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Fine Artist Guidebook - Evergreen
Fine Artist Guidebook - Evergreen
Fine Artist Guidebook - Evergreen
FineArtistSummit.com
Fine Artist Summit
Table of Contents
Introduction
35+ World-Class Fine Artists & Artist Career Experts Share Their
Words Of Wisdom On Thriving As An Artist Today
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Fine Artist Summit
8
Fine Artist Summit
Introduction
Learn directly from world-class fine artists and artworld experts how to
plan your next artist career step, how to make your best work ever, how
to expand your professional network and how to show exhibit your work
-- even if you’re starting from scratch or you have struggled to get
visibility before.
It can feel like a black box looking at the artworld from the outside, or
you may feel at times like there is so much much noise it is so hard to
get the right people to pay attention to you and your work.
Instead of wasting your time piecing together a plan that works, let our
35+ best-in-class Fine Artist Summit speakers tell you what THEY have
learned in their journey and what they recommend today.
This guidebook is just the beginning of what we have in store for you.
Enjoy!
- Miguel Mayher
-Host of the Fine Artist Summit & Founder of ArtMBA.com
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Fine Artist Summit
The 4 Pillars
Are you an artist looking to level up your career? Join us to discover
decades worth of advice compacted into an exciting week of learning.
We will focus on the four areas that you need to master in order to
thrive in your artist journey, and in this guidebook you will get a taste of
them:
Plan
● Career planning
● Talking and writing about your artwork
● Sustainable income strategies
● Teaching as a source of income
● Getting clarity on what you want
● Mindset for rejection and grit
● Problem solving when stuck ○ Focus vs
experimentation
Make
● Finding your voice
● Making your most authentic art
● Prolificness inside the studio
● Productivity outside the studio
● Energy & time management
● Daily rituals, discipline vs inspiration
● Process vs outcome
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Fine Artist Summit
Meet
● Building a support community
● Networking for introverts
● Expanding your contacts
● Cultivating relationships at scale with tech
● Artist residencies
● Securing art grants
Show
● Instagram for artists
● Get into a gallery
● Art fair success
● Finding your audience
● How to sell your work in person
● Partnering with charities
● Self-curating your show
● What it takes to get your artwork in museums
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Fine Artist Summit
ALYSSA MONKS
What's in your territory, what's in your domain? Rely on things that are
in your control to define your success. Go to the studio today, work as
hard as you can, and work as true as you can to your vision. Use and
employ the tools that you know will help you get to the next level. Be
authentic, don't be afraid to experiment, push your technique.
“Experiment not just with your materials, but with your own
mind and the way you are thinking.”
You have to define success for yourself, make a commitment, and stick to
it because there are going to be disappointments and rejections and
things that don't go the way you want them to. If you let them convince
you that you're not successful, you're going to give up, you're going to
doubt yourself, and the self-critic will come in and just destroy
everything. Don't indulge the mindset of comparing your work to
anybody else's. Instead, focus on things you can do.
Employ the concepts of curiosity, the beginner’s mind, because these will
get you to do the work you need to do, the great work of your life.
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Fine Artist Summit
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Facing the inner critic & becoming a
professional
GIGI ROSENBERG
Persistence is the one thing I recommend to those who are just starting
out now into the art world. And I don't mean a dogged kind of
persistence, because sometimes you need to change a project or let it
go. But just getting up every day and putting one foot in the right
direction can help artists live with a lot of rejection. So you need to
celebrate the good stuff, keep putting one foot in front of the other,
get your applications out, and make it as fun as possible.
You have to remember that there are a lot of benefits you might not
even see. You have to at least enjoy parts of it or else it's going to be
pretty dismal to have to put up with 19 rejections to win the one grant.
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Fine Artist Summit
"If you're applying the right tips and the right strategies,
you will see results."
SESSION DESCRIPTION
How to talk about your work & win art
grants
3. GO TO LOTS OF EXHIBITIONS
RYAN STANIER
Walk through the door of every gallery in your city. Just go in there
and chat with people. Really try and get your work in front of people
as well, and how you do that, you obviously need to think about going
back to working with some people and not others. But also do your
own thing.
“Success doesn’t happen overnight, it just doesn’t.”
In the world that we live in now, everybody’s looking for the quick fix.
