Last week, an artist friend of mine told me a sad story.
This artist felt very fortunate to have a consistent group of collectors who always bought at her monthly Open Studios. To document her work she was in the habit of simply taking a quick snapshot with her phone. She couldn’t see the point of spending a lot of time taking quality photographs and creating digital images in various formats since she doesn’t submit to galleries or competitions. Snapshots were good enough for her needs.

Well two weeks ago this sad artist realized how wrong she had been.
Late in the afternoon on a Monday she got a call from an interior designer who had an unexpected, important meeting with the owner of a hotel the next morning. He wanted to look at photos of various artists’ work and make his choices before he headed out of town. The art budget was $20,000.

Unfortunately, this artist wasn’t ready. She couldn’t possibly meet the needs and deadline of the designer or the client. She lost out on what would most likely have been a huge sale. She’s been kicking herself ever since.

Artists ! Don’t let this happen to you.  Make sure you’re ready for any unexpected opportunity.

➢    For photographs and print media opportunities, have a color-corrected large digital image in TIFF format ready for every artwork you ever hope to sell.

➢    For email requests and submissions on disc, have each image ready as a small JPG image file.

➢    For online submissions and free promo sites, be sure to compress your images especially for the web, so no one can copy or steal them.

➢    Create a naming / folder / filing system on your computer so you can find any image quickly.

If you’re an artist and are confused about how to create these files, don’t worry, I was too. 7 years ago, I spent a year researching the easiest, least expensive methods of documenting artwork.

Check out my  e-Book for a step-by step guide Stand out in a Crowd with Dazzling Photos.

It’s been a few years since I’ve had the chance to exhibit my paintings locally. Mostly, it’s because shows take a long time to create and I’ve been busy with Toronto and Dallas commitments.

Windsor has a population of about 200,000 people and is right across the river from Detroit with another million people. With many of my loyal collectors close by, I’ve been feeling a little guilty about neglecting them.

Although I do have a Museum Exhibition planned locally at the Art Gallery of Windsor, it isn’t until winter of 2010. Those paintings are going to be massive. Besides, that’s not exactly a venue for people who want to buy.

This morning, out of the blue, the director of the Arts Council of Windsor Region called to invite me to have a Solo Exhibition this fall. ACWR is a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening and promoting the arts in our community. Their dynamic new director is a powerhouse who has made some wonderful changes during the past year.

The Arts Council has a lovely gallery space of 570 square feet called Artspeak Gallery. The gallery serves as a wonderful non-juried venue for local artists in the community.

They’ve invited me to exhibit as part of their Selected Artist Program which aims to raise ACWR’s profile and heighten awareness of their committment to excellence in the arts. In addition to myself, I know they’ve chosen 1 other artist, also a painter who exhibits internationally, for this year. I admit I was quite surprised and feel very honored.

The dates will be October 4 - October 18th. The small space will give me the chance to exhibit  more intimately scaled pieces and to reconnect with lots of people I haven’t seen in awhile.

Since the 1980’s, the high-end art-world has been gripped my a feverish madness. As the number of millionaires and billionaires grew exponentially in the world economy,  so too did the demand for contemporary art. This created a feeding frenzy which spawned overnight art stars with millions of dollars being thrown at them by frenzied collectors.

By 2008, art had become a silly side-show. Even the current art darling Damien Hirst, who gets many million dollars for cutting cows in half and floating them in formaldehyde, has admitted his art is overpriced.

Top artists, galleries and collectors began chasing the money on a grand scale. It all became a shallow exercise in greed. To get collectors’ attention, artists needed to shock. And once an artist succeeded in gaining public attention, the global marketplace demanded mass production.

It’s always astonished me for example, that an artist such as Jeff Koons never touches a painting. He employs a creative staff of 50 assistants who literally paint by number his massive paintings. All Jeff Koons does is supply an abstract doodle he’s done on his laptop by appropriating found imagery online, and they do the rest. I doubt his assistants get too many of the several million dollars he sells these paintings for.

All this self-important posturing about what was relevant in the arts has been like the emperor’s new clothes. There really hasn’t been much substance there. The whole notion of art as a vehicle for lifting the human spirit has been lost. To use another metaphor, some of our most sought-after artists have sold their souls to the devil in return for fame and fortune.

Although 99% of artists in the world do not command astronomical prices, it’s the top artists who set the trends and the dealers who are gatekeepers to an artist’s career. Every artist is measured against the current standard of what is considered “good art”. When “good art” means painting a Black Virgin Mary in elephant dung,  such as Chris Ofili did to win England’s prestigious Turner Prize, all artists have a problem.

So to me, this global economic contraction may actually be a good thing in the long run. Perhaps artists and the art world will take a moment of critical self-reflection. Without the hype to sustain them, the shallow will disappear from sight. This will make room for real talent to shine again because truly good art will always be in demand.

Yes, I came kicking and screaming. But finally after much gnashing of teeth, I came around to the conclusion that social networking is here to stay, and I’d better jump on this fast moving train.

