Why Art Will Continue to Sell

"Love is Everything", by Gary Heller Photography.

You may not know it, but I am a news junkie. I read political and economic blogs, and it isn't a pretty picture being painted there, which is why art is more vital to my life now than last year. I think we all need art, now more than ever, because artists can bring qualities like faith, hope, and clarity present. Artists crack open the small ugly box that fear generates around us, and thus we breathe a little deeper, take a broader perspective, and see more possibilities.

What's wonderful about "Love is Everything" is that Heller shows us a tranquil moment in time and space where what is real and what is ideal have merged. It's a powerful visual reminder that dreams can and do become real. This is important. When we forecast our personal and political scenarios, projections, and predictions it is useful to hold open the door for the possibility that we may be transitioning into a better place.

As Mary Manin Morrissey said, "You block your dreams when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith."

Really good art gives us the imaginative building blocks to dream, design, and ultimately build ours lives anew. It lets a news junkie like me go into my studio confident that beauty is more relevant and essential now than ever before in my lifetime. Art will continue to sell because it is not a luxury. It is the receptacle of what it means to be human; to have a say in our own evolution.

15 Going on 16

My daughter and I went shopping for a prom dress yesterday, and found one at a consignment shop. It's beautiful, she's happy, my mission as a mom is accomplished as soon as we locate absolutely fabulous and affordable shoes. It amuses me to know that 1 hour after she had all the ladies and a few customers enthralled with her waiflike Cinderella drama of deciding which dress, she was center mid on a soccer field, crashing the goal like Katrina barreling down on New Orleans.

^This is Marci last summer, shopping in a vintage store with my mother-in-law. You can see that irresistible tomboy-in-a-ballgown beauty. Such a study in contrasts. And despite the sometimes maddening drama, such a joy.

WANTED: specialists in the impossible

I named my first ever Etsy treasury You KNOW You WANT IT!!! (As Much As I Do!!). I had an unexpected reward for doing this seemingly selfless act of promoting other people's much deserving work. Besides the obvious result- the satisfaction of seeing my patchwork project online- I was so touched by the thank-yous I got from the artists. Some let me know that they had been in a bad place of discouragement, and felt lifted up by my simple act of acknowledgment. I thought about how badly we all need encouragement from time to time, how a few words or gestures can make a difference for someone else, and how easy it is to offer. I also wondered if artists are more prone to the ill effects of discouraging words, and I think this may be true.

Think of the goals that we encourage in children. A child who says "I will be president someday" is praised as if it were practical and a wise choice. Whereas a child who says 'I want to be an artist' is immediately told how impractical and nearly impossible that is. Yet there are hundreds of professional artists in every city right now, and only 44 US presidents in 200 years.

It takes more positive words to counteract all the negative ones we've recieved. I'd like to know your thoughts on this, too.

Here is some manna for any parched creative souls out there:

Art provides a healing force which aids both the maker and the viewer-
Richard Newman

Being an artist means not numbering and counting but ripening like a tree, which doesn't force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come.
Rainer Maria Rilke

What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.
Theodore Roethke

(Please take a moment before Tues to visit and click on the artists in my Treasury. Spread a little of the good stuff today, please!)

Pricing Handmade Work Successfully

Pricing art and handcraft can be as confusing as reading the small print from your stock broker....no wait....nothing can be as confusing as that. Maybe it's more like parenting- confusing because we all eventually come up with our own unique way of doing it. While my way is not the only way to do it, I'm managed to earn a fair living as an artist, including 8 years as a single mom, so it works for me. Pricing art can be maddening because art is worth what people will pay for it. But if you haven't sold anything before, how do you know what they'll pay for it????

Start by finding similar pieces in places that have a good sales track record. Established galleries, boutiques, or Etsy stores with good sales are great places to look. Note the highest to lowest prices, and find a median price. That should be your Bread-and-Butter price. Price anything that you want to make in multiples, or large sets, at that price.

When the demand for your work at Bread-and-Butter prices exceeds what you are capable or willing to make, raise the price in 10% increments, until you have the cash flow that is right for you. For instance, I want my Bread-and-Butter work to pay my yearly expenses, and leave me with half my workday to experiment, or make One-of-a-Kind (OOAK) pieces. Because I want so much free time, I keep my Bread-and-Butter prices low. That way, there is always a high demand, and I have a steady income stream.

I price my OOAK pieces (experiments that turned out really really good) with the advice of trusted gallery buyers. They live in a mysterious world- just let them do their thing!

My third category of work is samples. These are experimental pieces that are prototypes for my Bread-and-Butter line, and I price them 25-40% below retail. Here are some examples of mine on Etsy.

