Proof that Brevity is Essential Online

And so is a powerful opening... but I digress...  Here is how an article about online concentration and focus opens. I think it is a MUST READ for everyone seriously invested in on online presence. It is from Slate.com.

I’m going to keep this brief, because you’re not going to stick around for long. I’ve already lost a bunch of you. For every 161 people who landed on this page, about 61 of you—38 percent—are already gone. You “bounced” in Web traffic jargon, meaning you spent no time “engaging” with this page at all.  

So now there are 100 of you left. Nice round number. But not for long! We’re at the point in the page where you have to scroll to see more. Of the 100 of you who didn’t bounce, five are never going to scroll. Bye! OK, fine, good riddance. 

So we’re 95 now...

Here is a link to the entire article.

More about Artist Statements

There is nothing like reading a good article by someone who thinks as you do so, from the Guardian, here is the opening of an article about artist statements:

"Combining radical notions of performativity and the body as liminal space, my practice interrogates the theoretical limitations of altermodernism. My work, which traverses disparate realms of object-making such as painting and performance, investigates the space between metabolism and metaphysics and the aporia inherent to such a discourse." Are you impressed yet? …

Here is a link to the article.

How To Lose Business

I am changing the names to protect the guilty—this particular guilty artist is a very talented, polite and charming person. He wrote to me this week asking me to promote a web hosting service for artists. His proposal impressed me. I liked how his service proposed to present artwork; in his proposal art is presented on a wall like in a gallery and you can zoom in to see every detail. I was moved to write this blog post for my blog:

“Teaching professional development to artists isn’t easy. Artists exist to be creative and innovative, so rules are a foreign concept. Consequently, I provide guidelines and examples of best practices as my methodology.

When it comes to websites, my teaching unit begins with suggestions and proceeds to criticisms of many artists’ websites by design professionals. Finally, I show my class some particularly bad sites. One post on this blog—a rant about a web practice that really irritated me—has more hits than any other post I’ve written.

Over the years, I’ve had lots of website hosting services and designers approach me for some publicity, but I have always declined because it is too hard for me to separate the sincere and legitimate professionals from the scammers.”

In spite of my aversion to endorsements, I was prepared to endorse his services—that’s how impressed I was with the design of his online gallery. But before I published my post, I decided to find out more about him, so I went to his own personal website.

He’d given me the link in his email. His artwork quite impressed me so I clicked on “About” to learn more about him and was so appalled by the amount and degree of errors that I have not blogged about his services. First of all, it seemed very clearly to be written by him, yet it was written in the third person and I find that odd and off-putting.

Although it is not an error, his website broke one of my cardinal rules: writing in the third person is affected and insincere; it implies that there is another party speaking, yet there is never a credit to the speaker. I feel strongly that using the first person—saying “I”—builds a bond with the reader and is the only thing to do when you are writing on your own site. Using the first person is more welcoming than self-referencing in the third person. The Queen speaks in the third person and it is weird when she does. If I saw you on the street and we were friends and I waved and said, “Chris says hello,” wouldn’t you want to keep walking?

There were also errors in grammar, incomplete sentences, references (acronyms) that were unknown to me and probably many other readers and repetition. It was a disaster.

His errors erased my confidence; “spelling counts,” as my teachers used to say. And grammar counts as well. How you write and speak is a reflection of who you are as both an artist and a person. I would buy art from this person in a heartbeat, but would I hire him to host my site? No; I lost my trust in him so I couldn’t endorse his services on my blog.

My teachers were right to make spelling and grammar count. When I think of all the artistic projects that I have undertaken in my life, I could say that writing was their greatest facilitator. It was the grease that allowed all the gears to work. Good persuasive writing skills provided me with grants, permits, sponsors, media exposure, introductions, customers and audiences.

I don’t own a suit, I haven’t worn a tie since the 1970s, my typical shirt is a t-shirt and I can’t abide wearing leather shoes. I am an informal guy and I don’t seek to find fault. But when fault is as extensive as it was on his website, it is a deal-breaker. Although I want to be casual and informal in life, I want to present myself to my best possible advantage professionally and I expect that of other professionals. That means making no errors.

