Archive for the ‘marketing’ Category

I’ve never read The Art of War by Sun Tzu. I suppose as a history major I should have, along with my reading of Machiavelli…but my college history department at the time didn’t have much related to Asian studies, let alone economics. So when I stumbled on this from Dumb Little Man, I was interested.

Hmmmm…..Five Factors for Life-Hacking Domination. Whoa – kinda strong when you think about marketing…but maybe not. Let’s explore this further. Something that has been around since the 6th century BC probably has something to teach us.

Life-Hacking – getting to the essence of life and making it work for you. Most of us struggle with this until we realize life is short and we need to get the most out of it before it’s too late. On a marketing level, most of us don’t know how to market our art, and we need to before we are left behind.

Teaching 1: The Moral Law

Sun Tzu said: “The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.”
Whoever is our ruler, spirit, creator, God – we must live in harmony with that. For me all my decisions have been predicated on the “do no harm” and “do unto others” principles. The same has to be true for me to be successful with my art and my business. What is the best possible product that is true to who I am, that is environmentally responsible, and that will bring me and an art buyer happiness? This can only be a great morality to live by.

“Every eye forms its own fancy.” from Mrs. O’Malley, Irish proverb, from “Native Wisdom for White Minds.” We all see what we want to see, or what we’ve been trained to see, and hence we miss whatever else we’ve not been taught to understand. Our reality isn’t the only reality…can we be open to other possibilities in our art and in our life that will serve us well?

Teaching 2: Heaven
Sun Tzu said: “Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.”
To Sun Tzu, Heaven is a consistency and a variable, all at the same time, and not necessarily religious. We know where we are going, we have a plan laid out, but we need to be aware of possible changes, pitfalls, opportunities. In this current economy, how are we reacting to sales and the health of our art business? What are our contingency plans till people start buying art again? Are we still making art, planning, creating product, connecting with others, teaching ourselves new skills? Above all, we need to be flexible: study the environment and decide how we can make it work (great advice from Tim Gunn…).
Teaching 3: Earth
Sun Tzu said: “Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.”
I’m quoting Dumb Little Man here: “Those entrenched in the status quo make the obvious and socially-acceptable choices – regardless of how ineffective and/or inefficient those choices are. They don’t take the time to observe the ground beneath their feet. Hence, they are incapable of seeing and feeling the optimal way forward. The life hacker thinks and acts unconventionally. She looks for the paths of least resistance, the 80/20 shortcuts, and the hidden passageways through life.”

That’s a huge mouthful, and one most of us will not consider. Having always been accused of “unconditional optimism,” I think I am quite prepared for this one. Everything has a solution; it may be one we haven’t thought of, one that is uncomfortable for us, or one that forces us to seriously change our paths. A sluggish economy is a huge problem, one that will take extreme  courage and innovation to survive. Are we ready?

Teaching 4: The Commander

Sun Tzu said: “The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage, and strictness.”
This ties in to all morality. We must all take the higher path, and I editorialize here that in this economy – and our lives in general – I don’t see this. There is so much incivility the ugliness among us that I think we’ve lost our courage and sincerity. Living by a moral code can only help us be better individuals, more productive citizens, and better artists. We do art not for the short-term gain but because it feeds our soul and hopefully those around us. We do art because we must, not because we have found the secret to making great riches. We can’t sacrifice our virtue and integrity.
Teaching 5: Method and Discipline
Sun Tzu said: “By Method and Discipline are to be understood the marshalling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.”

This is marketing. How are we building our business? How are we preparing for sales? A personal story here: we did a number of demos of our marbling in the past, to some critical success. People loved what we showed them. But we missed a CRUCIAL piece – we had no product with us to sell. We had plenty of examples of what to do with marbling but nothing for people to buy. No sample fabrics, no remnant bags, no cards, no digital work. We totally missed the “buying” piece. Needless to say, we don’t make that mistake any more.

Think about everything you need to do to build your business. Do you have a plan? This is “method and discipline.” I need to take my own advice and be sure that I continue with the blogging; this is discipline, and this is focus.

Well…..I didn’t expect this to turn into an essay, but I guess it did. I had read the piece initially and felt it would be good for a post on marketing, but with the writing came analysis and lots to think about. Ultimately I feel validated, in that the moral life and the decisions and turmoil that come with it are the way to go. I am interested in your comments….what resonates with you? What method do you most follow? Leave me a comment below.

Native Wisdom for White Minds

It has been an interesting activity, pulling together your social media efforts. Between Facebook and Twitter, a lot of time is involved in getting your brand and business out to the public. and I haven’t even started with LinkedIn and any other social outlets.

