I Always Set Myself Up For Disappointment ,i Hate It

i think painting randomly can be fun and lucky if you get the sale, but i think there would be more progress if you painting for specific types of people - jobs, steampunk and stuff like that. or like the elephant in the room - other plays on words may be an idea.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Yes Mike but it can't be like I am souless or the art will be bad, It has to be motivated and a drive to do it, I never want to paint empty work just geared to sales, it can be a mesh between soul and sales

oh, My elephant in the room was motivated by my upsetness at a woman and her pushing me to do a stupid commission that didn't hardly pay so there was a drive behind this painting that is a hit

you would still put your soul into it.

maybe do another series of hats, only focus on the victorian hats. using gears and victorian artifacts. the adventurer, the airship captain, the rich guy monocle guy, etc.

when i make my things i try to focus on certain people, my work has my spirit in it, even if i don't care about the subject that much. gotta focus on the people and locations that have the money. otherwise it will be hard to peddle the wears. but you have the draw the line some place. while you might have a vision, the money has to come from some place. and the brand of art you do and style, your limited to those that would have other things in their house already that have that oddish theme.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I really like your work. Spoonbill on a Strawberry is my fav. It has great composition and color choice. I wish you the best, hopefully you will sell something soon.

And yet you are doing what you love! Great work as always.

That painting Elephant in the Room is brilliant. Yes a series of play on words and you pick which ones means something to you and them you paint them. You have a knack for it for sure.
I love that painting! You can get a following and collectors would want to have a print of each.

and BTW every night meditate and visualize sales.

I love your work also. Just did a few RTs of your images on twitter (tatianapaints). Some of your originals are for sale also? Do you have it set up to sell them online somewhere?

Thanks Tatiana that's sweet of you. Yes for sale here and Etsy, they are for sale All of them since they are fresh off the easel, Thanks again:) ,glad you like my work

Mike just thought of this looking over this new body of work I have, it is themed oriented mostly, birds,bird people,pilots,aviation, okay the nude on is just humorous but my 5th one sells a lot in prints and Roger Water owns the original

Leah, your work is awesome and funny! Don't worry and its awesome that you are doing what you love and taking care of the family too! Good job!

I like the sayings idea, too. Or idioms. Any time you can go literal with something in an unexpected way, you may have a winner. Maybe we could brainstorm for you.
Here's a page of idioms. Anything ring any bells for you?
http://www.smart-words.org/quotes-sayings/idioms-meaning.html

You're already doing this some. "An Elephant in the Room" is an excellent example but so is "Rat Race". I can see either of these hanging in professional offices.

Mike has given you some good ideas and he's really good at finding appropriate groups to market to and then figuring out how to get to them. Maybe he can help some more. Like I really can see elephant hanging in the office of a psychologist or marriage counselor or counselor of any kind, for example. I have no idea how to reach this group, but someone must have.

next is twitter and finding the professions you have now, and tweet and tag them all.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Leah, you have some great artwork, stuff that should be selling. I hope that things improve for you.

The past 4 weeks I have been doing some experiments in marketing my own work. I promote my AW site images and use google analytics to monitor the results. I use Facebook, twitter, G+, Linked-in, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, my personal site and blog, my FAA blog, my blog on Blogger and also a free site I set up on Weebly for promoting. Its a lot of work.

I had a couple of sales this past week but nothing I can trace back to any marketing I did in this time period - the sales appear to be random. I have been getting people signing up for a newsletter but I've not written one yet and not sure if I want to be doing that too.

I realize that in order to sell, I need people viewing my work - lots and lots of people. And not just lots of people but the right people viewing it at the right time (whatever that means).

I am not sure yet if anything I have been doing will result in any sales in the long term but I have been getting a steady increase in viewings. A small percentage of the total page views are product page views. I assume that a small percentage of the product pages viewed will result in shopping cart pages (I've not had any shopping cart pages yet). And I assume from what I've read that only a small percentage of shopping cart pages will actually result in sales. Many things are put into shopping carts but never transacted and eventually abandoned without a sale.

