple answer as always remains yes.

Here’s a last century example that remains germane to the argument today. For many years, I sold advertising and show space for Decor magazine and its sister Decor Expo tradeshows. Both served the art and picture framing industry. In the day, Decor’s annual Sources directory and Atlanta Decor Expo shows were huge successes on every level. Quite simply, anybody who was anyone in the decorative art and picture framing business would never consider not robustly participating in both. To do so would be career suicide by being obvious by one’s absence.

There is a direct correlation today between the implied “must participate” in those vehicles as there is in being fully active in the social networking arena. However, then just as now, there were artists and companies that chose not to go along with the crowd and consciously avoided participating in what seemed to all others to be an apparent choice.

Back then, much to my confounded consternation, there were artists and publishers I knew who were enjoying success that would be the envy of many of my regular advertising customers and show exhibitors, yet they were not spending money to promote themselves in the splendid and effective marketing vehicles I represented. It took a long time for me to realize that just because the evidence seemed to irrefutably prove participation in such activities paid results there would be those who would resist the opportunity.

So, despite my eloquent presentations and urgent pleas to not miss the ship about to sail, there were holdouts that steadfastly refused to be motivated. Their reasons were not always the same, but I think the primary reason is not unlike what you see today, which goes like this: “Yes, I can intellectually grasp there is opportunity in what is being offered. However, I’m doing just fine without the bother. And, despite the powerful lure those things have for many people, they have no interest for me.”

It was harder then for me to grasp their choices. Perhaps this was so because then I had a financial stake in persuading them. Being more involved and invested in their participation made me more passionate about my attempts to evangelize them into partaking. Today, with more maturity and less at stake, it’s easier to accept there are those who have no interest in getting a Facebook page and who are equally willing to suffer the consequences of not playing a part in the social networking revolution.

The question for artists today is can they have a successful career without having a Facebook page, a blog, a Twitter account and so forth? Despite what current proponents of these and other social marketing tools have to say, I believe it is completely possible. Admittedly, I am one of those proponents. You can find plenty of articles among the 200+ blog posts I’ve published on my Art Print Issues blog that encourage artists to get involved with these tools.

Despite what I think and promote regarding advancing an artist’s career, I deem it is possible for an artist to achieve notable success without having much more than a phone and an email address. While I think it makes the proposition of attaining success more difficult for most, I am convinced that it’s not impossible or even implausible to gain notoriety and perhaps even museum collectible attention without being a card carrying member of the social networking movement.

Of course, if the artist is not a willing participant, it still would be a great benefit if his or her benefactors, i.e., gallerists, reps, dealers and collectors promoted the work in online social spaces mentioned here. But, at the heart of it, a long running successful art career is built one brick at a time. And, that can be done in a variety of ways, not all related to the digital world. In fact, in spite of my cheerleading for Web 2.0 type involvement, I think it would be foolhardy for most artists today to focus exclusively on social marketing while ignoring traditional forms of marketing.

When I was repping Decor and Decor Expo, a regular question was, “How do I decide where to allocate my marketing dollars?” It remains a viable question today. My answer has not changed much. That is, decide what you perceive to offer the best return on investment and give it the biggest chunk. Then spread the rest available, within the realistic constraints of what an individual or small business can do with time, financial and personnel resources, among all the rest.

For artists to achieve success the goal, whether in the 21st Century or the last, remains the same: Seek to build a viable dealer/gallery/collector base to grow your business. Then nourish and replenish with vigor. Make it part of your business plan and every work day in some fashion. If you are fortunate to have someone working for you, make sure it is an even more important part of their working day. The slow steady pace of the turtle in the race is still the sure way to succeed in business. To do otherwise is foolish. For instance, hoping to become an overnight success is the equivalent of buying lottery tickets as a financial plan.

Adding a dealer or gallery here, finding a few collectors at a show there. Digging up media support with press releases and participation in charity and other notable events and sending direct mail can all be done without ever tweeting a word. An artist who has motivated quality reps on the road making old fashioned cold calling presentations still works. While advertising in consumer and trade magazines and tradeshows may not deliver the same impact as when I was in my heyday with such vehicles, they nevertheless offer opportunity for artists who effectively utilize them.

