Those of you who have been following me for very long know how much I resist advances in technology. If you have been paying attention, you probably also know that sooner or later I succumb to the perceived need and wind up using it.

For many of us artists, the primary way to market our art has been through galleries. After all there is a certain prestige to being accepted into a gallery, or so it seems. A gallery/dealer that does a good job of marketing, i.e. selling, is well worth the commission they receive. However, the greatest benefit to having a successful gallery/dealer relationship (by successful I mean they are selling our paintings) is that it leaves the marketing of us as artists and our work, to them, and frees us up to paint and pursue our creative inclinations. Then there are a few artists who like me, have their own gallery.

Of course, there are other venues for artists to sell their work but they all require some marketing effort on our part. Art association shows, art auctions, art festivals and self promoted showings to name a few. The current recession we are in has had a huge impact on the sale of our art and how it is sold. The relatively comfortable days of yesteryear (in which we consigned our art to a gallery and relied on them to sell it) are no longer. I believe that we artists have to take our futures into our own hands, that is to say that we need to become more responsible for the promotion and marketing of ourselves and our art. We can no longer leave that up to someone else.

For a number of years now, many of the trade magazines I read and those “in the know” that I listen to, all have stressed how important it is for an artist (or any business for that matter) to have an internet presence, a website. Now, over the last year or so, the focus has been on expanding that presence to more than just a website. Now they say that having a blog and being on Facebook is necessary also. The primary purpose being that interested followers of an artist now have a way to keep up with what is happening in an artist’s career and life. I know that is important to folks. It should be. So…OK.

I have updated my website, I now have a blog at www.mikesimpsonart.blogspot.com and I’m on Facebook (a Facebook Account is for a person and a Facebook Page is for a business…I have both). There. I have opened the internet doors to my life. Let me know what you think.

This column appeared in the Scene Magazine in the Montrose Dail Press at http://www.montrosepress.com/