Work and Play

Today was the second meeting of the Art Marketing Salon group in Coarsegold. We are meeting as a group, with a designated leader (Julie Mitchell) to follow the "plan" established by Alyson Stanfield,  Art Biz Coach. Her website is artbizcoach.com and her blog can be followed at artbizblog.com. There is a definite time commitment involved (which makes the process somewhat hard and serious work), but there is also a feeling of fun, playfulness, and developing collegiality. 

As I read Alyson's  blog today, one paragraph stood out to me. It started out by saying: "Presentation is everything." And then went on to say: "It's the small things that make a difference and distinguish us from others. As an artist, it’s your attention to the detail of your matting, framing, and display. It’s the care you give your printed materials and your Web site that announce to the world that you’re a professional. It’s the care with which you treat each person you run into because you know they might be a customer one day—that you show them respect and trust." And I know from personal experience that this really is the truth.

I am enjoying meeting with other like-minded artists to discuss common concerns and share our hopes and goals regarding our careers as artists. The process is causing me to focus on the critical pieces of marketing and public relations that I might neglect otherwise. Today, we had lunch together after the meeting and that was rather like one of Julia Cameron's suggested "artist dates". We're getting to know each other better and coming to respect each others' opinions and advice. I look forward to the next meeting in 2 weeks.

A Foggy Friday after an inspiring Thursday

Several days have gone by since my last post and the weather has changed dramatically from beautiful, clear, and warm to wintery, frigid, and foggy. It's amazing how much of an overnight process going from fall to winter can be in the San Joaquin Valley.

Last night I returned from a the Bay Area late after a wonderful day spent in Berkeley with my friend, Grace Rankin. I went from doing a presentation in Lodi on Wednesday to Berkeley on Thursday morning. Grace and I met and spent the day looking around, visiting, and browsing Berkeley's Utrecht and Dick Blick art stores and having a nice relaxed lunch at a Thai restaurant. The opportunity to visit and "talk art" with an artist friend reminded me of Julia Cameron's suggestion that artists block out time each week for both a long walk and an "artist date". In both "The Artist's Way" and "The Sound of Paper",  she writes of the importance of taking time each week to recharge our creativity by walking and playing, allowing ourselves time to look at beautiful things or things that inspire us or just talking with another artist in a setting that motivates us. I've found her suggestion to allot time each and every week for ourself, as an artist, to be invaluable. If you haven't read her books, look for them at the library or bookstore and start planning your own "Artist Date" for next week!

Another thing she suggests is writing "morning pages" each day and I suspect blog entries could become the new format for those pages. I wonder what Julia would say about that idea. Hmmmmmm. . . . . .