Managing relationships as an Artist

Beyond your loved ones, realize that you must maintain professional relationships as well. Maintaining and managing your own client base requires that you be social, meet and greet, and hand out those dreaded business cards. Use a web site to market your work. Contact your clients and send jpegs of your work. In other words, act as your own agent when you can do so ethically.

This does not mean selling behind your dealers back for you must maintain that relationship as well. Again, this is why contracts are so important. In my case, for the past 25 years I have chosen not to have representation in the town that I live. This way I can make sales from my studio and discount the work accordingly. The galleries that represent me around the country are additional opportunities for sales as opposed to being the only opportunity for me to sell. I do not believe in giving away all of my power and neither should you.

If you are dependent upon others to provide for you, re-think your plan. “God Bless the Child Whose Got His Own” is not just a song, it is the natural truth.

If you are obligated to too many people you must also re-think your plan. Eventually you will be eaten alive. Your creative mind cannot work if it is always thinking about how to get you out of someone else’s movie, so to speak.

Something else to consider, who do you need? Art is social. It is important that you make the rounds of gallery openings, new shows at the local museum, friends’ homes for cocktails, and events that interest you. All of this is required to meet and greet potential collectors of your work. In most cases, buyers want to know something about the artist whose work they are considering. You do not have to make everyone your best friend, and you should not view everyone as a check. But you should consider the fact that they might be a check. After all, money is key to your survival both as a human being and as an artist.

Your art will work for you when you work for it. Again, it is the commitment of being an artist which must be heralded. Regardless of the accolades that a finished work might bring me, it is the activity of producing art that brings the purpose I am seeking. As a business person with the business of creating and selling art, many roles are built into the mission. Make sure that you address each one proportionately.

Tags: artist, Arts, CARDS, relationships, Website