Horejs, J. Jason (2009). “Starving” to Successful:  The Fine Artist’s Guide to Getting Into Galleries and Selling More Art.”  RedDot Press, Phoenix, AZ.

 

Book Review by Jerry Buley, Pn.D.

 

Order from http://www.xanadugallery.com/Book/index.asp

 

Jason, the author/Scottsdale Gallery Owner, provides less established artists with a roadmap to success, if success is defined by selling original painting through a gallery.  That may very well define a large number of people, though I, as a photographer am mentioned only in passing.  His book is a compendium of his family history, what he has done for a living, and anecdotes about how to get into galleries.  Don’t get me wrong, Horejs makes good on his title, though he learned a lesson in college about how to write a term paper that looks long even though it isn’t by using  double space and wide margins. 

 

There are six sections to his book devoted to such large/general topics as “Laying the Groundwork,” “Establishing a Track Record of Sales,” “Finding and Successfully Approaching the Right Gallery for Your Work.”   Each section is divided from the next with an essentially blank page containing only the title of the section.  Each section subsumes several short chapters.  I would guess given all the padding that this 181 page book could have been produced in half the size.

 

There are more typos and misspellings than I am used to in a book.  They are there, I am sure, because the book has not had a professional proofreader.  It is undoubtedly a self-published, print-on-demand book.    I once heard a world-famous professor a the University of Colorado with an exciting mind in General Systems Theory and philosophy speak to a crowd of over a thousand.  He had a terrible stutter.  He could barely go three words without stopping and repeating a syllable several times.  It was painful to hear at first.  But the quality of his ideas soon was breaking through that barrier.  We listened around his stutter.  The same is true for Horejs’s book.  The quality of his knowledge shows through brightly. 

 

If you look past the grammatical errors, the typos, and the misspellings, you will find many gems of experiential knowledge.  It is the kind of knowledge that only a person who has been there, done that, can tell you.

 

One could attempt to analyze Horejs’s mind from what I have said in the past few paragraphs.  Why would someone with such good material try to make it look like it was bigger than it is.  I’ll leave that for others to digest.  The bigger point I want to get to is that this is a very valuable book that despite its college freshman attempts to fool the reader, gives aspiring painters exactly what they need.  There are some caveats along the way, but I’ll try to point them out as we go along.

 

After telling us something about his parents, primarily his father and his young life, he tells us the goal for his book at the end of the first chapter:  “My goal in these pages is to give you an understanding of the art business, a concrete plan for systematic preparation in approaching a gallery, and the necessary tools to cultivate a relationship with the gallery owner/director.  The express purpose of this work is to help you the “starving artist”, to sell your work by partnering with galleries.”

 

Rather than to reproduce the book in this review, I will instead point out some of the more interesting, to me at least, points he is making. In the first few chapters he suggests that I as an artist should continue to improve the quality of my work, realizing that I am creating a product that must fulfill the needs of a consumer.  For this reason, I must invest in quality materials through out the process from the canvas, the paint, the framing, wrapping for transportation and finally transporting to the new owner.  This is something many new artists forget.  Can you imagine the consternation of a buyer who perceives she/he has purchased a masterpiece only to have it arrive wrapped in old newspaper inside a reused cardboard box?

 

Along the way Horejs gives us the results from a survey he administered to “several hundred successful artists.”  There are some very interesting results, not the least of which is their answer to the question: “ What has been one of their most important educational experiences?”

 

Most people (35%) mentioned “association with other artists” to this close-ended question.  Joining a local art group is his suggestion.  Following closely behind is mentorships (34%), workshops (21%), academic training (07%), and online resources (03%).

 

He mentions several other educational experiences that were not mentioned in the questionnaire.  The most important of these, from my personal experience is to “Teach.”  Usually, we only think of the very best teaching those who still have many things to learn.  But, those who know only a little more about something, can teach those who do no yet know that thing.  The point is, teaching it makes it yours.  The felt responsibility that comes with teaching makes you learn something much better than you would ever learn it any other way.

