Part Two: MARKETING YOURSELF
PUBLISH YOUR WORK: The best way to become famous is to get known! The internet offers many avenues to be seen and promote artistic works, and in the information-loaded 21st century, it's important to use all the tools at your disposal to build your name and your reputation.
BLOG DAILY ABOUT YOUR WORK, and include illustrations showing your process and a gallery to show (and/or sell) your finished works.
VISIT ALL THE GALLERIES IN YOUR AREA, and get to know the proprietors. If you're old enough, attend as many openings as possible, not to promote your own work—there will be time enough for that later—but to become a known artist in the community.
CREATE A FACEBOOK FOR YOUR ART, and encourage people to visit and like your page. Reach out to other artists through Facebook. Like visiting galleries, this will help place you in the community, and Facebook can reach well beyond your neighborhood.
TWEET ABOUT ART REGULARLY: Your art, historical art, pop art, any art at all. The more you know about art, the more you'll be recognized as somebody worth paying attention to. At the same time, follow artists and galleries, and respond to their tweets. This will encourage more people—including gallery owners—to follow you.
CREATE A FLICKR ACCOUNT and post scans or photos of your art. It's an active community, and while you won't get a lot of helpful critique on flickr, you will build your name recognition, and perhaps become online friends with some very talented artists.
JOIN FINE ART SOCIETIES and enter contests. Start with student level contests at first and small local art contests.
TEACH WORKSHOPS: This will help you not only get known as an artist, but also as an expert in your field.
BUILD YOUR SKILLS" until you can enter major national and international contests in your chosen medium.
Enter juried art shows. Getting a painting into a juried art show is itself an achievement to put on your resume. When you have too many, shorten it by listing only the most important shows.
FIND A RELIABLE ART AGENT: Read up on art agencies and contact the agent's other clients. See if they are happy with the agent, or are generally discontented or feel as if they've been ripped off. Agents will market you and your work, and also represent you in contract negotiation. Make sure they well-connected, and good with contracts.
You might also want to work with a reputable attorney who specializes in the art world. While an agent may know a bit about the law, their job is promotion. A lawyer's only job is knowing about the applicable law.
PAINT WHAT YOU CARE ABOUT: If you don't care about the subject, it will show in your work. Many artists fall a little bit in love with their subject, whether it be a bowl of fruit or the artist's model.
If you like expressing anger and dark emotions, study dark painters. If you like abstracts and splatter paintings, study them and do them—they take their own techniques and don't just happen because someone threw paint at a canvas and called it art. If you love wildlife and the outdoors, get a small portable painting kit and paint "en plein air" (outdoors) in your favorite places.
Whatever your passion, find ways to capture that passion on the canvas.
KEEP GROWING AS AN ARTIST: Being a true artist is a lifelong pursuit. When you've reached the level of fame to which you aspire, with plenty of money and acclaim, you will still want to look forward to something beyond that.
Continuing to learn and invent, even after you are famous will not just keep you on top of your game, focused on the future instead of putting your best years are behind you.
As you style grows and changes, older paintings you've done become more valuable. Collectors will be interested in the entire history of your life's work. Even the drawings you did as a child become valuable: what your mom stuck to the fridge has the seeds of your current success, so don't throw away earlier works.
PUBLISH YOUR WORK: The best way to become famous is to get known! The internet offers many avenues to be seen and promote artistic works, and in the information-loaded 21st century, it's important to use all the tools at your disposal to build your name and your reputation.
BLOG DAILY ABOUT YOUR WORK, and include illustrations showing your process and a gallery to show (and/or sell) your finished works.
VISIT ALL THE GALLERIES IN YOUR AREA, and get to know the proprietors. If you're old enough, attend as many openings as possible, not to promote your own work—there will be time enough for that later—but to become a known artist in the community.
CREATE A FACEBOOK FOR YOUR ART, and encourage people to visit and like your page. Reach out to other artists through Facebook. Like visiting galleries, this will help place you in the community, and Facebook can reach well beyond your neighborhood.
TWEET ABOUT ART REGULARLY: Your art, historical art, pop art, any art at all. The more you know about art, the more you'll be recognized as somebody worth paying attention to. At the same time, follow artists and galleries, and respond to their tweets. This will encourage more people—including gallery owners—to follow you.
CREATE A FLICKR ACCOUNT and post scans or photos of your art. It's an active community, and while you won't get a lot of helpful critique on flickr, you will build your name recognition, and perhaps become online friends with some very talented artists.
JOIN FINE ART SOCIETIES and enter contests. Start with student level contests at first and small local art contests.
TEACH WORKSHOPS: This will help you not only get known as an artist, but also as an expert in your field.
BUILD YOUR SKILLS" until you can enter major national and international contests in your chosen medium.
Enter juried art shows. Getting a painting into a juried art show is itself an achievement to put on your resume. When you have too many, shorten it by listing only the most important shows.
FIND A RELIABLE ART AGENT: Read up on art agencies and contact the agent's other clients. See if they are happy with the agent, or are generally discontented or feel as if they've been ripped off. Agents will market you and your work, and also represent you in contract negotiation. Make sure they well-connected, and good with contracts.
You might also want to work with a reputable attorney who specializes in the art world. While an agent may know a bit about the law, their job is promotion. A lawyer's only job is knowing about the applicable law.
PAINT WHAT YOU CARE ABOUT: If you don't care about the subject, it will show in your work. Many artists fall a little bit in love with their subject, whether it be a bowl of fruit or the artist's model.
If you like expressing anger and dark emotions, study dark painters. If you like abstracts and splatter paintings, study them and do them—they take their own techniques and don't just happen because someone threw paint at a canvas and called it art. If you love wildlife and the outdoors, get a small portable painting kit and paint "en plein air" (outdoors) in your favorite places.
Whatever your passion, find ways to capture that passion on the canvas.
KEEP GROWING AS AN ARTIST: Being a true artist is a lifelong pursuit. When you've reached the level of fame to which you aspire, with plenty of money and acclaim, you will still want to look forward to something beyond that.
Continuing to learn and invent, even after you are famous will not just keep you on top of your game, focused on the future instead of putting your best years are behind you.
As you style grows and changes, older paintings you've done become more valuable. Collectors will be interested in the entire history of your life's work. Even the drawings you did as a child become valuable: what your mom stuck to the fridge has the seeds of your current success, so don't throw away earlier works.
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