Change Like It Or Not?

Yes, I read that book way back when. I look at this business this way. I think the business is changing to the service of a digital medium. Will there always be chunks of cheese around? Yes. But the biggest cheese will be someplace else (VR, AR, 3D)

Amazing :)

Great book by Dr. Johnson. Read it about 20 years ago.

An even better book, IMO, written by Dr. Johnson....."The Present".

Both books have great lessons and insights. Easy and fast reads.

Bill Tomsa

https://billtomsa.blogspot.com/

Have been an artist in many different ways.

From a line art technical illustrator for mechanical parts to portrait commission artist.

Special effects interior decorator and mixed media murial artist to exterior free hand commercial sign writer.

Ornamental plaster decorator, designer, maker and applicator.

Most recently, desktop publishing my artwork as prints in home decor shops and for the tourist industry.

Point being, that there are many ways to be an artist and making a living at it beyond the confines that many artists set for themselves.

Artistic trends change if the artist doesn't change then could become exstinct LOL

Are you keeping up with the times?

"Are you keeping up with the times?"


Luckily I don't have to depend on my art for income so I just draw/sketch/paint what I want, trends be damned.

Now for my day job, yes I have to adjust to software updates every so often, or learn new software altogether. What I hate though is change just for the sake of change.

Am I keeping up with the times? yes.
That said, my bread and butter income still comes from traditional paintings.
Luckily, my clients aren't changing ;)

Change for the sake of change and art for arts sake, they don't sound very innovative or exiting LOL

As an artist I had to change for health reason due to having a series of heart attacks, four to be exact.

So for me it isn't changing to keeping up with the times more importantly keeping alive or become exstinct, would better describe the need for change in my case.

As my focus is on staying healthy and having a lifestyle that includes art without the health hazards.

As for trends they come and go, stick around long enough they just repeat them selves.

I have made a lot of artistic things of one kind or another for others, now just like you David, I please myself and loving it.

FOUR!?

Are you playing golf?

Jeeberz, that's tenacity!

My old man died with (if not from) Parkinson's. The other day I "developed" an involuntary twitch in my upper right arm.

I'm there thinking of creative ways to end it all. My attitude being, "I will not go through what he went through, nor will I bankrupt my family, economically andor emotionally just to add a few years of misery to my total.

I got better, so far. But that is at least a third of the reason I don't have a gun.

One time I had a spike in BP and wound up with a hundred tests (I don't know what that would be in Metric) all of which said I was strong like a fox (and smart like a bull). The cardiologist wanted me to become a regular. I told her that my goal was to be dead before I hit the floor. "I can afford to be dead, I can't afford to be disabled."

That was the day she came to understand that they lied to her when they said people would be lining up to take her advice if she spent the extra $200K (that's in metric, you're welcome.) To become a cardiologist.


You go, Alan!

I am looking for those who want to buy a piece of my past.

I am looking forward to creating my future.

This is the internet. In reality nothing truly trends.

Dave
Post Modern Artist

I like the Hem and Ha and it reminds me of a lot of people in my world, very good analogy.


As far as the forum, and FAA, some will find it the unsinkable ship, but it could fail and we could lose this site. All of us should be ready to move on when that happens, right?



As long as we're conscious we should be seeking out new ways to define or redefine our reality, I'm in agreement with this way of thinking.

@Uther. No golf, but minimum now walking 10 kilometres a day plus other activities, I teach martial arts also.

Yes, Lisa....change is inevitable...life is not static.
Putting all of one's eggs in one basket is risky business.

If ya gonna make changes then make them for the better and have some fun and enjoyment while at it.

Glad, and, sad , for you, Alan. But, your advice to yourself is wonderful: just do what you want to do.........!
From my loooooooooooong vantage point, I have to admit,
it took me waaay too long to realize what you obviously already know.
And, I'm lovin' it too, now...........
And, I'd miss this Forum/folk.....maybe.....could be my brain will be addled too soon to know anything.
Certainly my nervous system is addled, Uther.........and I'm not planning to watch the demise.....or
all the new twitches occurring against my will.

All this, please take it...as positive thinking.............no sense complaining........

Alan,

RE:...." If ya gonna make changes then make them for the better and have some fun and enjoyment while at it."

Well, this last weekend, I decided that it would be difficult (rain) to man my booth at the show I was financially committed to, and. paid someone to do what in the past, I was able to do on my own, with ease.

So, with the time on my hands, with great enjoyment I took on the " Edit This 2" challenge, with all the gusto I could muster.


,With that done, I got to get back, to preparing for next week, coming up from the studio (basement) ever so often, stopping here to provide my 2 cents on this forum

That book was a great piece of confirmation and inspiration when I decided to start my engineering business 11 years ago.
I was very confused by the fact that my previous situation seemed so broken and irreparable.
It was then that I understood it wasn't meant to be fixed.

Change is hard, but the cheese keeps moving.
The more you deny that fact, the more avoiding change becomes a source of suffering.

Thanks, Alan...and everyone else.
Many people in this forum are a very special bunch.

