Now no one says it better than TenBiz and founder and western coordinator of NCREAL, Tonya Snider.

OBJECTIVES

Our objectives for the tenBiz, Inc. Summer Institute are:

• to foster professional and personal relationships among participants and between tenBiz, Inc. and other organizations

• to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the people and organizations which comprise the REAL network

• to recognize and address the varying needs of a diverse group of participants and their students

• to model the experiential process, content, and pacing of the REAL curriculum

• to expand participants’ knowledge of themselves as facilitators and learners, and of entrepreneurship and small business planning, operations, and management

• to facilitate facilitators’ success by familiarizing them with the REAL course curriculum and resource materials, and offering guidance on implementation of the program

• to give experienced facilitators opportunities to further develop their skills, to share their experience in the REAL program with others, and to learn to design and lead future REAL training events

• to create an atmosphere of fun, cooperation and shared responsibility

So if that doesn’t grab your interest then maybe what I will begin teaching in August of this year will!

NC REAL Professional Crafts Artists Entrepreneurship….. Each class is once every week for seven weeks (3 hours each class). This program is developed for students who have craft and artistry skills, and who need support in applying their talents to entrepreneurial endeavors. Students will experience hands-on activities that have been specifically designed to address needs and challenges faced by craft artists who already have or wish to start their own business.

The good news is that in spite of the economic woes that are obviously world wide, we find that “having” to sell to pay bills makes us more creative, taps into set aside skills and opens the door to continued creativity!  IF you want guarantees, a magic bullet, a secret to success…well there are plenty of people out there professing to know the answers-go see them!

But if you have figured out that maybe, just maybe, success in what you do is down to hard work and that there is no ONE answer or secret, then everything we have written so far has made an impression on you! And we have done our job:-)

So are you a problem solver? Or are you still blaming everyone but yourself for your lack of what you consider to be success? Do you meet every suggestion with a whiny voice “But I tried that and it didn’t work!”? Things are changing daily. Look at what was available 20 years ago, 10 years ago and look what is available electronically today! How are you sending mail? How are you communicating?  But marketing means you are marketing not just your art product but your skills as a communicator.  Can’t communicate well? Then FIND someone to help you!  Seriously folks…when I make a suggestion and get a bunch of whiners who say “But, but, but…..” then I am speaking to the wrong entrepreneur and you need to keep your day job! Plain and simple. An entrepreneurial artist FINDS solutions and answers and does not offer up excuses as to why something will not or did not work. I have heard EVERY problem imaginable from artists concerning their careers and when my every suggestion is met with a negative, I am wasting my time. You fall down, you get up. You get lost, find a map. You need sympathy? Go to your mom.  Honestly artists, if you want success in your area of expertise, forget everything you ever learned in art school about selling your art and start listening to artists who sell.

Having said that, guess what? We have tried to help you-Don’t try to stab us in the back! We have had artists post on our Facebook pages, show up  where we are, steal our articles to promote their own “how to sell your art” sites, try to monopolize our time at a show for free advice (surely worth a cup of coffee?) Seriously? Get your own life!  I solved many of the unethical problems by simply slowing down my postings, not giving our locations or specifics and in general, spending more time in the areas in which we do ourselves the most good!

Art is all about problem solving-from creating your art to how to sell it. There are NO shortcuts. If, after all these years you are still waiting for me to give you the key to success, well you’re too late. You could have been there by now. So today you have to make a decision-re-think your goals and get to work or  not.  Yes. It’s that simple.   BUT, if you decide that maybe the life of a full time artist is not for you, have the courtesy and maturity to accept that decision as one that YOU have made and not “blame” your spouse, your job, your kids or life in general for your decision!

Enjoy what you have and be happy!

I’ll try to keep up the newsletters but honestly, only those art gurus NOT creating art are the ones who go on and on about how YOU too can be an artist . I like to think that those of us who do live our lives as self employed artists, share the same highs and lows that artists from every previous century have faced. None of them had the time nor was it even an ideal, to wonder about “what is art?” They worked at the craft they were best suited to and that helped them make a living. Period.

So in keeping with evaluating the ROI on our time writing articles on making a living as an artist, it will be easier and more cost effective to share a few things here and there via Facebook. Because honestly, if you have not taken up the challenges to become an artist in the 5 years we have been sharing our knowledge, then you simply aren’t going to.  This lifestyle is not for the faint of heart.

SO pop over, add your comments, get inspired.

Theresa and Steve

Facebook is one of those marketing areas that is new enough to have vague “rules of conduct.
Most of us grew up with the Golden Rule of conduct, “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.”
And in its learning and growing pains, Facebook is now pro-active in giving us the tools in dealing with lewd, malicious or hateful intent and posts on Facebook. We can report, block, unfriend or otherwise eliminate the offending party.

