On Ethics and Elephants

Elephant in the Room? What? Where? Oh, that Elephant

In the interest of full disclosure, I must point out that I never thought about marketing in terms of the ethics involved. When I think about marketing my books to an unsuspecting public, the thing that leaps to the front of my mind is the “ick factor.”

Writing and cartooning are recent additions to my creative work. I’ve been painting more years than I care to remember, and it’s been my “day job” for the last 25 years. Almost seven years ago, pandas knocked on the door, demanded entry, put their feet up on the coffee table, and insisted that I write stories, draw cartoons, and perpetrate blasphemous adaptations of Sargent and Whistler paintings, all starring pandas.

They were really most insistent.

Arrangement in Black, White, and Gray //Anne Belov //all rights reserved

Selling paintings is mostly, although not entirely, different than selling books.  I’d have to sell  hundreds, if not thousands of books to equal the sale of one decent painting. And so marketing raises it’s (often) not so lovely head.

A recent post by Jane Steen got me thinking about the ethics of self publishing in general and about marketing my work in particular. I am, to say the very least, a reluctant marketer. By following a number of blogs about both the art and the business side of writing, it led me to realize that I was going to have to make peace with marketing, like it or not.

My cartoons appeared on my blog, The Panda Chronicles for almost four years before I published The Panda Chronicles Book 1: Your Brain on Pandas. My method for getting the word out was intuitive and organic. When I started my blog, I finally dove in to Facebook, and sought out panda fans, to see if they thought my panda-centric humor was funny, or whether they would chase me through town with pitchforks and burning torches, tar and feathers at the ready. (They liked them! Huzzah!)

I shared my cartoons freely and my fan base grew. I got an unanticipated bonus by reaching out to people on an individual basis because fans became connections and some friendships (real ones) have grown as a result of this, with meetings and gatherings of panda fans in real life.

The panda Faithful at San Diego Zoo in 2013

To be honest, this is a rather time consuming way of selling books. But I am a glutton for connections, maybe because I spend so much of my day holed up in my studio painting and drawing. When I look at the alternatives: auto tweets, constant buy my book/services links, guest posts which are barely disguised infomercials, I realize that the ick-factor detector is a pretty good ethical guide.

I think we must continually ask ourselves how we respond to marketing appeals by others as we try to figure out how to sell our work. Everyone has different threshold levels of what is offensive or annoying, but if it offends me, why would I do it? I’m still trying to figure it all out, and if I listen to my gut and avoid doing things that make me uncomfortable in the marketing of others, I think I am on the right track.

The sands that publishing is built on are shifting. As more people publish their work independently, we have to figure out how to be ethical, not only in the actual writing, but in how we tell the world about it. We are all on our own, trying to figure out just how we going to continue paying the mortgage, but we are also in it together.

My practice of making connections has served me well, in personal satisfaction and real bridges built, if not yet in monetary terms.  My followers number in the hundreds, rather than the tens of thousands, but they are real names, some even come with faces attached. I have decided to trust that what feels like the right path both artistically and ethically.

What do you think?

hey! Buy my book!

You can see more pandas (for free!) at The Panda Chronicles. You can also…um…find out where to buy my books there.

Wait, is it summer already?

Every year I think, this summer I’ll take a little time off, I won’t plan a whole bunch of work related stuff, like art shows or Kickstarter campaigns that mean I’ll be working, working, working during the most beautiful time of the year on Whidbey Island.

Ha!

I’m busy getting ready for a exhibition of my paintings at The Rob Schouten Gallery, and feverishly gearing up for this year’s Froggwell Biennale extravaganza.

I’m very pleased to say, that I just sent the last package of rewards for my Kickstarter campaign, to fund publication of Pandamorphosis. Wow!

Pandamorphosis, my (first) wordless picture book!

Thanks to the excellent work of my editorial and production team, Beth Bacon and Kate Burkett, we finished work in record time, and produced a book I’m really proud of.  We are still working on ebook versions, which we hope to have done later this year.

Meanwhile, I’m a little…um…behind on my painting projects, so as we roll into July, (with 84 degrees and blue sunny skies today!!!) I am still tethered to my easel.  Is it worth it?

“Radiance” // Oil on Linen on shaped panel// Anne Belov (c) 2014

Yeah, I think so too.

There’s more happening over on The Panda Chronicles! Inspector Panda returns to his new adventure tomorrow with another installment (there will be an art history quiz, so get ready!)

See you soon.

Can You Stand One More Post About Kickstarter?

I am in the countdown for the last hour of my Kickstarter project to fund Pandamorphosis, my wordless picture book, which I have been working on for about four years.

Pandas are yearning to spring forth!

