The scarcity and permission-based art establishment has a dirty little secret keeping fine artists hypnotized into a series of limiting beliefs, including believing they need a middleman to sell their art. However, the truth is that people who care about art care about the artist, not the middleman. 

The art establishment skillfully brainwashes us into thinking that unless someone with prestige* separates us from over half of our money and customers, convincing us that our work won’t be “important” or “recognized,” and not feeling validated is a fine artist’s deepest fear. 

*Prestige is a French word meaning deceit.

Artist representation drastically reduces our fine art sales and kills our profits, confidence, and dignity. If you’re not generating a profit, your fine art endeavor is a respectable but expensive hobby, and this is an economic fact, not a personal judgment. Getting paid for our time and talent is the highest form of validation we can receive and the greatest creative motivator. 

Anyone setting terms that separate us from our confidence, collectors, and coins is not helping us. If you don’t set the terms for selling your art, then the terms will be set for you and will not be set in your favor.

Artists accept unfair terms because they don’t know their niche, essential to generating a sustainable profit. Knowing your niche means knowing who wants to buy your art, why they want to buy it, and where and how to find more people just like them. Your niche is not about your creative genre, medium, subject, style, or you; it’s about your customer, your collectors. 

Most individuals and organizations whose role is to help fine artists are just not. If they were helping, would there be such a common struggle? What makes it worse is that they’ve convinced themselves that their motivations are pure and that they operate with integrity. However, terms that do not offer mutual consideration and that prey upon artists’ needs for validation are unethical. 

art contest organizers 

The only ones who win art contests are the organizers, who’re accountable to no one. Do you want to show your art to a self-appointed judge, or do you want to sell your art? When you pay to enter art contests, you’re literally paying for rejection. You pay an entry fee to enter the contest, and inevitably, they reject all but a few submissions. Then you’ll be encouraged to “submit” your work again, emphasis on the word “submit.” I’m unwilling to submit to anyone’s authority except my own. 

If you’re looking for validation, you must improve the bigger frame around your art, your reputation as a fine artist, shaped by your marketing and sales strategies.

Start looking closely at the volume of contest submissions and their time frames. It’s easy to calculate that these self-appointed art judges often have only seconds to judge your art. If you’re not getting paid or receiving useful critical feedback other than needless rejection, what’s the point? 

One of the editors for my book sheepishly admitted that he used to work for a book publisher who counted on an easy and profitable revenue stream from regular writers’ contests. 

Art contests are predatory and shameless fundraisers for organizations, including prominent art museums and councils. If your art is a hobby and not your business, enter as many art contests as you wish but understand that getting paid for your art is a valid measure of validation not a prize blue ribbon. 

Click here to listen to Fine Artist Jill Mueller’s experience with art contest organizers.

Click here to listen to Fine Artist Peter Cimpoe’s experience with art contest organizers.