Then factor in an Etsy store, Cafe Press, and Zazzle…and then there’s Artwire and several other outlets. In fact, the Sunday NY Times had an article about artists using social media and online outlets to get their work before the public. Lots more places out there to explore.

Also you have your newsletter development and subscription list. You need to develop a customer base. Readers of this blog know we had some difficulties for two years with our marbling. During that time we let go of all the things we had been doing on line to market our fabric. It took us a while to realize that everything the marketing experts are saying you should be doing – well, we were doing that, and now we’ve gone back to it.

All of this takes time, and it takes a concentrated strategy. If you are planning to go in this direction, you will have a lot of work to do initially…and then you have to plan for all your follow-up.

Case in point: I have my personal Facebook page, as well as a Fan page for Marble-T Design. I carefully read and respond on my Facebook page each day as I see interesting things. That’s not a problem. To keep a concentrated message on the Fan page takes more time. I’m listing what I want to have for each day, so I’ve already thought through the week.

Twitter takes a lot of time. I’m still trying to read a portion of messages every day, but with being in school, that’s going to be very difficult. Thanks to TweetDeck I can schedule business messages for the week, but that takes away from the “conversation” that is Twitter. However, that’s what I will need to do while I’m still teaching. And it is driving traffic: last week I scheduled tweets about various items for sale in Ebay and Etsy. I certainly had more traffic to both of those sites, and I can see the difference in visitors to the items I tweeted…but nothing is converting to sales yet, so i need to process that.

Then there are blog posts…you want to stay timely. While I can schedule my blog posts ahead of time, I enjoy writing, and since I have a schedule of topics, I want to be able to write each day when I geet home from school. And I love reading and responding to comments. My problem with the blogs is going to be staying up with Google Reader and the blogs I follow. I always find great articles and amazing eye candy…but you have to find the time. Staying up with your blog reading I think is critical; I enjoy the people I follow, they are helpful, and I learn a lot – well worth the time for your business.

I had started a business class last January, and there was some gret information there. But to do everything that was suggested made me realize within a couple of weeks that I couldn’t do it all and still maintain my teaching responsibilities. That is what has been so wonderful about the concentrated time this summer: time to do all the set up and learning. Some of these things are not easy to do…like my first newsletter with Constant Contact. There was a steeper learning curve than I would have liked, but I mastered it, and now my newsletters won’t take nearly as long to do.

And don’t forget – we still need to create our art.

Speaking of newsletters, you should subscribe to ours (upper right corner). We do a drawing for a free sampler pack of marbled fabrics, but you can’t win if you don’t subscribe!

It has been a busy week on the web for marketing. Two weeks ago in a post for Top Ten Tuesday, I had a number of comments about how helpful some of these marketing links are. I hope this is my way of giving back through my blog, with some of the best information I am finding as we artists navigate our way to building a viable business. I didn’t post last week, as these posts take a lot of time, as I want to have pictures from each site to enhance the appeal of this blog and make your reading experience more enjoyable. At the bottom I’ve given you a couple of links back to other Top Ten posts for your information.

Fine Art Views

* From Fine Art Views, the Triple Impact. Keith Bond describes this as Triple Impact or the 3-2-1 Impact.

3.  The work catches your attention from afar and draws you in.

2.  The work holds your attention from normal viewing distance.

1.  The work delights and captivates you upon close inspection.

This resonated with me, as one of our early pieces (which we just don’t have a good pic of, so scroll down to the bottom) is The Wave – marbled on blue cotton. From a distance you see a huge rolling wave. The closer you get, the more you see of the texture of the breaking wave, until you are right on the piece, watching the wave break. This was our first piece where I realized it worked from close up and afar.

* Also from Fine Art Views, “Say the Right Thing.” Interesting look at comments from viewers of your art – what’s the intention behind what might seem like a stupid comment. If you’re serious about your art and not following this blog, you need to do so.

Stock Xchng

* Stock Xchng – the leading free stock photography site – free photos – since good blog posts are also very visual.

Sketch Notebook

* Blu – you just need to go to this site – some very cool journal sketching – loads of ideas….someday I will actually do this!

From Wishful Thinking

* From the folks at Wishful Thinking comes “Why Artists and Creatives Have an Unfair Advantage at Internet Marketing.” This is not something we artists would think is working for us…very interesting article and worth the read.

* Six Facebook Applications to Sell Your Products – I am learning so much as I surf! I didn’t know you could set up a store on Facebook….

* Top 10 Features of a Winning E-Commerce Site – got your privacy statement? Got legal in the works? Lots of things to think about here.

