Show Notes Archives | Page 10 of 52

#213 Holly Wach: Celebrating the Creatures of Nature

When artist Holly Wach moved to Rhode Island, she began to notice the birds that were visiting her yard. Soon they became the new subjects or her watercolor and pastel artwork. Whether it’s song birds, shore birds, or raptors, Holly perfectly recreates their colors and movement, as well as the leaves and branches where they perch. Holly shares many great tips, as she had to rethink her business when art festivals were shut down for a year. She tells us how she moved into selling wholesale and licensing her work.

Listen here or download from iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, CastBox, or Stitcher.

Holly Wach

Holly can be found on Instagram @hollywach

Her website is hollywach.com

Here are some great takeaways from our conversation:

When Holly wanted to go to graduate school for art but wasn’t accepted, she moved there anyway and started taking continuing education classes. That allowed the teachers to get to know her, and eventually she was accepted to the program.
A great way to help you build your business is to join an accountability group with others who are starting a business. You can learn from and encourage each other.
It’s also good to treat your art like a business, even at the beginning. Put in regular hours and work on it every day.
I’ve given this suggestion before and I’ll say it again: Work on a few pieces of art at once so that while one dries you can work on another.
When you’re turning to nature for inspiration, don’t just take photos of what you see. Give yourself time to look without a camera and see how the animal or nature moves and reflects the light.
Books can be a great inspiration for your art. Start your own collection of what inspires you: animals, people, trees, other artists.
It’s a good idea to have items available at various prices, like originals and prints. Prints can be the first step to becoming a collector of your art, and later they buy originals.
Art shows are a great way to learn how to talk about your art and to learn which art pieces people want.
Holly sells her prints wholesale to stores. Her criteria is that they work with local artists and there is an owner on site. She will send them a print of her art and information about her and her business.
Consider hiring others to help you with your business. First of all, you can’t do everything yourself. But also, recognize that you can’t be an expert in every area, so hire the experts to help you. I’m thinking website designers, licensing agents, for example.
If someone contacts you to collaborate or buy your art, ask them how they heard of you. This will give you an idea of what part of your marketing is reaching people.

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#212 Vanessa Kiki Johanning: Creative in Art and Her Life

Artist Vanessa Johanning is also known as Kiki, and she’s a mixed media artist from Wisconsin. Kiki makes custom art journals and paintings. Kiki is fortunate enough to have three studios in her home where she can create her art. She also tells us about her upcoming book and two art shows.

Listen here or download from iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, CastBox, or Stitcher.

Vanessa Kiki Johanning

Kiki can be found on Instagram @vanessakikijohanning and on Facebook and YouTube.

Here is her Aprons in the Wind exhibit.

Kiki is in the current issue of Where Women Create magazine, which is created by Jo Packham. I interviewed Jo in Episode 121 of this podcast.

We also talked about artist and author Nick Bantock in this episode. I interviewed Nick in Episode 205 of this podcast.

Here are some great takeaways from our conversation:

You can think of art journaling as just a place to put a painting. It’s less expensive than working on canvases, it’s portable, and if you don’t like what you did, you can just turn the page.
Kiki prefers Canson 140 # cold press watercolor paper. She likes this because it takes anything: you can stamp on it, sew on it, and it won’t wrinkle. Fabriano brand is also a good choice.
Cold press has a little rough surface and hot press is smooth. Try them both to see which one you prefer.
She travels with a little art kit that includes paint, brushes, and paper. Kiki finds it’s a nice conversation starter when she’s on a plane or outside.
When painting mixed media pages for a journal, it’s easier to bind them later into a book. That way if a page is still wet, you can go onto the next page and not worry about pages in a book sticking together.
Take advantage of the video options on Instagram. If you’re showing off a completed art book, you can do a page-through video to show the whole book.
Kiki just uses regular acrylic paint on fabric, since she knows when she spills paint on her clothes it’s permanent.
She is currently working on a book. Kiki encourages anyone who wants to write a book to just do it. She says that if it’s popping in your head, then there’s a good chance that you are supposed to do it.

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#211 Mei Chen: Sculpting Handmade Hands into Jewelry

Artist Mei Chen uses clay to create her handmade hands and she makes them into jewelry. She matches the skin color to the wearer, and the hands are often holding something interesting, like a jewel or a heart. Mei is a self-taught artist who developed her own style and techniques. She also reveals to us what her next sculpting subject may be.

Listen here or download from iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, CastBox, or Stitcher.

