I’m excited to announce that my painting “Zachary” will be in the upcoming “Portraits and Their Stories” exhibition at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. “Zachary” is part of the museum’s collection and will be amongst the many other portraits in their collection (including Grant Wood of “American Gothic” fame) as well as some pieces on loan. “Zachary” was one of my portrait series paintings done during 2005-2006 (which you can view a few of on my Facebook Fan Page). The exhibition will be up September 24th, 2011 through January 15, 2012- ample opportunity for those of you in the Midwest to see my work in person. For more information on the exhibit visit the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art website at this direct link.
I send out an email newsletter each month, and I thought it might be helpful to those of you who don’t yet send a newsletter or are contemplating taking on such a project, to post some tips. Also, for those of you that do send newsletters, you may find some new ideas to help increase your subscriber rate and boost their enthusiasm. So here goes:
-I’ve posted a screen grab of one of my newsletters here to give you an idea of what I do. If you visit my website, www.AmyGuidry.com, you’ll see that I have kept the overall look the same as the website- color, style, logo, etc. This aids your branding campaign in that the visuals are associated with you and identify you in the minds of others.
-Frequency is up to you and you may want to experiment with this depending on how much you produce/exhibit/etc. I like once a month with a concise list of everything I have going on.
-Use a compelling subject heading, not too long- maybe 6 words or less. I like to focus on my “big” news to catch their attention.
-Photos are a must even if you are only discussing exhibits or articles. People are visual creatures so include photos of your new work, or studio shots, exhibition opening photos, installation photos, etc. If you are published in a magazine, include photos of that as well. Same goes for awards or certificates.
-Text should be concise and interesting. Try not to just state facts, which can be hard to do if you are announcing an exhibit but add some points of interest or amusing anecdotes wherever possible.
-Put your biggest news at the top of the newsletter. Unfortunately, you’ll have some readers that just skim through your news, so you’ll need to get their attention first thing.
-Add your other links at the bottom of the newsletter. If you are on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn, etc.- include those links. Your most interested fans will scroll all the way down to see them. Otherwise, you don’t want to distract your readers and lead them away from the newsletter too quickly.
-Limit outbound links to 3 or less. If you give too many links for people to visit, you’ll overwhelm them and they probably won’t go to any.
-Key time to send? According to marketing experts and my own personal experience, Tuesday-Thursday are your best bet. Send during the day, anywhere between 10am Pacific time to 3pm. I think I get more response in the afternoon, but again, try this out yourself and chart what gets you the most response. Monday is a no-no because people are bombarded with new email that built up over the weekend, whether they are at home or at work. Friday-Sunday, people are out enjoying the weekend.
-Have a signup page for your newsletters on your website. Let people know what they will be receiving and how often.
-Include a link to your newsletter signup page in all your correspondence emails.
I’ve recently finished another addition to the In Our Veins series! My painting “Fleeting” is now online- it is an acrylic on canvas, 8″ wide by 10″ high. Since the series deals with the life cycle and our role as well as impact on it, I thought this piece would be fitting given it is an example of the brevity of life. The moth plays an integral part since I have always had an interest in butterflies and moths and how short their life span can be (depending on the species). They are so delicate and beautiful, and only on this earth for such a short while. Which really is a metaphor for life in general- though many of us take it for granted and feel invincible. The pregnant woman is no one in particular (in reality there was no model- she is completely made up), she is a mother or will be, she is nature, she is Mother Earth, she is giving life, while the moth represents life.
I have posted the progression of this painting from start to finish- sorry for the cruddy photos- all were taken by me except the final one (which is why it was taken in good lighting on the proper setting and the colors look more accurate). View a larger version of the finished piece online at http://www.amyguidry.com/fleeting.html.
I recently posted a few photos of work I did as a kid up through high school. Funny, it never occurred to me that someone would be interested in adding one to their art collection…I guess because even though they are art, somehow I only considered work done during my “professional” years to be of interest. That is until someone expressed interest. I was also surprised by the enthusiasm people had over these once I posted them to my Facebook “Fan Page.” Even though they were all pieces I did on my own time, they were still part of my “sketchbook” assignments (even though they were not just simple sketches) which I had to turn in weekly to show that I was working on my art. This was standard for those in the Talented Art Program. Every week I would show what I worked on, usually adding more to the same drawing, and wait for approval. In some ways, it’s not all that different from how things are today. So I think this serves as a great reminder that we shouldn’t be so critical of our own work- on the whole, if it’s good, it’s good, no matter how old it is, no matter the imperfections that we think we see, no matter how many times we had to start over. No one else sees that, they just see a great work of art.
Kathy Rodriguez wrote a great review of the “Artists Who Wish They Were Dead II” exhibit for the NOLA Defender. The show is up now through September 3rd at Barrister’s Gallery (where you can see my work) and UNO St. Claude Gallery- both on St. Claude in New Orleans. You can read the article at this direct link: http://www.noladefender.com/content/art-mortality.
