I don’t attend many workshops, but the week before last I went to a free workshop in Concord on “Developing New Markets for Your Art” sponsored by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. Organized by Elaine Loft, it was an enjoyable and worthwhile morning. The presenters were Katy Brown Solsky, who runs the Concord Arts Market, Megan Bogonovich (meganbogonovich.com), a ceramics artist who has had some sales success on Etsy (she’s melabo and melaboWed there), and Susan Schwake (susanschwake.com) a painter/printmaker/illustrator who runs the artstream gallery in Rochester and also sells work on Etsy (as artesprit).

My takeaways

The Concord Arts Market, an outdoor craft fair, is obviously Katy’s labor of love. I’m not sure it’s the best venue for (my) framed and matted fine art photography. Though, small prints might possibly work. The Concord Art Market is more craft-oriented; according to Katy, the products that sell well are small, portable, more utilitarian in nature and priced under $75. If I get ambitious, this might be a good outdoor art/craft fair to try, as it appears to be very well run.

Megan’s presentation about Etsy was very interesting. She created collections of commercial products like platters and “wedding cake toppers” that, while based on her fine art, are specifically designed to sell well on Etsy. Productizing your art seems to be important for online sales success (and also for craft fairs like Katy’s). But the most important factors seem to be discipline, thinking like a businessperson, and being willing to spend lots of time managing and promoting your chosen online sales venue. By the way, also check out Megan’s fine art ceramics website – her artwork is humorous and technically impressive.

Susan is obviously a multitasker. She’s a working artist, but her focus seems to primarily be on artstream, “a multi faceted company with three divisions: gallery, art school, design studio.” As a fine art photographer and designer, I was impressed with the way Susan and her husband have combined their areas of expertise – her: art, curating and education; him: design. I admire their businesslike approach to making a living via art.

I also picked up a good social media tip from fellow attendee and painter David Nelson from Dublin: “You can use hootsuite to schedule your Twitter tweets.” I wasn’t aware of hootsuite; its base plan is a little pricey at $20/mo, but I can see its value if you’re a heavy Twitter or FaceBook user.

So, overall this 2-hour workshop was a good experience, and I picked up some interesting insights. You can check out the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts Free Artist Entrepreneurial Workshops page for information about their future workshops.

The reception for the NHAA Photo Group show “See What I Saw“ at The Provident Bank in Hampton is next Thursday. Come by and say hello if you’re near the NH seacoast! If you can’t make the reception, the exhibit runs through February and is open during regular bank hours.

• Location – The Provident Bank, 321 Lafayette Road, Hampton NH 03842
• Reception – Thursday Jan 26, 2012 from 5:30–7pm

These images were captured a couple of days ago and a few minutes apart. I’m always amazed at how different a scene can look under different lighting conditions.

I’ve driven by this trailer in Derry frequently, and mentally filed it away as a possible interesting photo. The winter morning light was beautiful today, so I decided to take advantage of it. I like how the angle of the top of the pile of cans matches the angle of the handrail.

The beaver pond is frozen over now, with beaver-chewed trees sticking out of the ice. That’s our neighbor’s house in the background. Another neighbor has hired a trapper to get rid of the beavers (their yard is most threatened by the growing water level). Getting rid of these “varmints” is necessary to avoid additional property damage from the water and mud, in addition to the tree damage. But it’s kind of too bad. I guess we humans should all just be glad we’re not beavers.

When I was out photographing yesterday I found myself concentrating on hidden shapes and unexpected alignments. Just bringing order out of chaos, I guess. And, now that I think about it, that’s really what photographers and other visual artists do.

I ran across this quote by artist Edward Gorey recently on The Atlantic, and it rang true for me:

“This is the theory … that anything that is art … is presumably about some certain thing, but is really always about something else, and it’s no good having one without the other, because if you just have the something it is boring and if you just have the something else it’s irritating.” – Edward Gorey, 1968