I plan to continue this experiment for at least a few more weeks as the time period is too short to know if anything I have been doing has been effective in getting sales. Its seems that the marketing work you do today may not pay off for weeks or months from now. But its a lot of work and I would much rather be working on my art and photography full time. It almost seems like I need two of me or to work 16 hour days in order to do it all - but not sure if even that would be enough.

Dave Gordon
http://dgportfolio.net

usually when you advertise they come in and look at the rest of the stock. they may not buy anything now, they may wait, and they may not get the one you advertised either. advertising is a build up. you keep sending out the pollen and hope it sticks to someone's nose. to do this you really need to be two people, you have to divide your time or advertise a bit each day.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

If I could make one suggestion, it would be to publicize the link to your etsy shop for selling originals. For example, front and center on your facebook and twitter where it can easily be found. I tried to find it and couldn't and didn't get anything by searching your name either.

You might be surprised at how well you could do with your originals. I sold an original on etsy a couple of weeks ago with very little effort and am thinking of giving it a little more attention over there.

And not that I'm questioning what Mike said but there are some pretty quirky people out there with money to spend also(!). You only need to find a few of them that your work speaks to out of 400 million people!

Think of the "Dogs playing Poker". Not much of a stretch at all to imagine some of your paintings hanging in any house that has had one of these in it - which is a lot!!

art does not sell when the economy is bad and people are unhappy.

3 boobies is lovely. All of them are. I admire artists who can draw life like animals.

Leah, I've always thought your work would make great coffee table books and calendars, etc. Whether you self publish or getting a publisher. I know of someone that might be of help. She's responsible for making Dilbert a hit. Give her a try to help you get some bread and butter cash flow through licensing some of your images. Your work is very marketable.
Here's her info:
Jenette Smith, art consultant
allartlicensing.com

It is now tax season. There will be people waiting to see if they owe anything, so they won't part with a dime and folks waiting on their refunds who will (part with a dime). Plus spring is traditionally the "redecorating" season, which is why furniture and bedding goes on sale.
Remember the last time you went into a panic? If I recall, soon after things picked up quite nicely. They will again.

I love your work-still think you are right up there with Mary Engelbreit and she has tons of merchandise, from desk calendars to oven mits to mugs.

Because I believe in you and what you do, I will link your FAA page in a few places. Couldn't hurt, might help. Hang in there.

Leah,
Tax season does slow things down, and there is a lot of pain out there for the poor (especially in Kansas, the corporate welfare state for the Koch brothers).

I haven't had a sale on FAA since Nov. so very discouraged here. I do feel since the SEO change on FAA last year, the collections and favored artists, the loss of Amazon, no statistics, slowness of promised upgrades, etc that I'm impossible to find on FAA. I'm doing better outside of FAA, but getting really frustrated at the constant editing and hoop-jumping that seems to be useless. I keep hearing that we're going to be wowed next month when the new release comes out, but it's been at least 2 years now that it's next month. Wasn't here before that, so maybe longer.

You have to be able to work smarter not harder in marketing, and so far I'm not seeing how that's possible on FAA.

-- mary ellen anderson

I'd suggest a gallery on your Fine Art America profile with "Originals for Sale" or "Available Originals". I need to do this myself as well. It's better for a customer who is looking for original art to see what's available in one place rather than scrolling through hundreds of images.

Also, in your newsletters if you can tell a story about one of the paintings--the process, the inspiration--that would be good. Not sure if you do this already, but it helps people to feel more connected to a painting to hear a bit about the motivation behind it.

Leah, this is shocking and discouraging. Your work is very beautiful and imaginative. In my short time here on FAA, I've always had the impression that you were one of the rare art success stories. To hear that you struggle selling your creativity makes me question whatever it is I'm attempting to do here.

