Speaking of Art Blog

What most artists are after when we go about the business of creating a piece of artwork is communication.  We want to connect with our viewer, and in the process, convey some of our vision of the world as we see it.  And I know of no better way to measure how well an artist is succeeding in this endeavor than by looking at art sales.  While it’s a slippery-slope-big-time-mistake, in my opinion, to try to create so as to sell, the amount of sales an artist has raked in do tell them in a very practical way whether they are connecting with their viewers out there.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from a buyer, “This piece just speaks to me.”  Yessss!  Mission accomplished.

That’s all as preface to what my real point is for this blog post.  Last week at the opening reception for my solo show at a gallery in Michigan City IN, I was making small talk with a fellow artist who makes and sells glass creations.  Like me, he keeps careful inventory of all of his work that he makes and sells.  Recently he added up all the pieces he’s sold, just for grins.  He told me he was blown away by the number of pieces he’s sold – well over 200 just in the past few years!  Then he said to me, “Mary Ann, have you done that recently?  I’m sure you will be amazed.  Do it.  Count your blessings.”

So today I decided to come up with at least a round figure, an estimate, of how many paintings and drawings I’ve sold over the course of the past 19 years.  The reason I’m going back to the year 2000 is because that’s when I started doing a careful inventory of all of my framed artwork starting with, you guessed it, #1.  That is also the year I decided to get serious about turning my art love into a career choice.  I designed and purchased business cards for myself and I printed a 4x6” image of each piece of artwork, storing them in small photo albums that have double slots in each plastic sleeve – one for the photo and one for a 3x5 card that has all the info pertaining to that piece of artwork (date finished, inventory #, surface I worked on, medium I used, size, asking price, competitions it’s been in, awards it’s won, etc).  And even though I now store all those same images on my computer, I still keep up with my hold-in-your-hand inventory books.  I love them.  How many inventory books do I own?  Well, right now I’m filling book #7 and I’m up to inventory #267 with my latest piece, Blue Morpho.  Creekside Birches was #9.

Instead of going through all 7 books and counting sales, what I decided to do was to count up all the artwork I presently have for sale in storage, in galleries, and in shows.  That totals about 60.  Then I guessed at about how many pieces I’ve either given away as gifts or have kept for myself over the past 19 years.  That comes to about 35-40, so I called it 37.  Then it was just a matter of doing some math:  267 – 60 = 207 – 37 = 170.  So that means I have sold approximately 170 pieces of artwork in the past 19 years.  That’s amazing!  That’s 170 times that my artwork spoke to someone, and that I successfully conveyed something through my paintings and drawings such that someone felt compelled to own and enjoy it.  I truly am dumb struck by having counted my blessings in this way.  I highly recommend it to artists.   As my glass artist friend concluded, “Wow, I guess I must be doing something right after all.”  Yes, indeed.  Count up your blessings.