Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Descriptions of Art - my feelings about them given by the artists

Commented in a discussion with Brian Sherwin about  Art Marketing and Words:

Yes Brian - there are many people who take the time to read the little descriptive writings by different paintings - but there are many more details never told on these writings that are told by both the tour guides as well as the descriptive tapes that museum goers are given to learn about the art that they are viewing - 

however - I don't believe that any of this information is as informative as it might be if - as you suggest - each artist were to write about the works in these museums as they might on their websites - 

for me - I would find this pretty much impossible (I think) since I first would not know what would interest anyone else about my work (what questions would they have) and then the thoughts - feelings and ideas are so wide spread for each and every one of the images in my collection that I would literally have to write volumes upon volumes for each series or even many of the individual images in order to give a complete account of everything that has gone into each one - 

this type of exhaustive explanation or description would be fine for the viewers to have - more and more information is of course what we are saying that individuals seek more and more of as time goes on and knowledge helps them learn about both the artists as well as their works - but at the same time - for myself at least - this would be both such an exhaustive process as well as extremely time consuming such that is would greatly impair the path that I am on to creating more and more of my images and uploading them to my online galleries - 

unless or until there is some change in the climate and pace of my creating as well as the re uploading of the 100,000 of my images that were lost from my galleries on the site that my collection is housed on - the lack of words and descriptions will both have to inspire and encourage some introspection on the part of the viewers where they may perhaps be forced to come up with their own conclusions as to what is going on in the individual pieces as well as the entire series that I have been creating as well as perhaps encourage one or a number of individuals who may perhaps value what I am creating and want to see this material to be found out and shared - to step forward and take charge with at least a minimal effort if not as exhaustive a project as I foresee is possible in order to begin the process of descriptive writing about the images in my collection as you might imagine will be beneficial to the viewing public - 

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Apple

Apple colored my world -

so that I could color yours -

think about what life was like before Apple computer -

Artists were limited to the materials - colors - shapes styles and dimensions of the world of existing mediums -

today there is the entire world of creating -

with pure energy -

and that leaves me with a whole bunch of universes to draw from and

to create for -

:-)

4-24-2014DABCDEFGHIJKLMNO by Walter Paul Bebirian

Monday, April 14, 2014

my response to the question posed - what do you think a creative person's mind is like?

spongy





many Universes all present at the same time - same place and same person all at once -






this has to be an evolutionary process - I don't believe that we can expect to jump right to a subscription process - although I could be wrong - people have to begin to even appreciate - get used to - accept the idea of actually having real art in their homes as they did with actually believing that they could watch movies in their own homes - first with television (where advertising sponsors were paying for this privilege that they had ) then owning the video tapes and then cd - which they still can do and along with the ownership the subscriptions for viewing it has almost been parallel systems that we have watched evolve - together with the improvements of the systems and quality - higher quality and viewership for everyone -spongy






Friday, April 11, 2014

some thoughts on art marketing and marketing in general

as far as marketing is concerned both in the art world as well as in all other businesses - it seems as if no one really knows or understands what is going to work tomorrow or even what (if anything) is working today -


when things are first introduced - (I mean by that - one person trying something absolutely new- never done before) there is sometimes great results that can be gotten - but most often - when other people have heard about one program or another that has been successful they are often led to believe that this same program or approach or strategy will most likely work for them as well - and so they amongst a whole group of like minded folks jump on the bandwagon and try the same thing that worked for one person in the beginning of its inception -


and then - well - that one thing that did work - does not work anymore - and then - well people begin trying even harder - with more effort in the same direction - not realizing that - well - this is just not going to work -


and then someone comes up with a totally new way of presenting the products or services and then that works - but only for a while until a whole lot of people begin doing the same things and well someone else has to move away from the entire group and try something different -


and this has been going on for years with marketing in the brick and mortar world -


and the same thing happens on the internet -


but now the original idea may actually create an even greater results - but then there are so many more people who may find out about that new idea so much quicker or in a shorter period of time and then ------ well it stops working even faster than before -


so another point is that it is a curious point that all of these artists (or it at least seems this way) have no interest in being creative with this very important field of endeavor that might (if they did apply themselves and perhaps came up with the next big idea - that worked because it was ever so slightly different but different non the less - or the next big idea that worked because it was actually very different than anything every done before - be a really significant thing to utilize for marketing their art - and perhaps ---- well for some other very big companies that may just pay a great deal of money for this idea - (whether it is big or small) -


here is something to consider -


an article for advertising agencies on how to obtain referral business -


the interesting point stressed here is that content marketing (and I have heard this in many arenas) is key to gaining inbound marketing (which is the main type of marketing that is preferred today since outbound marketing in today's environment is worthless even counter productive in many instances -


and with this concept I begin to wonder -


who best to create or have content marketing than the artists that we are -


so here we are spending our lives or most of our lives creating content and - then we turn around and can't utilize this content for this inbound marketing that advertising agencies are begging for?