I'm sorry to hear about your husband. How terrifying. Sending some of my best voodoo your way.

On a positive note, Roger Waters helped to create some of my favorite music, and to have some of your work in his hands is quite a success in my eyes. I hope the best for you. Your efforts certainly deserve it.

Joe Burgess
jb-imagery.com

I'm so sorry for your difficulties, Leah. I'm struggling to find a balance between painting what I love and what will be more commercial too. It's not an easy road. Hang in there. :)

P.S. I really like Laundry Day.

I love all your work Leah, you are extremely talented lady hang in there,
you have such good advice off alot of FAA members.
Im your fan!!!!😊

Jani ,I have always wanted to get a book going but limited in doing it myself and need help with it, I will make note of Janettes info and try to contact her later today , Wow I wrote a whole bunch of stuff here to everyone who replied here and when I submitted it ,it is all erased except for what I wrote to Jani :( , Thanks everyone for your support :)

Leah, hang in there! This is the slooow season every year for me and every other artist that I know. It will pick up again in a few weeks when tax refunds start trickling in. Your work and your style is amazing and it will sell. When we go through the fire, we come out more pure and polished...

Leah, Take another look at your title.
If you hate setting yourself up to be disappointed, then you need to stop setting yourself up. In other words, your newsletter alone, is not working.
Unfortunately, it takes money to make money. Santa Fe is such a huge art market, third largest in the world, last I checked....you might need to do some target advertising to all that visitor traffic.

Thanks Phyllis, It's not just the time or this block of work. It has been going on for a long time @ Marlene, when I say setting myself up for disappointment I mean that I am really excited about some new painting that I think for sure will be a hit and get disappointed each time they don't get a lot of attention. It's a bit difficult to explain I guess. I do have a show downtown Santa Fe in April and am very excited, but you see if it gets ignored that's where I feel I set myself up each time and crushed so maybe you understand a bit more

SO you are disappointed because you are excited by new work and expect others to be excited to....lower your expectations.
You are also disappointed by lack of sales....and that must be dealt with at an objective plan to increase your exposure.
Best of luck with your show. Who is sponsoring you and how much advertising will they be doing for you? How much do they expect you to do on your own?
Get some plans in place, Leah.

Expectations are the source of much unhappiness. Try to learn not to expect and just accept . Life is difficult no need to set yourself up for disappointment. Just do what you love and be inspired by the little victories in life.

some things take a long time before they are a hit. but this is why i break myself off from the "it will really sell" idea because almost always, it doesn't. or it takes many months.

whatever you've sold in the past, make more of those things on that theme, that's how to build up a winning inventory. if people liked the elephant and related, create more with that theme, both with elephants and idioms. if one thing does well do more of that thing, that's how you build niches.

and usually the images you don't have high expectations of, the simple stuff, the stuff that doesn't need a lot of thinking - those are top sellers.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I think Sheilas idea is a good one by creating a gallery "Originals For Sale" all in one spot. You're right David. I will consider your ideas Mike

Leah, I love "Peacock on a Papaya", it's beautiful.

You know you can always use me as a reference since I own one of your originals. I would be happy to do that any time someone inquires.

Hi Leah!

I was just thinking of an idea for a painting... "White elephant sale" You could have a bunch of white elephants on a clearance table with other coloured elephants (purple, blue, green, etc.) at higher prices. Or white elephants on a clearance table with other white animals at higher prices. The higher priced items could have a sign indicating that they are "new merchandise".

Also "Memory like an elephant"... A painting with an elephant with a thought bubble that's overcrowded with memories--some of which could be "peanuts", being scared by a mouse, etc. Or do the same thing with a woman... "She has a memory like an elephant" ...same idea--overcrowded with memories (could be the same things elephants would remember).

"Cat Lady"? Maybe you've done some of these already. Best wishes for future success.

Leah... for what it is worth, I looked at your various google result pages when I type your name.

