Quality or Quantity
October 26, 2021Selling your artwork on line is a challenging endeavor. You will find many experts and pundits espousing advice. They all claim to have the secret sauce that will catapult your online business to the next level. The first advice that they will give you is to upload quality work. To me this such a nebulous statement. What exactly is quality work? Who decides if your work is deemed quality? Another piece of advice that you will receive is to engage regularly with your platform. You must upload work as much as possible . This has led me to ask the question which of these concept is more important when trying to sell your art.
The internet is like the universe littered with millions of stars. Your webpage with your art is one of those stars. So how do you attract space travelers to your star? Conventional wisdom would suggest the star that shines the brightest will attract the most visitors. That star which is so beautiful and lights up the night sky will be the most attractive. This is synonymous with the quality of your work. Quality can be described as the degree to which your art has achieved a standard with which you are comfortable. The question here is whether your “standard” is congruent with the “standard” of a potential buyer of your art. So how do we go about creating this quality? The quality is created when you as the artist/photographer remain true to the original vision. Ultimately you are making your art for yourself and not for a buyer. A person who buys or engages with your art has successfully connected with your vision . Your light shines the brightest when it comes from your true self expression. This expression is your light that will shine the brightest in the night sky.
Once your vision has been defined you can now focus on creating a quantity of art that is in line with your vision. You have to create enough art to maintain the engagement. Selling art is a numbers game. You must create enough work to allow potential buyers to have a choice. What is the perfect quantity, you might ask? That is a purely subjective decision. You definitely need sufficient work to convey your story. Your desire is for the engagement to be thought-provoking and meaningful.
To recap, you must have a vision of what you would like to share or say to the world. From your vision create art that matters to you. With time you will make connections. Take that passion and continue to tell your story. Most importantly have patience. Selling your art is not a sprint, its a an endurance marathon. Also, you are not limited to telling only one story.
Montez Kerr is photographer obsessed with the beautiful seascapes and fauna of his native country, The Bahamas. You can view his work at : www.montezkerr.com