On one of today’s aboutstone.org’s posts, I asked people what they said when they were describing the value of their pieces to customers, clients, gallery owners, etc. Here’s a reply I got, and my response. What do you think?

The answer was: “I don’t.  I do NOT sell my work.  Sure, I put it up for sale — but I am NOT a marketer.  If the client sees the value then they buy, if not, they don’t.  Convincing them to buy is the whole point of gallery representation.  Why try to do it all myself when it simply takes away from studio <bliss> time?

“I make my work because it keeps me sane (makes me feel good), and because I can say things I want to say to the world at large.  If I never sold another work I’d still make sculpture.  <would you?> If someone values what I say enough to purchase it then I consider that it is a good thing.  If not — well, that is why I wear other hats besides a sculptor’s in order to feed my habit. <grin>

“I know there are many who would disagree with my approach, but I simply ain’t that ambitious, but I do want to enjoy life as much as possible.  Making (and showing) — rather than selling — is what makes me happy.

My response was:

Thanks for your reply, ___ , I get what you’re saying.

What I was saying, though, isn’t about push marketing. I know what you mean, selling isn’t part of my bag, either – I hate the old push-it-on’em thing. When people came to my studio in the past, I’d fall into a black silence and rage inwardly about people who didn’t get my work. I had no words.

But people DO continue to ask me about my work, and I’ve had to come up with something in order to not appear like the a grumpy old reprobate who doesn’t give a rat;s humhum about anyone. Which I very well could have been at one point when I was so depressed. I hadn’t a clue how to talk about my work. And being so prolific put me at a huge disadvantage because people expected me to talk about it, and I couldn’t.

I had to go IN and find out why I do what I do, what I love about it, what thrills me about it, why it makes my heart sing, why I use this color instead of that, this stone instead of that…I had to learn how to put my images and my work into words, because gallery people were NOT getting it right. Which ended up in no sales, no money, lots of beating myself up, feeling alone and lost and deeply depressed. ‘What’s the use?’ was my mantra.

You say, “I make my work because it keeps me sane (makes me feel good), and because I can say things I want to say to the world at large….” Well, why can’t that be what you say to people? I do – and yes, I do carve whether people buy or not – it keeps me very happy – delighted, in fact. So much so that I laugh out loud quite often, standing at my outside carving table, and my neighbor thinks I’m a genuine nutcase. Do I care? Nupe – she’s probly right, and…so?

I was always afraid to say my deepest feelings about my work because I was so terrified that someone would laugh at me or criticize me or…you name it. Now that I’m older I could care less. Just lemme have my fun.

I think real selling – the root word of which, BTW, means to serve – is going deep enough within ourselves to find out what we deeply love about our work – what it says, what it helps us feel, etc. – and being able to communicate that if someone asks. We’re the artists. We get it. Those who are not artists need to find the essence of the work in other ways – words, music, etc. – or they’d be artists! They really want to get it, too.

Now that we have the amazing interconnectivity of websites and online communities – like this one – I believe it’s up to us as artists to inspire those who are not artists to live artfully. And we can communicate that not only in artworks and images but in words as well on our sites. That’s what I mean by marketing.

All marketing means is entering into the bazaar – entering into the marketplace. We market all day long without even knowing it. Why not do it consciously and put the real message behind what we’re doing out in real words for people to find, read and feel connected to, even if they never buy a piece?

I don’t even think there’s a great need to be ‘ambitious.’ I think just having a sincere desire to share our joy in our creations, combined with being alert enough to step into the openings the universe provides us so that we can share, is enough. Takes the pressure of ‘having to sell’ completely off.

aloha -
Angela

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Image: Body Surf – Black Steatite, 12″ x 6″ x 6″ © Angela Treat Lyon 2010