How do I become successful overnight? People are always thinking
about that approach. We’re all rushing around trying to get
immediate success. It’s not all about being a successful artist. Think
about the journey and just enjoy the whole process.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
How to get discovered — and rise to the
occasion
STEPHEN BAUMAN
I feel like having an open mind and having an attitude towards your
experiences that is positive is always going to put you in a better
situation than the alternative. You can feel singular and alone, and
while I wouldn't dissuade people who look for their power in that
place, treating colleagues happily and like you're inspired by them will
make you useful to everybody around you.
I usually work whether I feel bad or I feel good. It’s probably best not
to rely on how you’re feeling. There’s a little bit of self-respect that you
can hold on to, which helps build that self-belief.
The life of being an artist is fraught with the same kind of perils as
almost every other artist is experiencing. You’re not alone — we’re all
going to feel a little bit bad at times. You have to find your rhythm.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Facing the artist journey with positivity
CLINT WATSON
Make it possible for people to sign up to hear from you when you
have new art. The resistance to send a newsletter can be so high
among some artists, but there are ways you can automate this process.
No matter how you tackle it, give people a way to sign up to hear
from you and learn about what new pieces you have.
People who buy art tend to want to learn more about the artist, and
they end up becoming repeat collectors. Remember this when building
your own audience.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Level up your artist website
DAVID KASSAN
I think that truth and honesty are really important aspects of painting
to follow. You should be the artist that you love the most in this world
through finding your influences and finding the paintings that you love
and the artists that you love. You fall into the right position if you just
are working hard and creating really honest work as to who you are.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Entrepreneurial mindset for ambitious fine
artists
You'll often rewrite your artist statement in your journey. You can
recycle some of the sentences, but some of them won't last to the next
show because they don't pertain. So it is a continuous thing.
You doing your writing, and doing as well as you can with it, and
having confidence in it actually sets you apart from a lot of visual
artists already. If you fail to write about your work, fail to talk about it,
fail to do what you know how to do or try, then that's where you let
yourself down. That’s how it is in the art world. So write about yourself.
Put your press release online too. Put it on your website, put it on your
social media. I like reading a press release. It gives me everything I
need to know. It’s more comprehensive than an invitation or an
announcement.
Remember that seeing a work of art takes some time, and it takes
some education. Your writing helps the first-time viewers use their
powers of perception to get into your work.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
How to write about your art & your show
press release
8. COMMUNITY IS KING
HEATHER BHANDARI
I think the thing that matters most is your community. Whether or not
you went to art school or got an MFA, not everyone continues to make
work, but most of those people will be related to the art world in some
way. Whether you like it or not, the people you’ve already been
exposed to or are already around your work are going to be so
important. Value them and support them in the way that you’re
hoping to be supported in the future.
Let your guard down. Some people say the art world is really
competitive and you have to be guarded, that if you’re applying for
something to keep that information to yourself because those friends
of yours are going to get you in the end. That’s not true; those friends
are the ones who are going to help you in the end.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Showing your art in galleries and
alternative spaces
LI CHEVALIER
There’s a Chinese saying that goes “When you move a man, he tends
to live better.” I suggest, from artistic or geographic viewpoints, you
should never hesitate to change. To change your situation, to change
yourself.
Never hesitate to move. I know some very brave Italian artists who
moved to London, to New York. Don’t be lazy, move to somewhere
else. Open yourself to the world. It’s a huge world, there are lots of
new energies coming, born in some other places other than your
country.
Fine Artist Summit
SESSION DESCRIPTION
International mindset: from galleries to
museums
DENNIS OSADEBE
Being an artist is a very tough and lonely road. But when you do
decide to become a superhero — or be an artist — you should also
understand that it comes with its challenges. For me, the key to
pushing and excelling is to be very consistent, be very honest and true
to yourself and the work.
A lot of people think you have to know about all the artists, all the
galleries, all the fairs, all the auctions. It’s not intentional; I’m just so
focused on improving my works, so immersed in my own works. Don’t
get fixated on other artists, don’t just create idols of other artists. You
have to really pick and choose what you want to immerse yourself in.
“We all have our aesthetics and our idea of what art is, so
it’s important to look at galleries that show those artists
that you like.”
SESSION DESCRIPTION
How to become an international artist
from the start
Keep your artist community close because they’ll really help boost your
spirits. It’s just really good to have that camaraderie and support
network there.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Art fair advice for artists
COLIN DAVIDSON
Don’t wait around for anybody to do anything for you, or for the
magic to occur, or for you to suddenly get what you deem to be your
own style. The only person who can be you, is you.
You might think, “There’s a painter who’s making exciting work, who’s
getting critically well-received comments. If I paint like them, I can be
as good as that.” The problem with that is that you don’t know, as a
painter, if you are destined to be better than that, to actually say
something completely different. What all that does is make you risk
falling short of what is truly you.