 

Should you paint to follow the market or paint what you want.  Horejs says art work created out of passion sells better than that created to suit the market.

 

His survey suggests that artists selling $50,000 or more on average were  creating 79 original pieces a year.  That is 6.6 paintings a month.  In other words you would have to complete a painting in less than every five days.  That is daunting to many painters, particularly those who paint large detailed pieces.  Horejs doesn’t let up on this however.  He even makes several suggestions about how a painter can go about doing this.

 

I want to stop here for a moment and talk about Horejs’s perspective.  He is a gallery owner, who carries only originals.  Many gallery owners these days also carry high quality giclee’s.   Some ONLY carry giclees.  I believe the market for giclees will increase dramatically over the short term.  I believe any artist who allows an original painting to go outside her/his studio without having a high quality image taken of it, is an idiot. 

 

As an artist you have reproducible rights to what you create.  Why not use those rights?  Why be a slave to galleries that carry only originals.  Understand that galleries that carry only originals might feel offended if a near-by gallery sells a giclee of an original they carry, for less money.  The issue is, however, who controls your reproduction rights; the gallery, or you?  One could argue that you could feasibly sell only giclees and save originals for those who want an original at a considerably higher price.

 

I know artists who not only have giclees made of their work, but also look for smaller images, in the details, in their larger pieces and have giclees made of them.  Why not?  The issue is one of transparency.  No, not transparency of the material in your media, but transparency in the sense of being forthright with the gallery owner and the buyer about what you are doing.  Every giclee must be clearly labeled as such.  A detail of a larger pieces should be clearly labeled as a “detail on giclee of xxxx.”

 

I know another “artist” who sells giclees of her beautiful Mexican motif paintings as originals.  On each giclee she dabs a bit of paint here and there and then signs it with a flourish.  “There,”  she says, “another original.”  This is no less than theft by my notion.

 

Okay, back to Horejs’s book.  He has interesting discussions of how many pieces you should have in inventory, about how to “brand” your work, and how to price your work with confidence.  This last section is of particular value to  young artists.  Ultimately he suggests you must use a formula of some sort usually based on the number of square inches in a piece.  He includes specific information for various kinds of artists about how they might do this.

 

He makes a point about photographers that bears discussion here.  He suggests that in photography there is no original.  Because of this, he suggests that the price for a given picture should be determined by dividing the square inch formula answer by the number of copies to be made from the picture. 

 

As a photographer, I can tell you first, that how many copies she/he will make of a given picture is unknown.  I have made a single copy of many of my pictures.  My gallery owners don’t want another copy of the same picture.  They want a new picture. 

 

So, using Horejs’s formula I would sell one picture for a much reduced price based on copies I might never sell.  Second, even though I attempt to color control everything in my process from the camera to the monitor, to the printer, I rarely can reproduce a given picture exactly.  The image is the same, but the colors are not exactly the same.  So, is it the same image?  Just a thought.  These are questions every artist struggles with if they create giclees.

 

Horejs rightly suggests that you organize your inventory.  In fact, he has a software program that you can use to do that.  I purchased the software and it is actually very good.  I would recommend it for those who are less computer savy.  For those who have an affinity for computers there are inventory and data base programs out there that are much more sophisticated, though I am not sure I would call them “better.”

 

Horejs strongly suggest that when you sign  your work do not date it.  You can keep the date in your inventory program, and you can put a date code on the back, but dating your work makes it less saleable.  Some buyers seeing a 3-year-old work may pass it by for something more contemporary.  I have stopped dating my work based on this.

 

Similarly, do not place a price on the work itself.  Again, keep the price in the inventory program and perhaps in code on the back.  What happens six months from now if you have to increase your prices and there on the back written in cold numbers is the old price for the picture?

 

Among many other things Horejs goes on to talk about the relative importance or unimportance of such things as business card (not important), brochures (not important), postcards (not important), artist statement (yes), Resume (Yes), and Bio (YES!)   But, you’ll have to read the book to find out why.

 

By the way, there are many interesting blogs and reviews on line of this book.  Google the title to find them.