Independent Artist Showcase 2019

Independent Artist Showcase 2019

Each week I write a brand new article for members of our three wonderful groups on Facebook, The Artists Exchange, The Artists Directory, and The Artist Hangout. This week we need to spread the message about the great art that is created by independent visual artists and if you are one, how you can be featured on this website in my new artists showcase series which will run throughout 2019!

The Underdog…

Every so often I feel compelled to continue telling the story of independent visual artists. I like to constantly bang this drum and it is one I have been banging for a long time now. Not only because I am an independent artist myself but because I truly believe in what these artists represent, what they do, and I’m interested in their stories. I would prefer it if there was no need to bang this particular drum but as an artist I know I have a responsibility to do just that, I think as artists whether we are represented or not, we all have some responsibility.

Independent and local and unrepresented visual artists are the lifeblood of communities around the world and some of the hardest working creatives you could ever wish to meet. Whenever I can, I love to give something back to those artist communities and give each  of those artists the recognition that they deserve but they don’t always get. I would love to do more, I think we all should. 

Lots of people love to root for the underdog. The bold and the brave who step out and challenge the norm, but in art it’s somehow different. For as long as art history has been history we have been conditioned to think that there are only a few linear paths that one must take to be officially recognised and celebrated as an artist. 

You have to have attended this fine art school or that one, and you have to know your place in the gallery world, be represented and critiqued by the very best and most respected names, and if you don’t then you can’t be an artist or you won’t be taken seriously. You have to be found and discovered and if you can add a struggle or two in as well it all adds to the story and sells your work. You have to have some provenance. You have to make the numbers add up. 

That element of the art world and those perceptions still exist today and always will, but it is a very small element of the entire art world. The fog of these perceptions is starting to clear away and more and more artists are thriving even without representation or having been through formal arts education and surprisingly a lot of independent artists have, but whether they have or haven’t doesn’t make them any lesser of an artist. 

That fog still lingers, but more and more I am starting to see independent artists and creatives being celebrated, but it’s still nowhere near often enough so it’s important that we collectively keep banging those drums. 

Art is not supposed to be universally liked or even universally appreciated, it is supposed to provide you with an alternative view, give you a feeling or an emotion. It shouldn’t matter who the work was created by or where the artist learned their craft. But art and artists are often viewed with perceptions instead of seeing them for what they really are. 

For many working artists who go undiscovered and unrepresented and away from the world of galleries and canapés, it is quite unfathomable that one day our work might be seen as important and take its own place in art history. But art history has taught us that this happens over and over again. Unknown artists become known, unknown artworks become discovered. 

Art is only ever temporary unless someone has loved it enough to remember that we created it, but they can’t do that if they don’t know that the art or the artist is there. We strive to make each work better than the last and hope that one day someone wants to buy that little piece of us we call our art. 

Some of the most innovative works of the last decade that have inspired me to carry on and get better at doing what I do in my own art practice haven’t come from hugely commercially successful artists at all, they have come from artists who are doing the day job and then working on perfecting their craft in between shifts or juggling whatever life throws at them. They have their own stories and often they’re as compelling as any story Hollywood could write. 

I have written so many times before why everyone and every community need to support their local artists, the great work they do in those communities, the beauty and insight they provide through their work, and I have written frequently about what those artists can bring to local economies. 

There is a place for the galleries and there is a place for those who don’t go down this path, but if we really want to change perceptions of the great work that independent artists do, we have to change the game. 

Let’s change the game…

There are no one size fits all models of doing the business of selling our art, but instead of trying to win the game, we have to do what we can to change the game. We have a responsibility as independent creatives to educate the world about what we do, we need to tell our stories and find our people, and we have to recognise that we really are all in this together. None of us has a voice as big as the voice that is needed, but collectively we probably do.

So this week I am going to add my tiny voice to the work of independent visual artists and launch a brand new series of articles that showcases the work and talents, and starts to tell the stories about what we as independent artists do and who we are. 