Fine Artist Summit
Recognize what comes from within, and harness that and focus on
that. And when the inspiration dries up, which it always does, from
time to time, when we’re struggling for direction, paint. Simple as that.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Staying grounded and true to your work
ELAINE LUTTRULL
If you’re feeling stuck, you don’t have to be stuck forever. What’s one
small thing you can do in the next week that will help you feel a little
less stuck? Sometimes remembering that the journey is long can be
boiled down to just taking teeny, tiny little steps.
Making these changes can take a really long time. And that’s okay,
that’s part of the process.
Fine Artist Summit
Keep making great work, because that’s the most important thing.
Remember to keep making the work you love and the work you want
to be doing.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Portfolio career for artists & how to price
your work
ELIZABETH GARVEY
If you have friends, colleagues, other artists, people that you really
respect and their work is being sold at auction, definitely keep an eye
on them and what they’re doing. Choose a couple of artists and just
follow them along in the auction world and see what happens.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Auction houses and private dealers
NANCY HILLIS
The static mindset says, “If I’m already not good enough, it’s all over,”
or, “Maybe I’m not talented.” It’s like there’s a limited amount of
possibility and it’s easily hit by criticism.
I guarantee you’re not going to like all of your paintings. And that’s
okay, actually, it’s great. We learn a lot from those paintings we don’t
like.
You can adopt a way of talking to yourself that is not critical. Rather,
it’s a state of allowing and giving yourself permission. Doing this also
helps you to trust yourself more. If you can embrace mistakes and
“failure,” you free yourself up. You could do anything with your art.
Fine Artist Summit
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Creating your deepest and most authentic
art
ALI CAVANAUGH
I’m not the same person today that I was 20 years ago. I’m not the
same artist that I was 20 years ago. Work evolves, but if you stay true
to yourself, that work is going to have an authenticity all the way
through your life.
Fine Artist Summit
SESSION DESCRIPTION
How to be featured in art magazines
JUAN GARAIZABAL
Do you absolutely need to do it? Can you live without it? If you can
live without it, you have to. Because it’s nonsense to be a creator if you
don’t really need it. You need to identify very quickly what things you
can live without, and you better get rid of them.
You’re going to need a lot of extra energy, a lot of extra space in your
brain. If you cannot meet all your priorities, you will very possibly meet
your first, and if it’s your first and only, then the possibilities are bigger.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Mass media for professional artists done
right
ROSALIND DAVIS
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Organizing a self-curated group show
ELIZA ROBERTS
I think art residencies are the best way to encounter the world, and to
grow your personal and professional practice. Residencies are not only
about us, they’re also about personal growth and intercultural
understanding.
There are a lot of personal benefits that come from doing residencies.
They give artists time for reflection, just to assess the way they’re
approaching things within both their professional and personal lives.
I’ve run a lot of residencies in my lifetime, and I’ve never met an artist
who didn’t have a single outcome. But, of course, the impact of
residency is so changing that those outcomes continue to roll on in the
medium- and long-term. A residency benefits not only the artist, but
also the host and the community it’s in.
Fine Artist Summit
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Artist residencies: How to research, apply &
benefit
HANNAH COLE
I find that the more you are curious about other people and what
they’re working on, the more interesting you become to other people.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Getting your art finances under control
MIRIAM ESCOFET
Go out and look at the things that feed you. Ignore the work that
actually makes you feel bad about what you do, or that doesn’t relate
to you at all. Just because that work is getting all the media attention
does not mean it’s the direction you have to go in.
Just be true to yourself. There are easy ways to live your life, and there
are easy ways to earn a living. So the only reason for being an artist is
to actually follow that inner calling that you have. Don’t waste time on
other stuff.
If you’re having a time when you’re really struggling with the work,
then get out of the studio and do something that feeds you. It’s better
to take time out and come back refreshed.
Fine Artist Summit
Art is a very organic thing. Each artist has their own technique, be
true to yours. Just let the work unfold organically.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
What it takes to win a prestigious prize &
what happens next
OLIVIA KEMP
I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t have any art world contacts. I just
decided that if I’m going to try and be an artist, I need to give it my
all. I just thought to myself that if I could just give it everything for a
year or two and see, then I won’t look back and regret not having
tried.
We all obviously need to get by. Get a job if you need to get a job,
but don’t make it your full-time thing unless you absolutely have to.
