Month: January 2016

20 Tips on How to Market Your Art Work

by Monika Blichar

A large majority of artists that I work with throughout the year tell me the exact same thing. “I just want to paint, I don’t want to learn how to market. I want someone else to do that for me.” While that is a great goal to have, the reality is, if you don’t promote yourself, no one will. Period.

Over the years, I have been able to get quite good at spotting trends, meausring statistics, and learning new tools to help promote my own work and also my projects. I can say that even though technology is constantly changing and new platforms are emerging all the time, once you have a basic idea of how to promote effectively, you will see some great results that will make your art career THAT much more successful.

Here are my top 20 tips on how to market your art work. If you enjoy, be sure to send this post to a friend and connect with me on my varied social media platforms. I love to help artists grow and by sharing, you can help others succeed too!

1-Be Consistent. Share on your networks on a regular basis. Your networks are like storefronts, make sure they are not empty for long periods of time or you won’t get any visitors!

2-Be Positive. No one likes a negative nancy on social media or at events. Remember that you are the FACE of your brand as an artist and that you will attract positive customers and affilates if you are positive, enthusiastic and energetic about your work.

3-Engage with Your Followers. When your followers comment on a post or share your newsletter, be sure to thank them or respond in a timely fashion. This makes your followers feel as though they are really becoming a part of your community and in turn, they will help you share and engage when you post.

4-Offer Tips and Education. Offering tips on “HOW TO USE GLAZES” or releasing a video of yourself creating art to help other aspiring artists engages other in your work. Think outside the box when you release tips, how can you help your audience?

5-Create Good Content. No one will keep reading if you post boring, out dated or irrelevant content. When was the last time you kept reading a boring book or watching a bad movie? Think about it.

6-Cross Promote. Who can you cross promote with? The art supply company that you shop at? Another artist? The restaurant where you sell your work? Be creative and work with others to create cross promotions that will help both parties gain followers and fans.

7-Be Real. Don’t pretend to be someone you aren’t. Be yourself, everyone else is already taken….

8-Share your WIPs. When you are working on a piece, be sure to share your work in progress. It’s interesting for others to watch HOW you create.

9-Learn How to POST effectively. Schedule time to analyse your website stats and find programs that help you measure and post on social media. I use HOOTSUITE. You can check it out FREE FOR 30 DAYS by visiting my affiliate link here:

10-Experiement. Not all your marketing will be online. Be sure to take advantage of local community boards, schools, events and fairs. Donate to auctions, offer different services like painting murals or doing art cards. Experiement with your work and the market.

11-Contests. Everyone loves winning! #winning

12-Giveaways. Reward your fans by giving away tickets to an event, prints or cards. The investment that you make into giveaways will bring you more returns when your winners or fans feel appreciated. #everyonelovestobeloved

13-Sales. When you make a sale, be sure to share on your networks that it has sold. If you have sold something in a show or restaurant, be sure to practise a RED DOT for a few days so that others see you are an artist who sells. Some people are strange like that…they will ONLY buy if you demonstrate that you are successful in your sales records. (Be sure to keep track of your sales too-this will help you later in your career.)

14-Customers. Take photos with customers or ask them to take a pic with your art in their homes. Share on social media or even print pictures for a portfolio you can share with potential customers in your studio.

15-Affilates. BE AN AFFILIATE for other companies. Whether you promote products, software or events that you are using or exhibiting at, creating an affiliate income stream helps you share products, services or events you love while earning money for sharing. (Yes, you can make residual income by promoting other people’s products or services so long as they give you or you sign up for your own affiliate code!)

To sign up to be an Art World Expo Affiliate, visit: BE AN ART WORLD EXPO AFFILIATE!

16-Brands You Use. When you think of all the tools that you use, be sure to refer the useful ones with others so they can take advantage of great tools too! Sign up for an affiliate link first and then promote that link to people you think might like it too. For example, we use Freshbooks for our accounting software and when we recommend it, we share our affiliate link here:

17-Share Other People’s Work. Your fans and followers will appreciate you sharing because it will introduce them to new people and other areas in your industry, but because if they are really interested in your work, they too want to see what’s going on in your creative journey. This also helps you cross promote with other artists which helps both of you build bigger communities!

18-Inspirations. Post things that inspire you as an artist. Nature, fabric, old tires. Memes. W H A T E V E R. Show your audience how your mind works and don’t be afraid to open up.

19-Professional Development. Be sure to post when you are enlisted in professional development realted to your career. A painting retreat, specialty classes, or workshops are great ways to show your audience that you are always trying to improve your craft. If you are intersted in travelling to Europe with me this summer, please visit: Painting Dreams Art Tours Info (Our next info session is February 5 at my studio and gallery in North Vancouver.)

20-Participate in Events. Last, but not least, whatever kind of art or craft you practise, be sure to participate in events in your community or outside of it. Paint live on stage at a fashion show, organize an open studio at your space, enroll in events where you can set up an exhibit in your city or others. By far, the most effective way to sell your art is to be available in person so that you can share your story and why you do what you do. Make sure you participate in at least one event each quarter.

