You Graduate Only IF You Sell Your Art

(Transcription)

Artist Karine Wolf Guyon
Montreal, Canada

QUESTION: Where are you based now?

Karine Wolf Guyon: I am in Montreal.

QUESTION: What was your biggest challenge as an artist?

Karine Wolf Guyon: Based on my history, I think it was believing as you talked, believing in a system that wasn’t working for me which you know, the art world as we know it today, the galleries, all this. I think that I believed that I wasn’t good enough because I got so much rejections and I didn’t really fit in the mold. So that was one of my biggest things you approach and you get so much rejection that you approach with it’s really hard after you’ve had, you know, 20 rejections letters to be confident that this time is gonna be the right one.

QUESTION: What did you family think?

Karine Wolf Guyon: My family, at some point my dad was just like, so did you sell a painting? I was like, no. And it was, I felt like he stopped believing even though he was really good for many years believing, believing. But anyway, I just couldn’t see myself. I’ve tried to do other things and I just couldn’t see myself doing anything else and that’s it. So might as well just do it 150% if this is what I’m gonna do.

QUESTION: What had to change?

Karine Wolf Guyon: I Realized that I had to change my mindset. That I had to start brainwashing myself, literally into believing that I could make it.

QUESTION: What is an artist’s product?

Karine Wolf Guyon: The first thing that I came across was even before, when I started studying you to know if, I looked at the videos that were free to know oh is this legit, you have to make a opinion, you can’t just trust. Once I trust I trust but I had to decide do I trust?

Anne Rea: Yeah, of course, you should.

Karine Wolf Guyon: Or not. So the first thing that was really enriching for me was when you said that I’m in the business of selling emotions that changed everything. It was like, duh!

QUESTION: How do you feel?

Karine Wolf Guyon: I’m very happy, super motivated. It’s, you know, it’s like, I can do it myself I don’t need to depend on anybody. I don’t need to spend hours sending proposals to galleries and you know, that’s a lot of time taken away from me or paying to even be in a show anymore because I don’t believe this works for me anymore and I really believe that, my life moving forward, I’m going to do it myself.

QUESTION: Why is the art establishment broken?

Anne Rea: You can’t depend on the galleries, so even if you wanted to depend on them, you can’t because they have a whole stable of artists that they need to represent. They don’t have the same motivation that you have to sell your art and they’re just not gonna be anywhere near as good at it and last but not least, and this is the key takeaway everybody. When you sell your art and you develop relationships with your collectors you can ask for referrals, you can get referrals. Referrals for most small businesses make up about over 85% of new sales. So if you’re working with a gallery you’re never gonna get that 85% more sales and what you do get is gonna be chopped in half ’cause they’re gonna take at least 50% commission. Then on top of that, they often want to discount your art which really hurts your reputation and lowers the amount of money you can make. So it’s like, what’s the point? If you bumped your head up against the art establishment for that long I mean, that’s, the universe is telling you something.

Karine Wolf Guyon: Yeah.

QUESTION: How does an artist sell their art?

Ann Rea:  It’s about sharing a mission that’s greater than you. It has way more to do, it’s bigger than the emotions that you’re experiencing. You’re serving a greater mission and then you can share if you choose to share, why it’s your mission. And that’s where you share your why to the extent you’d like to share it. Then how you’re serving this mission. Using your art and your other resources or skills because selling art for arts sake is one losing proposition. Selling art sucks.

Karine Wolf Guyon:  Yeah.

Ann Rea: We create value above and beyond the art which is what every major artist has always done then it’s not so hard.

Karine Wolf Guyon: Yeah.

Ann Rea: Worry about that stack of rejection letters, you’re not gonna have to do that anymore. I’m not gonna say that you won’t, you’ll get rejected but you won’t be injured because you’ll know hey they’re just not my target market, one, it’s not the right time, two, or they’re really not a decision maker, three. You won’t hurt inside so much.

QUESTION: Success is not a straight line.

Ann Rea: So this is an iterative process you learn, you’re gonna learn again and again and every time you go round the circle of the eight realms, you’ll learn again and again and again. Just master each realm, just like you master a creative medium.

Karine Wolf Guyon:  Yeah.

Ann Rea: It’s not a straight line, at all.

Karine Wolf Guyon:  No. I think my vision of life in general is not a straight line. I think we’re taught that its a straight line but its really more of a cycle so it makes sense that this would be too.

QUESTION: What is it like to know your purpose, your Why?

Karine Wolf Guyon: I was touched that I had a purpose like that. That I could actually express without just feeling it ’cause I’m very, I feel things very easily and instead of just feeling it I could see it in words and you know, I don’t know, it was a bit of a relief and it’s also giving me a goal. Just writing down the why and the what, that was very enlightening for me. I just put onto paper basically, what my mission, as you say, my goal, or mostly my mission was and I was surprised. I mean I do have depth, I’m a deep person but it was deeper than I thought it would be. So, that was really insightful. To get to the why was a very interesting process and also, that was the one thing that you were saying that your course was a blueprint. And I’m like, yeah, I was thinking, I mean, I’m ready to sell my art. So I can spend the next three years, four years figuring out how, trial, mistakes or I can buy somebody else’s blueprint that seems to be, you know, working. And I think I made my life so much more easier.

QUESTION: What is the 4-Part Code; the artist’s Why, What, How, and Who?

Ann Rea: Your why is all about you. Its got nothing to do with your art at all. It has everything to do with you, who you are, what you stand for and what you stand against. Your what is, it’s not really different, it’s just simply an extension of your why. Your what is simply based on your why, what is the problem that is worth solving. It shouldn’t, it should not diverge very, at all, really from you why. It should just be.

Karine Wolf Guyon:  Mm hmm.

Ann Rea: Your why in the form of a problem. That’s it. There’s no working on your mission, there’s no working on your what. You don’t have to work on it, it’s just your why in the form of a question. Your how, is how are you gonna solve this problem. Or how you’re going to help alleviate the problem using your art and your other resources. And that’s not something you’re going to answer in front of your desk or on your computer. You can brainstorm some ideas. But you’re not gonna really know it’s your how until you experiment in your final prototype project.

Karine Wolf Guyon: Mm hmm.

Ann Rea: Your who, who has this problem that’s worth solving. And again, you’re not gonna know that 100% for sure, until you do your prototype project. So what I see, a big mistake I see students making is they think they’re going to, like it’s some checklist or straight line from the why to the who. And that’s because, artists just want to know, I wanna know who’s gonna buy my art. I wanna know who’s gonna buy my art. And you can tell that’s what they’re trying to do, so they skip over things and they put the cart before the horse. And they really torture themselves, because they’re not following directions. Your why is the most important thing, it’s the most, it’s the foundation for everything. Your what’s already done once you have your why. Your how is an experiment, many experiments, not just one. A scientist wouldn’t just do one experiment.

Karine Wolf Guyon:  Yeah.

Ann Rea: Right?

Karine Wolf Guyon: Right.

Ann Rea: Make several hypothesis and test each hypothesis one at a time. And so, that’s really the four part code.

QUESTION: How do you know Who will buy your art?

Ann Rea: You’re only gonna know your who until after you’ve done your prototype project. That’s when you really get to know.

Karine Wolf Guyon: Yeah.

Ann Rea: But not before, it’s just a guess before. So when artist in the program say, I don’t know my four part code and they grind on it and grind on it. I’m like, oh my God, what are you doing? You’re not gonna know until you finish your completed, until you complete your final project.

Karine Wolf Guyon:  Mm hmm.

Ann Rea: You just have to, I know you all want it, but sorry, it’s just not that easy. It’s like saying, I want to have a perfect painting, I want to have a perfect sculpture, I want to have a perfect piece of blown glass. Well, sorry, you have to make a lot of crap before you get there.

QUESTION: What is your advice to artists?

Karine Wolf Guyon: Really love, you have to love yourself. Your art, of course, but if you don’t love yourself, you’re never gonna love your art. Then it’s never gonna be good enough and it’s gonna be a hindrance. So I think it’s really important that at the base, I accept who I am and love myself as an artist. And then it gets, it’s easier.

QUESTION: Why do the words you speak matter?

Karine Wolf Guyon: My words are very important. If you say, you can’t, you can’t. If you say, you can. Then you can. And the same thing, if I say, I’m stuck, I’m stuck.

QUESTION: Why must an artist know their purpose, their Why?

Karine Wolf Guyon: If you’re better grounded with who you are as an artist, and as a person and with your work at the beginning then maybe the rejections, they’ll, wash over like nothing. Maybe.

Ann Rea: Do you feel more grounded as an artist now that you found your why?

Karine Wolf Guyon: Oh, definitely, yes, yes. And it’s also a direction so you know, I’m moving towards a direction rather than being a small fish in a big pond. Now I can narrow it down to be a big fish in a small pond.

QUESTION: Do you have a plan to sell your art?

Ann Rea: If you built a house, would you do it without a blueprint?

Karine Wolf Guyon: Not unless you don’t have a choice.

Ann Rea: Right, yeah. Then you would, I guess.

Karine Wolf Guyon: But probably not, it would be really crooked.

Ann Rea: And you’d waste a lot of materials and time.

Karine Wolf Guyon: Yeah.

Ann Rea: And it’d probably fall down.

Karine Wolf Guyon: Yeah, yeah.

QUESTION: After you enrolled, what happened?

Karine Wolf Guyon: An intention will always be followed by an action so, to me believing that this would bring me something and investing my precious money, you know, into business.

Ann Rea: And time! You know what, and time because you can’t get time, you can get your money back, you can’t get your time back.

Karine Wolf Guyon: Sure, and time, of course. Was my first step of faith, however, you want to call it. It could be, so yeah, it was the first step in my case. It might not be like that for everybody. It depends on our background and where we come from. I think it was a few days after I made that step, and was convinced that that was the right thing for me. And you know, had change my mindset about my relationship with art and money, that I sold my first painting that covered half of the cost a few days after. I was like, wow, okay. So, that’s, that’s encouraging. What else is gonna happen?

QUESTION: What do you think of your Study Partner?

Karine Wolf Guyon: First of all, I love my study partner, we matched up, at this point, I have only one and it’s good that it’s the time that I have. And we spend an hour a week together. And she was a, like a match made in heaven kinda thing. We get along really well and so, it’s not. Maybe you’ll meet a stranger that’ll become a friend.

QUESTION: You’re only in Course 2 of 8. How’s it going?

Ann Rea: You sold enough to cover half of the course.

Karine Wolf Guyon: Oh no, no, no, I covered the whole thing.

Ann Rea: Okay, okay.

Karine Wolf Guyon: Yeah, in Canadian dollar.

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