Experimenting with ways to get exposure to my artwork….

Hello my massive amount of people who read this blog…….Ok, I think the most readers I’ve had on one day is about 21.  So since you’re reading this you should feel special.  You are one of the chosen few who found an interest in my artwork.   Ahem, alright back to the subject of the post.  I decided to give submitting to an Etsy Showcase another shot.  I’m experimenting with different ways to get people exposed to my artwork, and thought I’d pay the fee to get included in today’s “Art:Painting Showcase” on Etsy.com.

I’m really trying to figure out how I can sell my artwork online.  I recently listened to an interview between Ramit Sethi and J.D.Roth who are both people who write about personal finance.  They were talking about how they started off their sites and how long it took them to develop an audience.  They also talked about when they started to monetize their sites and how.  They both agreed on the importance of writing good content, which will then attract traffic.

So I started thinking to myself about what this blog is to me and what it is I’m trying to do with it.  It started out as a way for me to document a new painting style I began to develop, which I started calling “Meditation Paintings”.  And along the way over the past 10 months or so, I’ve included other elements of several creative endeavors.  This blog is both for me as a place of reference, and also a way for me to share my creative life with others.  Right now there are links on the right-hand side that direct you to places to buy prints and original works of art, and also a link to some of my music.  But so far, the traffic has been very low.  Which in one hand is fine, I didn’t go into expecting to draw a large audience.  Though, now I’m wanting to share my creative projects with more people.  I want this blog to help me get more recognition in the art world.  In my “Time-Lapse Painting Videos“, I put a advertisement for my blog and sites that sell my art in at the end of each video.  And I try and hand out business cards that have the blog’s address on them.  And there are a few people who have found me from searching WordPress.  In keeping with the idea that we can’t control the outcome of our actions, I can find peace with the fact that I put in a lot of time posting work on different sites, and trying to get my name out.  This past year alone has seen me create and share more artwork than possibly any year of my life.

I’m just trying to reach out and say, “hello, how does one get their art recognized online?”

Coming back to mentioning the personal finance gurus, I brought it up because they were writing about, well, personal finance, which all of us are interested in to some degree and need information on it to help us better understand our situations.  So if I were to want to find out about personal finance, I would come to find their blogs.  So how do I shape my blog so that people find it.  Not that I’m going to stop documenting my creative endeavors, but I think I need to start writing about my personal journey on becoming a professional artist.  And the questions that come up on a daily basis.  So this showcase I put my art in today cost me a whopping $7.  It’s the second time I’ve put my stuff in there.  So far it’s created a bit more traffic, but still no purchases.  Too high a price, not the right format (meaning, should I just be selling prints on Etsy?).  Anywho, that’s my post today.  Hope your day is going well.  Now back to that illustration I’m working on of a guy in a canoe going down a blueberry river…….

So, take a look around and let me know what you think.  Here’s a link to : my Etsy shop.

13 years later…………..one of my prints finds resurrection

So a few months ago my life-long friend John Norman asks me if I have any extra prints of the image below, “New Birth New Family”.  I wasn’t sure what he needed it for, considering I was fairly certain he already had a print of it at his home.  I didn’t think a whole lot about it.  I figured one of his kids had maybe damaged it, or maybe he was going to do something with it.  Since he lives in Brooklyn and works in Manhattan at Ripley-Grier Studios, a place frequented by “celebrities”, I thought maybe he’s selling it to someone, or submitting it into some art show he saw.  At the same time, I thought, why is he asking for something I made back in 1996 during my senior year at The College for the Creative Studies?  Why not ask for something I’ve done recently?  So I packed up the print he asked for which was in a frame and I sent it to him.  I kept asking over the next couple months what he was doing with it and he kept telling me I had to wait and see.  I didn’t think much about it, but remained curious.

Then my friend Mike Glendinning asked if I’d design his new CD packaging.  We went over ideas, and he wanted to see a variety of artwork I had made in the past.  So I sent him to some examples of my artwork and of all the pieces he saw there and on a couple other sites, he picked the same piece my friend John had asked for.  This was so odd, that in this short time period, two people were interested in the same print that I made 13 years ago.  So as I finished designing Mike’s CD packaging, my friend John finally announced what he had done with my print.  He got it tattooed full size on his arm!  Amazing…….

