Happily, when it comes to my photography website (one of a few things I have on the go), there are a couple of clear things I can do to make it more focused and effective. One is optimising the website for search engines; the other is diving into social media.  I’ll handle these two separately.  Search Engine Optimisation can come first then. That’s known in the trade as SEO. The Artists Web does a pretty good job of this anyway, but there are things we can do to help it on its way.

The first thing to realise about SEO is that search engines get all of their information from the text that site owners give them. This is a problem for us as artists. There’s often not that much of a need to include much text on our websites as the content is all visual.  I tend to shy away from text myself; it often feels superfluous.  This makes it difficult to include too much writing on my site.  As it stands then, I’m giving search engines very few hooks to attach to my site.  Even the titles are super-basic.

How can I fix this? There are a few ways. One is by having some simple explanatory text on each of my gallery pages. I need to give a bit of thought to the titles of my photographs.  I also need to address the various form boxes that the Artists Web offers us when we make a new page.  I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve never had time to use these when I’ve uploaded pictures.  I’ve just wanted to get the things up there.  I know. Tsk.  Very sloppy.

Before I do any writing I have to give some thought to keywords.  These are the words my site will target to get found by.  There’s no point in using keywords like ‘photography’; there are hundreds of thousands of sites that will beat me hands down for that key word. I need to be more focused.

The Flat Sea

This is where I need to make a clear statement regarding what my photographs are about.  I then need to craft my text on that basis.  It’s likely to be a useful exercise in the wider context of my practice, I think, though only time will tell in that regard.

The problem here is that I’m setting out on a path that may well be difficult to return from.  Many of my photographs are of quiet, desolate places.  Should I market myself as a photographer of silence?  Do | want to be bound by that in the future?  I think the time is nigh for an experiment. There’s only one way of finding out how successful I’m likely to be here. That’ll be going ahead and trying it out.

www.danfone.co.uk

We’ve had visits from the careers advisers. That sentence makes them sound a bit like vermin control or something doesn’t it? Sorry careers advisers! One thing this raises is the ugly prospect of having to write about oneself in a self promotional context. I don’t think I’ve met a single artist who genuinely enjoys doing this. It has to be done though.

I’ve read quite a few artists’ statements over the years, largely in my capacity as a volunteer at the House Gallery in Camberwell. Many of them have been stinkers. I often get the feeling that a lot of younger artists think they need to make out they’re Derrida’s love child in their statements. You read them and can’t understand half of it. It’s tough enough reading that stuff in a theory book and then it has the excuse of being translated. I’ve never once been impressed by verbosity in a statement.

What has impressed me has been careful presentation of an application as a whole package. We’d usually know very quickly which ones were going to be good applications from the moment they came out of the envelope. A good application looked cared for. A bad one didn’t. That simple. I say this because closer inspection invariably backed up the first impression.

I think it’s easy to de-humanise anyone who’s opening your application. When you do that they become intimidating shadowy ogres with impossible standards. Don’t do that to yourself, there’s just no need. And if you get rejected, that’s okay too. Often things get rejected because they don’t fit what was needed that month or year. It might have nothing to do with the quality of the work. A thick skin is the order of the day.

But heck, I’m writing all of this as ballast for myself. I’ll have a few of these applications to write myself in the next month, no doubt. Which reminds me, Our MA final show website can be found at mada2009.madigitalarts.co.uk. Come along to the show and check us out if you happen to be nearby. The show opens on the 15th July.

A vicious circle. Now I'm uploading it, it looks quite restful. Reminds me of the sea

It’s been a while since my last post and the reason for that is the increasing pace of my Digital Arts MA. We’ll be putting up the final show in pretty much exactly one month. This raises one of the main problems we all face as artists. Time. There’s never enough of it. That’s reason one of why this post is called ‘The Vicious Circle’. I’m no expert on time management but one piece of advice I keep on hearing is that you should get the rubbish stuff in your day done first. I’m not a fan of that approach as it means I spend all of my time doing rubbish stuff. Disaster! So balance is required. As I say, I’m no expert on time management at all. Any hard earned wisdom here would be gratefully received, by myself and no doubt a few others.

The MA finishes in July and I’ll be let loose on the outside world for real. I’ve been thinking about art on an abstract and intellectual level for a long time and very soon I will have to think about art at the business and presentation end. I don’t think I can recall meeting one artist who has really relished this element of being an artist. One thing I’m waking up to is the clear fact that I need to be able to market myself.

Expanding on a theme I took up last post, this has led me to think more about the photographs I should be taking in order to sell. I’m really looking at using my photography as a complement to my more conceptual art and writing, using it to supplement my income and also get insights in to the nuts and bolts of the art scene on a more general level. This means I don’t mind taking photographs for the sake of selling, so long as I don’t actively dislike them. My heart and brain’s need for excitement and/or verbosity is covered in other areas. I can approach my photography relatively coldly, if it will help me to sell pictures.