* Three reasons You’re Not Charging What You’re Worth – from The Launch Coach – as artists we really undervalue ourselves…again, some very good points here.

* Art Licensing: Achieving Brand Recognition. Joan has a great blog if you are interested in licensing your artwork. But you need to know what your brand is before you start….

* Mike’s Life – 11 Things I Learned When I Became a Professional Blogger. So many of us blog and are thinking about going “professional.” So just what does that mean??

* From PluginID – 7 Luxuries You May Forget You Have….like running water. We all need to read this periodically.

* Also from PluginID – How to Live on Your Terms – very interesting idea, and those of you who are journal artists are way ahead of the rest of us.

* Joanne Mattera ArtBlog – Co-op galleries and vanity galleries – a look at both, and artist beware.

* Maria Brophy –  10 Questions to Ask Before Hooking Up Your Art with a License. Distribution channels, top retail clients, product categories, distribution markets, and so much more.

And now, just for fun…. from The Best Article Every Day – go see the big version!

Let me know what interesting things you found on the web this week!

Another Top 10:

Steve Jobs and Apple Lessons

I have been very interested in licensing my art images for quite a while. I’m doing a LOT of reading, as it is a complex issue. The first source I found that got me started in the right direction was Tara Reed’s Art Licensing Blog.* I confess at this point I am still in the reading stage, but slowly moving in the direction of working on patterns, repeats, and mock-ups. Funny how full-time teaching gets in the way….

However, I am a firm believer in doing my homework. One of the things the “big boys” in internet marketing talk about is the actual format of your blog, and that the recommended format is Word Press. I was wondering about why the need to move from Blogger, and I was disconcerted when I learned I would have more difficulty protecting my images on Blogger. So when I had this opportunity for a guest post from Tara – and David – I thought this would be appropriate. Plus, as Tara mentions below, I wanted something classy for my blog.

Tara writes: David Darrow has been in my online life from the very beginning of this (Art Licensing) blog… he was one of the first subscribers to my Art Licensing Info eNewsletter and I remember him sending one back to me with a note: “Do you realize this is what this looks like?” That was when I was “following directions” and keeping it all text, never more than 70 characters per line, like I was told to do.

David wasn’t the only artist to think this was a BAD IDEA so I realized artists want something a little more visually pleasing. David helped me figure out how to do it. A talented artist and techie – he’s passed on more good information that I can “Share with the group”. When he was listening to the replay of last week’s Ask About WordPress for Artists call (do you have your copy yet?) he sent me the following information that I thought would be helpful.

He knows of what he speaks since he has a blog – on blogspot – called “Where art meets technology”…

I believe there is a misconception about Blogger vs. Blogspot.

Even that phrase is misleading, because they are the same thing.

The best way I understand it is that

1. Blogger is the on-line tool which allows one to create new
2. posts, which are individual, chronologically ordered in reverse “entries” or “posts” in your
3. “blog,” which is your journal, diary, log or web-log, from which we get the word [we]blog.

Blogspot is actually blogspot.com, a domain where all the Blogger-created blogs are stored or hosted.

You cannot use Blogger to create a blog and store that data ANYWHERE else but on blogspot.com — Both are owned by Google. Additionally (corollary) you cannot create/edit a blog with any other tool but Blogger and have it stored or hosted by Blogspot.com .

***Every Blogger-created blog is stored as a unique “subdomain” of blogspot.com , which is why every Blogger blog address has in common “blogspot.com.” A subdomain is the unique “areacode” that comes before the phone number, and the phone number is always 2 items: domain name and venue, “terareeddesigns” and “com” — you could have a separate site at store.terareeddesigns.com ; it would be a “subdomain”

Like Kim said, one issue to consider is that all Blogger.com blogs cease to exist the moment Google decides to stop supporting them. WordPress blogs will only disappear if you delete them or stop paying your domain-hosting bill. You control that. If WordPress.org disappears, you will still have all your data and your most recent installation of the version of the code that runs it.

Wordress.org is a group of programmers worldwide that work together on standards for an Open Source blogging service. WordPress.com is a Blogger-style tool that allows a simpler blogging method and can raise money (through more premium blogs) for WordPress.org costs.

One other thing; people with Blogger.com blogs VERY often misaddress their blogs, adding a “www” ahead of their blog address. Both will work, but one is wrong.

http://www.EverydayPaintings.blogspot.com is wrong
http://EverydayPaintings.com is right

Learn more about David Darrow at www.DaveThePaintingGuy.com

Be sure to check out his painting classes too – I’m told they are amazing!

Here’s to your creative success!