Still push your art work as hard as you can for a couple of years and
just see.
You will start to get some opportunities out of it if you’re putting in for
the right prizes, the right open call exhibitions. There are so many
opportunities out there that don’t involve you knowing anyone in the
art world, which is where I started out.
Fine Artist Summit
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Using social media and mass media to
kick-start your art career
DINA BRODSKY
I was staying with a friend somewhere in Spain and I just decided that
my career wasn’t really going that well. For a week, I applied to every
single grant in whatever my corner of the art world is.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Instagram for fine artists
ERI TAKANE
As an artist, you need to find the perfect manager for you. Someone
with whom you share the same interests. Start a conversation and see
if you have a commonality or something similar.
If you find someone you really like, maybe you can Google the name
and find out something. Not everyone may use Instagram or
Facebook, but it’s an Internet world and you can find something.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Advance your career with an international
artist manager
FRANCIS GIACCO
I think there’s this whole idea that when you see technically good
paintings, that they’re not important. But if I look back at the history
of paintings, stuff from Giotto to the 20th century, I think that every
great painting was technically brilliant.
It’s also important to have that something else. There are technically
good paintings that might be a little bit empty, but every great
painting to me was technically brilliant.
Bust just remember that you learn your technique to express your art.
Don’t just paint to express your technique. That’s when it becomes a
little bit dull. That’s the hard thing, that’s the hard journey.
I tell my students, “I’m teaching you technique. What you do with that
is your business.”
Fine Artist Summit
“You have to find out what it is you want to do, and it’s
not necessarily what you’ve been studying.”
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Starting your art career & winning a
national prize
KATHLEEN DUNPHY
Put your art before your marketing, because so often I see the cart
before the horse. It’s true that you need to get your name out there.
But, your art comes first. So, devote the vast majority of your time to
painting and getting better and enjoying yourself.
“Find what it is that you love that you want to keep doing,
because you’re going to devote a lot of time to it.”
Set a small slice of your day aside for the marketing part of your
artistic career. But, the majority of your work is painting the best
possible work you can and doing everything you can to get better
every single day.
Try to have a little bit of a track record before you approach a gallery.
Those coffee shop shows and online competitions are terrific ways to
start establishing a track record.
“If you do what you love, you never work a day in your
life.”
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Growing your art community while living in
the countryside
LORIBELLE SPIROVSKI
Every time I finish this body of work, I will inevitably have a period of
time where I experience self-doubt, and it’s like I’m back to square one,
literally. And it’s a really crucial point, because I think going back to
square one is the only way to grow.
Painting is the closest thing to real alchemy that we have. The fact
that we have lead paint and turn it into gold, that’s a literal alchemy
version. I am able to make people see inside of my brain, inside of my
heart everytime, and that’s magic. So resilience comes absolutely from
within.
If you don’t love it, you can’t do this for your job. You can’t make it
because it has to be your flesh and blood. It has to be a part of you.
Fine Artist Summit
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Success as a young self-taught artist
JASON HOREJS
It’s going to take persistence and some preparation on the artist’s part
to start to have those opportunities to work with galleries. You don’t
need to have hundreds of pieces ready to go. If you have 20 to 25
high-quality, consistent pieces of work that you’re ready to start
promoting and selling, that’s enough to go out and start approaching
galleries.
Find a long list of galleries that you can present to, so you’ll have that
chance to reach the right gallery at the right time with your work. You
may also need to do some follow-up.
Fine Artist Summit
SESSION DESCRIPTION
How to sell your art and get gallery
representation
DREW STRUZAN
John Lennon once said that he wrote all his music in his sleep. I paint
all my pictures in my sleep. I do them while I’m being the most
peaceful, when I’m asleep, and I’ll design them and paint them and
compose them and invent new techniques all in my sleep. And when I
get up in the morning, I’m ready to go because I know exactly what I
did last night, and I just repeat it.
“It’s who I am. It’s what I do. It’s what I love. So I just do it
24 hours a day.”
I paint every day, all day. I work really, really hard. I work all the time,
but it’s not work. It’s love. I love to do it, and I know I’m making other
people happy.
Art is the only way I seem to be able to connect with people and tell
‘em that life is good and happy. I have my own opinion, and that’s
what I paint.
Fine Artist Summit
I talk to other artists and they say, “You just gotta keep doin’ it.” Yeah,
just keep doin’ it, and it just gets better and better and better. You’ll
be happy, believe me. If you love it, you’ll be happy.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Master your craft and knock on doors
LYNN GUO
I’ve seen artists in the past getting stuck, not only in their career, but
also in lots of other things: professional opportunities or financial
situations. If an artist wants to get help, they need to know exactly
what they need and be willing to help themselves.