As a creative person, I add style to the essential base of good grammar and spelling in order to stand out. You can do wonders for yourself with effective communications, but you have to be as good with words and ideas as you are with pigment and brushes.

To balance the criticism above, I very much liked the website of Anthony Schrag that I recently visited. (www.anthonyschrag.com ) I love the nice, simple but colourful opening page that says: “It’s great to see you (again).” What a great beginning.

The first paragraph of his “About” page reads as follows: “Anthony Schrag was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in the Middle East, the UK and Canada. Originally, he obtained a degree in Creative Writing in Vancouver, as well as Photography and Sculpture at Emily Carr, and completed the MFA course at the Glasgow School of Art in 2005. He is (mostly) based in Scotland, and does not like to write in the third person.”

I liked that last line—he gets it both ways! His site is simple, compelling, warm and slightly humorous. And I didn’t notice any errors.

The Ying and Yang of the Artist’s Ego

I just finished marking thirty papersby my students, most of who are mature people (I teach in the ContinuingStudies program). Their assignment was to write a short explanation of thefunction “display” plays in their residence—they were to explain why thethings displayed on the walls and shelves were there, focusing on the reasonthey were displayed, not the items themselves.

When the marking was over, itstruck me that no one had referenced the needs of anyone but themselves inaddressing the assignment. So I took a piece of paper and I wrote “me” at thetop of one column, and “viewer” on the top of the other and started to re-readthe thirty artist statement submitted earlier in the term by the same students.Under the “me” column, I put a check every time I read words such as “me,” “I,”or “my,” and under “viewer” column I put a check every time the writer/artistreverenced those of us for whom, presumably, the work was created—theirpatrons, customers and viewers. Final score: 87:2.

There were 87 self-referencesand the statistic is a dramatic illustration of one of my greatest challengesof teaching CEPD 190: Getting the consciousness and understanding of artistsout of “self” and into the minds, hearts and souls of the people who they wantto buy/see their work.

I ran an art gallery forseveral years and organized several exhibitions independently during my career.Consequently, I spent a lot of time reading cover letters, artist statements,biographies and resumes from artists seeking my cooperation. As with the recentassignments, all the text screamed: “me,” “me,” “me.” Rarely did an applicantaddress my needs or demonstrate an awareness of my needs or objectives.

The “ying” of our profession asvisual artists, is that our ego plays a fundamental role in the creationprocess; the “yang” requires that we “be” the customer and egoless to beeffective when marketing. We must be able to turn our ego off and on. Troubleoften happens, however, when we have to approach the gatekeepers of ourprofession—curators, gallery owners, and grant or residency officers. On theseoccasions we understandably become focused on ourselves because we are excited,nervous, hopeful and aware of the competitive nature of the process in which weare engaged.

But the artist who earns theinterest and respect of people in authority, is the artist who brings the otherparty into the conversation. I often cringe when I hear artists explain atlength about themselves and their art when they are asked, “What is thatabout?” It is the artist who wisely turns the question back on the questionerwho earns my admiration, asking the questioner: “What do you think it isabout?” then, you aim to sincerely find a way to praise whatever is said.

Perhaps youare more on the other end of the ego spectrum—one aspect of personality that isprevalent in the visual arts world is the absence of a healthy ego. When itcomes to being appropriately and compellingly persuasive with gatekeepers andcustomers, you will sell yourself short if you demure when self-assertion isnecessary. You must be able to be your own champion at the right time and inthe right language.

Old Technologies

The object of professional communications for artists is to deepen or strengthen my relationships and a prime concern is to stand out. But whereas not so long ago it was the new technologies that were helping us to achieve these objectives, now I find it easier to stand out and warm hearts with telephone calls and hand-written and drawn notes.

Since reverting to these old forms of corresponding—particularly to important clients/customers/friends—I have been deluged with comments of appreciation and it pleases me enormously to know that my extra efforts are appreciated.