Although I offer an alternative perspective, I still encourage artists to join me on my Art Print Issues blog, to get a website and blog of their own, and to exchange tweets with me at www.twitter.com/barneydavey or to friend me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/barney.davey. I will fully understand if you choose not to engage in social marketing. Further, I will happily support you and may even be one who chooses to publicize you for the quality of your work and for achieving success while going your own way.

Barney Davey
www.artprintissues.com

Created by Barney Davey On 07/16/09 At 03:16 PM

I’m probably one of the last people in the world to own an Apple iPod but it’s better late than never. I bought an Ipod Classic which has 120gb of storage on it. If “gb” doesn’t mean much to you it simply means it has more storage than a lot of personal computers and can store a LOT of songs.

I bought it as I desperately miss my CD collection when I’m not at home. I’m planning an extended road trip around the South East of Australia (Canberra, Melbourne, Tasmania, etc.) and I plan to take my whole music collection with me on my iPod.

In a few days I have put on about 90 albums, 40 audio books, and have just discovered podcasts. I have subscribed to philosophy, zen, science and a couple art podcasts so far, but I would like to find a few more art podcasts so I decided to create a list and ask for recommendations.

Art Podcasts

Art Marketing Action Podcast: Is a weekly art podcast by Alyson Stanfield on being an artist. Read or listen to her at ArtBizBlog.

Tate Podcasts: Many major art museums now have podcasts with art lectures, artist interviews, discussions, and talks on exhibitions. The Tate museum has quite a range of art podcasts at Tate Podcasts.

Art History Podcast: Learn Out Loud’s art history podcast has brief look at masterpieces from the history of art at LearnOutLoud.

The Guardian Culture Podcast: Art interviews, news and exhibition reviews from the Guardian newspaper in the UK at Guardian Podcasts.

Note: Send me your art podcast if you would like it added to this post.

Art Review has released their annual list of 100 powerful artworld leaders. This is the seventh year the magazine has published the Power 100 list.

Damien Hirst and his marketing/manufacturing company have reclaimed the number one position on the ArtReview list after a very successful year.

01. Science (Damien Hirst)
02. Larry Gagosian
03. Kathy Halbreich
04. Sir Nicholas Serota
05. Iwan Wirth
06. Jay Jopling
07. David Zwirner
08. François Pinault
09. Jasper Johns
10. Eli Broad
11. Jeff Koons
12. Steven A. Cohen
13. Daniel Birnbaum
14. Charles Saatchi
15. Brett Gorvy & Amy Cappellazzo
16. Tobias Meyer & Cheyenne Westphal
17. Marian Goodman
18. Gerhard Richter
19. Richard Prince
20. Dominique Lévy & Robert Mnuchin

See the full list at the ArtReview website here.

Other notable artists on the list include Takashi Murakami (28), Richard Serra (33), Bruce Nauman (45), Cy Twombly (46), Ai Weiwei (47), Peter Doig (53), Marlene Dumas (56), Banksy (63), Lucian Freud (66) and Thomas Kinkade finishing off the list in 100th position.
>> General Arts, Power 100 2007, Power 100 2006, Power 100 2005

Creativity is about expression.

Artists of all sorts whether visual, literary, musical, theatre, film, dance and beyond seek to express themselves through their art. Clearly, art and expression are part and parcel of the same package in which both are inextricably tied.

To effectively express or exhibit creativity, there must be those desirous of being exposed to creativity, to art. In other words, art needs to be shared, to be both lionized and criticized. Art needs to be accepted, or rejected and ultimately recognized by the cognoscenti, if not the public, as worthy.

White on white With monumental art, quite often the expression is bold and radical. Kasmir Malevich’s groundbreaking efforts to establish feelings as supreme over objectivity in art are a case in point. The Russian painter, printmaker, decorative artist and writer’s 1918 piece Suprematist Composition: White on White epitomizes his suprematist concept that helped lay the groundwork for abstract art in the 20th Century.

Paint by numbers In the case of Andy Warhol, arguably his best art was expressed in the form of clever jokes on high art as with his minimalist Brillo box sculptures and paintings derived from paint-by-numbers kits.