– Tara Reed

P.S. To learn more about how to earn an income licensing your art, visit www.ArtLicensingInfo.com* for a wide array of free and for-fee information from experts in the industry.

* FTC disclosure: any links with an * is an affiliate link and if you make a purchase, I will earn a commission for the referral. This helps me keep buying art supplies – thank you for your clicks!

It has been a very busy July for marketing and the business. I think those of us who are artists wonder at times about 1) the need to market, 2) continuing to make our own art, and 3) how we pull it all together. I sure don’t have all the answers, but I think at this point I have some insights on the process.

* You need a plan. You may not know what you’re going to do in the plan, but you need one. Sounds contradictory, I know, but you can make it work because part of your plan is to plan your plan. At this point my high school students would look at me and say “Huh?”

* You need to set aside time to read about marketing. What should you be doing? What tools should you be using? Set a deadline, so you don’t spend months at this stage, like I did until I finally started to do some of the things. When I ran my learning center and we had no money, I would do what I called “shoe leather marketing.” I was out talking to everyone I could about our learning center. Nowadays that “shoe leather” is social media, so spend time learning about that. You don’t need to be a net nerd for this step – there’s lots of available materials to read to get you started. Look at Social Media Examiner for a quick tour of Facebook and Twitter and what you need to do. Read Problogger about setting up and running a successful blog. Buy a book or two…or sit with a coffee in Borders or Barnes and Noble and browse the books.

* Set up Twitter and Facebook and start posting. Set up your blog and start posting. Read other blogs and start commenting. This becomes very important as you write more and create more of an active social media presence.

* Make your art. There is no point doing all this if you have nothing to offer the public. In our case, we have already established a few outlets: Ebay and website. Our website has a gallery with art work available for sale. Ebay has small pieces of fabric for buyers to create their own artwork.

* Decide who your customers are. This was a big issue for us, as a result of all the reading I did. I want to sell our larger artwork, but we have a great market in selling small pieces of marbled fabric for others to use in their creations. The more you read about selling on lie, the more you will see the suggestion to develop a product to “launch” and make money. I stumbled with this one. What would I do? Then came the proverbial 2 by 4 over the head – we already had customers. I needed to refine what we had already been doing. Consequently we continue to sell our fabric as well as put our artwork out in shows, galleries, and on line. It’s not an either-or. I am after art collectors who like fiber and mixed media, as well as quilters and crafters who like to do their own thing. Two worlds come together.

* Just do it. To quote Nike, nothing’s going to happen if you don’t do it. Just thinking about it will give you lots of ideas…and will make you go nuts in the “to-do list” department. (Ask me how I know this….) But there comes a point when you have to do it. Then…..

* You need a plan. Yup, all over again. I have discovered that I will need to have a very set plan for how to handle all of this once school starts again and my art/marketing time is limited. So over the next two weeks I will set up a calendar: 1) what gets posted each day, 2) when to write and schedule the blog posts, 3) how to schedule Twitter posts, 4) maintaining the Facebook Fan page, 5) writing a newsletter, and 6) making art.

I’ll keep ya posted! Any suggestions????

Marbled Fabric

While on vacation, hubby and I had plenty of time to talk about our marbling business and how we wanted to proceed. Readers of this blog know we went through some very difficult times as we had problems with marbling: nothing worked – water, paints, fabric finishes – nothing. Prior to this time we had an active business, with a mailing list of about 300 people, and a list of products that sold each month fairly well. Once the art problems hit, at the same time I changed jobs, and time became a real premium.

Fast forward to now, and I am spending lots of time reading and researching how to build our business. About two weeks ago, on the road in Tennessee, I had one of those “2 by 4 on the head” moments, when I realized that everything the internet marketers tell us we have to do to build an online business we had been doing years ago. So I have been spending time updating, revising, incorporating social media (which wasn’t around when we went online in 1998…). I have learned a HUGE amount, I have loads more to do, and most importantly, I am having fun, as well as meeting lots of new and interesting people. I am glad that I am on summer vacation right now, and I don’t need to take classes or teach any remediation, because building this business is taking a lot of time.

So what does an art business need? We have a website that has gone through several versions since 1998 when the learning curve was EXTREMELY steep.  It has again been updated by our amazing web designer Suzan at Saltwater Systems to reflect new fiber work, some of our digital work, and some new products to be released within the next two weeks. It is now easier to sign on to follow our work through our newsletter.

We did a lot of work off the website way before blogs, but blogging makes it a lot easier to update and refine offerings. Plus, I like being able to write about and reflect on new work, especially as our digital marbling (TN) increases. Now on our blog, Marbled Musings, you can follow updates to the blog, as well as sign up for our newsletter.

