DO YOU SHIP?
DO YOU SHIP? [T-H-I-N-K]
Years ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I didn’t have to ship my artwork. I sold whatever my galleries sold or I sold from my studio or at an art show. In short: if it wasn’t in person, the sale didn’t happen.
Fast forward to 2025. The pandemic pushed more artists (including moi) into having e-commerce websites. After all, we couldn’t be in person during that time! This means we had to ship in order to sell. That, combined with the “Amazon effect” - a term which describes how customer habits have changed due to free shipping and a large array of products available online - have led to an expectation that an artist will ship artwork wherever the customer wants.
Shipping is now part of the many business hats that artists wear. I’m fortunate to have my husband for my business partner. While I handle the online part of shipping - creating the shipping accounts with FedEx, DHL, UPS, etc. and printing the labels, he has been the one to actually package my art for shipping. The other part for me is to create a Certificate of Authenticity, Receipt, Thank You note and information about my work for the collector to accompany the painting.
I recently put a couple of videos on my YouTube channel so you can see how my husband packs my artwork, plus a link to the shipping supplies we use:
Shipping Art in a Box
Shipping Art in a Crate
STOP Doing Fake Work [k-n-o-w]
People - such as artists - fail in business because they do fake work. It’s like being on a rocking horse: you’re rocking back and forth, but not moving forward.
Things like:
researching galleries, but never putting together your submission
ordering new art supplies but not opening them up for days once you get them
reading about art in magazines, but not working on your own art
scrolling through social media to see what other artists are making
researching workshops but never signing up
Anything rather than taking action - get off that horse!
[g-r-o-w]