Get Your Art Into a Gallery Q & A

Folk Art Fish on Etsy at ArtVineyard

I'm going to recap parts one and two of the five part series of how to get your art into a gallery and answer some of your questions and answers.

Part One: How to Get Your Art into a Gallery talked about the physical portfolio and how important it is to make something that showcases your work.  It also talked about the artist statement.

I received some emails asking for examples of artist statements.  Again, this is a short summary of what you create and who you are as an artist. Think of this as an opening statement on your resume. The art photos in the portfolio speak for themselves, and I like to keep it short and sweet. Others may disagree.  Here are some suggestions just to get you thinking.

Example: Painter who uses Oil and Canvas, but paints everything.

"I create with oil and canvas from surrealism to abstract."

Example: Glass Maker 

"Glass is what motivates me and I have no boundaries in my craft."

Part Two:  The Online Showcase

This discusses the importance of having an online showcase for display of your craft. I suggested starting a blog, getting a website, even using Etsy to get your work online.  

I received some questions about website hosting with wordpress vs using standard wordpress.com free blogs.  

If you are using wordpress.com, you are limited to the templates you can use. If you upgrade your template you must pay.  You are also limited to standard fonts and colors. If you want fancier items you must upgrade.  Some of these are annual upgrades. Add the fact you will be getting advertisements in your blog or website.  Unless you pay to upgrade to no ads.  Even then, you won't get all the widgets or building blogs that you could have if you were using wordpress and hosting it elsewhere. 

The truth is with any paid website hosting, you have a much bigger palette to create and tweak your site exactly the way you want it. Here is a great place to start to find out how to sign up for website hosting.

I also received a question about the difference between blogs and websites. I suppose the key here is both blogs and websites have their own benefits.

Websites used to be the only acceptable means for companies or professionals, but that has all changed. Many companies have went from standard sites to full blown blogs, or have one of each.  You can even implement a blog into your website.   It just depends on what you need, and what you are looking for.

Coming soon, Part Three.

Dolls in the Studio for Etsy

Art Studio Mayhem, the doll was thrown in at the last minute to my Etsy listing for dominoes.

I get sidetracked often in my art studio. I set out to do one thing and find myself doing fifty others.   Here I was trying to take some pictures for Etsy and quickly found that one thing led to another, I was chasing dogs around the house and my demeanor changed from serious to silly. I pulled the barbie out of my dog's mouth and landed up in a pile of dominoes, where I was photographing for my Etsy shop.

I often have fun with dolls in my Etsy shop which gets me a lot of flack from Regretsy but I don't care.  I used to go to auctions and would get a ton of dolls in a box. Some being vintage and some being new, I couldn't sell the new on Etsy (things have to be 20 years old) , and being that some are damaged they won't serve well going to a thrift store. So what to do?  I use them as props. Just until I find a better use in my assemblage art for them. 

This little disco doll is selling my clapboards for me. 

Okay so maybe I'm over the top but I don't care.

Not everyone likes my way of thinking, but that's okay, it's my style and that's why my Etsy shop is different than everyone else's. Only the tacky, wacky and funky unique there. No white backgrounds (if I must I will use something with texture.) Maybe having your own strange way of thinking is good.   Or maybe, my RetroChalet shop is the one your mother warned you about.