Your google plus page could use an update a huge image of your art instead of the default banner.
I use google plus a lot and as a matter of fact I have two different accounts and use both regularly.

I used to post everything on ETSY but about a year ago I removed all my major paintings from ETSY because ETSY is not a good place for original art at a price point that you have, my paintings have about the same price point for large art especially. ETSY is mostly for crafts and under $100.00

I have a domain for my originals at the higher price point and I use my name since my name, this is how everyone knows me. I still have a long way to go to get the visitors because it is a relatively new site.

Do you have a website that is not a blog or other site" I wasn't able to find one in the top search results for your name, featuring your art.

I think that is a major mistake not having your own domain website that shows your best work and tells your story. Maybe you can focus on promoting yourself as a surrealist and target that market.

You get exposure online through social networking but also through your own site and good SEO. All images should have an alt titles, plus regular blog content helps with exposure. Using hashtags on your google plus postings, would get you exposure in google search results. Think of who your customers is and target them. Your name should become synonymous with your art.

I see your blog, and correct me if I am wrong but your last entries were in 2013?

I feel for you because you probably spinning all day with all the responsibilities but I can also relate. I wear 10 hats every day. I don't want to get into details but I do feel your pain.

Try to think positive and do as much guerrilla marketing as you can. Maybe something I said may help. Good luck.

oh and one more thing... every title should have the word surreal or surrealism in it. Also in the tags.

Just curious, do you have an agent? Your paintings are amazing. When I was an art director in advertising, I would have loved to have had you in my repertoire of illustrators. Your talent is right up there with the best in the country. I could also see your style easily used in book illustrations.

Thanks Mary, I will have you be a refence when it comes to commissions :) ,I love that idea Sheila! I put it on my list. Did you see my white elephant party painting, I'll post it here in a minute. Love painting elephants, Hi Ginette, I should update my google plus but have too many sites right now to deal with so down the line I'll get back to it. I have made a few sales on Etsy and it is cheap for some good exposure so I stick with it . Hi Valerie nice to see you :) I almost had an agent a few years ago then he quit being an agent altogether for anyone and found a different career. I would love one since balancing and doing everything is difficult for me. Do you have any in mind? Thanks for the compliment Valerie

Leah you are an amazing artist. I would make it clear that you are taking work on commission. Mike has a good point cover all your professions and you will have a great body of work. I am sure every profession has some fun twist you could incorporate in your images.

The thing with agents is that they want an artist who makes already a very good living since they get a cut of your profits. Check well known artist sites and see if they are represented by an agent. Write them and attach samples of your work. You have nothing to loose.

Best of luck and lots of sales
Iris Richardson

theoretically you do. if you have an agent, you have to through your agent and they take a big cut. if someone came to her and said - i'd like to use this image as a cd jacket, because she's bound by contract, she would have to tell the agent, and then the agent gets half for doing nothing at all. if you have specific work they can push, then that's a different story. i've already had my run with an agent. i don't like them.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Ginette Callaway
"and BTW every night meditate and visualize sales"

This has validity, IMO, as referenced in "The New Psycho-Cybernetics" Dr. Maxwell Maltz

Bill Tomsa

http://billtomsa.blogspot.com/

Sorry if this doesn't help, but maybe perhaps it might, to some small degree:
If you take a pessimist and put him in a barn with nothing but a bunch of horse manure and a shovel, chances are, he'll just get upset and depressed.
But if you take an optimist, and put him in a barn with nothing but a bunch of horse manure, chances are he'll just get excited and start digging.

Ask him why he's digging: "Well, with all this horse sh!t in here, I figure that there has to be a horse in here somewhere!".
Even if he never finds his horse, he may soon realize that there is a lot of fertilizer there for the taking.

That comes off pretty glib, in your situation, but I know that you are going to pull through somehow. Keep looking for the horse, and just be aware that it may not be exactly the horse you were expecting. I'm sure you have best wishes and prayers of many folks here as your trials continue. Of all the artists that I respect as a person here at FAA, you are at the top of my list. Your faithfulness in impossible circumstances will yield fruit in ways you will not expect, I am sure.