I have to confess,

I've just devoted 15 minutes for this charming video.

Now in regards to "Mice" and "Mazes" and "Cheese"

I gave this mouse with his own maze

And this mouse has provided me with cheese for years now



Should I change?

I thought I would have to, this last winter, when I couldn't move my fingers after a fall.

The fingers ,now, work well enough, to garner more cheese.

So, I'll keep making this cheese making rodent....At least for the foreseeable future.

Walt Disney earned a lot of cheese over the years as an artist, he did more than okay for himself with his creation of Micky Mouse.

Roger,

Why is that not for sale as a print?

Not that I know almost any of the winning images at all, but I would bet on that image. I would clean it up a bit first, a few of the stray hairs etc....slight shape up the crop.

Dave
Post Modern Artist

David,

That photo like many photos I've taken were meant to sell what I'm photographing, not a print of what I'm photographing.

Maybe, after the show season, I'll go through all these photos and fix them up for POD

Walt was the guy moving everybody else's cheese. (Ruthless businessman, rotten person to work for. When his employees struck for a fair wage, he made sure he knew the names of everyone who participated and as soon as he could they were each fired, one by one.)

Oh, you think Mickey Mouse is what animation is? Well think again because now it's Snow White! "Always Move Forward." was his motto.

Micky is 90 this year and more popular than ever, he most certainly has always moved forward; now with God like status the cheese grows legs and walks towards him, not bad for a talking rodent.

As already said, change is inevitable. It's a fact of life. But people are creatures of habit and change is usually not welcomed. I had a recent job change due to the sale of a company I worked at for over 9 years. It sucked because I was hoping to retire from there. But I moved on. I really do like it better when the cheese stays in one place...

Chuck, same thing happened to me, but I found a new job and all is okay.

Marlene, I like the concept of not putting all eggs in one basket, that is smart.


The art world has changed so much since I joined in 2014...or at least my perspeective of it has changed.

So many companies are out there to help us artists sell not to mention retailers like hobby lobby, so called experts that supposedly are in the deep know of how to sell art and charge for their silly webinars and finally all the artists that show their work in galleries and tell us how to attract high end buyers. Searching for that cheese could take several lifetimes, I am sure of it.


Since there is a "know it all" everywhere I go, I am suspicious that the people
want to know, but are trying hard to mask insecurity over that fact of ...

Mass production and low cost manufacturing have changed everything.

There will always be a market for beautiful expensive art, but most will fall into the "spray and pray" maket.

I Ching "The Book Of Changes" a book of divination but it is also flexible enough to change with the times for each individual respectively without the need for superstition.

The idea is that when a person needs help due to being stuck, it opens up the person to changes a type of unlocking the mind to let thoughts flow freely again.

Unlocking writers block is a simple enough way to understand it.

Yes, we should always seek out new ways to sell our art and find the cheese, but secretly between you and I, the old traditional ways always work... patrons will surround thee through honest communication, showing one's work and being very brave. Being online isn't brave, but getting out there and demonstrating in front of an audience is brave, showing real original work and getting a patron one by one snowballs...hopefully. Some traditions shouldn't be forgotten.

Why is being online not brave?

What is real original work?

What traditions shouldn't be forgotten?

Please elaborate...Thank you

My foreseeable change will be to delete all of my online presence and to sell directly to the public.

I think for some people even being online, showing their work to faceless, sometimes nasty, viewers can be incredibly brave.

I'm going to add to that last comment also....

Saying people are not brave for not showing in the real world is perhaps not what you meant to say. I hope not anyway.

We have a vast membership comprising of disabled artists. The comment is unkind to them.

Oops, very true!


Not to mention that showing one's art is very brave even online. A lot of people feel anxious about showing their art to anyone especially on line. That was a stupid comment...super sorry. Thanks for the correction, Abbie!!

Alan,

RE: ..."Why is being online not brave? "

If one uses online presence as a means of anonymity, that, to me, is not very brave.

By the way, I always saw the live sketch artists as the bravest of all on the show circuit

Very true Abbie!

That is my foreseeable plan Roger, to be a sketch artist again, portraits in situ.

I think being online is a huge leap for most artists.

FAA makes the uploading easy enough (much of the time). Going from there is very difficult for most of us.

Brave? This is not war. Not my focus to be or not brave.

I am very unsure that I could sell in the brick and mortar world. As a digital artist it is not my thing to suddenly have a huge inventory.

That does not mean the more traditional ways of selling art are going to disappear. Does not mean that at all.

Dave
Post Modern Artist

Alan, what I was referring to was a time before computer software programs. There are plenty of artists that succeeded, however, without the internet, computers and exotic equipment in the past and those artists became world renown, not that any of that is desirable to people here, or myself. The point being that some traditional marketing methods still work. I'm finding that out and it makes me want to master internet marketing which allows me to remain hidden. I don't want to talk to people about art so much, I want to do the art and connect less, but that is not a plan for success.