I start pondering this, though. For one, is there a danger of chasing my tail, trying to figure out what will sell and, as a result, making work that doesn’t quite feel authentic? And also, I want to make photographs because I love taking photographs, not because I want to satisfy market criteria. This is an age-old issue for artists isn’t it? We all like to eat and have a roof over our heads and we’d all like to reach those ends doing something we love. At what point does that something we love become a chore? So we’re coming back to another kind of vicious circle. How are we going to shake the pesky little critter off?

The really basic questions I have to ask are: Am I selling for collectors or am I selling to people who want something to hang in their houses? What kind of art would I want to buy and why? One thing I learned at the Affordable Art Fair was that the most obvious ingredient of work that sells really well is that it’s pretty direct. There’s a clarity about it.

Thinking about it, I’m much more interested in making pictures for people who saw something in it that they wanted to spend a bit of quality time with. The whole art collectors scene doesn’t excite me. Looking further in to that, I need to ask some questions about what kind of work people want to put in their homes, and why. I could probably do a phd researching that question though! Is there a sweet spot where all of this dovetails?

One photographer I like a lot is a guy called Dave Beckerman. He has a section on his website dedicated to customer favourites. Looking at these is quite helpful. It’s inspiring and will no doubt help me next time I’m out taking pictures. My earlier point about clarity seems to stand up, too. Most of those photographs have really clear reference points and seem to know exactly what they’re about. Some of them are successful because they tell stories about the movements of people without having any people in them. Some of them simply have great geometry. This is quite a useful exercise, I think. I’d like to make a suggestion. If anyone knows of any similar pages (even on your own sites), could you please paste the link into the comments section below. It would be great to get a little overview of work that generally sells well, or what is currently in vogue.

Beyond that, I have questions. What do you think sells? Is there a formula? Or should we make the work we dream of making? Is there a middle road? I gather some of you are already on this roundabout of ‘making work to sell to enable one to make work…’ and have commented about it (Thanks! Comments are always good) How is that? Is it doable and do you have any tips?

A month or so ago I went to The Affordable Art Fair. I hadn’t been expecting to enjoy it. I’ve been to the fair before, and felt annoyed. About 60% of the work seemed to fit into a few categories. There were the flat colour paintings of dead rock stars, there were lots of paintings of the sea (I love the sea by the way. If you make sea paintings, I’m not taking a dig at you. Anyway, my website has tons of sea photographs), and there were even more abstract paintings that seemed to have been made in factories to a narrowly set process.

This year I was surprised, though. I enjoyed myself. Quite simply, there was more variety. The sea paintings were still out in force, but most of the work seemed to have been made by individual artists who were genuinely engaged with their work. So often at these places I get the feeling I’m looking at pieces that have been designed to match market criteria. That feels quite hollow. It’s difficult not to feel a bit depressed by that. This spectacle raises questions, however. Why do people paint on that basis? I guess the obvious answer is that they sell.

I’d like to make it absolutely clear right now that if you are such a painter (or art buyer), I don’t have any special gripe with you. The point of this blog is to look at ways of making a living as an artist. There’s a point where commercial realities have to collide with artistic idealism. How do we deal with that? Many of us will inevitably deal with it by making work we know we can sell. Which is fair enough, really.

In fact, maybe splitting your artistic output in half between commercial work and the things you really care for is a sensible path to take. Is anyone out there already doing this? How do you find it? Perhaps you even find the commercial work feeds in to your works of passion in unexpected ways.

At the fair, I saw three pieces or stands that caught my attention for different reasons. One was by an

Klari Reis sold well with her bright, simple and well realised works in resin and ink

artist called Klari Reis at the Cynthia Corbett Gallery, who made sets of resin discs with marbled pigments inside. Very simple, immediately eye catching and quite beautiful. It’s easy to see why they were doing well. I spoke to one of the gallery staff who told me she usually makes sets of a hundred and fifty discs and has installed them in people’s houses in many different ways: around corners, arranged around other household objects and so on. She also commented that Reis had reduced the number of discs to fifty to make them more affordable.

I then spoke to some people at theBill Philip gallery who told me a very wide angle photograph of Cowcross Street in the City in London had sold very well indeed. Most of the people who had bought it had either lived in or worked near the area. They had a personal connection with it.

Further on in to the fair I saw a photography stand run by the Drugstore Gallery. These guys were

Plenty of orange stickers here

doing very well. I felt there were quite simple reasons why too. The pictures that were selling well looked like they belonged in people’s homes, as part of people’s lives. I think the photograph of the pile of books is a great example here. When I spoke to Barry Cawston and Soraya Schofield, the photographers who ran the gallery, they told me a little more about the wide ranging interests that inform their work. In most of the photographs we talked about there was a strong sociological backdrop informing the content, with a particular emphasis on the visual impact of industrialisation on previously unspoilt and/or historically rich landscapes. I sometimes feel the work at these events can lack substance. It was good to see someone earning success with work that had another level.