As with the examples here of Malevich’s early 20th Century avant-garde movement and Warhol’s mid-century Pop art, one finds art, regardless of scale, pitch, tenor or importance, requires an audience to complete the expression of the work. It begs the question: Where do audiences come from? How do artists and collectors and others interested in their work get connected? The inevitable answer is marketing.

On its broadest scale, marketing encompasses a multitude of activities including advertising, networking, shows, publicity and promotion with each aimed at achieving a singular goal. Most often, in the case of visual artists, the goal is to gain reputation and the resultant growing collector base, price increases and sales that follow. For the would-be virtuous artist, often the financial success brought by marketing is secondary to the satisfaction of knowing an eager audience has consumed their expression, their creativity, their art. For them, it is the equivalent of the roar of the crowd and smell of the greasepaint for stage actors.

Still, my marketer’s heart cannot help but interject a paraphrase of marine environmental artist Wyland’s quote here, “The old masters had to wait until they were dead to make money. I didn’t want to wait that long.” There are many in his employ and gallery who find virtue in his philosophy.

Not surprisingly, many artists shudder at the thought of marketing their art. They have a hard time seeing their art treated as some product to be bar coded and sold in pedestrian manner. Art, they think, should be above such mundane money-grubbing activity. It’s not hard to sympathize with those that feel this way. Doubtless, if one appreciates art, then one knows it takes a mix of passion, creativity and vision to bring forth worthwhile works. And, given the personal nature and relationship most artists have with their work, it’s no wonder some find the business of art a necessary evil. Art works after all are not widgets.

Survival Apparently, Hazel Dooney is an artist who feels this way. She is a young Australian artist who has been on fast track art career nearly her entire adult life. She is bodacious, courageous and outrageous, and no stranger to being controversial and daring with her sexually themed art. Her recent exhibit Porno at the Mars Gallery in Melbourne is a perfect example. It created quite a stir with both positive and negative reactions to the challenging raw nature of some of its imagery.

Last October, I offhandedly mentioned Hazel Dooney in a post on my Art Print Issues blog. It was titled Street Smart Stealth Marketing Pays Off. Author Joy Butler was the focus. The post detailed how she used creative and proactive marketing to promote her book, The Permission Seeker’s Guide Through the Legal Jungle: Clearing Copyrights, Trademarks and Other Rights for Entertainment and Media Productions.

Butler had emailed me to ask if I wanted a free review copy and if I liked it would I add it to my Amazon Listmania list I created for visual artists. The answers were yes and yes. I found the book a great resource and think it ought to be on the bookshelf of every serious artist.

In my blog post about Butler, I made mention of a recent post by Clint Watson in his popular and educational Fine Art Views blog wherein he pointed out that for a couple of years Hazel Dooney had been offering free downloads of certain images. He admires her for her marketing acumen in doing so and I was merely punctuating his thoughts.

Dooney doesn’t just offer the prints to be freely downloaded. She also will sign them for anyone who mails her a copy with a stamped return envelope. A fair deal no doubt. And regardless of how Dooney may not wish to agree, it is good smart marketing on her part. Building collectors and dealers one at a time is the only process that provides consistent long term results for artists. Dooney’s actions are a proactive means of beginning the process with newbie and established collectors alike.

Given her penchant and seemingly intuitive knack for publicity and the exhibitionist nature of some of her work, I was surprised to find Dooney referenced my post about Butler in her prolific Self vs. Self blog in a May 12, 2008 post titled Missing the Message. In her post, she laments most publicity resulting from the free giveaway of her art was about the “marketing buzz.” It seems my post was the most representative of her angst about missing the message.

Here is a part of her post:

“The idea behind it [offering an art print as a download Ed.] was a genuine attempt to enable anyone to own a personalised, and original print. [I take issue with using the term original to describe an apparent reproduction. Ed.] The works themselves have been popular, judging from the number sent back to me to be signed. Yet I’m puzzled by the predominant discussion of the idea. Most comments have focused on the marketing ‘buzz’. Mention of the prints is included in articles like Street Smart Stealth Marketing Pays Off: a skim through this piece uncovers almost every word and phrase that, when coupled with the idea of ‘art’, make me cringe: entertainment and media productions, franchising, trademarks, multiplied and amplified marketing, targeted audience, guerrilla tactics, and of course, the summation, stealth marketing.
I publicise my work and myself. Art is my career – my life! – but it is also a deep and complicated need to communicate, somehow, with an audience. So, of course, I want people to see it.

