Fidelis Art Prints

Pushing Boundaries. Photographic story-telling, Silver & Light by Ian Ruhter

Karen — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 21:03:30 +0000

SILVER & LIGHT from Ian Ruhter on Vimeo.

I wanted to share this inspirational and very popular link to Vimeo video: “Silver & Light” by Ian Ruhter. It’s about one mans desire to build, create and share something amazing. It’s an investment in time, talent and money, that’s sure to be worth the effort. Living life beyond our personal comfort-zone is always difficult, but it is “in the doing” of extraordinary projects, such as this, that truly special things happen.

Ian’s work and his video don’t discuss fine art printmaking in the way we usually approach things on the Fidelis Art blog. However, in a special way Ian’s story IS about printmaking, and importantly about telling stories through photography—that’s what I like about it. Photographs whether they are digital or wet-based are often for the benefit of telling a story. Ian demonstrates that a great story can be formed from passion and a desire to push our boundaries. Watch this video to learn about Ian’s journey and the people and places where he is creating his large-format artwork. In his own words,

“This project was created with the same spirit that america was founded on. Our intentions are to connect everyone in america through the lens of this camera and social networking sites. We can’t do this without you. We want to tell your story and show your city or town through photographs of you, and people you know. As we travel around america looking for people and places to shoot you will be able to keep track of where we are going and help us decide where we go next.”

Many of you will relate to the passion that is demonstrated by Ian and his team. I hope this ambitious Silver & Light project will inspire you in your pursuit push some boundaries, take-on new opportunities, and in the words of Seth Godin, “Go make something happen!”.

Join Ian on his journey by Liking his Facebook page. Maybe if we get enough Canadian’s offering support, he’ll come to see us?

Facebook Timeline for Visual Artists: 7 Essential Features for Marketing Your Art

Karen — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 23:47:43 +0000

The Facebook Fan page continues to be a viable tool for building an audience and engaging with fans of your art. If you haven’t build a Fan Page, now is the time to invest a morning (1-2hrs max.) to get one set-up. If you already have Fan Page you will be excited to learn that FB has added some new features in their re-design and format-change called “Timeline”.

Timeline will be applied to both personal Profiles and Fan pages, and it’s expected to offer increased viewer participation, entertainment value and overall user enjoyment.

This post is a reminder that as of March 30, 2012 FB will automatically change over all sites to fit the new format. Facebook is allowing you to preview what your new Timeline will look like, if you’re happy with the results, you can publish your new Timeline in advance of March 30th.

To help you get started, here’s a list of seven features that are essential for marketing your art.

1. Cover Photo: The largest change is the physical look of the page. Timeline provides a large placeholder for a single photograph or image. This is a particularly great feature for visual artists, as it provides an opportunity to feature a specific artwork. Feel free to create a collage of several artworks (in Photoshop) or feature your most popular piece.

Tip: Images for uploading need to be cropped to a panoramic format, no larger than 851×315 pixels in size. Feel free to overlay text with your copyright or embed your name, however, do not include pricing or a call to action (This is no permitted by FB and could get your Page blacklisted).

2. The profile picture is now placed within the Cover photo. Just like the previous profile or page, this is a great place to feature a photograph of you. If you are using a business or gallery name, use this placeholder for a logo. Profile images need to be cropped square and sized at a minimum of 180×180 pixels.

3. The side menu is gone. There’s a new feature called “Views”, found directly under the Cover photo. This is where you’ll find your photos, events, Likes and apps. Only a few of these window can be seen (without scrolling). Facebook allows you to reorganized these in priority, so make sure your “Photos” (likely your portfolio) are in the first two slots.

4. Under your Profile picture, is your “About” content. This will need to be carefully crafted as it is now placed front and centre for your viewers. This is a good place to include your website link and contact information.

5. The Admin Panel (seen above) is a new feature located at the top of your Page. Here is the place you can connect with your audience. Read client private messages, see who’s been active on your Page in the Notifications and New Likes. When you have 31 Likes you also have the use of collecting user data through Facebook Insights.

Tip: At the top of your Admin panel there’s a new feature under “Manage”. In this pull-down menu, you can choose to “use Facebook as your Page”. This is particularly helpful, because it allows you to communicate using the “voice” of your business, instead of your personal profile.

6. Organizing Content within your Timeline. Here’s where things get fun! Your new stream allows you to organize your posts so you can feature the items that are most important. Your old posts should come through with the transition to Timeline, you’ll see them arranged in 2 columns. They are also sorted by year.

