criticism

The Art Biz ep. 14: Quantifying Quality in Art: Elaine Kehew

Everyone says that there’s no such thing as a negative review. That any media attention is good media attention.

That’s easy to say until someone slams your work.

In this episode of the Art Biz Podcast, I’m at the big table with Elaine Kehew, who shares the story of a negative review she received last year and the resulting journey to improve the quality of her art.

The critic who rankled her was someone she knew and trusted, so she took his comments to heart. And they hurt.

This isn’t a story about perfectionism. Perfectionism is crippling, Elaine says. It’s not about aesthetics or beauty. It’s about Elaine’s quest to quantify the quality of her work – to ensure that it is getting better.

Elaine is a repeat student of the Art Biz Accelerator, a class in which my students set goals. When I read that Elaine’s #1 goal for the year is to improve the quality of her painting, I asked her how she would measure that. After all, goals are supposed to be measurable so you know when you achieve them.

This led Elaine to explore quality – particularly the research being done around quality management in the 1990s and early 2000s. (In her previous life, Elaine was a researcher for a law firm.)

Listen as Elaine opens up about what happened after her negative review and shares 8 targets she has identified to improve the quality of her paintings.

The Art Biz ep. 14: Quantifying Quality in Art: Elaine Kehew Read

Katie O'Sullivan, Chimeras and Oracles

Your Biggest Fear of All

Building a business is exciting and scary for anyone who undertakes the task.

Building an art business is even scarier because your artwork is so personal. It’s not like you’re making widgets. You’re baring your soul to the world.

You’d be crazy not to be a little scared.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve coached clients with the following fears:

  • Fear of setting boundaries with a spouse. (It ended up that the spouse wanted the same thing. What a relief to have the conversation!)
  • Fear of public speaking, and knowing that it is necessary when you get to a certain level with your art.
  • Fear of the next step when you’ve reached what you always thought would be the pinnacle of your career.
  • Fear of too much success and being overwhelmed.

The fears I have in my business:

Your Biggest Fear of All Read

Julie Anderson artist

You Are Not Your Art

One of my coaching mentors used to say that she couldn’t separate business coaching from personal coaching. “It’s all personal,” she would say.
If you read enough business motivation, you will come across attempts to help coach you through rejection and criticism with some form of the following. . . . “You are not your business.” . . .

You Are Not Your Art Read

Is Your Art Good or Garbage?

If you want to reach a higher level in your art career, there must be someone around who can tell you what’s good and what’s garbage. Or does there? In 2005 NPR aired a 4-part series on flops. In part 3, they discussed the aftermath of failure – specifically, what happens when a movie flops.

Is Your Art Good or Garbage? Read

The Oreo approach to criticism

As you know, the Oreo® is a cookie with two chocolate wafers on the outside and light, creamy filling on the inside. When you’re critiquing someone’s art or marketing materials, think of the chocolate wafers (the parts that hold the whole together) as praise. The fluffy stuff in the center is where you can offer room for improvement.

The Oreo approach to criticism Read

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Your Artist Mailing List: Rethinking + Assessing

Get a transcript of episode 182 of The Art Biz (Rethinking Mailing Lists for Artists) followed by a 3-page worksheet to evaluate the overall health and usage of the 3 types of artist lists.

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