something is amiss here -


but then the other point made in this article is about a thing called social proof -


meaning a large number of outside people considering a person or company expert at something which means not just one person recommending another since that recommendation is often questionable until the social proof of everyone or many people reinforcing what the recommendation says about a person or company -


so how can this be related to the art marketing that you are doing?




at this point in time this is the type of thinking that might do us the most good to focus on - yet how to gain such social proof - as it is referred to - is that a big challenge -


I believe that is what the Facebook fan pages are for - no?


perhaps twitter as well - but I am not sure of that -


what do you think?


does anyone who is in this discussion have a Facebook fan page for their art with a substantial number of likes? doesn't that constitute --- what was that? social proof - that at least - if no one or only a few people have purchased your art - that at least some people have seen and liked what you have to offer?


so what happens next?


after that - then you want some reinforcement from individuals who have seen or purchased you work - this you might gain just by being here on LinkedIn -


and well then all of these different sites and pieces of the puzzle begin (I believe) to start to fit together and make sense as to why some people are doing their best to utilize these tools and create a large number of fans or written recommendations - it all plays some psychological reinforcement strategy in the potential purchasers mind -


like gee -


a lot of people like his or her work - then there are the few or many written recommendations - they may be just personal friends but put together with the social proof of the entire number of Facebook fan page likes and I like the work and what I see as well -


so that just may be enough for me to at least go ahead and make a purchase and well there is the 30 day money back guarantee that allows me to have the art in my own personal environment and if it is just not right image wise or just not the right size or perhaps I may discover that I might want a canvas as opposed to a paper print framed or unframed
and so the customer or client gets to work these details out gradually for themselves -
but then what specifically can you as an individual go ahead and do to make your particular offer even more special?


any thoughts on that in this group of people?


well of course - the one thing that you have that is unique to you - and this will always be the case just about unless you begin too much to copy the style of someone else -


is your work -


so develop that style -


create enough of a body of work to be able to show consistency and development over time


and there you have the content necessary for that inbound marketing -


build on the other necessary elements with the tools offered to us with social media systems - over time


and then everything will magically fall into place -


it just has to -


without any real effort at all -


but you have to focus on creating your art first!!!


so from that perspective - every single one of us has a big big big advantage over any advertising agency or other type of business that exists in the world


because


we just naturally are set up to be


creating content! :-)


the key with social media is not think selling at this point in time but to draw people win with your content (your art and perhaps other things that you have to say or show people about it) that will "draw" people in as opposed to messages that you want to send out -


one person sees your work (and that is ALL that you want them to do at this point) likes the page and their friends are able to see that they likes your page and then they have a chance to view it with a click on the link that is on your page and perhaps they like your work and like your page as well - this part of the equation has nothing whatsoever to do with having Facebook and your page sell anything it is a viral referral system -


leave it alone at that and it will grow at its own pace - place some content there and perhaps some interesting points along the way and there will be some growth over time -


but whoever comes to your page in the future sees very well that there are a sufficient number of people who are saying they like your art - (by the number of likes) and then that may both influence them to like your Facebook fan page (increasing your - what was that? - "social proof" and then look or delve into your content on your online galleries to a greater degree -


now Coke does not have to go through this -


first we know that Coke (Coca Cola) has been around - what - 100 years and so they have billions of followers and or at least millions - a lot more than you or me - but basically what it wants a Facebook fan page for is to perhaps introduce some of its newer products - to answer any social issues and to engage with the customers that it has -


you and I on the other hand are in the developing stage so it is a totally different approach that we need to take -


as far as the article being great or not - it somehow came up in google (it had a high ranking) such that I chose to read it and use it for my example of ----- what was that that I was looking for?


not content marketing but referral marketing - how the information and how you place it in the different mediums - and how it is perceived - leads to people's perceptions such that they are guided to not nay learn about things from their friends and the influence of others but also how once they are influenced they are then driven to share their own experience with others -


first Coca Colas latest experience that they want people to experience and to share (what they are using in today's social media environment:




and an image (content) that they were utilizing in the past:




( I would consider this last one a targeted market indeed)


as is this:




and perhaps millions of other images that they have used over the years -


this one being their most aggressive season:




but as I said - we are not Coca Cola -
so how to we develop -


in what manner - and style -


and how can we touch the hearts minds - bodies and souls of our various markets in a way that outshines what Coca Cola has done and even great effect or can we utilize their customers attachment to the Coca Cola product (if we are so inclined to do so) so that our content becomes desirable for even Coca Cola to want to utilize to touch people - ?


