Fresh Rx.4 with Kesha Bruce

Fresh Rx.4 is an excerpt from Cathy Byrd Talks Art Talk
with Kesha Bruce. Click here to listen to the skype podcast posted on February 10, 2012.

How am I going to get everything done?

An emerging artist, Chicago

This is one of my favorite topics, something that I cover often with consulting clients. It’s not easy. You have to make, market and sell your work. Unless you are very careful, it gets overwhelming really quickly. You have only a certain amount of time in the day to allot to all these activities.

I’m really a big fan of sitting down and writing out a formal structure. That’s part of my personal strategy. But this is not just about when you make art. It’s about how you will fit your creative practice into the rest of your life.You need to establish a schedule and a structure for each day and have routines that then become a habit. Setting parameters is how you begin to build your career.

Here’s a model scheduling strategy from my blog. You can tailor it to fit your life.

 I'm here to help. Send me your questions! freshartinternational@gmail.com
 Kesha Bruce

Fresh Rx.1 with Kesha Bruce

Solutions to Your Creative Dilemmas

When do I need a web presence, 
and how should it look?

Unknown poet, Prince Edward Island

If you have a body of work to promote and you’re ready to begin the process of getting it in front of people, then this is the perfect time to start thinking about building a website. But the when isn’t nearly as important as the how. Above all, your web presence—whether it be a full website or a blog—absolutely needs to be professional and well designed. Too many Creatives make the mistake of spending time, energy and money on sites that not only display their work poorly, but also aren’t designed to promote and market their work.

The basics:

About or Bio page—This is not the time to hide behind your work. Introduce yourself in a way that gives website visitors the chance to get to know the person behind the work. Your well-crafted bio and professional portrait go a long way towards building a connection to on-line visitors.

Contact Information—If, after viewing your work, a website visitor wants to contact you, but can’t easily find your e-mail address, or phone number, they’ll likely leave and never come back. Make it easy for people to get in contact with you. If you get this part wrong, all of your other hard work will have been in vain.

Portfolio—This is the place to show a small selection of your best and most current work. You don’t need to include everything you’ve ever created here. You only need to show enough work to give a viewer an entryway into your work.

Sign-Up Form—What do you want a website visitor to actually do once they’ve finished viewing your site? How do you intend to get back in touch with them once they click away? A sign-up form of some sort is a simple and easy means to collecting visitors' contact information so that you can invite them back to your website or to an actual event long after they’ve wandered off to another part of the cyber world.

No matter what your field or medium, a website can and should be more than an on-line portfolio. The entire purpose of the website is to introduce yourself, present your work in the best way possible, and most importantly, to begin building relationships with the people that visit your site.

On-line Resources:

Easy and Affordable websites: OtherPeoplesPixels

Sign-up form and mailing list software: Mailchimp

Send me your questions. I'm here to help! Kesha Bruce: freshartinternational@gmail.com