Art Marketing Buzz

I have often wondered what some of my heroes from back in the day would have thought about the whole digital revolution. Would many of them have embraced the technology and utilized it for a whole new movement? If so which ones? There is no doubt that the mainstream would have scoffed and that an image using pixels instead of paint would have been banned from the high-end shows. The thought of a pixel entering the Louvre would have  buried the nearest hospital with heart patients. (still does)

That being said I was delighted to see a new digital spin from an old master. The Complete Rembrandt Lifesize is a new exhibition that opened last month in Boesingheliede, near Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Full sized digital reproductions of all known paintings (317 of them), 285 etchings and more than 100 drawings can be viewed in much like they left Rembrandts studio. How cool is that?

Through digital artistry we will have the ability to see the full painting where there was a sizeable piece of canvas missing,  the vibrancy diluted by time re-instated, and hidden details not viewable because of aging pigment now emerge into view.

The digital imaging of each of the 687 reprints was supervised by Professor Ernst van de Wetering. The photos  were made under strong light and digitally processed. The post processing made it possible to visualize details that would normally not be seen by the average museum visitor.

Whats really cool about this exhibition is the images are organized chronologically.  The exhibition brings together works from more than 100 museums and collections around the world. We can get a glimpse into Rembrandt’s mind. It follows his 45-year evolution from a young painter to possibly the most famous master of his day.

The Complete Rembrandt, Life Size exhibition will run through September 7th. A cursory check of cheap flights revealed 500-880 round trip.  Amsterdam anyone?

Original article by CCTV posted here.

This post is in response to a conversation I overheard the other day at an art fair I was attending.  The artist who whined the loudest was issuing verbal complaint regarding the lack of sales at the fair.  I found it interesting because I knew that a few other artist I had talked to were doing quite well and were excited and upbeat about being there.

I overheard her loud complaints while I was standing in another artists booth space.  As a bonified art and marketing geek I make it my point to check out as many spaces as possible when I go to any kind of art show.  My ADD style of perusing had not yet brought me to her doorstep so I deliberately walked across to her booth so I could check out her work. (this is like a bad horror movie…you may see where this is going)

As I moved over and entered her space I didnt even get  any eye contact. Not a smile a nod or a hello. Not a sneer, leer or even a snort. It was as if I didnt even exist. No love. Wierd, I was the only one in there at the time.  After the cursory guy-type breath and pit check I decided I was clean and worked up the courage to approach her.  Her work was really nice…very unique.

My question uttered forth, much like that of a school boy asking the new girls name. It was simple really, “Do you have prints available?” (I knew based on the original prices that a print would be a more likley purchase for me) My skin crawled as lady Godiva turned from her interior design magazine and set her stoney gaze in my direction. I felt I would lose bladder control as the velocity from her shriek-like answer threatened to tear my geek-glasses from my face. “I ONLY DO ORIGINALS!” Yikes! Stop,drop and roll man. I was out the doorway frantically searching for my wife and kids so I could save them.

C’mon. I hope she likes rice and beans sans beans cuz she aint selling no work that-a-way. Yep. True story by the way. Check this out though, first at a street show, expo or fair you cant control the environment or the type of person who comes in to see you. Variety is the spice of life here. Dont cha think it might make sense to leave the nicest high-end work at home? Use some prints, small sketches and less expensive stuff if your trying to drive sales.

In my opinion, the best way to treat shows that you dont get to control the enviornment, is as an entry to your marketing funnel.  Showcase a high-end piece or two but try to cover your expenses with less expensive work.  Use the opportunity as a marketing venue to start the ever-so-important relationship. Ask them questions about themselves, engage in the art of conversation.  Art lovers enjoy talking with artists. You are the heros. Read Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and apply that information in an authentic manor. Be sure to have a point of collection via cards or clipboard so you can market to them down the road. (That should be the number one goal of most street shows or fairs).

You will find that you have more fun, make more sells on the spot and more opportunities for larger sells down the road.

Let me know what you think.

Here are a few more twitter tips to potentially boost your network of peeps.

Twitter, like much of social networking is about numbers.  Quality and target is important but you need numbers, here’s why….the more followers you have the more likely that one of your tweets will be re-tweeted. Obviously if you have been following some of this Twitter stuff you know that you need to be providing good, interesting and relevant content first, that is the first thing to increase the chances of a re-tweet and not boring your followers to death.

A quick way to increase the number of followers is to follow people that you find interesting or that you share a common passion with.  I tend to follow artist and internet marketers…the two things I have passion for and do for a living.  Once you begin to start following these folks, many of them will follow you back if  they see you also have an interest in something that they like or do.  You can use the search tool in twitter or better yet, use tweet deck and the search tool there to really focus on your target market.

Another thing that will help is to have an appealing background for your page.  Have something that you put together yourself to be totally unique.  Link to your blogor website or a squeeze page with an opt-in for your free product. If you need a free background here are some free ones  http://www.tweetbacks.com/

Another cool tool I have talked about very little is the “Viral Tweet Generator”.  This is a piece of software basically that lets people send out a tweet about a site or or product that they want to promote.  It can be done with one click of the mouse and then they are taken to a special download page where they can get a free gift from your own site.  I dont have it set up for me personally as I just found out about it in the last few days.  Here is a free copy http://viralurl.com/ebooks4u/viraltweet

So there you have it…a few more fun tips.

until next time-

Tim

If you are an artist who sells internationally and regionally dont forget the local scene. Many artist tell me they dont sell much work locally.  The whining goes on about how one is not appreciated locally like you are outside of your region.  True, in many cases anyway. 

I would suggest though that there are many buyers, patrons and collectors right where you are.  How do you find them? Well I cant tell you how to find a specific collector obviously but I can tell you how to expand your network of local people wth very little effort. 

This technique takes very little time and works for any business or person who wants to meet more local people.  It starts with Twitter. (does everything start with Twitter? No) If you are not on twitter, get on. Sooner rather than later.

When you sign up for your twitter account take special care to fill out your profile. You only have a small amount of room for your bio.  What is important here though is the location area. A ton of people leave that blank or put in the country only. Here is the deal, if you are a business geek and you want to find other local business geeks it makes it difficult if that is not filled out.

The other way to use twitter to find people in your area is to use the search function on twitter. The challenge with this method is that you will pick up any post that has the keyword in it you seached, it doest mean they are local.

If you havent hooked up with twitter you can see a short step by step video here.

Tim

Hey all!

Thought I would give a shout out and let ya all know we are sportin a new look at the buzz.  There is a bunch of work being done on the site. We have a new template up and the header will be complete with the new logo soon.  The other thing that will be happening is the pages will be changed and updated to make it easier to find the posts you are looking for.

Learning the marketing techniques to sell your art has never been easier.

If you aspire to write, let me know and we may find a spot for you on the team.

until next time,

Tim