If you enjoyed these tips, be sure to share the love with other creative people you care about!

Have a question? Follow me on Periscope and ask questions during my live broadcasts! https://www.periscope.tv/MonikaBlichar

Monika Blichar possesses a B.A. from the University of Victoria with a major in English and minor in French. She has also successfully completed the post degree teaching program and is a member of the BC College of Teachers. She is fluent in English, French, Polish and basic Spanish. Her love for culture, languages and artistic pursuits continues to grow as she develops her own creativity and imagination through her varied interests in the art world.

This post is sponsored by Twin Peaks Construction.

Live Art Tips on Periscope with Monika!

Tune into Periscope at 4PM PST to learn about some art tips from Monika Blichar, owner and founder of Art World Expo! Find Monika Blichar and join in the convo!

Art World Expo Meeting Tonight!

A reminder for our exhibitors and vendors!

Dress Up for a Cause

This year, we are thrilled to be hosting our 6th annual event at Science World in Vancouver! Our theme is “Glamour Noir” and we invite you to partake in our fundraising campaign!

Purchase one of these limited edition Coastal Imagination Masks made right here in BC specially for our event and support arts initiatives in British Columbia.

$20/ea with proceeds to Make and Break Arts Foundation.

Wear at the event and show your support for arts programs and exhibitions in our province!

Available through our ticket link starting on February 1!

Thank you to Coastal Storm Gallery for their ongoing support. Coastal Storm Gallery Website

Good Food Wanted!

Are you a caterer or restaurant? Bakery or creative sushi joint?

If you would like to feature your food as art this year at our event, we have a few more spots left for amazing chefs, caterers and restauranteurs! Get creative this year and sell your specialties at our event. Information under the Exhibitor tab.

Feel free to call or email us as well!

Ticket Giveaway!

All you have to do is #artworldexpocontest on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook with your favourite Friday the 13th or noir character and you’ll be entered to win! TWO TICKETS will be won each Friday until the show! Good luck!

Weekly Giveaway!

The Illusionist: An Interview with Carolina de la Cajiga

by Alyssa Laube

“Annitya” will be up for auction at the Art World Expo. Proceeds support Make and Break Arts Foundation.

Carolina de la Cajiga doesn’t call herself an artist but an “illusionist and interpreter”. To describe what she does in photography, sculpture, and painting, she explains “I create illusions by transforming my ideas into something tangible”.

Her vision is different than reality, she “adds or removes from what is there” in order to feel satisfied with the finished product. In her Portraits of Canada and Canadian Divas series, she replaced hair with flowers. In Post-Modern Glyphs, she removed the backgrounds surrounding her subject: cable knots. What used to be behind – buildings, clouds, trees – was digitally cleared away in order to obtain a clean image with only the knots visible. “My goal is simple: to represent what I see in my mind. “It’s all aesthetics, beauty,” said de la Cajiga.

Over the past few years, her work has been focused mostly on photography but, as anything she does, it is her own kind of photography. Her most recent series is “shooting dynamic light that lasts atto seconds (the smallest unit to measure the speed of light).” De la Cajiga takes hundreds of shots and carefully picks the ones she believes have the most potential. What follows is a multi hour-long process that turns those photos into de la Cajiga’s vision for the piece through the use of various methods and computer programs. “The result is a photograph that asks the audience to question whether [parts of] it ever existed -what you see is not what is, but what your mind sees… “The more of these shots I process, the more complex and intricate the images are turning out to be.” Not finding a term to describe her technique, she coined the word “Katharosgraphy” from the Greek Katharos = to scratch, to clean, to purify, and Graphy = process. Coincidentally, Katharos also means oak tree which is what Cajiga, her last name, means. At the Art World Expo, she will be exhibiting this series of work.

Many of her other works also play with altering reality. The series, City In Flux, is based on illusion and “bend[ing] architectural protocols”. Here, she twists and morphs Vancouver buildings. In What If ? she places Las Soldaderas (“civilian women who made significant contributions to both the federal and rebel armies during the Mexican Revolution of 1910”) into other important events throughout history. Even in her photography of everyday life, such as Construction – Workers, Lifting of Backhoe, Invisible in Neon, and Rain City, she added or deleted components that are unidentifiable to the public eye. Only de la Cajiga knows what did and did not exist in the moment when the photo was captured. The audience is left to wonder.

Carolina will be part of the “Love in Any Language” exhibition at the Ferry Building Gallery in West Vancouver, 1414 Argyle Avenue, West Vancouver, February 2 – 21, 2016. The opening reception will be February 2, 6 – 8 pm, and Meet the Artists is on February 6, 2 -3 pm.

You will also be able to see her work and catch up with De la Cajiga at her new studio at the 195 Pemberton Studios bustling artist community in North Vancouver.

Take a look at Carolina de la Cajiga’s collections yourself on her website. Better still, see them in person at this year’s Vancouver Art World Expo. She is in the process of finalizing a new website, http://www.delacajigafineart.com, to display the Katharosgraphy artwork. Stay tuned!

