Shameless Self-Promotion Not
Melanie Ezra is an amazing Artist from Wales, and she does a fantastic job at letting people from around the world know about her very original art.
In a recent posting entitled “Shameless Self Promotion,” Ezra said that people thought she was very good at promoting her art, but she disagreed.
Let me paraphrase her points and explain why I disagree with her assessment:
- The Art should speak for itself
All art needs help with being seen and understood in the competitive global art market.
Yes, a good gallery will help with this process, but the artist is critical to the promotion his or her work. Gallery owners have limited resources and need to have successful shows to continue to operate. If you are not actively trying to generate traffic to your art then you are leaving your fate to whims of the gods.
- If I were that good at Public Relations then I would not still need to tell people
As an artist, I am constant growing and developing, and so is my art. If my art is constantly changing then why would I believe it would speak to the same kind of people? This is assuming that I can somehow connect to all the potential customers in the world at any one moment.
- If I was that good at Public Relations, I would be a Public Relations professional
While our calling may be as an artist, this does mean we can’t be good at other things as well. We are made up of many skills and abilities, being good at public relations is just one set of skills within many others.
- There are so many other things I need to do better.
One of my favourite saying is perfection freezes progress. If you wait until everything is perfect then nothing will ever happen. So, you move forward and put your self out there. By making mistakes we learn and grow.
Beyond Ezra’s art, what makes her so remarkable is that she is actually put herself out.
I am constantly looking for artists who promote their art effectively, there are very few.
My list includes only three artists:
These three artists make a real and consistent attempt to explain their art to the larger world.
Their effort is not shameless self-promotion, but an attempt to share the magic with the people who might be interested.
Chris Erskine
chriserskineartist@gmail.com
@erskinec
FCSD Studio 