Being tuned in to all things “Kickstarter” I’m always interested in reading news stories about it.  In the last two days I saw a story about how film-maker Spike Lee used Kickstarter to fund a film project, and I just read the “from the editor” column in Smithsonian Magazine, about how a recent article that required travel to foreign lands, was funded with Kickstarter. Still another article came up about a publishing company that was going to use crowd-funding to fund and assess appeal for a book.

One of the questions that I see pop up is “Is it fair for people who are already famous to use something like Kickstarter to fund their project?”

My answer, after a little consideration, is a resounding yes.  The truth is that even people that we perceive to have “made it” already, still need to keep working, and the gatekeepers, whether they be publishers, movie studios, music companies, or art galleries are growing increasingly squirrelly over making a financial investment/ commitment in “the talent.”

Pandamorphosis: at 245%  with 30 minutes to go. Go team.

I think that the fact that scholars, well known film-makers, and musicians are using crowd-funding gives the process visibility and credibility that it didn’t have at its inception. It gives small fish like me the opportunity to raise money for a small-ish project.  Yes, there have been artist project grants available from various sources for more than 30 years, but for those, you have a large number of artists competing for a small number of grants, that are decided by just a few people. Crowd-funding changes the dynamic and allows artists and creatives of all varieties the chance to take their project before the people who may be interested. I think it is a wonderful thing to come into being.

Well, my project has just about 30 minutes left to run. It’s been a wonderful experience, and I’ve gathered more than twice as much funding as I originally asked for.  Most of the money will go for project expenses and reward fulfillment, but there will be a small amount “leftover” to fund more projects that come out of my studio.

Thank you to all who have participated and supported me.  And if you’ve never contributed to a crowd-funding project, I urge you to get out there and find a project you love. Sign up as a backer, even if it’s just for a dollar. You might just have some fun, while doing something good.

More Lessons From the Land of Kickstarter

Well, if you haven’t heard already, I am just over 48 hours into my third Kickstarter project. I’m ready to publish my Pandum-Opus, Pandamorphosis at long last.  This is a project I’ve been working on, off and on, for over four years, several of those years quite intensely.  At last I think it’s ready, and apparently other people do too.

I decided to take a gamble this time, after listening to webinars, reading articles, and masterminding several other projects for some of the other Whidbey Island creatives, and only run my campaign for 16 days. (Cutting out the deadly second/third week lull.)

Pandas are yearning to spring forth!

Here’s some of what I learned from all these experiences, especially regarding the “crowd” from whom you are trying to get funding:

1. Be prepared. And by that I mean, don’t just start trying to make new friends in the week before your project launches.  (This probably doesn’t apply if you have designed a seriously cool gizmo that everyone is going to want or are an experienced game designer. Your audience will find you and throw large bags of money in your path.)

2. Thank everyone…the same day that they pledged, if you are awake in your time zone. No matter how tiny their pledge is.  Someone who doesn’t know you personally, and pledges just $1, is saying that your project is so cool, that they just wanted their name attached to it.  And if you do know them and they pledge that same $1, maybe that came out of their grocery money for the week. A pledge is a pledge. Say thank you.

3. Let your friends and supporters know about it, without running them down with your cart in the supermarket. (OK, sorry, Diane…it was a blind corner, hope your foot is okay.)  Ask your good friends for their opinion on your project before it launches.

4. Blog and tweet about it without being a jerk.  Give them something fun, informative or entertaining in the post as well.

5. While I think it’s fair to contact other project creators if you have supported their past projects, to ask for a shout out, you should only do that if you had some back and forth conversations with them and they have some chance of remembering who you are, OR some affinity for the type of project you are doing.  Don’t expect it though.  And don’t be this person who sent me a message through the Kickstarter message system:
“Because you have been funded, I was wondering if you could help me fund my project on kickstarter. By sending the url to your funders.”

( I removed any identifying information about their project.  really, I should report him to Kickstarter for spamming me and probably other successful projects, but he has enough trouble already.  His project description was  full of typos and grammatical errors.)

6. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  If your video is just you talking, no matter how cool your idea is, the video should be 2 minutes max,  unless you’re George Clooney.

Pandamorphosis: at 116% in less than 48 hours. Go team.

Letting Loose the Bears…

 

I’ve been trying to come to terms with the knowledge that I have shamefully neglected this blog, and you, my 3 1/2 readers who haven’t completely given up on me.  Whenever I resist doing something, there is always some logical, if not good reason that I am resistant. I’ve been thinking about what that reason could possibly be and after some discussion with one of my friends, I think the reason is something like this:

Pandas are way more fun than a “serious” blog about fine art.

Am I right, or am I right?