Digital work is awesome in a different way. If one can master different software programs, their creativity is digitally rendered. I do a lot of digital images, myself and love the fabulousness of them and other's work as well, and it sure beats the old fashioned way! Even the dealing with customers through FAA instead of my house is so much of a relief!

And by the way, I am blending two different things together here, art and selling. The art comes first and the marketing second, but the marketing is more important than anything online and off because when an audience finds the artist, they validate the artist and his or her creations. There is nothing worse than wondering again and again if you are making art.

Although I demo my work and have a customer base, I would much prefer to have an online presence if I could spend the time online more.

I should also mention that it took me many years to come out of the closet and say I'm an artist and for me, that was brave.

Lisa, my time is limited, as I am on my way out, as retired and not on my way in as a newbie.

I bought the entire content of an art supply store about seven years ago, that closed down, so have a lot of traditional art materials on hand to use.

Yep, we are all on limited time. It's best to make use of it wisely.

And one challenge all artists face in this market of spray and pray, is that it often feels like a waste of time.

I have chosen FAA, and a few others, but I'll be darned if I'm going to go on 240 sites trying to sell my art with another billion artists out there, it's seems like a waste. You either have a patronage or you do not. And if you don't, traditional marketing methods are worth a try.


Emails that I get that are excessive about 600 per day from other artists are not even opened. The entire You Tube and Facebook ways of succeeding are changing due to the amount of artists on line marketing their wares.


Now the exotic art programs are becomeing available so I bet the market keeps turning and churning out new ways to create, hard to keep up for sure, but it is fun.

Alan,

RE:...."Time is limited"

As I type with my swelling legs up, this 83 year old constantly thinks of that statement.

With the corresponding question I ask, "How far in the future should I commit myself?"


Since, it became abundantly clear, that I can't manage my own booth, at the venue I'm currently selling at, I spent an exhausting afternoon yesterday, with the young man I'm paying to manage, trying to explain How and more exhaustively WHY I want thing done the way I want things done,

How many more years can I even be able to do that?


That is why, online, digital creativity, is so seductive.

Can't wait for "Edit This 3"

@Lisa, The term "spray and pray" is not %100 clear to me, as I could interpret this to mean something else, please explain the term for me, Thanks!

@Roger, Seduction, is not satisfaction but can be fun.

Digital creativity is like being a wizard, with magic abound at the touch of finger tips.

Alan - "spray and pray" is folks that put up their artwork on every POD or selling venue they can find - they do no advertising - they just look to be found and made famous or get rich - sort of by accident. At least that was my take on what Lisa said.

As for change - the older you get the less you want anything to change - unless it's back to your youth - say under thirty. Most of what I see of change today is pretty much change for change sake - or a way to change a product that works just fine - so that it will be "new" upgraded - and bring in more money. And change isn't always a good thing - look at K-Mart, Sears, JC Penney, etc. K-Mart/Sears is practically out of business - and JC Penney is closing stores. Some people cannot leave well enough alone and insist that although it ain't broke - let's fix it.

And one challenge all artists face in this market of spray and pray, is that it often feels like a waste of time

Lisa,

It is more than spray and pray.....we need to be seen many times over by all of those people. So that an artwork becomes an icon.

If you take it from the point of posting, it is only entering into a pitch black night trying to find the needle in the haystack.

Dave
Post Modern Artist

Whether you're posting to PODs, running ads or posting to social media it's ALL spray and pray. I see very little difference in any of those methods, at least for what I do. All of them can be considered advertising.

In all events you're hoping that your work gets in front of eyeballs that want to hang your work on their walls.

For what I do I see posting to PODs as more effective than anything else. At least the eyeballs that find your work there are much more likely to be a customer since they are searching for images on a site designed to sell prints.

I found a place where I can buy 10.1 inch screen tablets for $35US.

I am looking at ways to offer my images preloaded on the screen under a variety of pricing models, including on a subscription basis.

Alan, what I meant is what Roy described. It's a slogan that explains a failing marketing technique.

Thank you, Roy.

Toby,

My art does not work with any of the keywords. I wont show up in the search. Not often. I will show up a bit.

You can go to a location with a camera get a great shot and upload. Add keywords and get found several times a year for that image.

Dave
Post Modern Artist

Thanks Lisa and all for the explanation, like to learn new things.

@Roger.
Wish I lived close enough to you to help out physically, would be fun also I'm sure.

Toby, you are right that all social media like Twitter and Instagram are all spray and pray marketing...until one of them works and an artist finds a following.

Finding a following is certainly not easy, but I follow three artists and watch all their you tubes because I love their work.


Being online and marketing my art has helped me gain confidence to work locally in the arts, so fineartamerica.com has been awesome for me. But all those groups on Facebook seem so useless to me. It's like going into a gallery and seeing so many disorganized images. At some point it has the garage sale effect on my brain, I walk away from perfectly cool garbage because of the visual overload.

I have the same problem in my home. I can only handle so much art on my walls. That is why I hang in businesses and a gallery, as it's too much visual overload. Instagram is the same and gets boring after about ten images.