If you are not familiar with the Mexican tradition of Catrinas (Sometimes spelled Katrinas), you might be interested in reading this great article about José Guadalupe Posada, a 19th c. Mexican graphic artist. La Catrina is one of the most recognizable of his work, seen everywhere during the Day of The Dead Festival.

Posada’s La Catrina:

I am looking for a haughtier Catrina since she is the soloist of my Mariachi Di Funto. (Keep in mind this is only the underpainting…)

The reason? The Furniture Bank, an organization that turns houses into homes for less-fortunate families in and around Houston, is sponsoring a silent auction of OOAK art chairs created by Houston’s artists and designers. As part of the project, artists are  to document the transformation.

100% of the proceeds of the sale of these OOAK Art chairs will be auction will support the Furniture Bank and its associate agencies.

The Furniture & Art Expo

August 28-29, 2010
George R. Brown Convention Center
EXHIBIT HALL A

Expo Schedule:

Friday, August 27, 2010
COMING OF AGE: The 18th Anniversary of The Furniture Bank and Expo Preview – August 27th at Gremillion Gallery

Saturday, August 28
Expo Hours: 10am-8pm
ART AUCTION: 5:30pm

Sunday, August 29
Expo Hours: 10-am-5pm

By the looks of it, I have a lot of prep work to do…

Now that FineArtPets.com is a somewhat complete website, I started considering how to advertise the new website. (Funny, I think that’s where this whole process started.) Despite risking very low Google, Alexa, And Compete rankings, I didn’t want to depend on Entrecard, Adgitize or CMFads to send me “faux” traffic. These sites increase your bounce rate and create a fake feeling of accomplishment that will, in reality just set you back.

Personally, I would rather support other artists, crafters, and bloggers. I even tried by joining Project Wonderful and buying ads from ads from artist friendly blogs. I got nothing.

Experimenting with Art Marketing

Promoting your own stuff is hard. If you are like me, you feel arrogant and full of yourself. It’s a headspace I find uncomfortable. I need your help in promoting my work. And instead of investing money in advertising, I decided to invest in you.

I created an affiliate program.

I hate that name.

Let’s call it a recruitment drive for an Art Marketing Army. I like that better.

The Art Marketing Army will get a 10% commission for any sales from Fineartpets.com, myPhotodada.com (coming soon) and Artforbeers.com (coming soon after myPhotodada.com) and then the re-vamped Shindigdada.com. You may wonder how I plan to track all that. Well,  I joined E-junkie.

And how much am I sharing? 10%.

Interested? Wander over to The FineArtPets.com Recruitment page for details, instructions and my undying gratitude.

Spread the word.

And I’ll report back how I did it, how successful I am, and how you can do it too.

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I stole the title. Well, part of the title- the part that says “To Hell With Marketing”. Though I suspect Havi would feel empowered to know that many others( Fitforpaper.com among them)  have embraced one of her many battle cries. Though she would probably think of it more like “working through the stucknesses that get in the way of doing your thing”…. (she’s sweet that way)

Now, why would I want to dispense with market research? I don’t really but I have to NOT listen to those voices, those confidence-stumping, mind-stomping, ego-chomping voices, those voices (especially) from those well-meaning “Find Success On Etsy” emails that say that constantly repeating harangue “Have a Unique & Quality Product” (see that repeated here )

The problem with that is I am an artist who went to art school. I spent 2 1/2 years studying art history. Nothing is new or unique. Not at this level, the trying-to-make-a-living  Etsy level.

New & Unique for me equals something thought-provoking and engaging beyond the narrow scope of my daily existence. For example, the Brazilian conceptual artist Rivane Neuenschwander created an installation “I Wish Your Wish” which invites active involvement on the part of the art-lover: “take a ribbon, wrap it around their wrists and replace a wish of their own”.

Custom Artwork for Everyone.

Honestly. That’s my complete idea. I want to embrace the individual experience of each of my clients and create something memorable for them to remember that.

Take FineArtPets.com. The thing is, because everything derives from ideas that came before me, and because there are many others doing sort of the  same thing ( here, here , and, my favorite, here ), I have held on to the belief that my idea and work wasn’t valid. Even though I enjoy doing it and my clients love the end result. This isn’t a statement about “follow your bliss” so much as most buyers are looking for something they are already familiar with, a version of the familiar that speaks to them personally.

What this isn’t.

I am not encouraging anyone to steal ideas from anyone. I am encouraging any working artist to produce work that your potential client is comfortable with. I don’t think you will find anyone shopping Etsy who would want to buy a glass container of what was purported to be the artist’s own urine.

And yet “Piss Christ” sold for $277,000

What I’m trying to say

As you build your business, slowly over time , you will refine an understanding of who your client is, and how to appeal to them, and your work will get better because you will get better. And you will find yourself in the company of people who like/want/buy your stuff.

Oh, yeah, the catch.

The catch is, oh, by the way, this success? It doesn’t come overnight.

The truth is I don’t read it, but I visit occasionally to see what the UK’s finest emerging and established graphic artists are up to.

Luckily, I visited this week to find that their online shop was open for a very short time – from 21st June til 18th July.

I have picked out three. Even with shipping and the sh1tt3 conversion rate offered by paypal, I could have  three 11.7″  x 16.5″ digital prints of some extraordinary graphics delivered to my home ready for framing for under $100.

My choices:

Hannah Waldron 
“Should men and women pay the same insurance premiums?”

http://spotthetiger.bigcartel.com/product/hannah-waldron

Nazario Graziano 
“Should we abolish nuclear weapons?”

http://spotthetiger.bigcartel.com/product/nazario-graziano

Scotty Reifsnyder 
“Should off-licences be nationalised?”

http://spotthetiger.bigcartel.com/product/scotty-reifsnyder

(As much as I want  that new $1000 printer I am saving up for, I want beautiful things that make me happy to be alive so that $100 doesn’t seem like a bad investment)

I realized, while considering my options, that the real question was “what am I advertising?”. Was I advertising what I wanted to advertise? (Mouthful, yes, but say it slowly and it will begin to make sense) What exactly are we doing here? What am I doing here?

Blurry. Everything was blurry.

Turns out I was confused about a few things. I thought visibility would be akin to taping a bull’s eye on my forehead and inviting mean strangers to hurl insults and rants at me. I thought my mistakes and failures were things to be ashamed of.

Then I read  this and decided it really was me.

And I read  this and decided I was sneaking around the whole vulnerability thing.

After rooting around a few posts at The Fluent Self, I decided that I have been really disingenuous with myself. I believe in affordable custom artwork for everyone. It makes absolutely no sense that anyone would go to Ikea and buy a generic $40 dollar print when for not much more, that somebody could have something personal and custom on their wall.

I also realized that if i was going to personalize beer and wine bottles I wanted to do it right. Not like an afterthought.

And I want to create a DIY party graphics site. Buy what you need. Pay a little extra for custom work. Print what you need. Need printing, I can do that too.

Does Shindigdada reflect that mission?

No.

Not yet anyway.

Step 1: Spin-off FineArtPets.com.

Check.

Stay Tuned. More changes coming soon.

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