The BoldBrush Show

Kelly Eden — Marketing oneself on Social Media

November 03, 2022 BoldBrush Season 2 Episode 24
The BoldBrush Show
Kelly Eden — Marketing oneself on Social Media
Show Notes Transcript

For this episode BoldBrush interviewed Kelly Eden, an inspiring artist who lives, breathes, and exists within her alternative pastel dollhouse aesthetic.  Now she’s focusing full time on her artwork and sat down with us to talk about her work and style as well as some great advice about using social media as a marketing tool to sell your work.

Follow Kelly on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/kellyeden/

Check out Kelly’s website:
https://www.kellyeden.com/

Get a pet portrait painted by Kelly!
https://bit.ly/3snaxZK
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Sign up for FASO and get over 50% off your first year using our special link!
https://www.FASO.com/podcast/ 

Become a Sovereign Artist today and take control of your sales!
https://sovereignartist.substack.com/

Laura Arango Baier:

For me, it's telling stories, making an emotional impact with your art. You know, people seek out art because they want to be nourished in some way. If I fill a canvas with something that has a sincere emotional impact for myself, I trust that somebody out there will respond to that, you know, somebody somewhere, will feel some connection to it. And for me, that's the whole point. Welcome to the BoldBrush podcast where we believe that fortune favors the bold brush. My name is Laura Arango Baier, and I'm your host. For those of you who are new to the podcast, we are a podcast that covers art marketing techniques, and all kinds of business tips specifically to help artists learn to better sell their work. We interview artists at all stages of their careers, as well as others who are in careers tied to the art world in order to hear their advice and insights. For this episode, BoldBrush interviewed Kelly Eden, an inspiring artist who lives breathes and exists within her alternative pastel dollhouse aesthetic. She began as an alternative model who soon went viral in the realm of social media, where her work gained a lot of attention. Now she's focusing full time on her artwork and sat down with us to talk about her work and style, as well as some great advice about using social media as the best marketing tool to sell your work. Hello, Kelly, how are you today? I'm doing so well. Thank you for having me today. Thank you for being here. It's been a wild ride getting you on but I'm so happy that you were able to come on. And so you can give us some really awesome information about your new work. So, before we jump into stuff about your work, I want you to please tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do. Okay, sure. I grew up in Evergreen, Colorado, it's the town south park is based off of where Trey Parker and Matt Stone went to school.

Kelly Eden:

It's a tiny town, right at the foothills of the ski slopes is very, very, very small mountain town. Everybody knows each other. It's kind of like that environment. So like many other artists, I showed an aptitude for drawing and painting at a very young age. I went to Denver School of the Arts, which is a magnet six to 12 art school, you go through a lengthy audition interview process, and I had to audition twice to get in. And the school was really, really special and life changing for me. And it set me up for a future in the art world. And it was actually one of my peers who taught me the basics of oil painting and portraiture. Before that I had no formal teachings or mentoring things. So by the time that I got accepted into DSA, I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do to keep up with the other experienced painters who had been there for several years already. His name was Carl. And he was kind of like, something like a prodigy art kid like he had formal classical teaching since he was very, very young. But he was 17 at the time when I met him, and I was blown away by his work. And I really looked up to him. So I started kind of like, watching over his shoulder during class and kind of observing his techniques. And I learned a little bit that way. I was really shy at the time. So it took a long time for me to actually ask for help or advice. But eventually, when I did get up the nerve to ask for some feedback, he seems you know, really, really happy to help like, excited to teach. So we became great friends. And he showed me how to do everything's how to stretch canvas, how to render towards realism, how to make skin tones, how to find my own concepts. And you know what Carl did for me, it was very, very life changing. And it reminds me that skill sharing can change someone's life forever. And I believe Karl's still teaching to this day. I think he's up in Chicago. Oh, that's

Laura Arango Baier:

awesome.

Kelly Eden:

Well, shout out to Carl. Yeah, I think is I think he goes by Carl Orion like Orion's belts. I think that's where he goes by now.

Laura Arango Baier:

Oh, well shout out to Carl Orion. He's great.