Customize how your posts will appear and when, by clicking on a post to reveal a STAR and a PEN in the top right corner of your post. Select the STAR if you want the post to appear in 2 columns wide (seen left). You can fine tune your dates so that your posts appear in an order that creates better flow or helps with a story timeline.

In order to edit the content of your post, go to the Admin panel. Under Manage, select “Activity Log”. Here you’ll see a complete list of all your posts (public and private). Find the post you want to edit and make the changes to your text.

Tip: Promoting your upcoming exhibit? Also under the PEN tool inside each post, you’ll see an option “Pin to Top”. By selecting this your post will move to the top of your Timeline and remain there for 7 days (or longer if you renew during that period).

7. Last but not least, always add positive, useful and informative content. Share progress photos, locations you are scouting, artworks and people that inspire your creativity. The more connected your audience is with you, the more likely they will purchase your art.

A few more tips:

• Your Facebook Page is ideal for sharing what you create with your friends and family. Use this tool often by designing stories that will start conversations. Ask for feedback and allow your visitors to talk about their experiences with you and how your art makes them feel.

• Add videos. There are huge stats that suggest video’s are appreciated (and shared) by most FB users.

• Review all the privacy features. Note that you can single-out who sees what post by using the PEN tool when you click your post. This allows you to share slightly more personal artwork with friends, while still sharing exhibition and announcements with the public.

• Keep your posts to 11 words long.

• Post 1 main story per week (PIN to the top of your timeline).

Social commerce is the way of the future for selling your art. Your Facebook Timeline is free and easy to use—don’t overlook this great business opportunity.

Fred Herzog: A Retrospective – Launches Equinox’s new Project Space in Vancouver

Karen — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:37:56 +0000

On until March 17, 2012

Equinox Project Space – 525 Great Northern Way, Vancouver

Our friend, and one of Vancouver’s most celebrated photographers, Fred Herzog is on exhibit at the new Equinox Project Space in East Vancouver. Since attending Fred’s show at the Vancouver Art Gallery, I have not had the pleasure of seeing so many of his photographs in one place—WOW! This exhibition is a must-see for all Vancouverities, photographers and artists.

Seen here: Alan (left) with Fred (right)—an exciting event for everyone.

“For almost half a century Fred Herzog has been photographing street scenes in colour. One of the early masters of colour photography, Herzog’s photographs demonstrate that colour photography is not the addition of colour to a traditional approach but an autonomous means of expression. His virtuosic handling of colour is early evidence that the medium of colour photography is governed by its own principles, and that colour is just as important for the impact of a photograph as its composition and content.”
Claudia Gochman

My favorites:

Granville/Robson 1959

Lucy/Georgia 1968

Spotlight on Artist Fred Herzog, “Pioneer of Color Photography

Film & Book Launch for Vancouver Photographer, Fred Herzog

Picks of the Week #2: Must-have tools for building your audience

Karen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:31:33 +0000

www.youtube.com/watch?v=evIH8sFqw4I

Links to industry experts talking about the Creative Commons, Pinterest, Tumblr and Google+. Cultivating your community has never been so easy.

Featured in this post is a fantastic video with HDR photographer/artist, Trey Ratcliff (stuckincustoms.com). Trey shares how he successfully uses the Creative Commons to promote and market his work. He also shares his feelings on why “escaping the peer bubble” is necessary for artistic growth.

We’ll also link you to a tutorial for setting-up a Google+ Profile and Page. Plus two very cool applications for the exhibiting and sharing your art: Facebook Timeline and Pinterest.

Social media marketing isn’t for everyone, however, with so many options out there you’re sure to find one that suits your personal style, time demands and art business. Get started, follow these links to various experts and put their tips to work growing your community of admirers!

Marketing and Social Media “Must-Reads”

8 Bold Resolutions For Marketers: Read about trail-blazing marketers such as Cablevision, Eloqua, Fandango, IBM, and PetCo; and learn what they have on their “must do” list for 2012. “Cultivating a community” and using Facebook for more than an advertising channel are just two great ideas to consider for your art business.

Learn how to use Facebook to get people to talk about your art business online. This is a 60min. (on-demand) webinar, brought to you by Hubspot.com. Go get a coffee (or tea) and take in this informative webinar.