Yet another example that you can’t control the outcome of your actions.  You can only put forth the effort and have an idea of the intention.  Below is the original print, then the tattoo photos, and finally the CD packaging.

 

Make a painting, sell it a few days later…….I like that

So, I created the painting “Completing Circles” on a Tuesday and sold it on a Friday.  That is a first.  The painting is posted below as a photo, and also as a time-lapse video, but here is a tiny photo in case you’re coming across this post as a single post.

Completing Circles : (Time-Lapse Painting Video #8) : 9/8/09

Here it is….enjoy.

Too see more of my “Time-Lapse Painting Videos” go to : www.youtube.com/user/joncooneymusic

“Completing Circles” : Meditation/Intention Painting Session #30 : 9/8/09

My idea when I started this painting was how I’m trying to complete the circles I start in my life. Everything from calling someone I need to call, getting my artwork in different galleries, spiritual & psychological changes/cycles, achieving goals, and many other projects that get started and not completed. So I was making this as a call to myself to try and complete the circles in my life I’m still aware of.

Like most of my paintings I’ve put up here so far, it was done with a meditation/intention process I’ve been cultivating with my friend and bodyworker. It started as a way to approach loosening up my artmaking process. Our idea has been to simply to have the intention of making art, the “doing”, and to try and let go of the pressure to create something of importance and to forget about the outcome and enjoy the process of creation.

If you’re interested in purchasing any of my original paintings or prints of my artwork, pleas check out : www.JonCooneyArts.etsy.com, or www.redbubble.com/people/joncooney

And don’t forget to check out the “Time-Lapse Painting Video” I made while painting this piece which is posted right above this posting.

A Man of Experience : 9/4/09

This is a watercolor painting I finished recently. It was the first time in awhile where I’ve painted a person. As I painted him, I felt like he was someone who has since passed, but his spirit wanted me to paint his portrait. Or that he is a manifestation of my spirit as I may look when I’m older.  This was a different approach the numerous “Meditation/Intention Paintings” I’ve been doing.  Although I did sit and meditate for a short period before I started this painting, it was a tighter painting process.  It was the first subjective painting I’ve done in awhile.  I worked on it in three different sessions over a few days.  Those are my thoughts today.

Meditation/Intention Painting Session #29 : 8/18/09

This was a session my friend Michael and I did the other day in Tilden Park, Berkeley, California.

We have done a few group painting sessions with different people in Tilden Park, and we decided to find a different spot to work at than our previous sessions.

Here are 4 of the paintings we made, 3 of which are really small – 4″x4″, and one which is 14″x14″.

There were 3 others we made, which we left as they were to dry, and we’ll go back into later.  I’ll post those when we “finish” them.  There is also a photo below the slideshow that I took while we were getting a coffee.  It’s a photo of a big man on a really small bike.  As we drove down University Ave., we kept noticing this guy on the bike going in and out of traffic.  It wasn’t a pretty situation.  I thought I would snap a photo of him for good measure.

Group Painting Session #3 : 8/11/09

Once again the group went to Tilden Park to have our 3rd group painting session.  The intention being to share the creative process together and enjoy painting and learning from painting with other people.  It’s an interesting thing to let go of being in control of what the paintings are going to look like.  To react to what others have done, and to not get attached to aspects you like, because very quickly those qualities can change in the process.  It’s really a good time to take part in these group sessions.  And I think it’s important to share the results even though I don’t think any of them are masterpieces.  That’s been the whole idea of me sharing my Meditation/Intention Paintings, and also the past group sessions.  To let go of having the pressure to create something brilliant and to share the learning process I’m going through.  Not that in the end I don’t want to make art I’m proud of, but right now I’m in a stage where I’m more concerned about changing my process and discovering new resources and expanding my parameters.  As we the other group sessions and most of my individual sessions I’ve posted here, the session began with a period of meditation, and also with shared thoughts on each person’s intentions for beginning the session.  It’s great to spend a little time taking in the fact that you’re in the middle of the woods and get to spend your time that day making art with other people.  In this group is myself, Jon Cooney, my friend Michael Saporita, and Eli (whose last name I don’t know yet).

Time-Lapse Painting Video #7 : 8/3/09

This was video I made as I created session #28.

Meditation/Intention Painting Session #28 : 8/3/09