I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Monday Marketing, I research, plan, and evaluate my marketing and promotion activities.
I completed this poppies painting a couple days ago, then hung it on my wall. It’s a departure from my usual style.
Last night, at a party for my daughter’s birthday at my house, my mom saw the painting. She loved it. And for the first time ever, she asked to have one of my paintings.
Good thing I hung it on the wall so she could see it!
I told my mom could have this one, at least on loan, in case I decide to submit it to a show.
Shortly after my mom commented on the painting, my dad and his girlfriend arrived. She as well loved this painting.
Yesterday, I decided I would focus on promoting my Things Men Gave Me (TMGM) paintings in shows. But if this painting creates such an immediate response, maybe I need to get it in a show?
What I’m supposed to be writing about today is marketing. That’s the process of making people aware of an interested in a product or service, with the goal of getting them to buy it.
This episode with the poppies painting reminded me of the importance of getting creative work in front of your potential audience (in this case, my mom and my dad’s partner). No, I wasn’t trying to sell my painting to them. But I am interested in producing work that they would be happy to hang on their walls. I wouldn’t ever want them to hang my art just because I did the work. I want them to feel excited to own it.
Last night I had the epiphany that if I get my TMGM essays and paintings in front of people who might care, and the content is compelling and entertaining, those people will engage with it. They will want to read more essays, see more paintings, and possibly, someday, buy a book that brings all the work together. That can only happen once I start sharing it though.
Ray has one of my favorite paintings in his house right now. This painting was inspired by my favorite groomer run at Keystone Ski Resort.
He’s building a frame for it.
The painting looks amazing in his house. He didn’t take it to see if it would, but we both noticed once it was there how well it fit in. The colors and style are just right. His living room is minimalistically furnished and decorated, with a gray sofa and chair, an area rug in soft blues and grays, blue-gray and white walls, and a large wood paneling feature above the fireplace. This painting would look great hanging next to the wood panel.
Again, I see the importance of getting my work out in the world in front of people, even if it’s only just the people I love.
I have just one TMGM essay mostly completed, and three paintings done. Last week, I said I was planning to complete three essays and three paintings before opening up an early preview to a select set of readers/viewers.
Now I’m thinking maybe I could open up an earlier preview, maybe a “private preview.” That could just include the one essay and painting, with teasers for upcoming essays.
Then I could start on some marketing around it.
And I’d feel more motivated to finish essays instead of endlessly reworking them without any option to hit the publish button and know someone might read it. Somehow it’s easier to complete an essay when it’s just another issue of a newsletter, a bit of ephemera. Maybe I don’t need to be so precious about each essay.
I don’t know when I’m going to do my best, or my most popular, work. I didn’t know that my painting Peak 8 would sell at the WCACO members’ show this year. That was exciting, and a little sad, because it was one of my favorite paintings. I used to hang it on the wall above my staircase going to my studio loft. It was the perfect painting for that location. My other 36″ x 24″ paintings just don’t fit as well.
The fact that I don’t know which of my creations people will like makes it hard to release them into the world. But without getting my work into the world I’m never going to know what works and what doesn’t, which way to go with the next work, and how to promote it.
Putting work into the world and having it land with a thud as no one cares feels bad. I need to get more used to that feeling. Showing my art in shows has helped a lot with that. Most of my paintings get very little attention. The ones that do surprise me, and motivate me to do better and better work.
But the only way to create work that makes a difference to people—gives them insight or delight—is to share it.
Maybe I need to focus less on marketing my work and more on simply sharing it.