Tell your story with the new Facebook Timeline This is a creative and unique format for sharing works in progress and for providing your followers with snapshot of your career (past exhibitions, artworks and media coverage).

Your essential guide to Google+ (Wordtracker.com) If Google is truly the big brother of the internet, you really can’t afford not to get involved in this product. There are many photography circles on G+. Definitely a great place to mingle with like-minded creatives. And don’t forget to join my fine art circle on G+ !

Is Pinterest the new social commerce game changer? Learn about Pinterest and how it can drive traffic to your website.

5 Tips for Building Brand Fidelity on Tumblr In this post by Marketingprof.com, Tumblr experts note that photo-based posts on Tumblr get the most “reposts”. Tumblr is a perfect home for your photography and art collection—and it’s free.

Productivity

10 Benefits of early rising - and how I do it. Leo Babauta (Zenhabits.com) has lots to share in this post about early rising, productivity and starting your day on a positive note.

Are you faking progress? Read this authentic post by personal development coach Steve Pavlina. Learn how you can find a balance between study, effort, practice and real-world results.

Get rewarded for working less. Productivity boosters and advice from The 40-Hour Workweek

Karen — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:01:25 +0000

Since watching that fantastic interview with Tim Ferriss on ChaseJarvisLive.com, one of my New Year resolutions was to read Ferriss‘s best-selling book ” The 4-Hour Workweek. I’m not planning to become an internet sales mogul. But, I am attracted to the idea of being more efficient with the time I spend on work related projects.

In this post I’m going to talk about productivity.
We’ll share new ways for setting priorities and designing a lifestyle (a new work-style), so that you can spend more time doing what you love to do.

Personally, I define productivity by “quality output per time spent”. I’m in search of my best case scenario: work well, work less, achieve more free time. Everyone has their own definition of productivity, I also like Steve Pavlina’s approach. He writes:

“Adopt your own definition of productivity, such that your pursuit of greater productivity becomes a personal quest that produces the value that matters most to you.”

I’m excited about sharing with you what I’ve learned from reading ” The 4-Hour Workweek”. I’ve deployed several of Tim’s recommendations and I’m seeing the results in my productivity already!

Inspired by “The 4-Hour Workweek” here’s my list of productivity boosters:

• Choose one thing from your list and ask yourself, “If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied?”. This has really helped me prioritize.

• Identify and eliminate interaction with the people and commitments that make you feel starved for time. This sounds a bit ruthless, but sometimes we need to re-evaluate our relationships (business and personal) to make sure they are truly beneficial. Business groups, volunteering and coaching can easily consume a week or a weekend, leaving no time for family and friends. It’s a delicate balance that we need to strive for.

• Remove distractions and frequent interruptions by focussing on getting your most important work done before noon each day. I get my exercise in before 8am, I check my email for 5 min in the morning (for emergencies) and I don’t answer the phone. It feels great to have 80% of my day done before noon.

• Stop multi-tasking. I’ve found that by choosing to do items separately, I am more focused and in turn I get the job done faster.

• Go on a “low-information diet”. I have unsubscribed from daily email broadcasts and limited reading the news to once, every two days.

• Batch tasks into blocks of time. Save on the interruptions and avoid becoming distracted. For example: Choose to check email twice per day, instead of every 5 minutes. If there’s an emergency, most people know to call you by phone. I’ve also made a habit of reading emails from friends and family only in the evenings. This allows me to give them my full attention and reply to them with more detail—instead of a few rushed words.

In this fast-paced world, we need to re-evaluate how much time we devote to “being busy with work”. Productivity isn’t about how many hours we “log-in each day”, it’s about producing quality work, in as little time as possible.

I hope you’ll give some of these productivity ideas a try. You’ll be rewarded with more time for family, friends and your art.

My pursuit for improved productivity has helped me generate more free time to spend with my family. That’s us (Al, myself and our families) in this posts photo.

What are you in pursuit of? What are you doing to be more productive and work less?

Top 12 Art Marketing Predictions for 2012

Karen — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:17:41 +0000

In 2011, the art industry experienced the first VIP Art Pair; we amazed over Google’s Art Museum project; social media became the mainstream for marketing art, galleries and creative projects; YouTube visitors increased by 47% and the ipad provided artists with new tools and a means for taking their portfolio on the road. With 2012 now here, what marketing trends should forward-thinking art marketers be focusing?