The last four years have been the embodiment of that curse: May you live in interesting times. And the times I have been living in for the last four years have been interesting, to say the least. “These interesting times”  include the  collapse of the housing market, (which affects art sales) the stock market, (which affects art sales) and the job markets, (which affects art sales.)  Did I mention that the art market, at least for us non-deceased blue chip artists, was severely affected?

But a bright spot appeared in my peripheral vision, while I was contemplating my crumbling art career.

Pandas.

They came sneaking in the back door, giggling and rolling around and breaking things, eating cuppycakes and running for president.  I won’t tell the story here, but if you want to know more about the pandas, they have their own blog, The Panda Chronicles which you can read and see for yourself what all the fuss is about.

Back when I was in art school (and never mind how long ago that was,) I got it in my head that if you were to be considered a “serious artist” who did “serious art,”  you must never stray from the path of seriousness.  I tried to be good, I really did.  I didn’t even indulge in printmaking, for goodness sake, let alone illustration or …gasp…cartooning.

On Pins and Needles // Egg Tempera // Anne Belov // 2012 all rights reserved

But just as I have no intention of giving up painting to draw cartoons all the time, (I am kind of good at it, after all, and it has supported me for the last 25 years) I also don’t want to give up this blog, which has mostly been about my art career, at least until now.  But I am too old and too cranky to follow the rules any longer. I am letting loose the bears.

So here is my goal for this blog: I will try to post once a week on Tuesdays.  They may be very short posts, maybe just a new painting I’ve been working on, or an observation about the process of trying to get my first children’s book published.  Or it may be a story that I have written. I am not going to restrict myself, or hide my pandas under a basket. (As if they’d stay there!) It’s time to give unrestricted free reign to my creative process and outpourings.

Arrangement in Black, White, and Gray //Anne Belov //all rights reserved

After all, when I named this blog after one of my favorite paintings, I named it: Nothing Overlooked.

Anne Belov paints, writes, makes prints, and is the founder of The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire. You can find her paintings at the Rob Schouten Gallery, her cartoons on The Panda Chronicles, and her new book here. She will be teaching beginning egg tempera at the Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio in April. for more information: contact WIFAS  She also writes regularly for The Whidbey Life Magazine, a free journal of art and culture on Whidbey island.

Learning New Tricks

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about following one’s dreams and living an unconventional life.  It’s partly because the economic climate of the U.S. (and indeed, much of the western world) has been in such a kerfuffle for the last 4 years.  For 10 or 12 of the 24 (almost 25!) years I have been supporting myself through my work as an artist, I have done reasonably well.  By that I mean, I could pay my rent, keep a car running, feed myself and my cat at a level greater than if I still worked in a coffee shop.  For the rest of those years, with the exception of the last 4, I could rely on my skills to live frugally and still live very well by much of the world’s standards, although not necessarily by the standards of upper middle class America.  No complaints here.  I live a wonderful life, rich with friends, beautiful surroundings, in a kick ass community where people celebrate each others triumphs and pitch in through the hard times.

40 Shades of Blue// Oil on Panel//Anne Belov //all rights reserved

So, I’m not trying to figure out how to quit my corporate, soul-sucking job so that I can go off and live on an island and paint full time, because I’ve already done that.  Huzzah! The question for me now is how do I continue to do the work I love, and still keep food on the table and a roof over that table.

Following the River// Oil on Panel//Anne Belov//all rights reserved

There are several avenues that I have been exploring, taking the slowdown in sales (and therefore the need to produce quite so much work)as an opportunity to push the boundaries of my creativity into new directions.  I like to say that I am artistically promiscuous (I said, artistically, smarty-pants!) in that I refuse to be limited to one subject matter or even one medium. In my over 35 years as an artist, I have worked in watercolor, oils, printmaking (etching, lithography, and monoprint), egg tempera, and drawing.  I recently went to Italy, which was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign (and partially by an anonymous donor) in order to gain greater understanding and skills in the ancient medium of egg tempera.  (Not to be confused with shrimp tempura.)  I’ve also been working on a wordless children’s picture book, Pandamorphosis, which was fueled by my obsession with pandas, which has manifested itself in my cartoon series, Your Brain On Pandas.

I’ve also been reading a lot: books about children’s writing and illustrating, cartooning, publishing, business philosophy, blogs about creating your own self employed life, etc.  Somehow (maybe Alyson B. Stanfield’s Art Biz Blog) I stumbled onto The Traveling Writer, blog and newsletter of Alexis Grant.  That in turn led me to Chris Guillebeau’s  blog and book of the same name, The Art of Non-Conformity and his now annual Portland event, the World Domination Summit.  Is that cool or what?  OK, it’s cool because he’s using the term “world domination” at least a little ironically and he is definitely on the side of the angels, putting his money and time where his mouth is.  You really must read his blog and book for yourself, but his book boiled down to this for me: Find what you love; find a way to do what you love; the connections you make along the way are important – no, make that vital; and give back what you can, when you can, to make the world a better place.

