Selling Your Work Isn’t Scary

0
109
Photo by Crista Cloutier. Copyright © Crista Cloutier. Used by permission of the artist.

He was one of my first students. He came, he said, not for himself, but for the others.

There were 87 artists in his community, he told me. “And I think I can sell their work if you show me how.”

I asked him if he was an artist and he nodded, “Yes, but I don’t think I can sell my own work because that would be too much work.”

“So, let me get this right,” I said. “You are willing to manage 87 other artists?” He nodded.

“You are willing to put together their CVs, their bios and statements, help them with their PR kits, create their archive, set their prices and sell their work — but it’s too much work to sell your own?”

He blushed.

And by the time class began, he forgot about those 87 other artists and focused on his own career, realizing that this was something he could do. That selling his own art wasn’t scary or unattainable. What was much more scary was to sell 87 other people’s work and wish that it was yours instead.

Seize the moment — it’s yours!

Crista Cloutier works internationally as an artist and writer. She is the founder of The Working Artist. Over the course of her career, Crista has collaborated with some of the most significant contemporary artists showing today. She is certified as a fine arts appraiser, has worked as a licensor, arts writer, gallerist, award-winning documentary filmmaker, fine-art publisher, and she has curated dozens of exhibitions. Crista has worked with artists whose careers range from blue-chip to just beginning. She knows firsthand how successful artists manage their careers and has witnessed where aspiring artists often stumble. Visit TheWorkingArtist.com to find out more.