For artists, photographers and musicians, there is another arena of behavior, along with the Golden Rule, which, although not written in stone, should be observed. It is assumed that if you opt to friend or like an artist or his page, it is because you like that artist or his work. To friend or like an artist with hopes of piggy backing off his possible success is unethical. There are plenty of sites on Facebook that are expressly there to encourage artists to interact with advice, tips and ideas without going through your artist friends pages and hoping to score a commission from their friends.

Observing the following “Code of Conduct” will insure that the respect that you show an artist will be reciprocated. Feel free to add more!

1. Do not post photos of your work on another artist’s page without permission. Private message or email him first. This applies to those 1:00 am posts with photos that will stay up for hours on another artist’s site until discovered.

2. Do not comment/post on another artist’s work and then add links to your work.

3. Do not try to get around #2 by commenting on how you “do it” (work in a articular medium, apply shadows, whatever, etc) in the hopes of having viewers click on your site through your avatar.

4. Do not try to make the artist’s friends “your” friends for the express purpose of showing them your work (in hopes of luring them away or getting a commission.)

5. Never contact another artist’s friends or friends of friends with promises of “doing it better” or “cheaper.”

If you have done any of the 5 “Don’ts” above, either intentionally or unintentionally, start living the “Golden Rules of Facebook for Artists” and keep your friends for a long time!

By respecting your artist friends and their hard work, you are also respecting yourself and what you have put into your art and your livelihood.

This past year I have made more of a transition to  our Facebook page …and that’s to help me out. I pretty much work all the blogs, newsletters, etc.  single handed. So if there are far fewer posts that is the reason! Of course all of you are all welcome to add your comments, recommendations, etc here and on our FB page!

The other reason I have not posted as much is, yes, you guessed it, work!. As artists whose every bill is paid solely from the sales of our art, our priority is creating and selling our art.

So I have about 20 minutes this morning, here in front of the fire with hot coffee on a cold rainy (and not sure why it’s not snowing!) 37 degree morning here in NC. We plan to leave to see family in Pennsylvania tomorrow where I KNOW there is snow and return just after New Years.

We worked our tails off this month! Steve painted enough to need ice on his shoulder each night a week before Christmas and I kept just as busy with the portraits, the deliveries , the art classes and the displays. We both were zapped with some creeping crud around Thanksgiving and hacked our way through the studio for two weeks…but hey, we got through it!  There is an old saying “Make hay while the sun shines” and for every month where the sales are overwhelming, there are two months where they are so so and 1, sometimes  2 during the year where I wonder what a regular paycheck would feel like! Then I remember the days where I did not want to work and drove through the countryside at random, walked wooded trails or took out a kayak or spent the day working in my herb and flower garden or just messed about with random art for the fun of it….and I think “Nah-h-h!”

So we’ll be sending out Jan newsletter when we return and I will share just HOW we are able to “live the life of an artist”.  SO if that doesn’t keep you on pins and needles, nothing will
To see that Steve and I are real people, below is a list of our FB pages. Don’t like or use FB? You should…many of our collectors respond quicker to our messaging through FB than even the phone!

Happy NEW Year!

Theresa    www.facebook.com/MTheresaBrown
Steve         http://www.facebook.com/stephen.filarsky

www.facebook.com/artcareerexperts

I could go on and on but you get the picture.  Make a list. Make it detailed and make it thorough.  Use ours as a beginning guide (all art forms are different) and life as an artist on the road will be easier, calmer and far less stressful when you know that you checked everything off on your list!

ART SHOW CHECKLIST coutesy of www.ArtCareerExperts.com
Use our list and add to it as needed for your partciular situation/art product. Make as detailed a checklist as necessary to make it easier to zip through your list for each show. For multiple day shows, have an idea of what you will wear each day and make sure that you bring those items.
Your personal list may be separate but it too should be itemized to prevent hyperventilating situations!

The following is divided into Outdoor and Indoor shows.

OUTDOOR Set up Tent or Canopy  (Always know if your tent is UV protected and what winds/rain it can withstand. Be prepared!) All art shows tents should be 10′ x 10′. Booth display designs are built to accomodate that size.

One day or multi day shows

Tent

• Weights and Stakes and ratchet tie downs

• Carpet or Mat (RV Patio Mat or Indoor/Outdoor Carpet)

• Hand truck / luggage cart (can be critical)

• Rope and bungee cords

• Cable ties

• Booth SIGN

Display

• Display Walls

• Wall covers and hardware

• Hooks and Hangers, velcro

• Display Cases

• Display Stands

• Print Rack/prints

• Table (4, 6 or 8 ft)

• Table cloth/cover

• Business Signs

• Plastic drop cloths or tarps

• Artwork!

