8:10 AM 04/30/2002
Since I began painting in January 1996, one thing has become apparent... that I am able to produce more paintings and drawings in a month, than I am able to sell through my own devices in a year. By January 2002, I had in my possession around 1,000 paintings, drawing, and sculptures (about 95% of what I had produced), most of them stored away in my attic, and hanging on the walls in my living quarters, workshop, etc.
The work was of varying quality, from my very first attempts, all of my blind-alley experiments, sketches, etc., some of it excellent by any reasonable professional standard, and some (most) of it, what I would call 'student grade' work. I had been so busy learning to paint, and studying the field of fine art, that I had never given any thought to what I would do with this stuff.
...and then along came eBay....
The beginning of 2002 found me in a position probably not unfamiliar to a lot of painters... I had acquired a good skill set, and I had completed a really rigorous and well-directed study as to what the fine arts were (allegedly), and had come to my own conclusions as to what the fine arts *really* were (as opposed to what I had been told), and had developed a plan as to how I was going to implement my version of the fine arts, and in so doing, advance the field in the direction I felt it needed to advance.
The only thing I had not worked out was how I was going to feed myself while doing this work, and what was going to become of the paintings and drawings in my attic. Heh.
During the past year, I had become increasingly involved in the study of computing, programming, the Internet, and digital graphics. These areas of study seem a natural progression for someone working in the 21st century fine arts. The easel and sketchpad are great. The computer is no substitute for pigment and canvas... but if Rembrandt were alive today, he would be messing with the computer, too. It is far too versatile a graphic tool to escape the notice of anyone visually oriented. Also, the computer, and the Internet, address related areas that no painter can afford to ignore... how to present their work to the public, how to sell their work to the public, and what to do with all those paintings that are laying around in the attic, storeroom, or wherever... all in one fell swoop.
Anyhow, being without much in the way of funds, and needing to purchase books and software in order to learn about the computer, the Web, and graphics, I sought out eBay. At first, I used it as a place to sell junk... yep, I go for walks regularly, and there are all sorts of things in the trash that people on eBay are happy to bid on. Flea markets, used bookstores, garage sales, etc. are also nice places to pick up things for pennies, which will sell on eBay for dollars. In no time at all, I discovered that instead of taking the money that I earned on eBay, and spending it in a retail store, I could use it buy what I needed on eBay, purchasing pre-owned software and books, all a couple years old, for sure, but perfect for someone whose computer is not 'cutting edge', and has limited memory, speed and storage, by today's software standards. eBay literally allowed me to start with almost nothing, and build an excellent stable of computer tools, and the books necessary to develop my skills with those tools... something that would have been extremely difficult or impossible, if I had not had a place like eBay, where I could turn stuff I found in the alley into software, into books... into knowledge, into skill.
When artists, painters, sculptors, etc. go on-line, they eventually discover the Usenet newsgroups, Yahoo email lists, and other places where their fellow painters, sculptors, etc., congregate, and exchange opinions and information. One day, while reading some of the posts to one of these lists, I was surprised to discover that some of the list members were involved in selling their paintings on eBay, in a section that I had not been aware of, called the 'Self Representing Artists' section.
Doh!!! Here I was, buying and selling regularly on eBay, and I was completely unaware of the existence of this section. It only took a few seconds for me to connect the idea that artists were selling their work on eBay, with the piles and boxes of 'retired' paintings and drawing resting in my attic... and then a light bulb came on.
I immediately began asking questions, and visiting the area, and tracking the more successful sellers using the section. I also discovered another section being used by artists to sell their own work, American (in my case) Contemporary, 1950 to present. I knew that in order to develop a strategy, I was going to have to commit some of my 'precious' (heh) work to sell, in order to gather first hand information. I decided to begin with lighter pieces, like political cartoons, and some of my student grade paintings (17 in all), and see what happened, and develop a strategy on the fly, adjusting my plan as I learned the ropes.
There are some artists selling their work on eBay, who are to the best of my knowledge unheard of in the gallery scene, who are making a living of sorts, selling their work through eBay. It's not too hard to follow their auctions, and see what they are closing at, and do the math. A minimal living can be accomplished by selling one's art on eBay.
One of the first things I did prior to posting my own art to auction, was that I designed a slightly better than generic HTML page, for posting my auctions, and a nice 'Me' page, which is a personal page of sorts, that has a link on each of a user's auctions, next to their name as bidder or seller. eBay allows users to put a link to their website on this 'Me' page, but not in the individual auctions. I considered the use of the 'Me' page, as a repository for this link to my website, of paramount importance. Whether a person bids, or buys, or not... there is a trail of virtual breadcrumbs, from my auctions, to my 'Me' page, to my website. This is a good thing. This is a very good thing.
The first few paintings I put to auction, I set at $0.01 opening bid, with no reserve, and they all promptly received bids... of a penny each! A few days later, they had all (except one) been bid up over $10.00, so I posted my next group of paintings at $9.99, $9.95, $10.00, etc., and they all received prompt bids as well. Of the 17 auctions that I posted, 16 items sold, one for a penny, one for $67.00, and the rest averaging about $20.00 apiece. This is obviously not enough to earn a living on.
