Visual Artists Are Ubiqitous

When I look at all of the art magazines that I have, I notice the abundance of artists. WOW! there must be an artist behind every window in the USA. This is not a complaint, just an observation. Some gallery rosters in the trades list as many as 100 artists. I am thinking, I have to amp up my marketing game a lot more, to get some more traction. By traction, I just mean to continue to heat and eat from my artistic effort. There's so much talk about the economy these days, I just want all of the $500.-1000 I can get my hands on. Some people drink more than that amount of dough in Starbucks each year. I just will offer my time payment plan more. To my way of thinking, it doesn't matter how many artists there are in the mix, I will out market alot of them, I proceed undaunted. My very life depends on it
www.freewebs.com/bobragland- www.readfive.com issue 12

Prices Go Up.

Recently I heard a person say, that they noticed a increase in the cost to works of art. Well, DUH!!! Why is it intelligent people think art should go down in price. Go figure. Too many people think we artists shoud not get what we ask, for our effort.
In my opinion, it's just plain dumb and wrongheaded thinking. I had to write this. If people don't want to pay what we ask they can be downsized. In other words, FIRED!!!!! Boy that felt good.

Gatekeepers

I went to an gallery yesterday, there was an artist whose paintings had a very unique color. I asked the gallery person if I could get an information sheet on the artist? I was rebuffed and told "we only give information sheets to people who buy something." This is one of the reasons I sell my own work out of my home/ studio. Man oh man , I get art lessons every day from people like this. What harm could come from me knowing more about the artist? Well it takes all kinds of people to run the art business, I just hope there's alimit on the kind I just described.

Responsiblity

Real artists always take resposibilty for their own well being. When I hear an artist say they haven't sold anything for awhille , I wonder what they have done to help themselves sell something. People do not wake up and say they are going to find an artist to spend some money with. At least most of the time. Sad but true. Real artists market as though their very lives depend on it and believe it or not , their art lives do depend on getting some money to continue making art. Responsibility matters for successful art lives. See my advice at www.readfive.com-issue 12.

The Wonder of Museums

People who start and build museums are very cool people in my opinion. I always am grateful that these pepole exist or did at one time. The fact that someone had the courage and the forsight to collect works of art and art objects for uas all to see is wonderous. I visit museums at every opportunity. In this time and age of negative news , it's always a great escape to visit a
museum , this gives me a chance to be some where else for awhile. I went to the Leanin' Tree Museum of Wester Art yesterday ,it's outside of Boulder Colorado, the museum was started as result of the founder finding artist's work to be published on greeting cards. I spent about two hours in the museum. It was a very good and educational experience. Hats off to Mr.Ed Trumble founder of the Leanin' Tree Museum. I will visit it again soon.