Time is so, so valuable for anyone. Choose one thing to do that you’re
good at. Focus on that, for a particular time. Instead of trying to do it
all, you can actually outsource tasks to other people, to the
organization, to the platform. They can actually do better and save
you time while creating opportunities for others.
It’s important for us, as artists managing ourselves, to know all the
aspects of what needs to be done. I really think outsourcing, giving
professional tasks to professional people, is helpful. Not to mention,
you need to have a life, you need to continue to travel to see the
world in order to nurture your artistic spirit.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
The artist as entrepreneur
GLENN VILPPU
I started teaching before the mothers of a lot of the people who are
doing stuff today were born. There were whole generations of people
that didn’t learn how to draw.
I find that so much of the traditional stuff, the academy-type stuff that
is generally taught today — which is based on copying —, can be very
deadly in terms of people trying to go out and say, make a living.
There’s a tendency to take and want to follow on the latest style, the
latest thing. Realize that when you’re just following fashion, you’re
creating obsolescence. Taste changes so drastically. It’s much better to
“Follow your own drummer.”
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Turning teaching into your art
KRISTJANA WILLIAMS
But you really just need to get over that, because nothing is ever
finished. Take your unfinished pieces; they will soon tell you what to fix.
The more that you feel that fear, that horrible thing of criticism, the
more you live with it.
Most of the people that are coming over to your show like your work.
People are attracted to what they like; it’s human nature. The positive
always outweighs the negative.
Fine Artist Summit
SESSION DESCRIPTION
How to multiply the reach & income of
every artwork
MARIA BROPHY
Make it your mantra for the rest of your life, and you will find success
financially as an artist.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Find your audience & fill your show with
buyers
SCOTT BRETON
You’ve got projects you need to do, finish something for a certain show
or for a certain purpose, for a commission. That’s great. That’s part of
it.
But at the end of the day, you should be able to say with certainty
that you’re chasing after something, which you might not catch. But
you have to know that you’re chasing the right thing.
Fine Artist Summit
“If there’s a practice that you have that really inspires you
and makes you feel like you’re in the right place, that’s a
very beneficial thing.”
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Productivity in the studio
WRIGHT HARVEY
Being an artist is not an easy career choice. It’s not an easy path in
life. Even artists who are perceived as very successful still don’t have it
easy.
Stay true to the work that you want to create that drives you. The
type of work that, when you wake up first thing in the morning, you’re
inspired to go make that thing.
The closer you can stay to that, the better work you’re going to create.
And naturally, it will fit more in line with what your goals and
objectives are.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Setting goals for a sustainable artist
journey
PAUL DORRELL
You must execute by deadline. Many great artists and writers set
mental deadlines for themselves. I can’t tell you how many dozens, no
hundreds of people I know that announce all their goals to me when
we were in our 20s. Now, 30 years later or more, most of those goals
for some of them were never achieved.
You gotta dream, man. And when the dream is done and
the beauty of it passes like a cloud blowing across the
sky, what’s the deadline?”
If you want to achieve, doing it with humility while still giving back and
never judging anybody, then you want to have deadlines attached to
your goals that are reasonable.
Fine Artist Summit
Don’t miss the deadlines, hit ‘em. Life goes by like that and before you
know it, you’re 40 and you’re still talking about it. Be prepared to meet
those goals with deadlines so you can realize something at the end of
the journey, and be happy with what you achieved.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Portfolio development & partnering
beyond galleries
Below, you’ll find top resources, providers and tools we recommend for
artists looking grow their art business and career.
Most of these providers have special deals for you (or even better
deals than what you see below) if you upgrade to the Premium Pass.
Disclosure: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, which means that if you
choose to make a purchase, ArtMBA.com will earn a commission. This commission comes
at no additional cost to you. Please understand that these companies are leaders in their
space, we recommend them because they are helpful and useful. Please do not spend any
money on these services unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve
your goals in your art business and career.
It all starts with making your best art, and for that you need materials.
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Our goal is to not just meet, but EXCEED your expectations at every
step of Fine Artist career..
If you’re impressed with what you’ve seen so far, then take the next step
to growing your artist career.
And no matter where you are in your artist journey, our world-class
experts have the experience, proven approaches, and knowledge to help
you grow.
You can get notified when we open doors to our flagship program again
in the link below:
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