I said another confusing word, there- retail... I know....the whole retail price, and wholesale price is like trying to pretend you understand your kids' New Math. Galleries mark up your price by 100%- 120%. If you think you can't possibly cut your price in HALF, well, you may not realise how much time you spend selling. I know that I didn't! If you are selling wholesale for the first time, look at raising your retail prices, buying supplies wholesale, and developing production methods. Some combination of this WILL work for you. And set a Wholesale Minimum. Mine is $450. A gallery must buy at least $450 at one time to get the wholesale price. Most of my galleries order $1200 at one time, so I only have to make a few sales a month. $1200 wholesale = $2400 retail, so if you are selling on Etsy, think of the time it takes you to list, pack, and ship that much work, and you may begin to think of selling wholesale as more doable.

The above bean pot is $26 wholesale, $52 my retail (100% markup of wholesale), and $58 gallery retail (120% markup of wholesale).

I wish you great success in all your creative endeavors, especially if you are trying to find a way to make a living being creative. I will answer all questions if you leave a comment.

New Works

These came out of my kiln this morning, just in time to show to one of my favorite buyers. Her word for this turquoise glaze was "tranquil." I'm really liking it. The ikebana vase may have to stay on my dining room table awhile. I like to live with a few of my new pieces before they get sold. I have 1 month before I develop this glaze into a new line of work and my head is swimming deliriously with ideas.
So what do you think? I love the turquoise by itself the best, and in combo with the yellow and earthtones, but I'm not as crazy about the turquoise and white. Don't quite know why.

Strategies for Success as an Artist

I thought I'd blog some of my tips for surviving and thriving as a studio artist for 30 years. As an artist running a sole proprietor business, most of the advice I got from well meaning people that did not work for me was about how to run an efficient, profit-driven manufacturing plant. As I've said in Creativity, this led me into deadening boredom. Here are some pointers that I found invaluable:

1) "Your inner artist is a child", according to Julia Cameron. That means that an artist's job is to play. That doesn't mean to just make messes (although sometimes it does) and it does mean to abandon oneself to imagination, surrender to creative impulses. Dream. Go with 'what if?' just for the pleasure of it.

2) "No matter how beautifully a puppet is dancing on the end of its strings," said Werner Erhart, "I have a sense that there is no joy in it for the puppet." If you hit a winning formula, like the piece that wins a competition, or will sell over and over, there is a strong pull to lock yourself in to making just that or things derived from that until Sales is like a puppeteer and you are dancing on its strings. Don't do it.

3) "Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business." (Tom Robbins) Believe in magic. Period.

Now here are my own daffodils and polliwogs of wisdom:

4) Learn to be very comfortable in your own skin, and your own mind. Some form of exercise and some spiritual discipline are essential, or art will never be more than another attempt to escape yourself.

5) Make a solemn agreement that you will only tell the truth in your art. This was huge for me. I actually made an inventory of all the ways I lied in my pottery: by making shapes that I knew were off center or poorly finished, telling myself that with a pretty glaze they would sell anyway. Using bright colors when my soul at the time cried out for subtle and mellow colors, or vice versa. Making work that was fast and marketable cheap, and saying I would explore a little artistic growth when I had a fat IRA (someday...)

6) At least once a year, redesign your life. Design is the context, the box, the often overlooked structure of an organization or our individual life. If your dream is huge, the structure of your current life may be too small to hold it. Design your day, your home, your studio, your family to support and facilitate where you intend to go as an artist.

7) Tell everyone off on a regular basis, eat only desserts, and run up your credit cards to the max. Just kidding! But I was serious about everything else!

May the Sun Shine Warm Upon Your Face

Here are some incredible artists whose work inspires me this St Patrick's Day. In the colors and motifs and overall ambiance, I find great pleasure. Click, and check them out:
No.295 Fantasy Land by Deebs, anamcara by Selkie

Celtic Motif clock by Wool and Wood, The Irish Kiss earrings by Jewels by Designs


Who can resist the charm and great depth of Irish poetry, art, culture? Van Morrison, WB Yeats, and a mug of Gaelic ale, then off to a contra dance. It's a good life. I love Irish blessings, too.
Here are some of my favorites:

An Old Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

An Old Celtic Blessing
May the blessing of light be on you—
light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
and warm your heart
till it glows like a great peat fire.

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep
Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there... I do not sleep.
I am the thousand winds that blow...
I am the diamond glints on snow...
I am the sunlight on ripened grain...
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you waken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of gentle birds in circling flight...
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry—
I am not there... I did not die...

HAPPY ST PADDIES DAY to you!!!