Kelly Eden:

Yeah, he's he was great. And if you're listening, Carl, hi. Miss you. Thank you for everything. So anyway, DSA helped me get a scholarship to Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design where I got my bachelor's in fine arts and then I moved to Los Angeles. So along the way, I was gaining and growing an audience on social media with my art, you know, my style, fashion, makeup art, and basically like my life journey, and I started a YouTube channel, which really took off. So I did that for a few years, and I really, really loved it. It was, you know, it was the funnest job I ever had. And it kind of gave me the freedom to monetize any creative endeavors without actually charging my viewers. So it gave me a lot of that flexibility around the time I'm the pandemic hit is when things started changing. I, I think we all did a lot of reflecting and locked down. And we're kind of faced with, you know, mortality and feeling like our world leaders kind of abandoned us. And for me, I realized I wasn't happy with my life. And I didn't feel fulfilled. And I just didn't want to be a person famous on the internet anymore. You know, I had a taste of fame. And it was fun. But there were elements of it, that really freaked me out. Ultimately, I realized I wanted to do art, and I made the choice to switch to fine art full time, which has been a very, very hard transition, you know. So, at this point, I now consider myself an emerging artists. I was recently accepted to the salmagundi club, and I have two shows coming up in San Francisco.

Laura Arango Baier:

We'll move on. That's awesome. Thank you. It's quite a transition to go from YouTube to painting full time. Yeah,

Kelly Eden:

it was it was a very interesting transition, because I'm not the type of person who fits in with corporate working scenarios, like my brain just does not work that way. So YouTube was just like the ultimate like, almost like kind of perfect career for me at the time where I could paint something, I could do my makeup or teach how to cook a dish or just anything, and it would bring me income. So giving that all up to a very, very scary career in the arts were like, nothing is guaranteed, you know, and it's really just you against the world. It's a little scary, but I'm enjoying the ride.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, yeah. But I think I read also that you've you've already sold some pieces in the past to famous people. So Oh, yeah.

Kelly Eden:

Yeah, I have the very first painting I ever sold was to Dave Navarro. And I was like, 22 years old.

Laura Arango Baier:

Used to hit him up and be like, hey, you know, I have a have some more paintings if you're interested.

Kelly Eden:

Yeah. And what's so funny is I moved here and I didn't realize that I'm three blocks away from him. So maybe I should just drop by with some paintings be like you'd like these, huh? Oh, yeah. He has it. He has a huge art collection. He has some original war halls. I think he has a Damien Hirst, I think something like that, like huge art collection. Wow.

Laura Arango Baier:

Well, you know, once a collector always a collector. Mm hmm. Yeah. You know, it seems like you've always had that undercurrent of, of being an artist anyway. Because even in YouTube, that's, that's still a form of artistry, you know, it's a form of creation. It's just a little more vulnerable than, you know, selling a painting. Yeah. Because you're exposing your, your day to day in a way.

Kelly Eden:

Yeah. And I think it's what What's tricky about it is because social media is so Oh, God, I don't even know what word I would want to use. Maybe saturated. People don't have that connection in their minds that creators on YouTube or like social media platforms, like those are artists too. But there's like a complete separation, you know, between the fine art world and then, you know, maybe the social world is what we'll call it.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, maybe people don't really realize that they're, they're just sub genres within the same umbrella of artists. Because you're still creating something or so it's like, if you called a musician, you know, not a musician, right? That's stupid. Oh, ah, well, actually, my next question was, did you always want to be an artist? But it seems like Yes.

Kelly Eden:

Does everyone kind of answer the same? Because I feel I don't think I've ever met an artist who didn't feel that calling, like at a very young age. Like what about you?

Laura Arango Baier:

Oh, yeah, I definitely had the calling. Yeah. From a very young age. Yeah. Yeah. I think when I was four, Yeah, seems like I'm gonna be an artist.

Kelly Eden:

Do you remember like the first thing you were like, really interested in drawing? Ah, horses. Ah, for me, it was cats.

Laura Arango Baier:

Oh, that's cute. Oh, look at us. We're into animals. Yeah. Yeah, um, yeah, maybe it is a something that we all experience in childhood and then it calls us back. Because for a while I got pulled away from it like after because I also went to a magnet school. After my experience there. It was such a negative experience for me. Then I told myself, I'm quitting painting. I'm never picking up a paintbrush again. And here we are.