Today, the unsolicited correspondence that fills up your email inboxes are “junk” to some, valued reading to others; and they no longer only come from corporations. Now everyone is creating promotional communications, advertising their lives and activities via Flickr streams, blogs, newsletters and via social media. Consequently, it is hard to stand out, and hence my reversion to old communications practices to achieve that end.

An Artist's Take on Artist Statements

Brienne, a student in one of my classes at Emily Carr University sent me a link to this post written by artist Joanne Matera. It is a fabulous short essay; it is practical and worthy of a read.

E-newsletter Frequency

Clint Watson, an American former gallery owner has a unique take on a way to evaluate your e-newsletter.

You can send your newsletter as often as you like...as long as you don't have more than 2 people unsubscribe for every 1,000 emails you send (.2%) [3]. If you lose more than 2 people out of every 1,000 emails, then you're either sending too often, or you've strayed too far off topic (such as discussing politics in a newsletter where people were expecting art). I sure wish I could remember where I first read the 2% number cited, but I can't, so I did some quick research, and came across these statistics from a 2010 Direct Marketing Association research paper that reports - those who email to their own "house" list have an average unsubscribe rate of .77%. So let's say, based on that research, we'll set an upper bound of 7/1,000 unusbscribers [6].

What I'm recommending is this: for every 1,000 emails you send, you pick a number you can accept to lose...it can be as low as 2 or as high as 7 - but it can't be zero (zero is unrealistic once your list grows past a certain size). Incidently,FineArtViews shoots for .2% (our current unsubscribe rate is .04% (4 out of 10,000)).

How to Measure Your Unsubscribe Rate

First of all, you have to know who unsubscribed. [4] Yes, that means you cannot and should not send your newsletters with your regular email program using the BCC field for all your subscribers. Seriously. Don't. Do. That. What you need to use is a tool made for sending email newsletters like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or Aweber. If you're aFASO customer, we provide an email newsletter manager automatically integrated with your website (and Facebook!) that tracks all this stuff.

The whole article is here.

(Click on the image to see it larger.)

A friend in the media sent me this email publicity she received. She works in television and said in her email to me, "Passing this interview along to you. I find this format really doesn’t do much for me. Poor sound quality bad lighting, not flattering angles. All fodder for you." Besides the written opinion of the video as a promotional tool, the images (captioned at the bottom) did not come through and there are formatting problems that make the announcement feel weak. The errors and problems work against the objective of the communication (the gap in Carolyn's name; the gap in one listing of the gallery name).

This is a smart professional gallery. What was received is surely not what was sent. I post this not to embarrass the gallery or its staff, rather to remind you of the variety of the capabilities of the receiver's systems and software. PDF files always seem to work for me.

Prove You Art an Artist.

Besides crappy art, what is the first thing you think of when you think of things hanging on the walls of a doctor’s office? Did you think of the graduation certificates of universities and hospitals? What do you think they are there for?

They are there to instill confidence. That is what consumers of products and services want most. And like those medical certificates that hang in nearly all medical and dental offices, artists would benefit from advertising their professional strengths to potential customers as well. But how can you do that?

I was startled to see how little “proof of professionalism” there was in the artist studios I visited during Vancouver’s fabulous East Side Culture Crawl. I suppose if I had spent more time with the artists, some professional documentation might have been shared with me, but I believe in being proactive.

A wall display, a beautifully done book or portfolio or a video are some of the ways that you can make your professional achievements visible to visitors to your studio. One wonderful example of this was a studio wall full of photos of people standing in their homes with the artist’s work hanging beside them. It was a confidence-inducing display.

There are so many ways you can communicate your professionalism. It is something you should consider because the art buying public is not stupid. Art buyers, in general, have a higher level of education than the population at large. They know that anyone can call themself an artist and they want to have confidence in the artist they support, so be sure to have a way to deliver it in a thoughtful, tidy and impressive way.

More than many commodities, consumers often do not feel adequate to know what is “good” or “bad” art. They value the opinion of others and that opinion can be provided by the information you select to prove your professionalism (sales, commissions, exhibitions, collections, training, degrees, etc). Make it simple, beautiful and clear.