Social media has mushroomed. I’ve been on Facebook for about two years, and I have loved getting back in touch with former colleagues and students, as well as meeting and reconnecting with other artists. I am learning about Fan Pages and am just beginning to experiment with one. If you are interested, sign on to follow Marble-T Design on Facebook. Pretty soon we will have a button you can just click.

Now Twitter….this is really interesting. My students make fun of me for being on Twitter, but I tell them I am way ahead of them in this piece of technology, especially when it comes to business.  I am not always logging on with information about what I am doing, but I do enjoy the resources that are posted. Following the NY Times arts columns has led to some great artists. If you’re in to Twitter, you can follow me @ArtsyLindaMoran. (And there wil soon be a button….)

Have I made any art lately? No, and that is by far the downside to building a business and doing the necessary marketing. I worked on a few pieces before I left for vacation, and there is time next week built in for working on art. My goal is to have the business running smoothly within the next four weeks, and then I will carve out the art time throughout the school year – a tough task as any artist knows who has to share creativity time with the job that pays the bills.

I am very interested in what all of you do. Comment about how you’re building your business, what you have found that works, and anything in particular you know HAS to be done. Love to read your comments.

AND….giveaway this weekend with Blog Post 400 – I promise you it’ll be a good one!

PS – a popular post about Martha Stewart and her “marbling” – this ran a year ago as we were just coming out of our hard times marbling, and I was incensed at how she tried to put her spin on this ancient art!

This has been a really productive week for marketing – mostly all the lose ends that we need to do to move our businesses forward. I haven’t had a lot of time for art-making this week, as my goal for the end of June and July is to do everything on the “list” to have the business ready to go for this coming holiday season, before teaching starts again in August. Lots and lots of thinking has led to this point, and now I actually have the time to do these things! That said, here’s some cool stuff I have stumbled on this week on the web as it relates to moving our art along.

Steve Jobs

* The World of Apple –  “Invincible Apple: Ten Lessons from the Coolest Company Anywhere.”  I have been an Apple user since 1989, and I’m on my 4th Apple (I make them go a looonnngggg way). This is a look at how Jobs and crew – mostly Jobs – makes the Apple brand so powerful.

Tara Reed

* Tara Reed is an expert in art licensing. This is a listing of her ezine articles for those of you interested in looking into licensing. She has loads of information to help you navigate a HUGE field. Here’s her website for more information.

Lateral Action

* Lateral Action – creativity plus productivity equals success. Here’s a recent post on things you Do and DON’T need to sell your art.

Dilbert

* All Art Licensing – again, great info if you want to look at licensing your designs. J’net Smith made Dilbert a phenomenon.

Blurb

* Blurb – a great way to make a portfolio of your work, plus loads of ways to get marketing materials based on your own designs.

ProBlogger

* Problogger 52 Blog Tips to Kick-Start Your Blog – good all year round, if you’re having problems getting your blog off the ground.

Art Calendar

*Art Calendar A must for any artist – see what’s new in shows and opportunities.

Social Media Examiner

* Social Media Examiner – Your Guide to Social Media – sign up to get the Twitter tutorial, which is extremely helpful.

100 Places 10 Appreciate Art

* 100 Best Places to Appreciate Art Online Galleries, Porffolios, artist sites – look at what’s new in the art world.

Number 10??? What have you discovered this week on line that could help your marketing? Let me know!

I haven’t done Monday Marketing since sometime this spring, as I have been so busy with school. Now I feel like I can get back to my Monday schedule and plan my marketing for the week. These suggestions are from Art Marketing 101, in an email a while back.

1. Continually contact people
Make it an aim to call four people a day—whether they be new prospects or current clients. It’s guaranteed that not only will you become quite good and efficient on the phone, but your business will flourish. Clients are the mainstay of any business. To call four people a day could take 15 minutes. Don’t make them long conversations; in fact, they should be short, with a specific aim in mind. You could ask for referrals, invite the person to visit a future opening or exhibit, invite him to your studio to see your new series of work, thank her for a recent purchase. Be creative!
Add to this list four post cards and you have eight contacts a day to get a total of 40 contacts a week! If you try this for two months, you will be amazed at how your sales increase.