Did anyone else go to the fair? Did you enjoy it?

I have another website called Hammerhead Rabbits that I use to air different experiments. It also houses the blog I write for the MA I’m currently doing in Digital Arts. My site on The Artists Web is intended as more of a commercial outlet. I want to use it specifically to press forward with my photography. I’ve loved taking photographs for a long time and would like to develop that by using them to supplement my other income. You might ask why I don’t do this on my other site. This is where the wider infrastructure of The Artists Web comes in. How can it help me in ways my individual website can’t?

Dan Fone - The Flat Sea

On the way I’ll build up a good list of the basic things that will raise our profile online and look to start getting consistent sales in the process. In short, I’ll be researching how to get the most out of the internet as an artist. I might be slow in getting started. At the moment I’m not too much better informed than anyone else.

I’m also planning on investigating a few other things on the side, which will feed into my wider project. I’ve got developing obsessions arising from my MA, mainly connected to the way the art scene will be affected by the internet; because of that I’ll be looking at how people sold work ten years ago in order to gauge the differences and the way we can take advantage of any changes in the industry.

I don’t want to offer bullet pointed advice here. You can already find that elsewhere on The Artists Web and at sites like the very comprehensive emptyeasel.com. I’ll be writing about the personal end of trying to get all of these different things working and possibly ranting my frustrations out here as well.

Dan Fone - Hillside 1

The first thing I ask myself is, what are the obstacles I face stopping me from selling my work? In my case, I think I’m my own worst enemy. I tend to be very timid regarding things I’ve done. I’m not saying this to beat myself up. I get the impression a lot of freelancers and artists have exactly the same problem. I think I’m going to have to keep an eye on this tendency. The only way I can see of addressing it it is that for every time I get shy about my photography, I must do something to overcome it. And pointedly. Does anyone here have similar problems? How have you dealt with it? Or are you reading this thinking you need to do something about it yourself? Whatever your viewpoint, I’d love to hear about it.

PS – if anyone has something they’d like to see looked at in more depth, do leave a comment below.

This week we’ve been talking to painter Jason Adamson…

Part 1 – Practical Questions

1) – Do you think artists need to be able to talk about their work in order to exist?

How much of this business of artists having to talk about what they do is created by curators and galleries?

I don’t know where I stand on the whole ‘artists talking about their own work’ issue. Obviously if something needs explaining then go ahead, but if you need to explain a painting then surely as the artist haven’t you failed? I know and understand that art is subjective and very different to different people, so I don’t need to tell people what I think of my own work, that is for them to decide.

Although my work is weird and unusual, I make a point of not explaining it as ‘there is nothing to explain’ in my eyes, it needs to be taken at face value. People fear my work at times as they believe it is metaphorical and they don’t understand it, but if that is the case, then I am at a loss to explain the hidden message as well.

2) – How do you motivate yourself?

Motivation is a tough one: when I have no time, motivation is second nature as the thing I want to do most is paint (when I’m busy with other things); when I have all the free time in the world to paint it can be difficult to sit down at the easel. Similarly, if I have a show or commission deadline approaching I am usually easily motivated to get started, wheres if I am just painting in the hopes of a future show which has not been arranged, then sometimes I can feel at a loss. Basically, I think I thrive under stress and shortened time constraints. Additionally, I find that motivation can be linked to inspiration, or lack of it!

3) – What do you make of the art establishment? The text on your website shows a certain ambivalence, even dislike of it. This seems quite common among artists to me. What do you make of this tension?

The art establishment confuses me; sometimes I even wonder if its about the art at all!?! It has a very ‘in-crowd’ mentality and I am not sure what you are meant to do to be accepted by it. In the past I have approached galleries in London and been rudely ignored. Fair enough, my work may not be what they are looking for, but as soon as I know that I can go and do something about it and improve or change what I am doing.

4) – How do you feel about the process of juggling commercial and more purely artistic concerns in your work?

With regards to the whole ‘clinical cynical approach’ I think it is very common among the few artists I know. When I started painting I was very much against doing any commercial work. I just thought that my weird birds would be sufficient for me to break even with my hobby. However, as time went on I did the odd commercial painting, and more and more people wanted them. It all changed for me a year ago when the gallery In Bournemouth who I sell my work through just wanted commercial, original and with a high level of quality, artwork. It has been quite a success to date; I make the majority (probably all) of my art income selling these commercial works to the general public. Ironically, I can charge more for these types of work than I can the birds; I say ironic because when you think of weird and contemporary art in London it is massively more expensive than commercial works. I don’t think there is anything wrong with working in this way, and contrary to what I used to think, I don’t think it is ‘selling out’ on your true style. Art is an expensive hobby (well it is for me when I make regularly orders from the art supplier) and if you want to make it viable (some people may not) you have to sell your work.

