What The Future Holds

 I really don’t have a clue what the future holds, but we can also make plans.

My art work keep making progress.  My first (test?) printing (3 different ones) of 5x7 postcards of my barn drawings arrived and they look pretty good.  So good that I’ve ordered another printing of 2 other barns to make a complete set of 5 with different barns on each one.  When these come in I’ll linkup my online store for ordering sets.  The orders will be for sets only as it’s not worth it for orders of a single card.

I’m working with the local Madison County Visitors center and they have bought some for the visitors center.  The barns are from Madison County so that makes sense.  The cost is minimal, but I’m working on that.

I made the postcards large (still work with postcard stamps) 5x7 so that they could be frames if so desired (as shown here).  So the postcard is and is not just a postcard.

 

I’ve asked around (art stores, folk style) for what they would charge and the response is about 3-3.50 / card (this far).  I send a number of them to friends and family as they are postcards after all and got an interesting response.

A friend of mine back in Utah whom is a working artist for many decades has been following my progress and received one of my postcards.  What he brought up gave me a lot to think about.

He thought that if I wanted to, that I could start approach galleries to see if they would be interesting is working with me to sell my art.  First, this blew me away that a working artist (he’s in 2 galleries is different western states) would think that my art work work in a gallery setting (folk art style).  We spoke at length (a brain dump on his side) about the Artist / Gallery relationship.  To summaries some of what was talked about is this :

You need a portfolio of work that held together with a theme and style.  Check.

You need a style that is somewhat unique.  Check.

Galleries are looking for a relationship that can provide, a stream of new work (hey it’s all new), update information (web, blog, etc.) and a commitment (no other local galleries).

Don’t hang your work in local restaurants, bars, etc. to act as their decor, as their customer are not there to buy art.  

This last statement has been echoed from other information (pod cast, books) about selling your work.  Don’t sell yourself short and focus.   

I’m kind of at a threshold right now.  I’m not too interesting in selling my work (I like to keep it around), but before too long I’ll have more than I can look at.  I have some time before I can (if I want to) to decide to really start selling.  I’m on a list of artists for a benefit show this coming fall, so I may just keep plugging away and start selling postcards sets from my website.  Who knows if I’ll ever start really selling my artwork (I’ve given a couple of pieces away already), but it’s nice to think that there are people out there that believe in my work!

It’s an interesting door the future has presented to me.