BoldBrush
This article is part of our Sovereign Artist Club, but we've decided to
share it as an example of the type of unique, actionable ideas our club
members are already enjoying.
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Confessions of a Gatekeeper
And how we've now left gatekeepers behind
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I had just finished helping a customer choose custom frames for her
newly purchased paintings when a lady walked into my gallery. She was
an artist.
I could tell by the way she intensely studied our paintings and, more
obviously, by the portfolio she carried in her hand. I groaned inside.
I knew what was coming. She wanted to show us her artwork.
"Who would I talk to about showing the owner my art?" she asked.
I wondered how to answer. Sometimes the answer depended upon how busy
we were, who was available, or if we were installing a new exhibit or
not. It was easier for us if people would leave or send their
portfolios for us to review at our regular monthly meeting. But deep
down, I knew I was stalling. If her work wasn't right for our gallery,
or not competent enough to hang with our other artists, I'd have to
disappoint her. And based on historical averages, I'd be disappointing
her.
Quit stalling and man up I thought to myself. After all, I am the
gallery director. Better to just get this over with right now.
"You can talk to me." I replied, "I'm the gallery director and one of
the owners."
"Great!" she responded and handed me her portfolio.
She was already telling me her name, how long she'd been painting, that
all her friends and family said she should be a professional artist,
but I was only half listening. I had heard the same story hundreds of
times.
I opened her portfolio hoping to find the next undiscovered virtuoso. I
opened it to the first artwork and my heart sank. Her work was good.
But in the gallery business good isn't good enough. She was competent,
but hadn't yet developed much of a unique style. Her work was still
quite literal, and while she could fairly accurately render a landscape
or a person, they were simple depictions. Nothing that really stood out
as unique. Some areas weren't quite up to professional standards.
I already knew from experience that her art wouldn't sell in our
gallery and, even if we wanted to try, we didn't have the space to
gamble. If I had more courage back then, I probably would have shared
all of this with her. While it might have hurt, it could have, if she
was open, perhaps pointed her in a direction to take her art career
further. But I was a younger and weaker man back then and, frankly,
sometimes I was just tired of how many times I'd had to reject artists.
You never knew when someone would be offended or react badly to
well-meaning feedback so it was easier to just say, "I'm sorry, your
work is nice, but we really aren't accepting new artists and don't have
the space at the moment to consider new work." Or some BS along those
lines.
Her face fell, but she girded herself and said, "I understand."
I felt like a jerk. Nothing I had said was untrue, but I don't like to
hurt people. Art is supposed to be about inspiration. That's why I
worked in the art world - to be inspired and hopefully to inspire
others. But I'd been through this so many times, and it had to be done.
It was part of the gallery business.
After she left, I walked back to my office. There, in the corner, was a
stack about three feet high of art portfolios that artists had mailed
us according to the instructions on our website.
Officially, we didn't look at walk-in portfolios. I had broken our own
rules by stopping to look at her portfolio. But I had to give her
credit for courage. She took a chance and walked in and, in a sense, it
paid off in that I did stop and reviewed her portfolio on the spot. At
least she had her answer unlike the artists who were still waiting for
us to review their portfolio.
Some of the portfolios in the stack had been there for months. We
didn't intend to take so long in our reviews. And we did actually
review portfolios at least once a month. I, along with the other two
owners, would set up a slide projector and, for an hour or two, review
portfolios that artists had submitted. We rejected the vast majority.
And new portfolios arrived faster than we could review them. There were
so many artists in the world, and such little wall space in our
gallery. So we had to be extremely careful who we accepted. That was
the reality and the economics of how an art gallery works.
In short, my business partners and I were gatekeepers. We stood at the
gate, and we rejected nearly everyone.
Occasionally we would find someone that we perceived as a diamond in
the rough, and we'd "bless" them and accept them into the gallery.
I really never wanted to be a gatekeeper. I didn't take any pleasure in
turning people away or in putting up a roadblock in front of their
dreams. It seemed unfair to me that so many artists were just out of
luck if they couldn't get past the "gallerist at the gate."
But if they weren't part of the gallery system, what were their
options? There really weren't any.
Perhaps they could show their art at various art fairs, or they could
take out advertising in art magazines. But both options were extremely
time consuming and expensive, especially for an individual artist.
There really weren't many good options for artists other than art
galleries.
But then, about halfway through my time as a gallery owner, something
changed: the Internet.
The Internet started going mainstream in the late 90s. The world wide
web had been invented and Netscape had created the first free consumer
web browser. Even then I sensed this was the beginning of something big
and rushed to be one of the first art galleries online.
By 1997, I, with my background in computers, had created a fully
ecommerce capable website for our gallery. I sold a $30,000 painting
off our website in 1998. Don't ever try to tell me people won't buy art
online, I was selling art online over a quarter of a century ago.
And I knew instantly that the Internet changed everything. More
importantly, I realized that the Internet spelled the beginning of the
end for gatekeepers. And since, as I mentioned above, I never wanted to
be a gatekeeper, my mind started generating ideas and plans for a new
business, an online business.
In 2001, I launched a new company called FASO (Short for
FineArtStudioOnline), and we specialized in making it super-easy for
visual artists to upload their artwork and create a website to showcase
their art online.
I left the gallery business in 2005 and pursued FASO full time. I was
no longer a gatekeeper.
Now, instead of being the person who denied artists access to the art
market, I was the person helping any and every artist to get their art
online. We also taught artists marketing ideas and methods to help them
learn how to get their art in front of potential buyers.
The internet grew bigger every day as bandwidth increased and more
technology, both software and hardware, was invented. In other words,
the huge opportunity the Internet represented grew bigger every single
day.
So I dedicated myself to building tools, channels and resources to
inspire artists to live their dreams to show and sell their art. In my
new business, it didn't matter if an artist was accepted by an art
gallery or not.
We were now using technology to expand the art market, to
expand the channels through which art sells and to allow artists to
become independent.
By "independent" I mean Sovereign.
The first definition of "sovereign" is "a supreme ruler, especially a
monarch" as in "royalty." That definition suits me just fine because
artists are the nobility of the emerging online creator economy.
The second definition of "sovereign" is "possessing supreme or ultimate
power." In other words, a "sovereign" is a fully independent entity
that answers to nobody and has the power to conduct their affairs as
they see fit.
The Internet has now reached such a vast scale, and plenty of
inexpensive tools and channels now exist that a visual artist today can
be completely sovereign. An artist today doesn't need an art gallery.
An artist today doesn't have to pass any gatekeepers. An artist today
can reach nearly any other person on the planet and show that person
their artwork. An artist today possesses "ultimate power" in reaching
and even expanding the art market, directly.
I fully believe, with the technology that now exists, that we have
entered what I call The Sovereign Artist Era.
The goal of this book is to give you a practical guide that you can use
as a Sovereign Artist to market and sell your art online in the 21st
century.
I've left the side of the gatekeepers and become a champion for all
visual artists and my goal is to democratize access to the art market
for any artist who is ready to show their work.
If that describes you, please click below to join us on this journey
and become part of The Sovereign Artist Era.
Join The Sovereign Artist Club
Sincerely,
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Clint Watson
BoldBrush & FASO Founder / Art Fanatic
www.FineArtViews.com
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