More About Writing

Visual artists often think and communicate better in pictures than in words. They are often more comfortable in the tactile and sensate world, as opposed to the heady world of words. As well, artists may have self-doubt or lack in confidence preventing them from developing vital text. Artists may also mistrust language as a result of past experience. Blessed with strength in visual communication, they may have had difficulties throughout their schooling where words have ultimate value and pictures have little-to-no academic worth. And language is the medium of criticism—the harshest blows an artist may experience may be the words of a parent, teacher or visual art critic. All this “baggage” may make it hard for the artist to create effective marketing and self-promotion materials (including the artist’s statement) that drive readers to the action the artist seeks.

Writing about your own work often requires that you analyze every impulse, every decision and motivation. It is work you may not want to do. Any lack of certainty, doubt or sense that “I don’t matter” or “why I do what I do doesn’t matter” will be an obstacle to effective copywriting. Or there may be a sense that “explaining” art is not necessary or is anti-art. Artists often say they have “nothing to say” about their art when they are required to write something about it. At the other end of the scale are artists who are impossible to stop when talking about their art—both extremes of character can result in the production of weak marketing/promotional text if done without professional assistance or careful craftsmanship. All these blocks to the development of effective and persuasive text about you, your art and your art-making process have to be overcome if you are to develop a successful enterprise around your artistic practice.

Finding the Right Words

It is rarely advisable to create your sales and marketing materials on your own. You cannot be objective and you may have a pattern of explaining your work and yourself that is dated and overly subjective. What you need is strongly persuasive text or enticing personal text. Choose your style and work on it with professionals if need be.

• Artspeak: Artspeak is complex, heavily multi-syllabic text. It is prevalent in some artist statements, curatorial essays and art criticism. It can alienate some readers as it is can be very hard for them to understand. The language of analysis has its own specialized vocabulary, but the most sophisticated of ideas are also presentable in lay language. When people read your words in your statements, catalogues, website, media communication etc., they want contextualization—access to insight, not a serious intellectual challenge. Avoid the jargon of the visual arts if you can.
  
  
• Adjectives: Adjectives are descriptive words that frequently involve judgment; they go with subjectivity, rather than objectivity. They can be the most “dangerous” words and they come up often. It is hard for a reader to believe adjectives; consider every one you use carefully.
  
  
• Using Third Parties
• Slide Nights are an excellent source of “raw material” for text for your marketing and promotional materials. (See Chapter Eight.)
• Beware of text written for you by galleries or dealers—always insist on approval of any text used to describe your work. Everything written about your work should be from you directly or in partnership with your gallery or a professional writer who recognizes the power and value of your voice (not theirs).
• Former teachers, peer artists, art critics and/or curators are often great sources of text. They may provide you with written text free or charge or for a fee.

Some Hints

• Have a notebook in your studio or with you when you work. Jot down ideas and insights that occur as you work. Try to explain what your work “is about” in a short paragraph or two, and build it up over time. Ask yourself questions if you have trouble writing about yourself and your art. Is your work about your ideas, your life events, a philosophic value or belief? Is it part of a narrative expressed in a body of work? Do you know where you will end up when you start a piece, or does it shape its destiny with you as you work? How do you know when to stop, or when it is done? Use your notebook to annotate your behavioral and mental creative process. Discover and record why you make art—your reasons may change over time or day to day. The clearer you are about your drive to create, the better for you and your marketing materials. Where do you work? Why do you work? Who are your influences? What emotions drive you to create? How do you feel when a work sells? What are your other passions? As is often said, people invest in artists, not art, so personal details, although they may not seem important to you, may be interesting to your potential buyers.

• Don’t preach or write too much. Avoid superlatives and ensure every word is important. Read and re-read your work eliminating all ambiguities and extraneous text.
• One of the best ways any writer can test her/his work is to read it aloud. Reading text that you think is “finished” to someone is a very effective way to do some self-editing—even reading it aloud to yourself is worthwhile. Never print, publish or email anything important that has not been adequately proofread.