My work is currently on exhibit in “Artists Who Wish They Were Dead II” at Barrister’s Gallery in New Orleans. The show was guest-curated by artist Dan Tague and is up now through September 3rd. I attended the opening reception the other night at Barrister’s which was held in conjunction with UNO St. Claude Gallery. If you would like to view my work in person, it is at Barrister’s Gallery now through September 3rd. More photos will be added soon at http://www.amyguidry.com/events.html.
I just posted some work from my childhood and teen years on my Facebook Fan Page. I thought it would be fun to share on here as well. I have been digging up older work for future projects- videos, mainly- and came across some fun pieces. Of course I then remembered some pieces that I haven’t seen and don’t actually know what became of them. As a kid, I gave away drawings, plus I think teachers ended up with some. So I have some more digging to do apparently. Here are a few of my finds (click on the photo to see the entire image):
And if you’d like to see what I’ve been up to lately, visit my website at www.AmyGuidry.com.
If you follow my Facebook page, you may know some of this news already, but I haven’t posted about it here yet. One of my paintings was used for the filming of a book-turned-movie titled “When Angels Sing.” The painting that will be featured is “Wisdom” from my “New Realm” series, which you can view here: www.AmyGuidry.com/Wisdom.html. I’m extremely honored to have my work included in this film.
“When Angels Sing” is based on the book by Turk Pipkin and is directed by Tim McCanlies. The film will star Connie Britton, Harry Connick Jr., Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Turk Pipkin, Frankie Jonas, Chandler Canterbury, and Fionnula Flanagan. Musician appearances include Sara Hickman and the Jonas Brothers. Filming has already wrapped up and the movie is scheduled to be out this holiday season 2011.
Goals- simple title, and seems like such a simple concept, but there’s so much more there that most people don’t realize. We take them for granted, even I do sometimes despite myself. I was at a reception the other day for a fellow artist and started talking about how I made my goals and strategized in order to become a full-time artist. One person in the conversation said that I should look into giving courses on goal attainment because it’s a “big” business. That latter part may be true, but I will stick with my art. However, I thought it would be a great post to help out those in the arts, whether they are new or old to it. So here goes:
– First, make a list of the goals you’d like to achieve. Brainstorm and write down any and all goals. This can apply to all areas of your life, but let’s stick with your art career. Write whatever you want to achieve, desire, dream, etc.
– Cull from that list the things that are more attainable given your career at this given time. This will be your list of goals for the year. I like to have two lists, so that one is more “now” and the other is for “later.” Reason being, it may not be feasible to get your work in the Louvre within a year.
– Put your goal list somewhere visible- maybe on your studio wall? You might even want to make copies of it and put them elsewhere- on the fridge, in your car, your wallet, etc. Sounds silly, but it will keep these ideas in your mind and help you stay on target.
– Now come up with your strategy. On a different piece of paper or your computer, etc., come up with a strategy(ies) to attaining your goals. What are the steps you need to take in order to accomplish goal 1, goal 2, etc.? Be specific.
– Be flexible. You may come upon the end of the year and find that not all of your goals were reached or maybe they weren’t what you expected. Maybe you took all the steps needed and the goal didn’t pan out. It happens. So what can you do about it? Look at what has worked for you and what hasn’t. Get rid of the goals that aren’t the best use of your time and energy and focus on what does work. Make changes or alter your strategies in order to meet goals the second time around. And continue to meet goals that do work well for you. For example, if showing in a particular city has resulted in good sales, you should plan to show there again next year, or maybe more often.
– Prioritize your goals. You may need to accomplish one goal before you can realistically meet another. Or you may find an urgency in accomplishing a particular goal before others.
– Revisit your goals often. Aside from marking off goals as you reach them, you should be reviewing your goals list every few months to stay on track. Bigger decisions such as what worked or didn’t work for your career should be left to the end of the year for a better analysis.
– After analyzing your goals at the end of the year, make your new list for the new year with your accomplishments in mind. Continue to do the things that work. Include goals that were not reached and devise a new strategy to meet them. Remove goals that turned out to not be such a good idea. And, of course, add new goals that you should tackle.
Seems like such a simple concept and many of you may find this silly or unnecessary, but holding yourself accountable is the only way to accomplish something. You’d be amazed how 15 years can go by without making any real progression in your career, if you do the same thing day in and day out.
I was inspired to post a poll question on Facebook after a few recent requests for prints. As of now, I do not have prints available and have always been iffy on the subject. The inquiries and sales of my work have all been original paintings, which is my own personal preference since I have an art collection myself. However, I have to ask:
What do you prefer to own? A large print (let’s say 11″ x 14″) or a small painting (we’ll use my paintings as an example, the smallest being 5″ x 5″)? Or would you rather save for a large painting you’ve had your eye on? I’d love to get as much feedback as possible to get a more accurate account.