• Prints or Cards

• Price tags / labels

• Stool or chair

• Extension cords

• 1 or 2 fans

• Easels

• Any art supplies needed if demonstrating on site

• bungee cords

Tools

• Hammer
• Pliers
• Screwdrivers
• Cable/electrical ties
• Duct tape
• Spring clamps
• Glass Cleaner
• Paper towels
• Towel

Office/Sales Supplies

• Calculator
• Money
• Money box/fanny pack
• Sales/receipt book
• Pens/Pencil/Marker
• Scissors
• Stapler and staples
• Price tags/labels
• Credit card signs/logos
• Square credit card processor/your cell phone
• Boxes and/or Bags
• Promotional items
• Business Cards
• Business Card Holders
• Guest Book
• Guest book pages
• Portfolio of past work
• Post Cards
• Brochures
• Name tag

Personal

• Cooler / thermos
• Paper towels
• Sunscreen
• Hat (optional)
• Sweater
• Insect Repellant
• Towel
• Breath mints/gum
• Baby wipes
• Hand sanitizer
• Comfortable shoes

Medicines

• aspirin/tylenol/ibuprofen
• anti-nausea anti-diarrheal
• hayfever/allergy

Cooler
Bottled Water
ice/drinks
Coffee
Food – sandwiches/ snacks

Not to do!
NO READING BOOKS
NO CELL PHONE CONVERSATIONS
NO WEB BROWSING/EMAIL CHECKING
NO NEWSPAPERS
NO FAMILY REUNIONS OR NEIGHBORHOOD GET TOGETHERS
__________________________________________________________
ART SHOW CHECKLIST ArtCareerExperts.com
INDOOR Set up  (No tent)

With the exception of no tent, everything stays the same EXCEPT yo will need many lights. ALWAYS have lights in an indoor booth. Put up more than you think you need! Using the energy efficient bulbs will keep your booth cool and not blow electrical circuits!

Lights LOTS of LIGHTS for indoor shows!

• Extension Cords
• Power Strip
• Extra Light bulbs/energy savings bulbs (to not blow circuits)
• Carpet or Mat RV Patio Mat or Indoor/Outdoor Carpet or Foam tiles, gel mats
• Stool or chair
• electrical ties-lots of them

Follow the list above from this point on for the outdoor shows. You may not need sunscreen but you may need a sweater. Be prepared!

Arts Council Announces Kentucky Crafted Retailer Designations

Nineteen businesses in three states have been designated Kentucky Crafted Retailers by the Kentucky Arts Council, the agency announced today.

Each of the businesses – 17 from Kentucky and one each from Ohio and Indiana – met specific qualifications to be part of the initiative, a new endeavor of the arts council. The retailers are listed online in the Kentucky Arts Council Web directory.

“We had an excellent response to the call for participation in this program,” said Lori Meadows, arts council executive director. “We are excited to form new partnerships with businesses that work daily to strengthen the bonds between art and economic development in their communities. Kentucky Crafted Retailers have proven they have the capacity to promote the state as a leading producer of high-quality art and craft.”

http://surfky.com/index.php/news/kentucky/15656-arts-council-announces-kentucky-crafted-retailer-designations

I don’t think I ever knew if my dad was naturally neat or if his years in the military honed his skills, but the fact remains that his legacy is with me always when I am tempted to leave the yard tools out, not unload the dishwasher or more importantly for my art business, after using supplies in the art studio.

My dad’s workshops, wherever we lived, had vast expanses of pegboard with items not only hung up but outlined with marker. His rationale, when asked, was that if there was an empty hook,  he knew what was missing by the outline and could look for it or  find the culprit who borrowed it and did not put it back. Nails, screws, wire, electrical thingies, all were sitting in clear plastic (“they don’t break,” he said) instant coffee jars on shelves. Everything had a place, and everything was in it’s place.

It’s hard to argue with that logic.

I think I rebelled for awhile. I am not anal neat. But I am, I discovered, anti-clutter. Weird. When it gets to the point where I feel there is too much clutter in every room, everywhere….my brain rebels and the “clean slate” mentality takes over and my family hustles. Ask my 4 kids who knew that if mom says she was going into their rooms the next day with a big black trash bag, ( after repeated, useless efforts to get them to do it themselves)  she WOULD fill it and she WOULD take it to the dump.  The amazing result of this happening, get this, one time, was that it never happened again (go figure).  After the first event, I would only have to give fair warning and it was like I switched on  hidden kid motivation motors and the room cleaning activity by four kids went into 4th gear.  They were too bent to the tasks in their rooms for me to see the eye rolling or hear the muttered comments, but I didn’t care. Everything was going into….some place.

