I am writing and publishing this week’s post from my mum’s house in Indianapolis, Indiana. I booked this trip to the US to attend the closing reception for my exhibition (Re)calling and (Re)telling, which may have to be canceled because the Midwest is under a psychotic winter storm warning. Apparently this coming storm is going to be so big, so scary, and so righteously bad-ass that the only thing worse would be a full-on Zombie uprising.

We are expected to be buried under snow, then 4 inches of ice, then more snow, and then possibly napalm from the way the local meteorologists describe it. We have been warned that we will likely loose electrical power for a day or two. That means no computer, no twitter, no email, NO CONTACT.

Ironically my post this week is about connecting.

In The 5 Step Art Career Make-Over I barely scratch the surface on the topic of why it’s so important for you as an artist to enlarge your social circle, but today I want to give you a concrete example. I’m going to tell you a real life story about how reaching out connecting with a complete stranger had a radical effect on my own art career.

About a million years ago I bought a book call Reframings: New American Feminist Photographies by Diane Neumaier. In the book I discovered the work of artist Carla Williams. Something about the power of her honesty and vulnerability really spoke to me. I became an instant fan. For years I admired her work. I scoured other books for her new images, I read every page of her website and lurked on her blog. (Creepy but true.)

Finally in 2007 I got brave enough to send her a little fan letter by email. I simply introduced myself and told her how much I admired her work, and how much she had inspired me as an artist. Much to my surprise she replied right away and thanked me for my kind words.

Now this is where the story gets just plain awesome.

Not too long after our e-mail exchange, Carla wrote a brief paragraph about me on her blog and linked back to my website. My website and blog traffic doubled overnight.

Then curator Lisa Henry read Carla’s blog post and clicked over to my website.

Lisa promptly e-mailed me and asked to include two of my photographs in the traveling museum exhibition Double Exposure: African-Americans Before and Behind the Camera.

Being part of the Double Exposure exhibition led to one of my works being included in a museum permanent collection plus about seven other group and solo exhibitions in less than 2 years.

That’s pretty kick-ass for one two sentence e-mail, right?

Now, do you get why I’m pestering you about reaching out and meeting new people?

So, I am challenging you to step out of your comfort zone for a moment. I am asking you to be extra brave and get over your intimidation.

How else can you possibly grow your art career if you can’t even summon up the courage to reach out and meet new people?

What opportunities could you be missing out on right NOW because you haven’t connected?

Your mission should you choose to accept it:

Make a list of 5 people you admire for whatever reason.
Contact them in the least creepy way possible and simply introduce yourself.

Not sure who to contact? Click here to download my book and use the “People I Should Know” worksheet to brainstorm ideas.

Not sure what to say? Cut and paste my dorky template:

Dear Super Cool Person,

My name is ______. I’m a __________ artist. I have admired your work for many years and I just wanted to drop you a quick note to tell you how much you have influenced and inspired my work.

Best wishes,

Insert your name here.

Cut and paste this text. Fill in the blanks with honest sincere comments, then hit the send button.

That’s it. Short sweet and to the point.

Don’t ask for anything. Don’t ask a question. Just introduce yourself and tell them why you admire what they do.

Repeat 5 times.

Done and done.

After you’ve emailed your 5 people report back here for your next mission.

p.s. I wanna know: Who’d you email and why? Was it scary? Did it nearly give you a panic attack? Did you get any replies?

Awesome.

-Kesha★

If you found this post to be either “inspiring, educational, or entertaining” I would be very grateful if you could take a moment to share it on Twitter or Facebook, or the procrastination method of your choice.

If you do this, it is quite possible that you are awesome.

I have a confession to make: When I started this blog I had no idea what I was doing. Luckily I’ve been able to assemble a great community of artists, art collectors, and creative professionals in spite of myself.

This year marks my ten year anniversary of being a professional working artist. Aside from feeling kind of old, I feel really, really lucky to have made it this far. The conversations on this blog have led to connections, introductions, and more than a few exhibition opportunities for my work, and I’m quick to tell anyone who asks how much this blog has helped my career.

I am more grateful than you can know.

So now it’s time to return the favor. Aside from studio work, I want to focus on helping the people in my community. And my community is artists and people who love art. Since you’re reading this–you’re probably my people. So that means you.

In the past year I’ve published a few art business articles about art school loans, juried shows, and understanding difficult art. But now it’s time to take off the training wheels. There’s a lot of work to be done and by that I mean, information and resources to be shared. We are about to kick this into high gear.

From here on out the Kesha Bruce Studio blog will focus on 3 things and 3 things only:

1. Professional Development for Artists: How to get you more time, more shows, more collectors, more money, and stop beating yourself up for not being rich & famous yet.

2. Bridging the gap between Artists and Art Collectors: Helping break down the intimidation factor and get on with the business of helping Art Lovers find and buy the work they love.

3. Sharing stories and insights about my life and work so that you can get to know me better, understand my work better, and then realize that you need to buy some because you deserve to be surrounded by objects that connect you to spirit and beauty that will make your life more awesome than it already is.

How’s that for putting all my cards out on the table?

What I’m Gonna Deliver:

Information- Once a week I’m going to post an article that will help artists and other creatives improve their careers. Meaning I’m going to give out useful ideas and concrete information that you can take away and actually apply to directly to your business or life in general.

Expert Interviews- Interviews with Art collectors, gallery directors, curators, designers and other creative professionals. The goal here is to give you not only information that’s useful to artists, but information that is useful to anyone who’s simply interested in living a more creative life.

Consulting for Creatives- It pains me to see so many artists fret over how to sell their work. For years I’ve been helping artists craft their resumes, rework their artist statements, and put together exhibition proposals. Believe it or not, that type of stuff is fun for me. If you’re struggling with the marketing end of your Art business, you really should be working with me.

My art marketing Kung Fu is strong. Click here to get more info.

Doctor’s Hours- Sometimes what you need is just a second set of eyes or an outside opinion. Starting in March I will be creating a podcast series where I answer questions from artists and collectors. If you’re a creative professional and you need a word of career or marketing advice or just a quick second opinion about something, you can e-mail your question to artfix[at]keshabruce.com and I will help you for FREE.

#ArtFix Chat- For all of you tweet junkies, I will be holding a few twitter chats just for you. You are following me on twitter right? Get on my invite list so you don’t miss them. They will be legendary.

What You Can Do To Help Me:

1. Sign up to my invite list and download your copies of “The 5 Step Art Career Make-Over” and “Art Buying For Art Lovers”.

2. Re-tweet my blog posts. If the information is helpful, hit the re-tweet button at the end of each post.

3. Send me your ideas and questions or leave a comment on this blog or on my Facebook page.

I am doing all of this stuff and inviting you to be a part of this adventure because one thing is certain:

We will not survive without each other.

Working in isolation or under a false sense of competition hasn’t helped any of us. Frankly, we are dying from it. The moment that sharing and helping each other becomes second nature, we will all be better off. All of us.

So why not start today?

-Kesha★

If you found this post to be either “inspiring, educational, or entertaining” I would be very grateful if you could take a moment to share it on Twitter or Facebook.

If you do, there is a high probability that you are awesome.