A Painting Artist

Hemingway said this:  write about what hurts.

I re-discovered this quote yesterday during a long train journey.  Instead of caffeine, I dived into the pages of my writing mentor and teacher Natalie Golderg’s book, Thunder and Lightening, knowing if I let the book fall open, it would feed me.  I’m writing a story for a competition, which is probably the best way to get writer’s block!  Natalie’s words are like putting balm on a wound that won’t close.  The wound in this case being my search for the structure for my story.  When all else fails, or has been tried, ‘write about what hurts’ and the structure will form around that, because it’s in that piece/peace that the writer’s offering is made.

Deep sigh of relief.

What’s your writing wound?

Last week, after my post about the power of listening to the high vibrational music El Hadra, I received some comments from readers thanking me for reminding them about this.

One reader asked me if I knew of a software programme that created mandalas. I’m pleased to say that I can go one better, and tell you about Energy Mandalas, which is the brain-child of artist Keith Knutson whose gift it is to personally create individual energy mandalas for you.

Keith takes the vibrational numbers of your life, and creates spectacular geometric fractals from those. Using his intuitive gifts, Keith then tunes into your unique frequency like fine tuning a radio station and adjusts your mandala’s shape, movement and colors until it perfectly resonates with your life force. Your beautiful, custom-designed 8 X 10 Personal Energy Mandala is sent to you electronically or in the mail, along with an extensive 60-80 page numerology report revealing your amazing self.

What you can then do is set this to your desktop, frame it on your wall, download it to your iPhone, basically anywhere you want so that it engages you with your vibrational frequency.

How cool is that?!

Photograph published in The Guardian, May 21, 2009

How often do you look at a painting and really see what’s there before your mind kicks in and you start analyzing what you think is there?

I was reminded of this question again as I stood gazing at Howard Hodgkin’s new prints, As Time Goes By.

The easiest way to discover what a painting is about is to follow Howard Hodgkin’s advice: look. Just look!

Should I Sell My Work Via Twitter?

The short answer to this is no.

Twitter is a social networking site, so people tend to get irritated with you if you try and sell them your stuff constantly. This form of ‘push marketing’ is really old hat now. What you want to be doing is attracting people to you so that the selling process is really the result of the conversation you end up having.

But first you have to get to know people, and they have to get to know you, so that you build up trust. The best way to do that is to share a story with them about yourself. When you do this, be sure to share from your heart, and use your own voice.

My tips for Tweeting are simple:

1. Follow people who interest you and have something to say that moves the conversation on, just as you would at a party. Don’t stick with the bores and loud mouths because they are never interested in what you have to say – it’s one way traffic! You are looking for two-way traffic.

2. It’s quality not quantity. Build relationships with the people who follow you and vice versa. Get to know them, let them know you.

3. Be generous. RT (retweet) and DM (direct message) as often as possible. As the actor Matt Damon says, “Retweeting is the heart of Twitter…guerilla radio. Turn it up”.

In the end, the best way to sell anything is to find a way to serve people.

There are 9 steps to getting targeted traffic to your blog and organic search engine listings.

The great thing is, once you have this system set up, it really is a matter of following the steps on a daily basis. If you followed this system for 30 days, which is the time it takes to create a new habit, you will be doing this automatically. So it really is a case of getting organised to make your life easier in the long run.

This is exactly what I did, so I know it works.

Step 1: Write a long article, between 1500 to 2000 words.
Step 2: After writing the article, research and find 4-6 keywords to edit into your article and write an article title from.
Step 3: Break your article down into 5 shorter topics and create 5 blog posts from them. Repeat step 2 for each post.
Step 4: Buy a domain name and hosting account, and instal a WordPress blog.
Step 5: Got to http://www.articlemarketer.com and sign up for their service. Submit your entire article to their service with your keywords. Once they approve, grab the link to where your article is posted. You now have targeted organic content that will begin to show up in the search engines!
Step 6: Blog post daily, seriously.
Step 7: Go to http://www.socialmarker.com and follow the steps there to social bookmark your blog posts.
Step 8: Go to http://www.hubpages.com and http://www.squidoo.com and begin to create articles there, and link back to your blog. Remember, you are not selling in your articles, your goal is to get people to your blog, and to your opt in page.
Step 9: Sign up for http://www.youtube.com and start recording short videos about your articles and blog posts. Remember to bookmark these!

Do these 9 steps each week.

Remember: for step 4, if you get stuck and want more detailed instructions about this step, get back in touch with me.

Good luck!

Amanda
PS. Download Hugh MacLeod’s manifesto How To Be Creative. This is a great example of how writing a free report can raise your profile and direct traffic to your blog.
PPS. Remember: the best way to sell anything is to find a way to SERVE. How are you serving?

Duane Keiser was the inspiration for this video. He got fed up of galleries taking a fat commission for the sale of his art, and so he conceived the idea of creating a painting a day, and it proved to be a successful way of selling his artwork.

As well as his successful postcard series which he sells through his blog, Duane also sells what he calls Oddments of his work. He randomly posts these on his blog.

This concept can apply to drawings and even small sculptures, jewellery especially, and pottery.

So I guess the question is: what can you create each day to sell online?

I am so interested to hear about what you decide to create, so be sure to leave me a comment.

Have fun filling your tank!

Amanda
PS. Create a second store online for your work and open an account at Etsy which is the place to buy and sell arts and crafts.

PPS. Look out for my post about how to keep your creativity tank full.

Where to place your blog, the personality you share through it, and the products you promote are an integral part of building your success online.

Amanda

This is the music I heard today in my yoga class. Just put it on a loop and you will be transported on the mat, it’s fabulous.

El-Hadra is the rhythmic trance meditation of the Sufis. The pulse of the rhythm is of great importance here, because it corresponds with the breath and the heartbeat at the same time.

An added bonus on this are the hypnotic Mandalas.

What if you could create your own Mandala?

Om.

At the end of my yoga class today, my teacher read out this poem which was written on the walls of Mother Theresa’s room, although the words are based on a composition originally by Kent Keith.

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

So many things can get in my way sometimes, and this was a powerful reminder to just ‘do it anyway’.

What are you just doing anyway? Leave me a comment and tell me.

Online you have an opportunity to speak directly to your audience, so don’t screw it up by faking it, because people can tell if you aren’t being real and authentic. In this video I explain why authentic artist marketing is one of the keys to your success online.

When you have completed your writing, feel free to leave me a comment about what insights this gave you.