Kelly Eden:

Yeah. And we had a conversation off the air just about teachers in magnet schools and the how there are just some there are some teachers who shouldn't be working with teenagers or children and they can definitely ruin the experience for for them. young kids.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, absolutely.

Kelly Eden:

I'm so sorry that happened to you.

Laura Arango Baier:

That's okay. You know, the calling was still strong enough that I got pulled back. So why did you pick realism as your genre?

Kelly Eden:

Well, I I've always been drawn to portraiture and figurative work. And once I started learning from my friend, Carl at DSA, who also specializes in realism that pretty much set in stone what I'd be growing into from there.

Laura Arango Baier:

very succinct. I love it. Yeah, and you know, it does make sense with the influence of your friend migrate, influences it a child was also seeing a lot of realist paintings and just being naturally attracted to it. So I can definitely understand it. You know,

Kelly Eden:

are you familiar with the Teresa Barnard

Laura Arango Baier:

sounds familiar?

Kelly Eden:

She does a lot of ruffle dress, figurative realism paintings. If you saw something from her, it's probably a it's like a little girl. And she's wearing this big fluffy blue ruffle dress. I have like maybe like 10 artists that I'm like, I will follow you till the ends of the earth, you know. But um, something that Theresa Barnard said is you can tell a lot about an artist and their personality by how they paint, like their technique. And that makes complete sense to me. But I don't know how to explain why. Because if I really, I really identified with it, like, the way that I paint in my technique is just really, I don't know, it's, it's very neat. It's very, like reflective of my personality and the decisions that I make.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, and you know what, I think that's a metaphysical quality. It's almost like, even if you try to paint like someone else, your identity will still take over. Which is very interesting. I've also seen it with a lot of other people. Like, it's like, everyone has their own mark. It's almost as personal as your handwriting. You know? Yeah. It's insane.

Kelly Eden:

It's, it's, it's truly such a beautiful mystery of the human experience, and especially in art.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, yeah. And what I love about it, too, is that that means that there's room for everyone, you know, and there's no reason for anyone to, to, I guess, to imitate anyone else. In a literal way. Yeah. Yeah. Which is nice. There's room for us all.

Kelly Eden:

I really liked that quote, that you just said, there's room for us all. I think. Yeah, I think that's important.

Laura Arango Baier:

Well, mean, we all have individual voices. So of course, it's impossible to for there to not be room for us all. We have access room.

Kelly Eden:

Yeah, there's not that many of us really.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah. And we have all of space. Anyway.

Kelly Eden:

Yeah. Don't get me thinking about space. I'll fly off the handle,

Laura Arango Baier:

existential here. Let's pull it back. So how did you find your niche?

Kelly Eden:

You know, I guess it's something that has evolved over time with me from my history with you know, being involved with like social media, colors, aesthetic portraiture, figurative, I kind of became How would I describe it? A lot of my I hate using this word, but it's because it's so overused, but my aesthetic is very, very, hyper feminine, and pastel and soft. And it really, you know, I've always been attracted to beauty and art, and things like that. So it's something I've always kind of expressed through fashion and my home decor and my paintings, and maybe even the way that I speak like everything is just very soft. So I feel like I feel like it has yet to be fully realized. I've done a lot of growth these past four years and discovered, you know, that I could paint things that I never thought I could, so I'm excited to see what it ends up becoming. A few months ago, I started mentoring under a drapery master that I met through Scott Hovey at cake land. His name is Leo de Ramos. Originally, I wanted to hire him to just help me drape a piece for my home installation. My home is kind of like a living art installation. And he surprised me by saying, you know, I'll teach you how to do it. You're an artist and you deserve to know this skill. And this was like another person who changed my life the way that Carl did you know when someone shares their life skill with you by teaching you their technique? It's it's hard to find the words firm for it, but I think it's one of the most generous things that You can do for someone. And I think, I think there's this type of trauma from being raised for a cutthroat competition under capitalism, people are often automatically secretive and protective of their technique and resources. And I just don't think that's a healthy way to be. You're not just gatekeeping them, you're gatekeeping yourself from other artists who may also be drawn toward a community and skill sharing.