I’m not going to make a promise that you will be discovered or that your art will suddenly start to sell, but what it will do is give you somewhere else that your story can be told, your art can be seen, and maybe, the right eyes will eventually see it. It’s a collective effort and to an extent even an art project in itself. I can only do this together with you though. 

So if you are an independent visual artist and would like to be considered to appear in your own feature here on this site, let me know!

I can’t promise either that every artist will be published but I will do my best to try. I run this site and my art practice alone so can’t always immediately respond but if you want to be considered for inclusion I really do need you to let me know!

All I will need from you is a link to your website or online store if you are selling via print on demand, together with a short write up about you, your story, and your art. A picture helps so ideally an image which doesn’t have to be super-high resolution, 1200x800 or similar usually works fine, and if you do apply a watermark, please make sure that it doesn’t overly detract from the image. 

If you could also include any social media links that would be fantastic and might get you a few more page likes, but please make sure that Facebook links are to your Facebook business pages and not to your personal profiles. If you haven’t got a Facebook business page yet, they are free to create and I can’t begin to tell you how useful they are to artists, but you do have to work hard at keeping them up to date. I’ve written about business pages here on this site many times so take a look through the archives or search for Facebook Business Pages. 

You can use the contact form on this site to get in touch or reach out to me on Facebook by liking my Facebook page right here.  

Please note though that I live in a part of the world that might be in a different time zone to the one you are in and sometimes I can’t respond immediately. I’m in the UK so chances are that time-wise, I will be either ahead of you or behind you, so responses through Facebook Messenger might not get seen as quickly as an email. That’s also in part because I turn Messenger off when I’m not available due to having to do that life thing and sometimes I have to sleep and that dreadful ping sound Messenger makes wakes me up. Oh, and if you’re going to do that, make sure there’s a coffee in your hand ready and waiting for me!

If you are working independently in the arts and are not practicing as an artist, maybe you run classes in the local community or run activities related to the arts, then please let me know about those too! I want this to be about support independent arts and artists but also the independent businesses and events supporting the arts too. It doesn’t matter if what you are working on is happening in Delhi or Arkansas, your idea might be something that could spread the love of art somewhere else around the world too. 

If you are represented in a gallery then sorry, this time around the focus will be on independent visual artists who don’t currently have representation only, but I will be looking at showcasing represented artists in the future. 

And if this project is something that you feel you can get behind and lend some support to, perhaps letting other independent visual artists know or sharing their stories when they appear, that would be helpful to every artist who makes it into the showcase. The showcase articles will appear frequently if enough artists get in touch, and hey this is going to be an embarrassing article if they don’t, although they might not appear every week unless there are lots and lots of artists to cover! I’ll still be writing my usual articles and insights in between.

If you are a gallery and see an artist you would like to represent throughout the series, please use the contact links each artist provides and deal directly with them. My role is simply to connect the dots, publish the posts, let the world know about the artists work and enjoy some beautiful art. If you do find an artist then you can always buy me a coffee or purchase a piece of my own art!

So please don’t be shy, let’s see if over the coming year we can collectively come up with our ultimate dream gallery of hardworking independent artists that anyone would be proud to hang the work of on their walls! Jenn, thank you, and I already have your story to share! 

About Mark…

I am an artist and blogger and live in Staffordshire, England. You can purchase my art through my Fine Art America store or my Pixels site here: https://10-mark-taylor.pixels.com   

Any art sold through Fine Art America and Pixels contributes towards to the ongoing costs of running and developing this website. You can also view my portfolio website at https://beechhousemedia.com 

You can also follow me on Facebook at: https://facebook.com/beechhousemedia where you will also find regular free reference photos of interesting subjects and places I visit. You can also follow me on Twitter @beechhouseart and on Pinterest at https://pinterest.com/beechhousemedia 

If you would like to support the upkeep of this site or maybe just buy me a coffee, you can do so right here!