It’s rare to meet an artist who is also a successful business owner and marketer. Or maybe that’s a myth.

If it is a myth, I’ve debunked it. A long time ago, I set a goal to support myself doing my art, no matter what. I picked up and moved to New York City in my early twenties, motivated by a dream I had. I lived there for a number of years, but grew to hate it. One thing you can say about New York City–you learn to take care of yourself, or you won’t survive.

In 1991, I sold everything and returned to Pt. Reyes. My mother was ill and I finally realized I didn’t like New York City. I was so tired of the place I was even willing to use my mother’s garage in Pt. Reyes for a studio.

 

Have you always viewed your art as a business?

Moving home coincided with the realization that I needed to learn how to handle the business side of my art. I am dyslexic, so I had a very hard time in the beginning. Luckily, I am also stubborn and self-disciplined. I created a color-coded system to track my business numbers, and finally took the suggestion from some trusted advisors that I should get bookkeeping help. This was a big step for me. It was also the step that enabled me to get a broader view of my art business.

How so?

My bookkeeper and I discovered that I actually had five separate businesses: my paintings, greeting cards, framed reproductions, ceramics and archival digital prints. I have since added books as another business line. A selected number of retail stores in Pt. Reyes carry my cards, reproductions, books and ceramics; I hold an open house at my studio once a year to showcase my paintings, and I sell all my work on my website.

So by doing your numbers, you got clear on what your business was, or could be, and then how you could market these products?

That’s right. When my mother was ill, I was unable to paint. So I started crafting ceramics; I enjoyed doing the work and when I showed the pieces to people, they loved them. I also had some left-over prints of my paintings from a show I did in San Antonio. We printed the photographs of my paintings and hand-glued them into the catalog; after the show ended I discovered I had a lot of the prints left over. They were beautiful, small reproductions that I couldn’t stand to throw away, so I hand-glued them into greeting cards. People also loved these; the cards gave them a way to buy my work for a much lower price.

How do you market these ‘businesses’?

Marketing is not separate from my work. It’s part of the work. I make my marketing part of my creative process. I even include my business cards as part of my marketing. I re-design them every few months, and always have them available at the stores where my work is sold. People collect my business cards as small works of art.

My marketing is a response to what happens inside me, and outside. It’s a lot of work. I have to put myself out to do new things. When I talk to other people about marketing, they always want someone to do it for them, or to fit into an existing system. Neither of these things has worked for me. I did get help with marketing from a consultant.

What was their advice?

To create the story of my life and tell it. People want to know who you are, and how you got to be who you are. It’s not about selling widgets; it’s about connecting with people. The Internet has drastically changed how I can reach people. Pt. Reyes is integral to marketing my paintings. People in Northern California are tuned into the beauty of the landscape.

Mother Teresa was once asked: How can you continue to do this work when everyone you work with dies? She said: ‘God didn’t ask me to succeed, God asked me to do the work.’ So I follow my intuition about what needs to be done, and just do that. And if it doesn’t work, I figure out how to do it differently next time.

What marketing calls to you? Leave a comment below.