Mei Chen

Her website is meichenartist.com

She is also on Instagram @meichenartist

Mei mentioned an artist you might like: Tina Yu also does small sculptures.

Here are some great takeaways from our conversation:

Mei pointed out that the skills for painting and drawing are very different than those for sculpting. If you don’t think you’re good at one thing then try the other because you just may be surprised at what you can do.
It’s OK to copy other artist’s work or ideas at the beginning as you are learning. Eventually you will gain enough skills that you can create something that is completely your own.
Be sure and put your shop policies on your website or Etsy site. You want to be clear about what you will and won’t make for people, especially if you do commissions.
If you can, see if you can grab your same name over all social media accounts that you use, like Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok. That will make it easier for people to find you.
When you release new products for your website or Etsy site, try to do new releases on a regular basis so people will know when to expect them.
Be open to collaborations with other artists. It’s a great way to see another perspective about how they run their art business. Also, if you do cross promotion of the project you do together, then your art will be exposed to a whole new group of people.

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#210 Chloe Amy Avery: Embroidery Artist

Chloe Amy Avery is an embroidery artist in London. She uses layers of stitches and many colors to make very realistic pieces. Often, she takes nostalgic items for her subjects, like comfort food or snacks you would get at a fair. Her latest subject is flames, and she uses many colors to depict the fire at the end of a match or a candle.

Listen here or download from iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, CastBox, or Stitcher.

Chloe Avery

Chloe’s website is chloeamyavery.com

She’s also on Instagram @chloe.amy.avery

You can find her Skillshare classes here.

Here are some great takeaways from our conversation:

Trust your instinct as an artist when you are choosing colors and designing your composition. You may be doing something you’ve never seen anyone else do and you need to trust that people want to see that. Also realize that instinct will come the more you practice and develop your art.
Take some time to step away from a piece of art so you don’t get overwhelmed. You’ll want to assess it to see if you’re done or there’s more to do, but you can’t do that if you’re still so close to it.
If you work in collections, meaning do a few pieces with the same subject matter or colors or design together, you’ll get good at it and each one will be better than the last.
When making a new collection, change up your substrate or background for more interest. Chloe makes some collections on white canvas, and her flames are done on black fabric.
A great way to challenge yourself with your art making is to occasionally switch the scale of your art. If you normally make quite large pieces, challenge yourself to make a series of small pieces, and vice versa.
You make like offering commissions to your customers because you get to hear what they’d like to see.
I know we’ve talked about this before, but you need to make sure you are posting great quality photos of your artwork. Of course, you want the photos to accurately represent what you’ve made, but you also want people to be able to zoom in on your photos so they can see a good detail of your art.

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#209 Lara Cornell: Author and Mentor

Artist Lara Cornell lives in Minneapolis with her family. Her career has been built around her love of travel and meeting artisans all over the world. She hosted retreats in Europe, and she had a collaborative art space near her home. Like many, her travel abruptly ended, and she closed her brick-and-mortar space. Instead, Lara took time to educate herself on business skills and how creatives can improve their marketing, branding, and focus. She ultimately wrote a book, and it recently launched and has already become a best-seller. We talk about her book and how she can help other creatives. If you’d like to listen to my previous episode with Lara, it is Episode 136.

Listen here or download from iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, CastBox, or Stitcher.

Lara Cornell

Lara’s website is laracornell.com

You can also find her on Instagram @laracornellart.

You can email her at [email protected] to receive a copy of her book.

Here are some great takeaways from our conversation:

Don’t assume that because you are a creative person you can’t manage the business side of things. That’s a wrong assumption. In fact, artists often tackle their business issues in a very creative and effective way.
One way to learn some business skills is to take online classes, for example, in social media or marketing.
If you want your artwork to be your legacy and be around for many decades, you need to make decisions about the durability of your materials and techniques.
Prints don’t have to be a very low-priced item in your portfolio. You can elevate your print by increasing the quality of the paper, embellishing the print afterwards, and limiting the number of prints available.
When you’ve decided what your legacy brand is, then make sure that all aspects of your business go with that legacy brand. For example, if you want your product to be made with all reused materials, then extend that to your packaging as well.
In Lara’s book, she suggests you create a Legacy Blueprint for your business. This is a living document that plots out how you will run your business so that you will have a legacy brand and you will be successful. Their core values and who they want to serve won’t change over time but the details will.
Make sure you are creating a business that aligns with your values. It’s never a good idea to make something just because you think it will sell. You want to make something because it feels good and you want to keep doing it.

Post category:Podcasts Season 4 Show Notes