I was thinking about the same thing - about Coca Cola being out of the league of any of the artists perhaps except Damien Hirst if he so chose to tackle them - but as far as budget and that end of things - Coca Cola has to pay for the art that it uses while we (at least from what I understand) own everything to start with as far as the content that we would put in a campaign or use on social media-


instead there is also a possibility of partnering or joint venture with different companies -


I remember years ago an appropriate image placed in an ad and posters of the image were offered for sale in addition to the product being for sale - just a thought - how can that be done today - ?


if not - this is perfectly alright -


there are no mistakes or failures - get rid of those terms in your vocabulary and think that whatever idea you come up with will definitely be appropriate and workable in some situation in your present or future -


rehash - tweak - adjust and keep on thinking -


and perhaps instead of attempting to blow holes in what I or anyone else says on one of these discussion - see how - if it might not quite work at this point in time - it can be changed so that it will work -


there is always a way to make things work and work really really really big!!!!


I would say that marketing for anyone not only artists today involves a great deal of thinking - research - knowledge of what has worked historically in the brick and mortar world - what has been used by different companies in the past during the upwards endeavor of development - *which I believe Coke is still in the stage of doing especially in light of the new developments which means discovery that consumption of soda which is their main product throughout their history seems to be on the decline in the US -


and experimentation such that we as individual marketers of our work actually do our best to attempt to try as many different ideas as possible and that none of these ideas are in any way considered failures but must - if not exactly successful at this very moment - ideas whose time will be right at a certain point down the line -


the links that I gave are to different historical images used by Coke - as well as a link to their current marketing strategy - a very important perspective indeed no matter where you are in your development - since whether this will be successful or not is very critical to Coke and there strategy and there are things there to learn as to what they are trying to evoke in their fan base as well as in their new or future customers - nothing to disregard at all -


and no I am not referring to commercial art versus fine art but I would like to say that these two field of endeavors very often blend together or in a sense step into each other's arenas - which is one of my thoughts when giving the links to the Coke ads above -


I am not interested in creating another thread - but I would like to point out again that there is no one who really knows what will and will not work in today's world no matter how they might present themselves as an expert in whatever field they are in - everything is up for grabs and --as Steve Jobs is known to have said to Steve Wozniak - how is anyone going to know what they want until we show them -


so the main objective is to capture any person's attention and get them to see what you have (in this case referring to your art) such that they discover what you have to show them and then if this showing happens to be in the right context (atmosphere where the art and how the art is being presented) that they then feel that it is something that they would definitely want to have in their own personal environment - (sometimes not an easy transition to make especially for a general public who is not yet used to the idea of owning fine art - but yet an endeavor worthwhile if the entire market for fine art is to be expanded to its greatest potential -


one thing to consider is that the product of Coke is a consumable whereas a work or art is - well something that does not nor can it be consumed on a daily basis except that the ideas - feelings and moods that it conveys can be absorbed by the viewer on a daily basis - from that perspective there has to be a great deal of thinking as to just how to present your or my work to touch the viewer in that very special way -


any thoughts ideas or ahas in this thread coming up soon?


there are an extremely large number of coke merchandising products that have become collectables -


butt putting that aside -


the first fine art piece that our friend Andy Warhol did was his Coke bottle -


well one dies not have to go in this direction - but just as Andy Warhol did Mona Lisa in his own style and technique -




I have done Andy's Coke Bottle:




in my own style and technique:




and then built a number of series with this image in it - and continue to do so as time goes on:




as far as art under the bed turning into mulch - idea can turn into a number of different alternatives - perhaps the bed can have a small window to see through to under the bed and view the art while on that bed or perhaps


the art can be something that can be on a board with rollers on it and pulled out and up and viewed when the owner wants to see it - sort of like those beds that used to be hidden in a wall and then the doors were pulled open and the bed dropped down to be slept on but still attached to the wall -


something for those who are short on space -


of course you will perceive what I have done in the manner that you see things -


but have you ever seen the ads that Metropolitan Life Insurance did utilizing Van Gogh's self portrait -


the question about marketing - which is what is the most important thing that artists (but in fact anyone needs to know) is that it must capture a person's attention - without capturing attention in a world where the most important commodity is a person's attention - where it is even more important that any money you may hold in your hand - sine without the attention being gotten - the saying of Steve Jobs to Steve Wpzniak cannot be carried out -


we cannot show anything to anyone to let them know what they want - unless they will have first been enticed to look at what we have to show them - that is the very first step -


that is the reason so many artists go to art fairs - want to gain entry into shows - knock on doors to galleries and endure great hardships sometimes to enter the minds of the people who they believe may want to see what they have -


tell me when you asked in the introduction question - how have you learned about marketing - in general and specifically in relation to art?


did you or do you really want to know?


I think that it would be really interesting to know how you might have presented an answer to that if you were me -


here is Rauchenberg's story:



but since you are so interested in getting rid of me from this particular thread - I will certainly happy to leave -