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.

Rising from the ashes, another phoenix emerges…

I was all set to write a post about some of the recent departures ( of the earthly life and death kind) that have happened over the the recent past.  But then I got other news from someone, that even though we have never met in person, I consider a friend.

In the summer of 2012, I launched my second Kickstarter project in order to publish the first collection of my panda cartoons, The Panda Chronicles Book 1: Your Brain on Pandas. 

The pandas help The Little Brown Farm with their Kickstarter campaign.

One of the things that I have grown to love about Kickstarter is the community that has formed around the process of raising funds for a project by putting it on the internet and seeing who salutes.

In addition to doing two of my own projects, I’ve also taken a hand in bringing several other projects to a successful conclusion, Including The Little Brown Farm’s project, Cook on Clay, and Island Shakespeare. I’ve also supported over 20 other projects, mostly in small ways, but it is putting the crowd in crowd-funding that is important.  Besides getting the funds needed to make a project happen, it is also a way to gage whether an idea has legs or not. One project I’m supporting now is Niya Christine’s 365 Story Paintings Art Book project. She spent an entire year doing a painting a day, and now would like to make a beautiful hardcover book. I hope you’ll take a look at it, and support it if you can.

I’m getting ready to launch another project, to get funding for some production work on Pandamorphosis, my wordless picture book that I have been working on for over 4 years.

Pandas are yearning to spring forth!

But the project I want to talk about now, is one that was going on at the same time as my Panda Chronicles project, The Kerfluffles Marshmallow project, to create a new business to make and sell homemade marshmallows. Their project was successful way beyond their wildest dreams, which in turn, created some logistical problems.  (Instead of the approximately 100-200 backers they were anticipating, they wound up with over 2,600 backers, which bumped their project to a level that necessitated a much larger scale operation.)

They did it! They launched a new business, a website, and were able to satisfy most of their backers in a reasonable amount of time. But last week tragedy struck.

A sad day for lovers of fluffy goodness and the Kerfluffles Marshmallow team

A fire destroyed the building where their commercial kitchen was, effectively putting them out of business. Now, as someone who has lived through a devastating house fire of my own, I know from experience that they have a long road to recovery.

Even though no one was physically hurt, fire is one of the more terrifying things that a person can live through.  Last year another friend barely escaped from a fire that consumed her office building in mere minutes.  Even though my house fire was almost 19 years ago, the smell of burning wood doesn’t make me think of campfires and happy times, it makes me think of fearing for my life and losing much of what I owned.

My heart goes out to them.  But Spring Barnickle is a strong person.  She  overcame other obstacles in her life, and emerged a kind, creative person.  I know she will come out the other side of this with even more compassion and a new mission in life.

I can’t wait to see what that is.

The Power of Yes…..

Recently, I have made the acquaintance, at least a “virtual” acquaintance, of a number of   talented writers. Through a series of thises, thats, and the others, I was involved in the launch of Dana Sitar’s new book, The Writer’s Bucket List.

One of the thing that struck me during this process was the willingness among all the people  involved in the launch to endorse Dana and help to promote her work, making launch week a big success.  Huzzah! Besides the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from helping a talented, hardworking writer get a project off to a good start, I’ve gained someone who I can occasionally call on to be a sounding board and am now part of a community of writers that are a valuable resource for my fledgling writing career.

As From Above //Oil on panel // Anne Belov // all rights reserved

So now that I’m in endorsement mode, I’d like to endorse the Kickstarter project of some friends of mine, who are also members of the community of artists who have gravitated to Whidbey Island.  Robbie Lobell and Maryon Attwood formed their company Cook on Clay about two years ago, although their combined careers in art and clay total more than 50 years.  This project is in order to help fund an new kiln, which they desperately need in order to make their business sustainable. Their cookware is beautiful as well as functional, and I’m pretty sure that I will be a MUCH better cook when I use it.  Check them out here.

Because I said yes to helping Dana with her book launch, and yes to supporting Maryon and Robbie’s project, my life feels richer. A lot of people said yes to supporting my Kickstarter projects and many unexpected riches have come my way:  validation for my work, a new community of people who love panda satire and bought my book, new eyes for my paintings and printmaking, and yes, even a bit of actual money, (though not so much that I am fiscally rich or even solvent at the moment, but that is not the point here.)

It’s true that sometimes we have to say no, to avoid being sucked down into life’s undertow, but think about saying yes to some things that bring you pleasure. I think you’ll be glad you did.

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.

Hey! here I am again!

I have been quite reprehensibly negligent on posting here.  Let’s face it, panda satire as practiced on The Panda Chronicles is just so much more fun!  And, of course, I have my Kickstarter campaign to publish the first collection of the cartoons in progress even as we speak!

But just as importantly, I have a show opening this coming Friday evening in Anacortes WA at the Scott Milo Gallery.  I call this show, “Close to Home” because the paintings depict where I live, and places that give me a feeling of home.

Where You’ll Find Me, Now // Anne Belov // all rights reserved, 2012

This painting is a view of my living room/office, and I love sitting here, to drink my coffee in the morning, or read in the evening.  My paintings are about my life…where I live, work in the garden, sit in a comfortable chair to read.

If you are in the Anacortes area this month, I hope you’ll drop by the Scott Milo Gallery.

And, if you want to know about the Panda Chronicles project, drop by my Kickstarter project.

 

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!)

Back in town and ready to print!

Greetings from the extremely jet lagged!

I just returned from 3 weeks in Italy and boy are my arms tired….wait that’s for my other persona’s blog.

For those who have been following this blog, you may remember that earlier this year I created a successful Kickstarter project in order to help fund my trip to Italy.  My trip had two main goals (not counting drinking and eating, but that’s quite another story!)  The first was to study with egg tempera master Fred Wessel, and the second was to try out my idea of plein air printmaking.  Not the actual printing part, but the idea of drawing my travel sketches directly on polymer litho plates.

My reasoning for drawing right on the plates was so that I could capture the freshness of sketches done on site, rather than trying to translate them afterwards and then losing the immediacy in the translation.  I did a number of test plates before I left to make sure the drawing materials I chose to work with would indeed work.  My goal was to come home with at least 20 plates that I felt were good, and so I left with about 40 some.  In the end I completed 35 plates, of which approximately 28 -30 I was very pleased with.  They are small plates, about 4.5″ x 6.5″ and fit in a little notebook that I made to hold them, each separated by a page, with folding flaps to keep them from falling out.  (I will include photos of these in a future post.)

I also did a little experiment with silverpoint on the litho plates to see if that would hold ink.  I am sorry to say that experiment was a complete failure, which is disappointing, as silverpoint drawing can give you great subtlety, which ink can not.  I guess that is the nature of both printmaking and experimentation.  Not everything works out.

I spent the last couple of days sorting out plates, tearing paper and getting ready to print.  I am going to print the first plate today, and I hope it goes well.  Then I need to clean out the technical pens that I took on my trip, as at least one of them clogged up on the trip.

Pictures of Italy and prints and stories to follow.

Porta Nove //Monoprint//Anne Belov // all rights reserved

Also, my exhibition at the Rob Schouten Gallery in Greenbank WA opens in a couple of weeks.  Hope to see you there.