Pretty simple, huh?  Definitely on the side of the angels.

More on this tomorrow (or the next day!)

She Who Hesitates…..

from 30 Days - 30 Pandas by Anne Belov

 

While the pandas do not usually appear on this blog, (Note from Mehitabel:  Those pandas are so darn pushy!) I’ve invited them here to make a point.  I’ve been reading some books  about cartooning, most notably a series of 3 books by cartoonist Scott McCloud.  These are Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics.  I think they could be best described as textbooks that investigate both the philosophy and thought processes that go into visual storytelling.  In addition to being of benefit to the people who are interested in comics and graphic novels, they contain much that is useful to those who are interested and engaged in children’s picture books.  Since I am engaged both in making cartoons and writing/illustrating picture books, I felt they had much to teach me.  In fact, I felt so strongly about this connection, that I thought I should write a reveiw of these books, as they relate to children’s literature and submit it for publication in the SCBWI journal. (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators)  However, this month someone already beat me to it.  Oh well. It just proves my point, doesn’t it?

Embracing the process…

From my wordless picture book, Pandamorphosis by Anne Belov

After all the initial sketches and forming my ideas, plotting the rise of the action, and many, many revisions, down to doing the finished (I hope) drawings, it has been quite a ride.  But it’s not nearly over yet.  When I finished the last drawing, there was a feeling of “now what?”  I thought I had done the hardest part, but it turns out I was wrong.  You would think that after almost 3 decades of being an exhibiting painter, that the process of putting my work out there for consideration would be no big deal.  But this children’s book arena is a new field of endeavor with its own process and protocols.  I am completely wet behind the ears, and trying to do it all right.  I’ve queried a half dozen or so agents, with a few rejections so far, and a nibble or two, so I guess I am stepping into the fray.  I don’t know where I’m going, and I really don’t know how I’m going to get there, but I think I’ll know it when I do.  In any case, I’m pleased with and proud of the work I’ve done so far, (and I think that the pandas are happy with my depiction of them) and I’m looking forward to the rest of it.

I just don’t know what the rest is. (I’ll let you know when I know!)

Post Project Let Down

Pandamorphosis!

You would think I would know this by now.  After finishing a big project, like 20-some paintings for a show, or say, 46 drawings for a book that I don’t whether or not it will find a published home, there is always a feeling of let down.  Like I don’t know what to do with myself.  I do have  a painting in progress on the easel, a class to teach next weekend, and a show in September that I had best continue work on.   Maybe it’s the weather.  It’s been colder and wetter than usual in the Northwest.  Here it is, almost Memorial Day weekend and I’m still keeping the heat on.  There is sun right this minute, so I think I’ll go outside.  I also just cleaned my studio to get ready for some printmaking projects.  Nothing a little cake wouldn’t fix…..

The Grass is Always Greener…

The Old Langley Library; monoprint on paper

It seems like no matter what you do, something that someone else is doing is invariably more interesting. I used to go to the old-time music camp in Port Townsend, WA and what the old time string band musicians really wanted to play (and did so at late night dances) was rock and roll.  And then there were the classical musicians who wanted to play old time string band and contra dance music (and did it very well) till the wee hours.  Then there is the Ballard Sedentary Sousa Band, that was started by some English country dance/ Irish fiddle/former high school marching band members…BIG fun.

Of course when I was in art school studying painting, we all looked down our collective noses at those crass commercialists in the printmaking and illustration departments.  And don’t even speak to me of cartoonists! So what have I been pursuing (in addition to painting!) in the last 15 years?  If you guessed printmaking, cartooning,  and illustration, you win the big prize!!!   Well, actually, there is no big prize…I lied.  I think I get a pass on being a complete a$$#@1e since I was in my teens and early 20’s at the time, and when you’re that age you think you know everything.  What I only found out later, is that almost everything, creative pursuit or not, can teach you something about your main work.  From etching, I learned to love process, strengthen my value range and composition in my paintings, and enhance my ability to meet a deadline.  The impulses toward narrative in my paintings has fueled my desire to make visual stories for children.  I even learned things working in the shipping and delivery warehouse/roasting plant  of a large coffee company, which shall remain nameless, since I don’t want to give them free advertising.

The point I guess I want to make is that we don’t have to choose just one thing to do in our creative life.  By indulging our impulse to explore other art forms, we make all our efforts stronger.  and we might even have some fun in the process. Be the Bear! (oops, wrong blog!)