Art is elitist. It’s inaccessible to a vast number of people, except in reproduction. Even then, it’s just a photograph in a book or catalogue or a low res’ file on the internet. My prints are an attempt to change that, to give something that is an artwork itself. It’s modest but genuine and representative of a much bigger concept that is related to the importance of ideas and art – not advertising – in everyone’s day-to-day life.”

Not being one known to shy away from publicity or recognition, my only regret in being mentioned in Dooney’s blog is she left off the last “l” in the hyperlink to my post. That means nearly none of her readers, except the most determined and Web savvy, were able to link to it.

I do agree with Dooney in the importance of projecting ideas and art into the daily life of average folks. It is laudable and worthy. Where I disagree is that no matter how she would like to dissect her activities such as blogging or offering free downloads from marketing, it simply is not possible. Despite her didactic intent; her actions and activities are part of the bigger concept. Like art and expression, her motivations are entwined. Despite her angst and denial; you can’t give art away for high-minded purposes and not accept it is also a marketing activity.

I understand she finds having her actions construed as marketing regrettable. She is not the first artist to have such an attitude. But, as initially mentioned here, creativity is about expression. Inarguably, Dooney’s art is about expression on multiple levels. That it is complex, complicated and controversial makes it more compelling. But, without an audience to play off the expression, would it be as satisfying to create? Would the drive to communicate without an audience burn as brightly? Without patronage could she fund her largesse to give away prints?

I don’t believe an audience or collector base can be grown organically, that is, without the aid of a marketing buzz, especially if an artist is serious about making a living from their art. So, for most it is more than an annoyance, it is part of the process of becoming known, of having their art owned and enjoyed.

There are those rare blessed artists anointed in such a way as to avoid having to pay dues and work as hard at marketing as at art to make a career, but they are rare. Perhaps Dooney is such an artist. But, for the vast majority of artists seeking to make a career from the effort of their creativity, the reality is they must market themselves to make it work. No pity needed. It doesn’t matter what one makes widgets or fine art, it all needs to find a source of distributing the work and marketing plays a key role in making that happen.

The interesting irony here is by publicly complaining in her blog about the missed message behind her giving away art is Hazel Dooney is benefiting with more publicity from it. When it comes to publicity, I subscribe to Brendan Behan’s view. He famously said, “There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.”

Barney Davey
www.artprintissues.com

Created by Barney Davey On 08/28/08 At 09:15 AM

I finally watched the Marla Olmstead documentary that people have been commenting on in earlier Marla posts here, here, and here. The comments that people have left on earlier posts are very FOR or AGAINST the little “child prodigy” with very few neutral opinions on the whole saga. I still think the art critic Clement Greenberg got it right when he said..

“In visual arts, prodigies don’t count. In music and literature, yes, but not in art.” Clement Greenberg

For those that don’t know, Marla Olmstead is a child painter that quickly rose to fame at the ripe old age of 4, before a 60 Minutes episode doubted the authenticity of Marla’s work. Some of the doubt has since disappeared for some people and she is back in demand with art collectors, selling original paintings for tens of thousands of dollars.

The documentary called “My Kid Could Paint That” by director Amir Bar-Lev seems like a fair and balanced portrayal of Marla and the Olmstead family. The filmmaker seemed to become very attached to the family and struggled to confront them when his suspicions were aroused about who painted the more “polished” works, but he generally let’s the viewer come to their own conclusion.

I felt uncomfortable through a lot of it, especially when Marla’s father was around (most of the film). His performance just wasn’t convincing for me. I think Marla’s an adorable little child, but I didn’t see a child prodigy in the film. Hopefully Marla’s mother will step in when it looks like her child is losing too much of her childhood, as she seemed to have the interests of her child before the money and fame, which is not the same impression that I got from the father.