Don't hesitate to post updates like your original post in this thread, people here do care.

Regarding Mike's advice, I know it's worked for him, but it may or may not feel right to you. However, a similar suggestion would be to look for what's trending in google searches, in tweets, and so on, and to consider those as subjects for paintings. A copyright discussion here provoked me to do a graphic design based on the © symbol. I sold a large print of it. So consider subjects easily described with uncommon keywords and phrases, where your art will appear on the first page of a google image search.

Considering your current mood, keywords like exasperation, tribulation, crisis may be appropriate, if you get my drift. Your blender "under stress" painting looks like a psychological self-portrait to me. I think that every shrink in the USA should consider hanging that on their wall, so that folks will know that they are not alone with those feelings.

Yesterday I was looking under the community uploads for the day and it was over 10,500 by 8:30 pm EST, probably came close to 12-13k new images FOR JUST ONE DAY. Just saying, that's a metric ton of new competition in an already super saturated market for a 24 hour period.. Good luck to us all.

When you detect a pattern, you can change the pattern. A pattern of disappointment, then, is a pattern that you can change, simply (in theory) by changing your thoughts about what you are doing.

"I am painting for my own reasons to capture an audience who will certainly share my own reasons enough to buy my work." This seems to be your current thought about what you are doing.

"I am painting form my own reasons, and I cannot expect too many people to share my own reasons enough to buy my work." This is a suggested alternative way of thinking."

OR

"No matter what I paint, I will approach it with a sense of excellence to do it the best I can, and I will transform my soul into the purpose for which somebody would pay me to paint a painting."

Pride in a job well done is not selling out. It's good business in a world that runs BECAUSE of business.

First: Your work is beautiful. You should never stop making art.

But... right now you have to change your focus from making art and occasionally selling it, to getting money to live on.

Reality check:
You are circling the drain. The lack of income from your art could kill you and your husband -- you could end up on the street and starve to death by inches if you don't change what you're doing. Right now you are the primary bread-winner, and you are not making enough money as an artist, selling your work ad hoc, to support your family. You need to face that fact and do something else before you get too sick to work - from malnutrition, if nothing else gets you first. You need to get a job that comes with an hourly wage or a salary.

That sounds bad, it sounds like giving up on the dream, but it's not. It's being a grownup, facing the fact that you need a better income, and doing what you need to do to take care of yourself and your husband.

I know an artist (not myself) who tried to make art support her and her son for years -- taught occasional children's classes, sold art at shows, did this, did that. She finally got a receptionist job that came with benefits, and she was suddenly much happier. Her time was structured, she had health benefits (she went to the dentist for the first time in 20 years), she was eating better, she had nice co-workers who appreciated her, and sometimes even bought her art.

Do it. Do it today. Start applying for jobs that come with an hourly wage or a salary. Get a job in the arts if you can/want to, but really... just apply for anything that you are even remotely qualified to do. Get an interview suit, at a thrift store if you can't afford a new one. Apply for one job per day until you get one. If nothing looks like a dream job, apply for jobs that aren't really interesting to you just for the practice in applying.

You can work at a pay-the-mortgage job and still make art in your off hours, your job will not make it impossible for you to continue painting.

Try the website "Indeed" as a source of jobs. I got my current office job (not a big deal job... it's a mommy-track office-work gig), through Indeed. It's not that hard... I got the first job I applied for (which was probably mostly luck -- like getting struck by lightning the first time you walk outside in a thunderstorm -- usually that doesn't happen). But... I'm not the only person I know who got a job with decent pay relatively quickly through that website.

You might also want to look at daytime summer camps / summer programs for kids, there are usually lots of job openings for teaching art camps in the summer. If you have not had a formal job recently, that would give you some current work experience, a source of people to use as references, and the ability to check the [x] "currently employed" box on the online applications while you look for more permanent work for the fall.