Those people who are doing really well at selling their work on eBay are averaging several hundred dollars per painting, so my next question is, what will I have to do, to move my average selling price from where it is now, to where I will need it to be, in order to eat?
First, there is the obvious answer... that I will have to raise the quality of what I am selling. When I began the experiment, I deliberately began with my worst-case scenarios, as far as paintings were concerned. What I did was, except for the political cartoons, which were quick and dirty executions (and thus sold in the $20.00 per hour range), was to unpack all the oldest boxes of work that I had, and start by selling that first. Why? Well, there are two schools of though... one says that you always want to put your best work forward, and hide the old, embarrassing stuff from public view, and my school of thought (heh), which says that it is a good idea to start with the oldest stuff first, and then gradually work your way through that, offering better and better stuff (more recent, for the most part) as you go, because in the beginning, no-one knows who you are, and developing a confident pool of bidders, who like your work, is going to require time and effort, and living with a lot of low closing bids, until you have an attentive body of collectors looking out for your auctions, and ready to bid prices into the hundreds of dollars. Realistically, I figure that developing such a pool of bidders - collectors is going to take at the very least, a couple years. Better, then, to start off with my oldest stuff, and work my way forward into the better pieces a little at a time, as the prospects for higher bids improve.
Another thing that I discovered almost immediately, was that people really do visit the 'Me' page if they are interested in your work, and from there, some of them move on to visiting your website, where they subscribe to your newsletter if you have one (I do), and even sometimes purchase from your more current, and pricier work, at least I have been lucky enough to have one person do this, so far.
I am curious to know what sort of buyers I am attracting, but in most cases so far, it is too soon to tell. I know that one person told be they were starting a corporate collection, and another said that he was a serious collector, and a few left me with the impression that it was the subject matter of the paintings that they had been seeking out specifically. My own guess is that no more than one in every 100 buyers might become a regular client, who would purchase pieces that ranged up into the hundreds of dollars, or better. Assuming that this is true, a thousand eBay sales might reasonably net me 10 serious patrons, and a general pool of 50 to 100 interested bidders in the lower price ranges, under $100.00. Also, eBay would expose my work, my website, and my newsletter to uncounted thousands of lurkers, who, while never buying anything, would be aware of my work. Since selling what I do is only a small (but necessary) part of what I am attempting to accomplish through my work, this last mentioned, invisible group of people are just as significant to me as the people who will throw me cash, to enable me to continue working. The fine arts are, after all, about moving the minds and emotions of people, and through them, societies... hopefully, in a positive and robust way. Otherwise, I could sell hot-dogs, and make more money, although hopefully, at least, not on eBay. Heh.
I believe that eBay will do more to shape the future of the fine visual arts, than the gallery and museum scenes will do, in the years in front of us. The electronic marketplace, of which eBay is a premiere member, has the capacity to connect more of humanity to more of the producing artists, than the gallery scene ever could, or ever wanted to.
The gallery scene has allowed itself to become incredibly snooty, and disconnected from the huge masses of people out there in the world, who might want to own an original painting, but cannot afford gallery prices, or are turned off by gallery snootiness, or just live out in the middle of no-where, hundreds of miles from the nearest art gallery. A lot of these people have computers.
The Internet is allowing ideas in the visual arts to prosper and even flourish, which galleries, and Modern Arts Museums, and Art Schools, and Art Critics, have been trying to eradicate for decades... primarily the more traditional and representational genre. Interestingly enough, these more traditional forms of visual communication are prospering side by side with the more modern, non-representational works. The Internet is amazingly democratic in this respect.
At this writing, I can only wonder out loud, whether or not the eBay fine art auctions are being included in the services that list paintings sold at auction, like Lyle. I would suspect that Sotheby's, and the other high-end fine art auction houses would resist such an effort, but I see it as being only a matter of time, before eBay auctions are included in the mix, if they are not already included. Even the listing services are going on-line, so the irony of them excluding auctions that take place on-line from their listings would eventually overwhelm the practice. Once eBay fine art auctions achieve a 'listed' status, I would think that the worm has definitely turned, in favour of the on-line fine arts community.
And finally, the Internet is probably already responsible for increasing the average person's exposure to the fine visual arts many times over, as compared to their exposure through galleries, museums, and traditional brick and mortar venue. What will this do to our society, and global societies in general? I cannot help but think that the eventual fallout will be massive, and positive. Looking beyond the ideological wars that have been raging within 'ArtWorld', where various schools of paintings and expression are concerned, The Internet is reshaping human consciousness in a manner impossible for brick and mortar establishments to accomplish.
...and eBay is right in the middle of the fray... offering the painters, the sculptors, the collectors, the art lovers on a limited budget... a place to connect, and exchange images and ideas, for enough money to live, to paint another day... as it has always been.