The kids are all on their own now and there are only two people to blame if the clutter gets bad. My artist husband does not have my father’s sense of cleaning up behind himself. He too has seen the results of my anti-clutter blitz. He may think that as a spouse he is exempt to my one woman war on “shit everywhere”, but he knows better. Just like my kids, too much stuff means you don’t really know what you have, even when it is gone.  And the Goodwill is all the better for it.

Now let me clarify that it takes a lot to get me to the blitz mode. It is bad. It is 2 days of dirty dishes in the sink, paths through the studio,  unloaded art supplies from the vehicles from shows, classes, exhibitions…..all set inside the door like the area around the top of some attic stairs. When it is too cluttered, there is an area in my brain that is cluttered. Most importantly, it affects my creativity. There is something to be said for reaching for whatever supply you need and having it right there.

Perhaps the one iconic moment that marked the end of my “oh it doesn’t matter” attitude was searching for my car keys one day. My dad used to refer to such moments as  “the great treasure hunt.”  When I found the keys where I had tossed them upon entering the house, it dawned on me as clearly as the sun outside that if today had taken twenty minutes to find this one item, I had probably wasted at least a year of my life, over time, trying to find something that had not been put back in it’s place. It was one of those “Ah Ha!” moments. I could say that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, or I was truly my father’s daughter but the truth was that I was tired of disorganization that affected my life. The car key problem was solved easily (and I might add for the whole family of driving teens) by putting a key ring hold by the front and side entrances to the house. Every time someone walked into the house with car keys, any keys, they were hung up in plain site. It worked.

I think it was like losing weight-once the first few pounds come off, the motivation to keep doing whatever you’re doing, intensifies.   So I set about organizing everything, all the paperwork files for the business, appliance warranties, insurance papers, kids’ papers…and the feeling of needing something and being  able to lay hands on it was…..miraculous.

Oh it creeps back and you have to stay vigilant. Yesterday I attacked the studio. It was actually unplanned. But I have a student art camp coming up soon and was not getting my act together to plan what I needed to do. My “list” was not growing. So one thing led to the other and I moved, tossed out, hung, secured, dragged and otherwise organized the art studio back to a positive, creative, “want to be there” space and I am happy. My brain is not cluttered in the art corner part of it and I am ready to attack my plans and organize the activities. It is a good place to be.

Funny thing is that the trend today is to hire someone to unclutter your life, organize your closets, design the perfect clutter free environment, or join on line groups that make your lists for you .

But in the long run, you have to have the self motivation to do it yourself.

And it really is as simple as finding a place for everything and then putting it all back in its place.

Thanks Dad. You would be proud (mostly)

Today was one of those days where we were able to check off yet one more thing on our perpetual “to do” list!

And what we checked off was the fence in front of the Art studio! As with any big project we’ve put a lot of time and effort into our art studio. We spend a lot of time in here and we try to make it not just a place to work, but a retreat.  Visitors love the look and feel of our studio.

We built it a little over ten years ago from recycled materials gathered from a 1910 house being demolished, a warehouse of construction leftovers and good old fashioned muscle and help from family members! …it took us almost two years  because  we paid as we went along. No debt .

So today, we were able to step back and admire our new section of fence. It’s the same kind of fence we have around our rose and herb garden. Tobacco stick screwed to treated wood…and the sticks, if not touching the ground, last as long as the treated wood!  We had to first tear down the picket fence we installed at the beginning as the invading wisteria (yes we stupidly planted it on purpose!) had started to pull it down. Putting up the fence was the easy part. Attacking the vegetation with chainsaw, clippers and Round Up, was a the hard part . Oh well the original concept was good…we just picked the wrong plant for an arbor!

Artists often need beauty and quiet times for inspiration…. it’s a perfect place for many of our classes and our art retreats. Sure you can find the beauty elsewhere as an option. But being a part of it, nourishing it and reveling in it…well now, that’s the artist’s life!

Same type of fence around herb and rose garden

Guest post by Valeria Bornstein of Fame House

Pinterest has quickly become one of the fastest growing social media sites, now boasting over 11.7 million unique visitors per month and 17.8 million registered users. Pinterest’s rapid growth is the result of a few key factors. First, their platform is visually appealing. Users select items of interest based primarily on imagery, so there is very little text to read, ultimately retaining a user’s attention for much longer.

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/05/using-pinterest-for-artist-marketing.html