If you need training certificates in basic office stuff - skills like word processing, sometimes good training courses are available through the state unemployment office, or you can get need based tuition assistance at a community college - talk to their admissions / financial aid staff. Community colleges are also good sources of other basic get-a-job skills training.

Thank you, Cheyrl.
That should be required reading for all school-leavers who have no idea how to survive, use their talents, get real work., and why.

Cheryl, that was one of the best posts I've ever read on FAA. That would be a sticky, if we had them.


Dan Turner
Dan Turner's Seven Keys to Selling Art Online

Cheryl, that was one of the best posts I've ever read on FAA. That would be a sticky, if we had them.

... totally agree.

A day job with benefits sounds like it could help a lot. Unfortunately, assistance is usually structured with disincentives to breaking free into success.

I completely understand the need to sell. My husband has struggled with illness along with being laid off and I had 7 heart attacks in 2012 we are still struggling to get back on your feet. Have a little more for food than you have a month and learning to live on $50.00 house hold budget for food and personals is eye opening. Had to rethink cleaning products, keep light off and use the fire place instead of gas heater.

Like my hairdo...?? My husband cut for me. LOL If there is a will there is a way.

I even traded art for services then I been in a punch. I will be praying for you to get health, wealth.

The job thing is a nice idea and if you can't see how to get one with your husband being in bad health. I know that it can be a big problem with fund for caregivers. There are service with the states that can help with some of this even training that Cheryl was talking about can come from some of these agencies if you already owe money on a school loan and can't get federal funds the state may help you with some training.

Look for Rehab services with your state if you need help for other employment.

I believe you will find a solution to your current situation. Don't give up.

I'm glad people liked the post... thank you. It's a path out of a vicious cycle that I truly believe works, so I say it from the heart, and from life experience - both my own and other people's. The hardest part is submitting that first job application...

Leah can make it.

Leah,

I have had my share of unhappiness in an auditory world where I can not compete.

Life is about building dreams. That leads to down times. Not many dreams can become real.

I have paid a high price since birth. I am all visual. And now I use my vision foremost.

My dreams in this come and go. Rebuilt and torn down. I am too happy to mind any down times.

A man with no left hand appreciates the right hand all the more.

Dave

Cheryl you are telling me to do something like get a job without all the facts. I hear so many say go get a job lol, well here are a few things with that: My husband can't use a bathroom without me so how do I solve that if I was to go to a job? He is 1/2 paralyzed on one side , he also can't get in the fridge or cook too much so many other things. Okay here is the other thing How much would one make hourly part time lets say and how long would it take to make 2400.? The reason I pick that amount is I just sold Cats On Strike a few weeks ago for 2400. and it took me 3 days to paint. I have very marketable work its just getting it out there to the right people which my hands are tied with everything I do and I am trying/doing it all the time (marketing and networking) Another thing if I work outside the house then take care of my husband and clean ,cook,take care of my property which is large I wouldn't be able to paint at all. I thought this thread was dead months ago then someone woke it up this morning. I will reply to some of the comments here since I don't have time to reply to all

I also want to add I have been painting full time for 8-10 years without having an outside job

Leah,

In Connecticut there is a program to take care of a loved one instead of institutionalizing them. It saves money.
A family member is paid to do the care giving. The sum is actually quite substantial.

Dave

I know there are programs like that David but it depends on the state , we don't have that here especially having a Republican Governor which has cut many social assisting things . Thanks though :)

I have to say after reading all the support for Cheryl's post non of it would work for me at all I have had 3 kids but not really fond of others kids , no joy in teaching for me and can't paint off hours since I can't see after daylight etc. just need to sell more work it's more profitable especially painting a bit more than 60 paintings a year just need to find what works with connecting the right people to my work

His cut costs more....much more.....arse....

Dave

What do you mean David?

I think it's time to put this thread to sleep, thanks for everyone's input :)