Here’s our Top 12 Marketing Predictions for 2012

1. Content Marketing is Key

Death of the brochure website means that artists will need to focus their efforts on regular content and communication. Hubspot recently released research stating “Companies that blog, have 55% more website visitors.” The artist website needs to become a content-based tool and a place to share knowledge with their customers and listen to their feedback.

2. SoPo (social personalization) will be on the rise

Experts at Marketingprofs.com predict that “keeping up with the Joneses” has never been so transparent. The power of referrals and recommendations will be fine-tuned and harnessed to encourage and persuade others to follow their friends’ leads. Artists who place emphasis on building multiple social networks to achieve “Likes”(Facebook), “+1′s” (Google +) , “FF” (Twitter) and referrals through professional networks such as Linkedin, will be best positioned for success in the months to follow.

3. Online Art Buying

It is only a matter of time before art collectors and décor enthusiasts trade in a trip to a physical storefront or gallery opening in exchange for an online buying spree with virtual friends via shared screens and video chats. This month brings the 2nd VIP Art Fair, which hopes to exceed last year’s success. I’m anxious to see them break attendance and sales records, setting a precedence for other art fairs and exhibitions to go virtual.

4. Social networks will become a more significant source of organic search traffic

As paid advertising increases, and companies like Facebook and Google customize the advertising (including the organic listings) to suit my previous searches, Likes and recommendations by my friends, I find that it gets harder and harder to get true search results. Social marketing activities that establish your locality and offer links to your branded website will no longer be optional; in 2012, they will become a necessary element of traffic-driving success.

5. Virtual Group Exhibitions and Collaboration

As more effective video-conference, document-share, online meet-ups, and various other online event technologies are introduced to the market, the ability to communicate and work within virtual groups will become ever-more common.

I recently attended a Google+ Hangout with HDR shooter, Trey Ratcliff (“Stuck In Customs”) where I was entertained by photographers from distant countries and continents brainstorming and sharing ideas virtually side-by-side. Skype, iChat and Hangouts are still very new, it’s exciting to think about how this technology will effect education, collaboration and art marketing in the year to come.

6. Personalized communication

In 2012, traditional email marketing will still reign. Focus to personalization, relevancy and less frequency will be important to its success. Automation services such as GetResponse and AWeber, will make it easier for Facebook users to sign-up to your newsletter, Twitter users to “Tweet-This” and assist you with capturing client preferences, follow-up with “Thank you’s” and personalize the delivery of news to your customers.

7. SoLoMo – a new and powerful combination

Where are you? What are you doing? Where are you shopping? Business2Community.com experts added SoLoMo (social location mobile) to their top 10 list. Saying that “Google’s Matt Cutts coined this term but it’s probably better explained by a recent example on Black Friday of this year. The New York Times reported that advertisers lured customers away and stole competitor sales while they were waiting in-line to make a purchase – an awesome combination of social, local and mobile all being used together.”

8. Globalization

Mobile Internet access continues to expand as more people will go online in 2012 than ever before. Language translation technology such as WordLens also makes it easier for people to read your website, email or advertisement in their own language. To make your online art business more global, set your site up with Google Analytics, to see which countries you are already attracting visitors from. Get to know your audience by creating special art pieces that meet the taste of this international audience, monitor the results. Use this knowledge to expand to other countries.

9. Every-option Commerce

Paying in person or by phone with a plastic credit card is probably going to go away someday; making 2012, your year to get your point of sale ready by accepting payments through PayPal, email-transfer or by enabling Google Wallet or a proprietary point-of-sale option. There are several plugins available for WordPress users, artists using other websites will need to expand their offerings, so that potential collectors can buy anytime of the day or night.

10. Video Marketing

Internet video is now 40 percent of consumer Internet traffic, and will reach 62 percent by the end of 2015 – Cisco

Internet video is still considered an untapped market. Some experts believe marketing your product on YouTube is one of the best ways to position your brand on page one and capture traffic online. Producing videos of your art, an exhibition, or in your studio will provide your audience a means for getting to know your art.

11. Branding

Use 2012 as the year to colorfully dress your brand, get a uniquely stylized logo, create a slogan and build a blog to lend contextual support. Naseem Javed, author of “Naming for Power” says dealing with exponential reality of 5 billion online users by 2020 has lead to the heated discussions about the adding of hundreds of Web suffixes beyond .com and .org. Mr. Javed talks about how will this affect your brand. How will you protect your if your url loses its uniqueness.

