Time to debunk some fallacies.

Heard in passing: I am guessing… that dealers are amongst those checking out my site.

Umm…nope.  Guess again. Art dealers and art agents are not actively seeking your work.  Honest.

I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating, there are a million-million artists out there — a dime a dozen.  If you’re going to make a career out of art, you need:

• a plan,
• to work that plan,
• luck,
• talent,
• charisma.

Built in leverage helps, too. 

Art agents and dealers “find” artists in several ways:

• art majors from prestigious schools who get spot-lighted as having ”the right stuff”
• the sons and daughters of celebrity and wealth
• prestigious art shows
• prestigious art contest winners
• the choices promoted by art organizations (organizations sometimes funded by NEA grants)
• submissions of art portfolios by artists soliciting them by appointment and by snail mail

The best, most prestigious dealers and agents go after the cream of the crop as measured by themselves and others they trust to judge the trends and mark who’s exceptional.

Fallacy Two: In my experience there are always those folks monitoring new trends and looking to make money on the back of it.

Well, yeah. …If you’re a budding entrepreneur.  But if you’re a “mover and shaker,” you SET the trends…or try to.  Occasionally, some maverick artist will shove him or herself into the limelight from nowhere, upsetting the well-laid plans of everyone, but not very often.  When that happens, that’s when the dealers and agents get to work, dropping their business cards.  Once the maverick is rolled into the system, order returns.

What’s that you say? You want to be that maverick?  How’s your luck quotient?  Because the dice are loaded against you.  Odds are perhaps similar, maybe worse, than winning the New York Lottery.