So I have a four-year-old mailing list from our website, and we have decided to reactivate the site and sales off the site when we get back to business the end of June. In the meantime, I had marketing postcards made so that as we visit galleries on our trip, we can leave information. The business cards will get added to our mailing list.
2. Follow-up
Not only do successful artists follow up after they send out a portfolio, but they follow up even if they receive a rejection. This means that they send out a postcard with one of their images on it, photo print, announcement of an exhibition, whatever it is—at least every 6-12 months to all prospective clients and galleries and to former purchasers. The rule in direct marketing is: you must contact people three times before they respond! As an artist you won’t have a huge mailing list; it will be quite intimate, perhaps 100-400, so the cost to do a mailing is not overwhelming.

And…we re taking our portfolio with us, along with fabric, something we have not done in the past. In this way, we can also get business cards, as well as make some potential contacts.
3. Use innovative marketing
Successful artists are always thinking of innovative ways to market. They are willing to take a risk if they feel a new idea might work. For instance, new places to exhibit—an orchid show, an interior designer show, a real estate show, a music conference, a sci-fi convention—whatever they think might work for them! Presentation is always consistent and top-notch, of course.

One of the reasons we go gallery-hopping it to get ideas for display, innovative approaches, unique ideas, as well as talk to other working artists, especially now about the economy. And I am amazed at how many times I see something that I could apply to the marbling.
4. Press coverage
Successful artists consistently receive press coverage. Although she might not get direct sales from this press coverage, a successful artist knows that in the long run it means many people see her name, artwork and progression over the years. This means a lot to potential buyers. It also means that the newspaper/magazine approves of you. Name recognition is of the greatest importance in any business.

I need to look at this in July and send some press releases. I have a couple of ideas I need to pursue. so we’ll see…
5. Long-term goals
All the successful artists I know have had long-term goals. This means they did not make it overnight. They planned and strategized and suffered to get where they are today in the marketplace. They never gave up. They knew their aim, and they knew there would be down periods, as in all businesses. Aims and goals are the mainstay of any business. You are in business, and you must have a business attitude to win at marketing!

I do have several pages of goals, and even with full-time teaching, I have been able to chip away at them. I’ve been saying if I could have a couple of weeks and spend four-five hours a day, I could see some good success with the business. This is happening.

I’m interested in your feedback. What are you doing to increase your marketing lists and contacts? What risks are you taking? How are you managing your goals?

Art Marketing 101

So we have officially decided as a mixed media group to participate in our first art/craft show in March to get a feel for what it takes. Monday was a great time as we determined some basics about our operating together. We decided to all have our own individual business licenses, rather than trying to create a new entity entirely. I’m thankful our jewelry-maker is a great accountant!

Now the work begins for the next two months, as we determine what product goes, and what we still need to produce. Talked to Brenda tonight, and she is weaving up a storm. Alison already has a great inventory of jewelry, and Betty has started some really exciting digital work with architectural images she has taken over the years.

We’re looking at some small, medium, and large fiber art pieces already finished. We have some digital images already framed, and I want to start planning for some smaller digital ones that will be mounted on foam core and simply wrapped. We’re going to take a dozen or so hand-marbled silk scarves, smaller pieces of silk, remnant packages, marbled papers, and stationery. I’m sure a few other things will crop up as we start seriously planning.

This I think will provide us all with good momentum. One of the things we all emphasized on Monday is that we don’t want our group to be solely a business group; we like the fact that we motivate each other to create new work for each of our meetings. Karin is going in some interesting directions with her water colors, and Suzan is absolutely amazing as a digital artist, quilter, and potter. We should get some good photos to share as we get closer.

It has been a sparse week creatively for me personally. I think it’s because I’m getting back into the swing of school after two weeks to do whatever I want. I don’t want to waste time sitting in front of the TV – too much I want to do! Brenda dropped off our order of crepe silk scarves – some for marbling, but I want to try dye painting on them.  I need to find something for my hands to stay busy so I don’t eat!! And I want to continue quilting the salmon sunrise piece to get it finished up.

Tomorrow is Friday, planning to see Fantastic Mr. Fox after school, with dinner out. Haircut and a power walk on Saturday, and another walk with the trainer on Sunday. Got to make time for art!

A great week was had by me! Lots of art planning, getting ready for the end of the semester and Christmas break, and lots of thinking about making art and the business of art.

First a word about being happy. I am almost medicine-free – just a small water pill for blood pressure (which seems to be down on its own…). Turns out everything else I have been taking has been making me feel worse and worse. I weaned myself off the depression medicine, and I am feeling the best I have felt – in like forever. Not to say I’ve never been happy – I absolutely adore my hubby. But now I seem to be happy about life in general, not just one or two specifics. I visit more people, I do more things, I have been far more productive when it comes to making art, I attend more events. It seems I might not be content any more to just sit at home. I truly like the feeling.

