Artists may be fundamentally unsuited to write their own promotional materials. They're simply too close to the work and know too much about it. Excess knowledge, and with it the inability to distill the work’s essence and fit it into a marketing vehicle, may be the biggest downside to the whole “lack of objectivity” issue.
Artists who write their own marketing materials—even those who write well—often abandon the best qualities of their work, like brevity, rigor, and alluring ambiguity. They gush about the many influences and inspirations that figure into their work. They expound and explain when really they should tease and allude.
If you agree with the following premise, then it means the assertion above is on target: If I know little or nothing about how a piece of art was made, who made it or why, then I can make that artwork mean anything I want it to mean.
When the artist allows people to define her art themselves, the work can function or signify in ways that she never imagined, and thus expand beyond its origins/intent.
Faulkner said "Kill your darlings." That is, jettison those attachments that clutter your work. Fixations can be huge impediments in art. That goes doubly in marketing . . . When it comes to promoting art (if not everything), less is more.
Click label below (Marketing Strategy for Artists) for Parts 1-3. Click Arts promotion for all posts on this topic.
To learn more about writing and strategic communications that can amplify your voice, contact me at ajeisenstat[at]gmail[dot]com, or visit my portfolio AdamEisenstat.com and LinkedIn profile.
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