To Etsy or Not to Etsy-Check out Morphingpot Art Studio!

As an artist, there really are a million and one ways to promote art for sale. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google, Youtube, Periscope, Snapchat are just some of the the social media platforms that you can use. The list is endless when you think about it! Today we want to look at a shop on Etsy from Morphingpot Art Studio. While the craze for Etsy may have started several years ago, as seen in this shop, it is still an amazing way to sell and feature work to potential buyers and fans from all over the globe.

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Meet Isabella Pavanati, who studied painting at the Art School in Milan; Drawing and Artist’s Book at the Graphic Int. School in Venice and Sculpture techniques at the Sculpture School in Treviso. She loves Jazz and Soul Music is a vegetarian and loves animals (but not as food :)).

“Hello and welcome to Morphingpot Art studio, the Etsy s hop of artist Isabella Pavanati. Here you will find a large selection of my unique and whimsical sculptures, folded book art, head planters, wire wall frames, wire wall art, paintings and so much more, all made by hand here at my studio in Treviso, Italy.

I also love custom orders, so please feel free to convo me to discuss any custom art projects you have.

Thanks for visiting!”

Want to find out more? Check out this shop’s About page.

Feature AWE Artist at MAB Art Studio-Marilyn McKee

by Monika Blichar, Owner and Producer Art World Expo

I first met Marilyn Mckee in 2010 when producing the first of a series of events; now known as Art World Expo produced in Vancouver and Toronto. Drawn to her talent in jewellery making back then, I knew that she was a treasure and kept my eyes on her. I think back to all those phone calls I made to check in over the years and wonder at how she could stand me asking about her art and progress. I wasn’t a customer after all; just an agent and promoter keeping tabs on her. Through my eyes, I knew that she was something special. I am really pleased that I kept in touch as today, she is the first feature artist of 2016 in my studio and gallery in North Vancouver.

If you haven’t met Marilyn, I will tell you that behind the stunning pieces is a truly wonderful woman who is not only a talented artist but an accomplished professional, mother and community member. Marilyn McKee is a member of the Tsit Gitanee (Eagle) clan of the Haida Nation, whose roots are from the islands of Haida Gwaii; world famous for its natural beauty and talented artists. Aside from creating, Marilyn is an active mother and grandmother and contributes to the community regularly. She is currently the President of Raycam Community Centre; the only community center in the Lower Mainland to offer free programs for kids and adults. She has been with the organization for over 10 years and has done everything from leading art projects to sewing 50 Halloween costumes.

Since a child, Marilyn has always had an artistic ability. Even when asking her about her work and photographing her for this article, her childlike joy and wonder shine through in her smile and in the way she talks about her work. She is at ease with her imagination and an innocence about her talent has stayed within her spirit. She is inspired by traditional stories and moulds them into her art with a modern twist, incorporating Celtic design, Fairies and mermaids amongst more traditional Northwest Coast elements. Her most popular are the Fairies; which are breathtaking in both jewellery and paintings to say the least.

As an artist myself, I feel privileged to have seen her art evolve into an array of beautiful works ranging from jewellery, drums, and paintings. I look forward to sharing our space with her essence this month; not only because of the beauty of the works but also to see an another artist’s work through my eyes and through those of our visitors.

Unafraid and experimental with her work, MAB Art Studio & Boutique Gallery is pleased to have Marilyn McKee as the January 2016 feature artist. Her use of many unconventional methods in her artwork result in a fresh look at the knowledge and richness her Haida culture.

For more information, please visit Mab Art Studio

All pieces featured are listed in the Facebook.

Thank you to our sponsors BLUSH Vancouver Magzine and Twin Peaks Construction.

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Happy New Year to All!

This year has been an incredible one with so many new adventures into the Art World! Thank you all for your wonderful support, enthusiasm and of course, creativity! In 2015, we saw an amazing amount of expansion and growth.

Our first expansion was starting a new event in Toronto this year. It was truly an amazing event especially since we met a tremendous amount of aritsts, sponsors and community players. The calibre of artists in Toronto is wonderful to see and we are grateful for all the artists who participated. We are also looking forward to hosting the 2nd annual Art World Expo in Toronto and are inviting artists, galleries, and organizations to participate! If you are interested, or you know of an artist or group who would be, be sure to share our website!

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Our first Painting Dreams International Art Tour to south west France with a group of artists to the Dordogne area. What a wonderful opportunity to work with artists as well as experience French culutre, history and arts. The tour was not only incredible, but a very rewarding experience for Art World Expo as we made some amazing connections that will surely last a life time. Our second tour is scheduled for July-August 2016 and we are travelling to both France and Poland in conjunction with the European Capital of Culture in Wroclaw, Poland. If you are interested in a 12 day tour to either France or Poland, be sure to visit Painting Dreams Art Tours Info. We would love to see you participate in this international trip this year!

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A big huge thank you to all of our artists, sponsors, affiliates and volunteers for making 2015 one of the most memorable years to date! We look forward to 2016 and wish you all an abundant, creative and inspiring year ahead!