The pic at the top is of a new zentangle this week. The doodle actually “reads” happy to me. I tried another, thinking I could focus on a set of them using the alphabet, but while it’s “okay,” I found I really don’t want to force what comes from the doodling. I am quite content to just let them happen. I like the ribbon effect, and I imagine I will use that more often. Everything else just seems too forced.

So I set up my notebook and have been busy working within the various sections. Brenda and I got together again last night to look ahead to the first show we are planning to enter. I did quite a bit of reading on licensing, and I think I am ready to send out my first set of images, as well as my first query letter. And I am thinking about attending the licensing expo in Vegas in June.

Now here’s where I would like to hear from you making art as a business. I found this week that I spent plenty of time planning and reading about the business, and making plans for getting art out there. But I did very little actual art (beyond the zentangles, and making fabric fortune cookies for Christmas presents). A number of things came to mind: I have the opportunity to make and submit some pieces for two shows. Do I want to commit to that at this point, or do what needs to be done to establish some income from licensing so that I can continue to make the kind of art I want? I’m sure I’m not the only one experiencing this issue, and I would love to hear from those of you who struggle with this.

Doing some art for licensing really appeals, not just for potential streams of income, but because I am enjoying the production – working with Photoshop and doing really interesting manipulations of the marbled fabrics and patterns. So this potentially will allow me to do lots of other things, like take up painting on silk…..

I already have lots on my resume as an artist over the last 14 years. Some juried shows and articles, so part of me wonders how much I need to continue with that – which takes time to create new pieces, applying and maybe getting chosen, and then spending money to get the pieces to and from shows. Haven’t sold anything via that route…yet. There’s always that possibility. But I am thinking there is more possibility pursuing some of these other options at this time.

Interested in what y’all think….

I love my turtles – definitely one of the more successful digital renderings I have done with the marbled fabrics. Need to collect some more pics of turtles to play with.

I should be marking papers to get caught up for the kids’ progress reports before finals week, but I have too many other things to do right now – and the Glee finale is tonight….but I do want to report on yesterday’s work. My notebook is organized, and this time it looks like it will definitely be an asset for me.

Now I HATE mission and vision statements as they apply to large organizations, like school districts. I hate all the linguistic squabbling over words. However, when I sat down to actually do them, I found it flowed pretty well. The only person I had to please was myself. So here goes:

Mission Statement for Marble-T Design, LLC:

The mission of Marble-T Design, LLC. is to promote the ancient art of marbling, particularly its adaptation to fabric and fiber art. Marble-T Design will create and present fiber and digital works of art, all based on traditional as well as contemporary patterns, to the public through a variety of artistic venues.

Vision Statement for Linda Moran:

The vision of artist Linda Moran is to explore her artistic abilities through a variety of media, with the emphasis on fiber art using marbled fabrics. She will offer to galleries and the buying public works of art created not only for her enjoyment but for increased retirement revenue.

Now I want to do a vision statement for the blog, to be sure I keep myself on track over the next year.

Comments on the above greatly appreciated!

“And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

~Anais Nin

…or, as my Nana would say, “Shit or get off the pot.”

It’s time to stop thinking about being/becoming and artist and DO IT. A couple of events this year have led to a lot of thinking about being an artist and selling my work. And I spent November as Art Every Day Month, and while I didn’t work every day, I did more than I ever have, including summers when I have lots of time. I was creative and enjoying every minute.

But when I want to work on art, like today, I am either dealing with being sick, trying to get lesson plans done for a substitute, or marking papers (which I have been doing for the last 4 hours, and I’m not done yet)….

I decided this summer to retire in four years instead of three. And now I am looking to go back to a normal teaching contract next year instead of the extra money in a 6/5 contract – because I don’t want to wear myself out, and I want more time for art. As I get older – which has taken a long time to come to terms with and admit – I know my time is limited. I want to be able to travel with my hubby and just enjoy not working and doing art – and maybe actually have my art help supplement my retirement.

This means a lot of decisions – and planning. Lots of places to investigate, lots of art to make, and a business plan/selling plan to make. All of which need time. So I need to use my blog time to get back to marketing and questions and planning and decisions and techniques…..

I do read a lot of marketing blogs, not as many design blogs, and lots of creativity blogs – so there are loads of ideas floating around. A couple of years (like 9) when I had my first big breakthrough with fiber and the marbling, a friend Ellen said, “Don’t wait till you’ve mastered technique until you try what you’re thinking – do it now.” And I did, and evolved some very special unique ideas, like my weavings in my Gaia series. I need to reiterate that to myself right now – stop waiting to get good – start doing what I CAN do well.