The minute I made my mind up to give it a serious try, something strange happened. - It started to be fun !!!! Now I’m hooked - meeting and re-connecting with wonderful people online and loving it.

As an artist, my impression of social networking has always been that …………

1. it’s for kids
2. I don’t have time
3. why do I want to know what someone had for dinner
4. serious art doesn’t get sold on social networks

One of the advantages to being a speaker on this year’s SmARTist telesummit, was the opportunity to connect with the other panelists. 2 of them, Mari Smith and Nancy Mamolejo spoke about social networking and totally opened my eyes to the potential.

Through Facebook, after only 2 weeks, I’ve already re-connected to an art dealer who moved out to Vancouver and wants to buy several pieces for clients. I also was put in touch with a friend of a friend who has had her eye on one of my paintings but never knew how to reach me.

In addition to the purely business potential, it’s also a great way to post photos of my paintings for people who’ve never seen them, and to feed my blog to a whole new network of people.

Yes, there is an aspect of Facebook which is frivolous. But what I came to realize is that you can choose how you want to use it - business or purely fun and games.

Personally, I like my fun and games more one on one. So I choose to use it for social / business networking. However you choose to use social networking one thing I will admit. It’s very addictive !!!

Check out my Public Fan Page “Shirley Williams Art - Contemporary Abstract Landscapes” Be sure to register as a Fan for updates and news.

My solo exhibition called “VISTAS” at Alan Barnes Fine Art in Dallas which ran from January 12th, closed this past Thursday, March 12th.

Alan Barnes will keep some of the unsold paintings to continue to show clients, as is normal with gallery representation. The balance of the unsold work is now being crated to be shipped back to me. Getting art back after an exhibition is always like having your kids come home to live with you after college. It’s always such an odd feeling. My paintings are like my children who haven’t found a home yet.

Considering the economy, it was a wonderful show. They sold a fair number of paintings and the Opening on Feb 12th was extremely well attended with about 150 people. Alan Barnes even arranged an interview by Brendan Higgins of NBC, Dallas. I’m so very blessed to be represented by Alan Barnes Fine Art. They do an exceptional job and are one of the most professional and galleries I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. Alan and his assistant Karin are also lots of fun to be around and I’d love to live closer to see them more often.

So now the cycle begins again with another exhibition probably a year from now. In addition to painting new work for them, I’m also creating a series of large canvases in preparation for a museum show in 2010 / 2011.

Here’s my personal opinion on the current “Great Depression” and how I cope with it as an artist.

My observation is there’s just too much free-floating anxiety everywhere these days. That’s not to minimize the fact that some people are truly having serious problems. But the constant barrage of “the sky is falling” media coverage, and endless discussions everywhere about how bad things are, only makes things worse. People are paralyzed by fear.

We’re going through a worldwide attitude adjustment. For too long everyone, including me, has had the  unrealistic expectation of “bigger & better” every year. Perhaps we need to think in terms of a more peaceful acceptance of what is truly sustainable.

Here are my 7 ways to stay centered.

1. I turn down the volume. I limit my TV, newspaper and radio news to the bare minimum. I try and isolate the facts from the analysis which is mostly just exaggerated hype.
2. I stay away from online forums and discussions which focus on the negative. A “Woe is me” attitude is contagious. There’s a constructive approach to every problem and I always try to find people who think that way.
   
3. I look for something every day that makes me laugh, feel touched, or inspired. YouTube can always be counted on for something truly amazing. This example will have you smiling from ear to ear with their creative genius. Flash Mob in London
4. I keep reminding myself that as bad as things may seem, the simple fact that we’re sitting at a computer right now means we live better than 98% of the world’s population.
5. Opportunities are everywhere. My view is we all have to take responsibility for ourselves in finding them.
6. I meditate every day and focus on gratitude and peace.
7. I let nothing come between me and my studio time. It’s my refuge.

Speaking of my studio being my refuge, here’s a painting I’ve been working on for the past month and just finished. It’s acrylic on canvas and measures 48″ x 48″.

Green & Orange Horizon

An article in this morning’s Toronto Globe & Mail newspaper, made me chuckle.

It quoted choreographer, Liz Lerman from www.CommunityArts.net who wrote her proposal to solve some of our economic problems. She suggests a job swap, putting corporate executives to work as artists while the artists run Wall Street.

Here are the advantage of her tongue in cheek plan :

1. Artists work ridiculous hours for no pay. And most artists will keep working until they get it right.
2. Artists do not need fancy offices. In fact they usually work in the worst part of town.
3. Artists do not need financial incentives. They do the work because they love it.
4. Artists don’t expect to get paid when they do a bad job.
5. Artist know how to keep a very tight budget and make a little go a long way.

I would add a few here myself:

1. Artists are good at starting a project with a vision and a plan.
2. Artists are good at observing results and learning from their mistakes.
3. Artists don’t ask for government bailouts for more than they need.
4. Artists are extremely grateful to their supporters. It makes them work harder.