Why do artists keep posting only their art when it's clearly not working for them?

Artists love hiding behind the canvas, and photographers love hiding behind the lens. When you create marketing that’s only about your work and nothing about you, you’re essentially saying that your work is so extraordinarily good that it alone is all you need to present. You’re treating your art like it should sell itself without any additional context or connection. This isn’t just arrogant—it’s wasteful. Marketing is the hardest thing for most artists to do consistently, and it’s what they like doing least. When you finally commit to doing marketing, you owe it to yourself to ensure the highest possible return on that effort. If you’re only showing art and not giving anyone an opportunity to bond with you as a person, you’re being inefficient with your precious marketing time. It’s like going into battle with only a sword and no shield—the combination of both makes you most effective.

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Asked by synthesized from teaching · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2023-11-02