Laura Arango Baier:

Absolutely. And, and you know, the old masters in the Renaissance, they didn't, they'll just paint it together. Like it was, it was usually one head artists guy, they weren't even called artists then. But it wasn't a head guy. Right? And then all of his students would be the ones painting, you just tell him what to do. Yeah. So it was always a collective thing. And I agree, maybe with the rise of the philosophy of capitalism, that's when it started becoming more individualized and more insulated. Yeah, for a lot of people. But what's funny is you can get all that information from books, and you can also go to pretty much any affiliate, and you will learn how to draw extremely well, and how to paint extremely well, but and you know, that's offering knowledge. The funny difficult part is finding out what the hell you want to say, with your work and what you want to do with your work, which I think you've got.

Kelly Eden:

I think, yeah, I think I'm on the right track for that.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, yeah. Anything, you know, that's something that I admire from you a lot, which I'm always so I was really look up to people who put themselves in everything, you know, their clothes, their house, the way that you do, I love that. There are paintings, it's like, every single minute, you just want to live and breathe. The thing that you love the most.

Kelly Eden:

That's so thoughtful. Thank you. That was not just like, thoughtful, but that was like a very, like, just meaningful, artistic feedback from a fellow artists. And I really appreciate that.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, I definitely am very inspired by you. Thank you, Laura. You're welcome. And then what is the best approach you've taken to sell your work?

Kelly Eden:

Almost all of my sales have come from making a video about the painting, either time lapse, or time skips. Sometimes I'll do a voiceover narrative on how I set up the photoshoot and the painting process, or you know what the conceptual background of the piece means. So it's, for me, it's telling stories, making an emotional impact with your art, you know, people seek out art because they want to be nourished in some way. If I fill a canvas with something that has a sincere emotional impact for myself, I trust that somebody out there will respond to that, you know, somebody somewhere, will feel some connection to it. And for me, that's the whole point. So I'm still only emerging as an artist. But the success that I've had so far has been almost completely through social media. I'm only just now starting to sell through galleries. So I don't know, maybe I can come back on the podcast next year. And I can compare the two.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, that'd be great. We would love to have you on again to see the progress. And I recently had that happen, actually, with someone that I interviewed. I had interviewed him, I think maybe like, almost a year ago. And then a year later through social media, he got a bunch of really great opportunities. Yeah, he was just blown away by so things can happen in a very short period of time, and you don't realize it. So I would definitely love to have you on again.

Kelly Eden:

I'd love to be back. This is my favorite podcast. Oh, thank you. No, yeah, what what you guys do on here is so I just hope that more artists alike start listening. Not that they're not listening. But the BoldBrush podcast has been such an excellent resource. Like you gotta listen to every single episode. It's it's so helpful beyond measure.

Laura Arango Baier:

Oh, I'm so glad. And you know, that's what we want to give to all artists at all stages of their career, we really want them to succeed. And this is all information that you know, it might save people a couple of years or a couple of mistakes, you know, like if someone else has already gone through it,

Kelly Eden:

or $80,000 in art school.

Laura Arango Baier:

That's a painful one. Student loan forgiveness.

Kelly Eden:

I don't know yet. We'll see. Oh, it's still October.

Laura Arango Baier:

Oh, painful. Let's see. That's the tough part. You know, these and the worst part is, you know, these universities that teach art they don't if you're a realist painter, they're the wrong place. Yep.

Kelly Eden:

Yeah. I hope everyone hears this if you are interested in becoming a realist painter, Under do not go to college. Yeah, they don't they don't even teach you how to varnish. They don't. And like every everything that we're talking about with like the financial, economic, you know, system of the art world is not taught in art school whatsoever.

Laura Arango Baier:

And even actually, even in an alto vas, you don't, you don't really get the business side, you get purely the technical side, which is fine. If that's what you're seeking. That's, that's fine. But nowadays, I recommend people will either if you're just looking for technique, go to Nataliya. If you're looking for technique, plus information, a bunch of stuff and find a mentor, to strap kind of like you had with Carl. Yeah, just or just workshops, like the thing that I've been doing these for the full pandemic, is I just took as many workshops as I could, and it was, you know, the cost maybe $300 For three days with like some of the world's best artists like that's, are you kidding? That's amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah. Building your artists website can be a hassle. But with FASO, they make it easy to get online, sell more of your work and promote your art. Right now for our BoldBrush podcast listeners, you can get over 50% off your first year on FASO with our special link, simply visit faso.com forward slash podcast. FASO is a leading provider of phony websites. They have online marketing tips that you get every week, as well as online workshops and other tips and tricks to help you sell your work. So remember, use our link faster.com forward slash podcast to get over 50% off right now. That's f a s o.com. Forward slash podcast BoldBrush. But also like to give a huge thank you and shout out to Chelsea classical studio for their continued support in this podcast. If you're interested in archival painting supplies handmade with a lot of patients, go check out their Instagram at CCS fine art materials. It's really useful because you got you get a lot of bang for your buck. The only problem is sometimes if you don't, if you're not dedicated enough, it might not do much for you. But obviously if you're dedicated just like you are not a problem. That's good advice. Yeah, yes. So now what marketing techniques do you use to sell your work,

Kelly Eden:

I would say always filming yourself painting, even if you're a slow painter record, maybe three minutes of painting action every hour, so you have tons to work with in the future, there's so much you can do with it. Even if it's just a fun clip of a little fun trick or technique. For example, you might have seen this 22nd Clip going around from Christiane bluegills. And I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, where she takes a strand of her hair, and she slides it across the paint that's on her palette knife, and then she lightly touches it to her painting where she has this unbelievable rendering of hyper realistic hair. So that little clip that 22nd clip has over 1000 comments and 200,000 views. So if you have a little trick like that, film it and post it, you never know what type of exposure you're gonna get from that. And the reality is tick tock and reels are the present and they are the future. It's an excellent way to get seen and honestly there are very, very simple ways to make a real without ever appearing on camera. If your camera shy, you know, and you don't necessarily want to have like 4070 plus hours of footage, you know, you want to make sure you're not overwhelming yourself. But if you do, you can always use that footage for pre recorded workshops, which is a great way to make passive income. And honestly, I prefer pre recorded workshops as opposed to zoom because with Zoom, zoom is great for workshops, but you're never going to see the painting demo in high res, which can make it really hard to get a real sense of the technique that's being taught it I think it's important to make sure you are on every single social media platform, even if you're not the type to keep up with social media. At the very least, you should register and reserve your name, especially if it's a new app that came out even if you think you're never going to use it. Reserve your name. Fill out the profile details, including your profile pic bio link to your website. All the content that you film is recyclable. So you could and should use it everywhere you can. There's an editing app that I'd like to recommend. It's called in shot in shot. It's a video editing app that allows you to basically do anything that iMovie can do and more. And you can edit, you know, vertical videos. So there's not that many apps that allow you to do that. So vertical video, that's what you should be filming in going forward because, you know, everything that we're seeing now is like that is the direction that all the main platforms are going is vertical. And it's just it's really easy to use once you get the hang of it. Ah, let's see. Okay. The other tip, I have Tiktok and reels. This can scare a lot of people for various reasons, people are really afraid to put themselves out there and keep up with Gen Z. But here's the thing, you just need to come as yourself, you're an artist, you, you know you have actual talent to show you have substance, you have a reason to be there. So don't follow trends, you don't need to dance on camera or share storytimes. Just keep it short, keep it simple. Show a technique show the first couple of brushstrokes, and then the final brushstrokes of a painting. Basically, you just need to use it to be able to show off what you can do. So you know, you don't need to go viral for this to be helpful. going viral is great, but it's fleeting. And it's really easy to end up. You know, always compare yourself to that standard. And it's like a distraction, you just have to be very careful to not let that redefine what success looks like for you. So if you get more comfortable with that, I would invite you to get a little bit more personal. Now this is a double edged sword. So you need to tread carefully. Sometimes sharing a personal story behind a painting may create a love mark in someone who identifies with the story. On the other hand, there are unfortunately some very sick people on the internet. And you should never underestimate that even if you have a very, very small following. I found that making friends with other artists has been profoundly helpful in so many ways. Make sure on social media, you're following as many artists in your genre as possible, engage with them, leave them nice comments, a critique, hype them up in a way that you feel is genuine. Take one of their workshops, if it strikes you, you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. This is also about the algorithms so the more you engage with other artists that have similar work to you. If someone follows that artists, you're more likely to come up in the suggested people to follow right after. So I started really engaging with artists that I've loved and admired since you know school will cotton, one of my favorite artists, he's in New York based artists and in every post I'm there hyping him up just showing him that I simply just love his work. And he ended up inviting me to visit his studio in New York next time I come down which is a huge deal for me. That's awesome. Yeah, a lot of a lot of really good good luck has come my way but just showing appreciation to other artists that I like, like, I bought a pre recorded masterclass on painting ruffles from Theresa Barnard, which was fantastic, by the way. And then like later on, I possibly made a post on Instagram just like updating people what I was up to, and I mentioned that I took Teresa's workshop, and she was so thankful for the support. And the shout out that she gifted me her second masterclass on painting the eye books. So, yes, you can like things like that, like when we really help each other. It makes the world go round.