Here’s a quote from the director Amir Bar-Lev..
“If Marla wasn’t doing the paintings, why would Mark and Laura ever have allowed 60 Minutes to do a piece? Why would they have invited me to make a documentary? Especially given my “deeper truth” speech upon our agreement? Marla had done one sub-par painting – what did that prove? Was it really conceivable that Marla had been propped up in front of a bunch of paintings that she hadn’t done – and hadn’t ever said anything about it? And was it really possible that Mark could hide this from his wife – it would mean that, mysteriously, every time a painting was completed, Laura was out of the house? I had to conclude that the Olmsteads’ version of events was the most likely – or rather, in retrospect, I chose to conclude that – it was far more comfortable than the other, darker scenarios.”

More of Marla Olmstead’s work can be seen at her website here.

Sometimes summer afternoons aren’t meant for lounging outdoors – they’re occasionally better spent finding artful surprises in bookstores.

Such was the case on this day, an unremarkable one until my wandering eye locked onto something of promising note. A book. By the way, most people would agree that they venture into bookstores seeking books. After my experience today, I must say that I disagree. People shop in bookstores because they crave surprises. Yes, in all likelihood, the thing you’ve been looking for will indeed be a book, but is it the book or the thrill of surprise that has you hooked? Hmm. Mystery and philosophy. Do questions never cease?

Anyway, as my gaze ventured down the frittering possibilities among the art book shelf, suddenly a love connection. I saw the book “Actors As Artists. “Hmm, I thought. “Let’s take a look. What a nice surprise.

First of all, “Actors As Artists” authored by actors Jim McMullan and Dick Gautier (Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.) was first published back in 1992. That’s not so long ago, but they could certainly give it an update. It’s truly a remarkable book about actors, some more famous than others, who paint in their private time. I’ve just finished flipping through and reading some of it.

It’s really everything an art book should be. With every turn of the page, a surprise. I knew that Anthony Quinn and Jane Seymour painted, but did you know that Zero Mostel and Claudette Colbert were artists? I knew that Billy Dee Williams and Phyllis Diller dabbled, but what about Henry Fonda and Lionel Barrymore? I’m sure Drew knew, but who else had a clue? Mystery revealed. The book is wonderfully unpretentious and it’s so clear that the actors true love may not be acting at all. They paint because they love art.

As I’m sitting here writing and flipping through the book again, a reminder comes to mind. There’s no law of the universe that says we MUST do one and only one thing for our entire lives. In fact, it’s probably just the opposite. If you listen to your creative voice, you can do many things in a single lifetime. That’s how it should be. After all, we’re only here once. While actors get comebacks, no one gets to come back. THIS IS IT. Of course, being an actor doesn’t mean you can pick up a paintbrush and become Paul Gauguin in one stroke. It just means that you went for it. You heard your calling, gathered up the courage and got busy. When you follow your creative leanings, life is full of surprises.

Oh, another thing. Your career is what you do for a living, but what you do in your free time is who you really are. It may not be the WHOLE you, but it’s certainly the REAL you. It’s who you are down in your soul. If you’re an artist down in your soul, you’ve got it goin’ on. In a way, we’re all actors, but how long can you go on ignoring the role of your soul? Ahh, philosophy. What better time than on a summer afternoon?

One of my favorite passages in the book comes from actor Michael Moriarity who says, “Art is not an avocation for me. It is more like a periodic urge to pray in a different way. My pieces exist because there was no other way to reveal what was going on within in me.

In short, I think Michael is saying, “Who needs a Tony, Emmy and Oscar sandwich when you’ve got art feeding you? And let me say, “That’s quite a sandwich!

But seriously, I’m not an art critic, but as a collector, I must say that I’d be thrilled to own anything that I’ve seen in this book. Actor As Artists. I’m so glad that I found this book. You never know what surprise may be lurking around the shelf. Little surprises are the spice of life. One minute, you’re depressed and the next moment, you find something unexpected and you’re laughing at the foolishness of past thoughts.

John Forsythe, an artist? Eve Plumb, who played Jan on “The Brady Bunch, an artist? Who knew? One thing I know for sure Eve probably never yells, “Marcia! Marcia! Marcia! in HER free time.

MICHAEL CORBIN IS AN AVID ART COLLECTOR AND AUTHOR OF THE NEW BOOK, “THE ART OF EVERYDAY JOE: A COLLECTOR’S JOURNAL.” CHECK HIM OUT AT WWW.ARTMAESTROGALLERY.COM

Created by Michael Corbin On 07/21/08 At 10:06 AM