I’ve been selling my glass art, myself, for 15 years. My friend thought I was crazy to give away a large percentage of my art’s selling price to an art gallery. She doesn’t understand why I am willing to do that.
Back in Georgia, for 10 years, I loved doing indoor bead shows each month. Mostly we went to Florida, where my colorful ocean & floral glass art sold quickly. And I relished absorbing new inspiration from the tropical vibes along the coast!
Then we moved to central Texas where people were not as knowledgeable about glass as on the west & east coast of the US.
So I turned to the Internet as my avenue to sell my art glass. It was OK at first. A lot of you I met through Etsy, Facebook and my blogging. But Etsy changed, going away from supporting the artisan to a over clogging of mass production. And Facebook became a constant struggle for me to keep up with the company’s ‘money gluttony’ changes.
But all the while, I studied my art glass, becoming masterful with glass lampworking techniques. My desires of creating fine art pushed me beyond beads to new horizons. I wanted to express my visions in glass instead of selling my glass components, so I started exploring new directions with jewelry making & glass sculptures.
I want each of my glass pieces to be an expression of my soul, just like my paintings! And I want to fill you with joy each time you wear or look at my art!
And here I am again… at another turning point! I need more time to make glass art, fine jewelry and explore new horizons with my painting.
And where am I spending my time…????
Why am I willing to give away a big chunk of money to an art gallery to market & sell my art?
1. I literally don’t have any time to torch, let alone transforming my glass beads into fine art jewelry. Now that’s what sounds crazy… an artist who has NO time to create art!
2. Selling on the Internet has gotten overwhelming because it’s growing so fast & changing too quickly! I’m spending most of my time trying to keep up with the learning of how to market & sell on the Internet.
3. I’ve allowed my focus to be on the struggle of learning & trying to do social media. I swear there’s new stuff I must do to be successful, thrown at me daily, from the bombardment of my emails! And all the while, I’m not following my heart & doing art.
4. Statistics are saying artists should spend over 50% of our time promoting & marketing ourselves! That’s depressing! Am I being brainwashed?
So, I’m going to take a breather. I’m going to listen to my heart & follow it!
Organizing myself, trying to decide what to do about an art gallery. Lots of prep work before deciding.
my new work for a gallery
Getting my jewelry ready for a gallery
Round Top is 45 miles from me & its galleries are located where the enormous antique shows are held twice a year! You definitely must go to see it. Miles and miles of antiques!
Round Top is a charming town where visitors come for all over to visit quaint shopping, hear internationally renowned music at “Festival Hill” & enjoy enchanting scenery.
I’m also considering the coast for an art gallery for my Ocean creatures. We have Galveston, Port Aransas/Corpus Christis and Rockport that are 1 1/2 hours from me.
Rockport is the town that Hurricane Harvey demolished! But, as you can see, it is rebirthing!
New glass lampwork jewelry using silversmith techniques & wire weaving. Needs to be showcased in an art gallery.
I’m going to spend more time where I love to be…dreaming & creating art.
These necklaces came from the flowers I teach in my Lampwork Tutorials 103 & 104. The top one was selected in the ‘International Society of Glass Beadmakers’ competition and traveled the US for a year. I plan to enter the second one for competition.
Awarding winning necklace and Lampwork Tutorial 103 & 104 flowers that I used in both necklaces
Understanding why an art gallery is so important to artists is vital for art collectors.
The way I see it is…an art gallery & I are in a partnership! The right gallery allows me to focus on what I do best…create beautiful art that nourishes your soul. It’s a full time job that I love doing!
A really great art gallery spends their time promoting artists that they believe are exceptional. They find the perfect collector for the artist’s work. Helping collectors find the art work that speaks to their soul is the gallery’s mission. It’s a full time job that they love doing.
I read a great article about the future of galleries and artists representing themselves. ‘The gallery is dead/long live the gallery’ It’s a must read to understand what’s going on in the art world & how it can hurt you, the collector!
The article talks about how art galleries are struggling to stay open because of not embracing the new technologies & Internet. They also have to compete with artists using & sometimes abusing relationships with galleries because of the new technologies.
It seems, though, most artists really don’t want to market themselves and very few of them are naturally incline in that direction.
So, what will I do?
I’ll still be sharing with you my artistic journey and new glass art work will be for sell on my website’s Shop. Spreading out into art galleries allows you to touch & feel. This will, also, free up my time to create even more beautiful artwork for you!
I’ve done lampwork torching demos at an gallery during the Antique show as well as Rockport. Let me know if you want to be notified when I do others!
All my best!
Patsy :)
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