Laura Arango Baier:

Absolutely. And, you know, there's a there's a saying that my French teacher used to say. She was like, if you don't ask, or if you don't reach out, the answer is always going to be no. You know, so you might as well try you might as well reach out to the people that you're most interested in, or that you absolutely admire. Because you never know they might actually reply.

Kelly Eden:

Yeah, yeah. And I think overall building, building a community is a lifeline. You know, we we are always stronger together, we feel fulfilled when we help each other. We are hardwired for collectivity.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yes, absolutely, since the time of the cavemen. It's a very long history of that. So I might as well keep it up. So if you could give a younger version of yourself any advice based on what you know now? What would you tell yourself?

Kelly Eden:

I think this is advice that I needed when I was in art school because I was so insecure about my skill level. And by the time I got to college, because I went through so much to catch up to the other artists. By the time that I got to college, I almost felt like oh, I'm, you know, my skill level is really, really further along than a lot of my other peers. And then at the time, I had a really big chip on my shoulder about how I'm viewed or treated as, you know, a young hyper feminine presenting girl in the car. Worlds, and I had already been exposed to so much misogyny already, the advice that I would give is lay down the burden. And just ask for help. You know, like, I think I'm trying to think back of, you know, like, where I was in art school. And I think that the the advice that I would give is, if you don't see the value, or if you don't feel value in like, what you're doing, you need to shift gears, you need to figure it out, don't keep following a track that does not feel right for you, that's not working for you. You just need to be honest with yourself, because I think that like, college is so pushed on our generation, you know, and kids, it was kind of like, a lot of our parents just made us believe that you have to do this, there is no choice. Like you won't be able to have a successful career or future if you don't do this. So back then it stops. It's something that I just didn't question. And I think that for me, it just wasn't the right school for me. And I think if you're spending, you know, $80,000 on a private art school, you maybe you should wait and figure out if that is the right choice for you. Is it the right school for you? You know, but also back then we didn't have that many resources to connect. There wasn't a such knowledge of like, capitalism and the debt fraud of the school system.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah. Now we're very much aware of it. Oh, yeah. What is the greatest challenge that you face when trying to sell your work?

Kelly Eden:

myself? I can't. It's yeah, I'm really what you might call financially illiterate, my brain does not sink in decimals, dollars or profit, which is, you know, it's actually pretty common. It's a common trait among visual artists. I hate capitalism. I often feel conflicted with the element of worth being part of the artwork, because how can you separate the two at this point. So I really struggle with the idea of a number being the worth, I struggle with what capitalism has done to conceptual art, which almost makes an absurd mockery of itself. I'm not very good at self promotion, in the form of selling things, I'm good at making connections, I don't see myself or my work as a product or profit, you know, which hurts my sales, it's something that I really have to fight myself with.