Experts say you should own the first three search engine pages of your name. Start working towards this goal by setting up, maintaining accounts and creating cross-links to every major directory, online listing and social media hub.

12. Mobile and Tablet Boom

I fully agree with Fiona McEachran of AbnormalMarketing.com. She says “There is no denying that we are quickly becoming a world of smartphone (iPhone, Android, Blackberry) users and Tablets (iPad, Xoom, Galaxy Tab, Asus). There are currently not many fisherman, but a whole lot of fish!”.

These devices are rapidly changing the way people are accessing information and spending their personal and professional time. Appleinsider.com reported last Wednesday that at least 4.2 million iOS devices were activated on Dec. 25 and 3.7 million Android devices activated on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Relatively inexpensive, intuitive and entertaining, these smart devices are becoming a must-have tool for the modern studio and business person. Seen in this post, an iPad used as an artist portfolio. Photo: Dodocase

What do you predict for 2012? Challenges? We’d like to hear from you.

Let Fidelis help you get started on a new art project for 2012

Working on a project, exhibition or interested in learning more about self-publishing?

How much will it cost to get started publishing my art?

Top 4 Reasons Why You Should Produce Limited Editions

10 Creative Business Card Ideas for Fine Artists

Happy Holidays

Karen — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:00:45 +0000

December/January Hours at Fidelis

Alan — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:26:26 +0000

December and January are shaping up to be extremely busy months, largely due to the holidays, but also due to some very large projects due in January. We thank you for all your business!

However, this means that in order to provide the best possible service from December 1, 2011 thru January 15th, 2012 we will be modifying our work schedule as follows:

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, we will be dedicated production days. We love you, but please no drop-in’s. On these days, our primary line of communication will be via email with Alan and Jan.

Have a new project to discuss? “Great!”

Consultations are set aside for Monday and Thursday from 10am – 3pm.Please call ahead for an appointment, as this window books up fast.

If you have an urgent project, we ask you to leave a voice message on the landline 604-872-0088, M-F between 9am-5pm. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible to arrange a time to meet.

We’ll be closed during the holidays - Friday, December 23 to January 2nd, 2012

Back to Business: Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Thank you for your patience as we work through this very busy exhibition and production schedule.

Sincerely,

Al, Jan and Karen

Why I love Twitter: 4 Good Reasons Why Your Art Business Needs Twitter

Karen — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:43:42 +0000

I must confess it took me a long time to warm up to Twitter. As an outsider Twitter looked like a tool for idle chit-chat. Really…who cares “what I’m up to?”

However, marketing guru’s started focussing their emphasis on how Twitter is a cost-effective tool for promoting sales events and building an audience. Always on the look out for cost effective marketing ideas, I started to wonder—How could Twitter help visual artists?

This past fall, I decided to dedicate 30 minutes a day to building my relationship with Twitter. Even though our relationship is relatively new, I can say without a doubt that I’m crushing on Twitter.

In this post I’ll share my findings and talk about how artists can use Twitter to grow their art business and cultivate new professional relationships.

Why I love Twitter

• Twitter was so easy to set up—Finally something I could set up without the help of my IT man. I was out there sharing news and gaining valuable information within my first hour!

• I’m getting regular feedback from artists, interior designers, following major galleries, hearing about art contests and artist submissions and reading feeds from leading art writers, collectors and magazines from all over the world—I have never felt so connected.

• I also love getting tweets from business writers and marketing mentors who notify me about new articles on their blogs, Youtube tutorials and links to other professionals I would never have found. I can browse the Tweets from several different writers at one time, then click through only on the stories that interest me.

Let me introduce you to Twitter

Twitter is a form of micro-blogging where anyone can instantly share messages of up to 140 characters. These messages, or Tweets, are available for reading by anyone interested in them. Twitter users subscribe to message (news) feeds by “following” an account (call sign). The @ sign before a name signifies an account name—ours is @fidelisart. Our followers receive our news messages in their “timeline”—a feed of all the accounts they have subscribed to.

Learn more about how Twitter works in this video: “Twitter in Plain English”

You may remember from a previous FAP post that I’m a fan of marketing & PR guru, David Meerman Scott. He tells the story about when his skeptic family confronted him at Christmas to explain why he used Twitter. He went to the source and Tweeted out the question. Read his interesting post “48 Ways to Explain Twitter to Skeptics” that shares what the Twittersphere sent back.

4 Good Reasons Why Your Art Business Needs Twitter

Artists need Twitter. As an art business you can use Twitter to quickly share information, gather market news and insights, and build relationships with people who care about your art. In our art business we’re focussing our Tweeter efforts on:

1. Sharing information: Immediately share current exhibitions, upcoming exhibitions, workshops, studio events. Third party Twitter User software (such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite) also let you “pre-schedule” announcements.

2. Building a list of followers. Twitter is fantastic for finding new and potential customers. I can learn about my followers by researching their Twitter profile. Twitter helps me sort them by their artistic preference or style—this allows me to communicate with them directly when I know we have something I think they will like or would like t hear about.

3. Collaborating and education with other like-minded artists and art professionals has been incredibly valuable. I really like that I can browse many Twitter feeds at one time, often getting advance warning about an event that we could participate.

4. Saving time. Twitter integrates with several other of our social media and can be done from anywhere. For example, I can tweet a short note about my art business from my iphone from anywhere in the world. In my phone, I use a third party app, that then posts my feed to our Twitter page, our Facebook Page and to our blog/website.

Get to Know Twitter Better – Articles Specifically for Artists

10 Twitter Tips for Artists

Artist’s Guide to Twitter

List of Artist’s Who Tweet (one of many)

Even though Twitter and I are still in the honeymoon phase, I can see that our relationship has lots of room for growth and that Twitter is not a passing phase—it’s here to stay. I realize that your time is very precious and encourage you to think of Twitter as a PR tool that works with your overall marketing effort. It only takes 10-30 mins a day.

To-date Twitter is the most effective, real-time way to drive the world to your art, whether it’s a physical show, your dealer or your website.

I hope you’ll consider spending some time getting to know Twitter, let me know what you think by taking our new Fidelis Poll.

And please look us up next time you are on Twitter, our Twitter handle is “@fidelisart“.

Picks of the Week #1: 7 Awesome Marketing and Creativity Links for Artists

Karen — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:40:48 +0000

Looking for inspiration or great tips for ramping up your marketing? Kick-start your week by visiting these awesome links to the experts.

“Picks of the Week” is a boiled-down list of awesome articles, stories and “web-finds” sure to get you pumped up for the week to come. This summary of awesome marketing and creativity advice for artists is sourced by pouring through hundreds of tweets and websites found through my “@fidelisart Experts List” (a list of experts I follow daily on Twitter).

This series is aimed at saving you time and providing you with valuable content and advice that is suited to you—the art marketer!

This weeks awesome links include an interview with marketing guru Seth Godin along with a great read on how to create the life you want (Chris Guillebeau) and “34 Portfolio Examples for Photographers” from our friends as DigitalPhotographySchool.com.

If you come across an article you think we should share with the Fidelis Art community, send me a tweet @fidelisart or post it on our Facebook Group Page.

7 Awesome Marketing and Creativity Links for Artists

1. “3 Ways to increase engagement with your Facebook Fans” by social media and branding strategist, Kim Garst. Kim is a great resource for learning how to use social media, gain followers, more traffic and make sales of your art.

2. “Successful Marketing Requires Behavior Change“ John Jantsch (ducktapemarketing.com) shares practical small business advice, insight and encouragement—perfect for artists!

3. Read this free e-book! “The Tower”: Explaining why we need to construct a life oriented around creative development. Chris Guillebeau, author of the Art of Non-conformity, is dedicated to personal development, entrepreneurship and life planning.

4. “Making contact with your hero’s: an interview with Seth Godin” by subvertmagazine.com. Anything about/with Seth Godin is worth your time.

5. “How Not to Put Your Foot in It When Creating a Photo Portfolio [With 34 Examples of How to Do it Right]“ From Digitalphotographyschool.com. This post is suitable for the beginner and advanced photographer who plans on showing their work.

6. “5 Things to try when the creativity isn’t flowing“ by Corbett Barr. Corbett offers lots of great advice on how to build a thriving and profitable audience for your website or blog.

7. “You’re not as busy as you think” by Chris Brogan, also the founder of Human Business Works. We all complain about never having enough time to get things done. If you’ve ever heard yourself saying “I’m just too busy….” read this article and learn how you could be doing things differently.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this first edition of FAP’s “Picks of the Week #1: 7 Awesome Marketing and Creativity Links for Artists”. If so, please Tweet it to your friends and share it on Facebook using the link below. Thanks!