Self-hype · Thursday April 8, 2010 by Julie
I’ve been reading Taking the Leap about learning to sell your own art, a difficult step for those of us who prefer to simply do the art. I don’t like the consequences, though, which include watching it accumulate in drifts under the stairs and on the walls of the spare room.
It should go without saying (but alas, I must say this to myself often) that I have to use a dispassionate eye to evaluate whether I like a piece because it’s good, or simply because it’s of sentimental value. Anything that can’t survive that jaundiced eye should neither be sold nor–and here’s the hard part–given away. However, and this is just as hard for me, once I’ve chosen to make a piece public, I can’t badmouth it. My inner critic, however noisy it gets, shouldn’t be public. People want to be happy with what they buy.
An unexpected artifact of the market is that people want to collect a particular artist in the hope that their art will appreciate. Thus, I need a CV, something that will convince them that I’m committed to doing more and that there’s a chance I’ll get better at it. I’ve put together a rough draft, and will be adding to it. The trick is to include anything that looks as though I really mean it, without getting down to the Age 7: House With Smoke Coming Out Sideways Series level.
Third, I need to charge consistent prices that acknowledge the intrinsic value of the work – no discount because you’re a friend or because I’ve gotten tired of a piece and want it gone. This is a difficult one to internalize. After years of crafts fairs, I want to be open to offering bargains. But no. Not in the fine arts world. People want to pay enough so that they can reassure themselves that they have something of value, and something that might appreciate.