Laura Arango Baier:

Interesting. Yeah, I also understand that I also feel a little bit like sometimes selling yourself, it feels very literal, especially as an artist in a very grimy way. But, you know, it pays the bills. Unfortunately, sales has that awful notion of, oh, you have to be really slimy. And to sell something, which is not true. If you value your work. Someone else will value it to you for sure. And they will give you any dollar that they have for it, if they really want it. So the work just based on how much value you put into it and how much love and care you put into it should sell it's off. Yeah, you just have to

Kelly Eden:

show it to the world. Yeah. And I think that's where building relationships comes in. You know, because it's not it's not retail, we're not selling clothing to make someone look good. This is this is like a more profound connection, I think. For sure. Yeah. So I think it's important to nurture relationships with your clients, but people are interested in art with galleries and things like that.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Because like you said, a lot of people they buy work, because they feel connected to it. I don't think that's something that common products do. Like I don't know, I do not buy dish detergent, because because of a childhood connection. But someone might buy a painting because maybe the figure on it reminds them of a dream they had that they loved, and that's why they bought it. So you're right. It is a very different branch of sales. It isn't like blatant product sales. Yeah, yeah. Speaking of advice, what advice would you give artists who are just starting to sell their work?

Kelly Eden:

Build relationships, show people you care in any relationship you make on your career path, show people that they're special art collectors, fellow artists, art galleries, etc. If you start showing in galleries, you know, you can always be honest about your work and experience and invite feedback. So if you're not sure you know what price point Your work would sell for, you can always ask the curator their opinion, you know, assure them you won't be offended, and you're just looking for feedback. And also, this is a tough one, but get comfortable with rejection, it happens a lot for artists, rejection. Rejection for artists is a spicy type of ego death that can be very, very debilitating. So you cannot let it wound you, you have to put a bandaid on it and just keep going. Being an artist is one of the most complicated careers there is because there's so much personal passion behind our work. You know, we are sensitive by nature. And that can make it really, really hard to not take it personally when our work is shut down. So on the flip side of that artists can also be a little egotistical. So I would say, don't ever think that you're too good to learn more. You should be getting better every year. And you should be learning from all of your peers. Absolutely. One way or another.

Laura Arango Baier:

Actually, if I wish someone had told me the advice of asking a curator,

Kelly Eden:

it's so many things that are just like, oh, I can do that. Da. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier:

exactly. I guess maybe the question would be where do we even find a curator? I guess I would take some research. But nowadays with social media, it's a lot easier to find. Yeah, everything. Yeah, that's true. So yeah, maybe even on LinkedIn go

Kelly Eden:

and making those connections, building those relationships. Like, for example, I'm a big, big follower of Shana Levinson. I love her work. I've taken her workshops before. And I'm just always in her comments always on her live feeds just hyping her up. And I think one time she was having a show and it was in California, and I was like, oh, I want to go where is it? And she was like, Oh, it said, modern Eden gallery, but it's in San Francisco. And actually, I think that they would like your work. So she got me set up with them. And now I'm showing two pieces with them. So it's all about those kinds of connections. You know, that's awesome. You help other people. They help you, you know?

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, that's awesome. And I actually just interviewed her to see. Oh, yeah. Oh, I can't wait for that episode. Yeah, she's she's amazing. She's very inspiring. Yeah, Shane is a badass. She's like a hard working lady.

Kelly Eden:

I love to see her just like with a glass of wine just like sitting down in this like elegant backless dress like in this beautiful painting in front of her. And I'm like, I just want to be you,

Laura Arango Baier:

girl. You should ask her to pose like that for you to paint her. Yeah, I doubt you would say no. Yeah, she was she had that vibe when I interviewed her. So

Kelly Eden:

yeah, she's she's a very like, elegant, like very. Now she she's got like, she's got that confidence of how to carry herself, which is really admirable.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yes. Oh, my God. Yes. So Kelly, thank you so much for all of your really useful information. You're definitely following the spirit of the podcast by giving us all of this, these useful tips and all of this great advice. So if anyone wants to reach out to or see your shows, where can they find that information?

Kelly Eden:

Well, you can explore my work on my website, Kelly eden.com. You can also sign up for my newsletter there. You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram under at Kelly eating. If you do so please say hello and tell me you came from the BoldBrush podcast. You can see my work at modern Eden gallery this month, which is October 2022. And I have opened up my Commission's for pet portraits. At the end of every year, I offer commissioned paintings of one specific subject matter at a very discounted price. So it kind of gives the chance for collectors to have something personal and custom. So yeah, I'm doing pet portraits right now. And if you're interested, you can see the listing on my website Kelly eden.com.

Laura Arango Baier:

Perfect. Great. Thank you so much, Kelly.

Kelly Eden:

Oh my god. Thank you, Laura. I loved this. This was so much fun.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah.