About

ABOUT ME (ALYSON)

This is the greatest job ever! I completely enjoyed my ten years working in art museums, but this is way more cool.

I began consulting with artists informally 18 years ago as part of my position as a museum curator. When I left museums, my old artist-friends continued coming to me for help and advice. Everyone wanted an agent! A little research into that field led me to conclude that I wouldn’t be doing artists any favors by doing all of the work for them. Instead, I decided to teach them how. You know the Chinese proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

I guess that’s what I enjoy doing most—Teaching artists to fish!

The neat thing is that almost everything I teach artists to do, I’m doing myself for my business. See? The art business isn’t so different from the rest of the world. We all need to know how to promote ourselves and our businesses—online and off. To that end, I keep up with marketing, business, and artworld goings-on. And I started this blog in 2004 so I could understand blogging an help my clients better understand WHY they needed a blog and WHAT to do with it.

Here’s something else you need to know: My work is deeply affected by my ten years in the art museum. Affected in a good way. Affected in a way that really helps my clients. I have loads of experience working with collectors as well as the general art-viewing public. That means that I know how people interact with art, how they approach it, what they fear, and how we can educate them and alleviate their fears. When you and I work together, I use this knowledge to shape the presentation of your work.

You also benefit from my experience working in the U.S. Senate. What, you may ask, does that have to do with art?! Well, I learned from THE BEST politician around. I know how to form and nurture relationships to get results. And if you don’t think politics play a role in the artworld, think again.

On the off chance that you’ve read this far, my undergraduate and graduate degrees are in art history, although I started as a painting major. For some reason, I got a kick out of sitting in those dark rooms looking at slides. If you have the time or are extra curious, you can read the long story of how I got here on my vita (PDF file).

Kurt Christian, Dumb Campers, 2002, oil on canvas. Hangs near my office. ©The Artist

My work is inspired by artists I come across every day—in cyberspace and in galleries. I’m surrounded by an office with cadmium-red walls (yep, redder than this page!) with glossy giant polka dots I added to make me smile. I rest my arms on a black steel desk, which I commissioned from artist Jay Haen and stare at a library replete with books on artists’ careers, making money, contemporary art, women’s art, textiles, and other favorite areas of study. The beautiful Rocky Mountain foothills peek through my window, while my home is filled with artwork by my dear friends Gail Frasier, Kurt Christian, David Castle, Pam Caidin, and Gloria Abella de Duncan. If you’re here long enough, you’ll run into a bizarre pair of tropical-themed lamps that my grandmother picked up in Hollywood in the 1940s (you wouldn’t believe they were hers if you had met her!).

When I’m not in my office, you might catch me hiking in the foothills or in the Rockies; skiing in Crested Butte; cooking; watching the Food Network or an Oklahoma Sooners football game; or gardening. I was born in Great Falls, MT; raised in Oklahoma City, OK; went to undergraduate school in Laramie, WY and Norman, OK (BA in art history); worked in Washington, DC; went to graduate school in Austin, TX (MA in art history); and now happily call Colorado home.

Please keep reading to find out about the amazing women who help me run ArtBizCoach.com and the Art Biz Blog.

Shari Cornish & Gigi

ABOUT SHARI

Shari Cornish helps me respond to email, fulfill orders, make sure people receive their subscription, and much more.

For more than 20 years, Shari has worked as an artist and surface designer. Since 1995 she has been creating of a line of rugs and carpets domestically. Her designs have been commissioned and collected internationally by individuals, corporate collections and museums. They can be seen at the Shari Cornish website.

In 2004 Shari’s artwork and “other life” merged and she became self-employed. As an independent contractor she works from her home office both as an artist and creative virtual assistant (VA). As a VA, Shari can help me from afar with my needs. She’s in Vermont! If you’re more curious about how VA’s work, I invite you to read the Wikipedia definition.

As a creative virtual assistant, Shari partners with other creative professionals and organizations to provide ongoing organizational and administrative support. It is because of her background as an artist and her administrative skills that I have asked her to help make ArtBizCoach.com run smoothly as it grows.

Shari is a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri and Assist University.

Email Shari

ABOUT PAT

Patricia J. Velte

Pat Velte is my right-hand, go-to Web guru. Honestly, she’s the best thing that’s happened to me. I do most of the Web stuff myself because I learned HTML about ten years ago. But Pat is WAY smarter than I when it comes to Web design. She helps me deliver the Art Marketing Action newsletter each and every Monday. She is also my first resource for design approval.

Pat lives in Oklahoma City and oversees Whitewing Design. She is a birder extraordinaire, as evidenced by her Backyard Birdcam website. She is one of the nicest people you could ever work with. Just ask any of the many artists whose sites she has built and maintained.

Kelly Johnson

ABOUT KELLY

Kelly Johnson came into my life at just the right time! As a virtual assistant who specializes in working with authors, Kelly helps me with my blog tour, posting articles online, and more.

Kelly lives just down the road from me in Parker, Colorado, but I can’t tell you where she’s from. She went to ten different schools growing up and has, at one time or another, called all of the following home: Pennsylvania, Texas, New Jersey, California, North Carolina, New Mexico, and Michigan.

As owner of Cornerstone Virtual Assistance, Kelly manages a variety of tasks for her clients, including Web site maintenance, proofreading and creating newsletters/ezines, online article submissions, book publishing support, podcasting, event coordination, set up and maintenance of shopping carts, presentation support, and teleseminar support.

I felt a special affinity for Kelly when she told me that she, too, embraces a two-cat lifestyle.

Kelly has her degree in English from the University of Northern Colorado, and is also a graduate of Assist University.

Email Kelly