Part 2 -Exciting and thrilling questions:

5) – How do you get started with a project?

Do you work on a painting by painting basis or over series of pieces?

Obviously you may well do both and more. Does this affect your approach?

I start with my sketchbook. I love sketchbooks and keep all my old ones which are great ‘sketch journals/diaries’ which document my life and travels. They contain doodles and ideas and drawings and sketches and notes and lists and adverts and magazine cuttings and everything else. Then I start with a basic idea and produce many thumbnail sketches, working up to a final image. I transfer this to canvas with basic block colours, and then continue adding layers of paint, dry brushing, glazing, etc, to refine my painting. If a piece works well, I stick with it from start to end. Other works are not so good and I abandon them and come back sometimes months later; these often turn out to be the best paintings, as if the break has made everything come together somehow. In terms of the way I work, most of the time I have about three canvases on the go and start a new one every time I complete a painting.

I say I ‘finish’ paintings, but sometimes I am not happy with the outcome, occasionally I paint over works which are a few years old. In terms of a body of work I don’t think you ever finish; my various styles come and go/peak and trough depending on what is being commissioned and what I want to paint. Painting is definitely like a journey, and I can see real development and improvement in my work whatever that journey may be.

6) – One consequence of doing a degree in art does seem to be a desire to locate yourself within the ongoing story of art history, to get yourself grounded in theoretical standpoints relative to what other people have done or are doing. Do you have anything to say about that?

My art history knowledge is not degree level granted, but I do have an interest in the subject with a basic knowledge above that of A-level. When I have the opportunity to visit art galleries in other countries I always take it, and I especially enjoy seeing modern (20th century) art. I feel that trying to ‘locate yourself within the ongoing story of art history’ can work against you as an artist. Trying to predict what is en vogue, what will sell or where you may fit into the ‘story so far’ is quite detrimental to your art in my opinion, and artists should just be innovative and do what they enjoy painting.

7) – What do you think makes a painting good?

What I think makes a good painting is not what you or anyone else will think makes a good painting! Art is so subjective and that is why I do not get offended if people don’t like my work or criticize it; I don’t like everything I see. Personally speaking, what I think makes a good painting is something aesthetically pleasing, with a bold form, exciting and considered colour palette, and a quirky or unsuspected characteristic – nothing political or conceptual though! I like figurative and portrait paintings (untraditional), so I suppose that is why I like the work of Bellany and Kahlo.

– What influences you?

I get influenced by everything and anything I see on a daily basis, whether that be adverts, images from books or magazines, a scenario I see when I’m out, films, music, shows, photos. Aforementioned, my sketchbook is filled with things I rip and tear from flyers and magazines. Even this weekend I saw a quirky illustration of a dog in a bar magazine so I had that stuck in my sketchbook the next day. Travel is another main influence in my work and I really love ‘papery’ things (labels, banknotes, tickets, stamps) with a certain aesthetic, like Cyrillic, Arabic or Sanskrit lettering or weird imagery, and this is how my ‘Nostalgia’ series evolved. I have even started creating ‘country specific’ works, like ‘Suisse’ (on website under ‘new’) which has everything I collected from my last summer in Switzerland.

9) – And how do you think these influences work?

In terms of how I think these influences work, I just think my mind is very imaginative and attune to all the stimuli around me. A simple image/advert/song which someone else may skim over, I look at in such a way which starts my mind working and thinking about ideas; it’s an evolution of thoughts in a way, one thought leading to another. So in fact, the final idea which comes from the original influence may not resemble it at all, but it opens certain pathways in my mind to faint memories and weird recollections until I have something I can put on paper in a rough sketch.

What impact do I want my work to have??? I’m not really sure; I suppose I just want to make those that buy my work happy and to inspire others. Something that is thought provoking, in a positive way. At my summer show, someone fell in love with one of my small quirky canvases depicting a figure at night pointing into a pond. She is a young philosophy teacher with a 1st class degree and was so immersed in the painting at the time. She asked me what it was about and I said, as always, I don’t know it’s just an evolution of ideas. She, on the other hand, had such feeling for it that that she later bought the painting. I find it quite touching that something I painted could evoke such a strong emotion in someone else. To this day I don’t know what it means to her, and I probably never will; all I do know is that it has very personal meaning to her.

10) – What are you working on at the moment?

I’m quite busy at the moment which is exciting. When I finished my degree just last summer I wondered if this ‘art gap year’ was a good idea. But things obviously take time to get started and now I am quite positive about it all. I’ve recently submitted paintings for the Royal Academy summer show so I’ll have to wait and see what happens there.