I have the notebook ready and waiting to start writing. I am rolling around the idea of a regular contract next year – and I think we can make it work financially. Now it’s time to get back to papers, plans for the week, and a few lists for the end of the first semester so that I can use planning day to get the first month ready of the new semester. A goal for the second semester is to squeeze out more time for art – make it happen.

And I already took a step toward enjoying the art more – signed up for the School of Threadology to gain more knowledge about ways to make all these percolating ideas to happen. Plus, I continue to do my Zentangles – gained a lot of thinking and relaxing time doing those, and I see lots of possibilities for the future.

So join up for the ride – lots if ideas and thoughts – and of course comments welcome. Let’s see what I can accomplish when I actually set my mind to it!

This is a variation of one of our earlier images, with just a different gradient. I really like the way this image works, and there are so many cool variations of this. The background is a piece of marbled fabric, “deconstructed” – which I take to mean being brought to a basic line drawing, and then manipulating from there. This is a new item available this week in Cafe Press.

I love my gecko. You can read here about its development. I am ordering one of these bags – I want to carry this image with me, as I am quite fond of it!

You’ve seen the moon images before. Once again, I took a piece of fabric and deconstructed it in Photoshop until I had a line drawing. Then it was gradient after gradient, cutting some shapes and moving them. I learned a lot created this image. I’ve added it as a magnet.

I want to try some posters, because I think some of these images would be fabulous “living room” art. This is another example of marbled fabric being used within the plant shapes themselves.

Thinking about these? Think of all your friends and relatives who don’t “need” anything, but would enjoy something totally different.

This is absolutely, positively one of my most favorite digital marbling (TN) pieces. Suzan and I stumbled on this as we were laying with a deconstructed piece of marbled fabric. Here’s the process: I take a pic or scan a piece of marbled fabric and then play around in Photoshop until I’m happy with the result. With this piece, we took it down to a basic line drawing and then started playing around with gradients. We got a great background, but we knew it needed something more.

So we went through the photo library and found a great pic of a flower hubby had taken from our yard. Voila! That was exactly the focal point we needed.

This brings me to my Saturday Special. In an attempt to market myself and my art more strongly, I am investigating a variety of venues over the internet. This Saturday you can take a look at a few gifts available from Cafe Press. My “store” is quite small, and I look to change a few items on a regular basis. I’ve tried to price items so they would make great gifts for those who either have everything or need nothing! This photo graces a personal journal, making it somewhat mystical for your writings.

This flower image graces a small tile, a perfect gift for a housewarming. The basis of the design again is marbled fabric, this time inserted into flower images. I really like the “neon” effect of the flowers. This image will show up in a larger print down the road, because the detail in the flowers is intense.

I had so much fun creating this image, one of the first I successfully completed on my own. This is part of a “moon” series, and it also started as a piece of marbled fabric, deconstructed to a basic line drawing, with a series of gradients applied. I don’t think I could achieve the detail in this any other way. The piece just glows! This is available as a set of note cards, a nice way to maintain a unique social communication.

I am very interested in hearing from those of you who sell on line. Any tips or hints to share?

First time visiting Marbled Musings? Get an overview.

Well, it’s not working out like I wanted – sick since vacation started, it’s bronchitis, no it’s not, yes it is, I don’t know, it’s an infection, it’s a virus….who knows? I kinda feel like I did when I had mono, a mere decade ago. So not much is getting done, due to no energy and sleeping all the time.

But a couple of thoughts: I remembered today why I don’t enter a huge amount of art shows. Once I’m accepted (which is great), then it’s the shipping costs….48 bucks for shipping to and from Colorado today – and let’s hope it sells. That would certainly make entering shows more worthwhile. So I think I need to limit myself to three shows a year, and try to be very selective of the shows to build the resume. Even better, arrange a couple of local shows – would at least save on shipping….Yvonna – we should approach the Gardens for a joint show….

I really miss the journaling aspect of my blog. A week without, stats have dropped, I’ve done a couple of things I wanted to for marketing, but then nothing else. We want to go away to the coast of California starting next Monday, so I don’t have a lot of time to work. I am very conscious of just how much summer there is available to me, so I want to be as productive as possible. I have had some fun with Photoshop, and here is the original shot of coleus I used for the tutorial.

Here’s a quick “stamp” of the new brush.

I also experimented with making a marbling stamp brush – that could be very interesting for some surface design work.

So – goals for this week: blog entries, work on commission quilt, a few new tutorials from Photoshop, call on December craft show to get scheduled, finish contest entries, and get the materials out to finish the bamboo quilt.