Hanna’s Art Blog 5: Can There Be a New Approach to Art Marketing?

Today I woke up really discouraged. Recently I had 40 new images photographed and uploaded them to my online gallery. While this is always a very exciting event for me when my new paintings make it onto the website, it also triggered a shame attack and my neurotic, hopelessly stuck thought process about it. “Why even do art (and try to be good at playing guitar for that matter)?” Both of these things that I dream of becoming masterful at seem such an uphill battle. In terms of art, it’s not only the painting itself, but sharing the art I make with others. I said to myself: “Why am I putting so much pressure on myself? Can’t I just relax and stop dreaming so much and trying to nurture my heart’s desires? Why not just give it up and let go of my dreams? I’m getting old. Couldn’t I just take it easy now?”

Yesterday, I talked with a friend, and we both agreed that art should not just be for the wealthy. But how can we share our art in an alternative way, one that doesn’t involve the rules of the art market and the enormously high prices? I shared that I hate Instagram. I feel visually and otherwise overwhelmed by it! I said that, for now, I actually am willing to do a few things: I put high quality images of my paintings on my website, “Hanna’s Worldwide Gallery”, and I write an email to my  list of “Art Advocates” once in a while, especially when I have added new art to it. I also am writing this art blog which is my creative way of getting unstuck with my “how to share my art” conundrum. One exciting event for me has been that I recently found out how to  create the email list I’m now using, on my Zenfolio website. This feels like a great step forward toward inner freedom!

What is an alternative way to market one’s art? Beyond what is the right way for me, this question could be explored in a bigger way. Like the French Impressionists who created their own alternative to the official Salon, some of us artists could brainstorm our own rebellion against the current trends in the art market, the high prices, the pressure on artists to have a “recognizable” (consistent) style, to produce a certain number of pieces in a short time for a gallery, the social pressure to make art that people understand, or that sells well, or that fits the current trends in the art world, for example, if it’s thought-provoking or making political statements, or is understandable to the logical mind. I believe there are already artists and art venues that are experimenting with new ways to share art with the community! If you have any ideas or thoughts on this subject, I’d love to hear them!

It is a daring and vulnerable act to show one’s art. Fears of rejection, comparison, of not being good enough, and for many full-time artists, of financial insecurity, can easily come up for any artist who is not established and well-known. I feel privileged and lucky that I have another career to make money with, and that I am actually already way into “retirement age”. So, I have the luxury to think about all this, about how to be an artist in the world. And I have the freedom, maybe more than many others, to make exactly the art that I need to make, without considerations about who will accept it or pay money for it. I feel I share this luxury with some of the very stubborn artists in history who didn’t want to or didn’t have to cave in to the pressures of the times or finances and steadily followed their own inner muse, such as Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, Jay DeFeo, Clifford Stills, Grandma Moses, Luchita Hurtado, to name a few. I like to see myself in their company.