Success or how to make creative things happen

Vivi-Mari Carpelan: "Emotions 1-6", six handmade collages (12x17 cm)

(First published in Vivi-Mari's own blog "Storms in a Teacup", Dec 2011. We're presenting this as part of our series looking at the philosophy and practice behind our enterprise "Wow! Look What I got!").

So here's the scenario: you feel discouraged and disheartened, not knowing what to do next. It seems as if everything is against you and you are losing faith not only in other people but in yourself as well. You feel stuck and uncreative. Personally, I have been in this place many times. It's almost as if each time it gets worse, but this could be evolution in action. Challenges get tougher as you learn from life, but the rewards you reap are probably also greater. Thing is, life is naturally dynamic, and this means there are always ups and downs throughout the journey. I find it helpful to think of it as the inhalation and exhalation of life itself. When you're in a phase of inhalation, you will feel more introspective and maybe even depressed. The point is to not fight this, but go with the flow. If you resist it, you make it harder for yourself. 

Artists are people who may feel these mood swings and roller coasters much more poignantly than others. People in creative jobs easily get distressed when they're in a low phase because it feels as if they can't produce anything worthwhile. The feelings of vulnerability easily make them feel victimized and as a consequence, they blame others for a lot of things rather than assuming responsibility in a more "grown up" sort of way. The darker aspects of one's being might come out and one will be a less pleasant person to be around. The way that depth psychologists who specialize in creativity theories explain this is that you are more submerged in your subconscious mind and the reason you cannot produce quite so well is because mental material is in a state of brewing. Don't panic, this phase is necessary. If you look into yourself you will probably find that you're battling with problems and feeling conflicted about many things. There is often one major issue to deal with but it usually connects with other more minor issues. You need to let it all go on for as long as it needs to go on.

Let this be. Don't panic, don't force yourself to be something you're not. At the most, be positive in the sense that you know this will pass, and that consciously dwelling on things is not necessarily of any use. I find talking to Martin useful, as it sometimes speeds things up a bit and makes me feel clearer, as well as helps him understand what's going on and why I'm acting the way I'm acting. But trying not to whhine and winge too much is better for yourself and everyone around you. Keep in mind that clarity will come when the time is right.

Then suddenly, one day, you have reached a decision - maybe even a major one. Time and time again, I find that reaching a decision about what direction I want to take is the turning point. I don't think there are any real short cuts to this. This is usually when you come out of your shell and start acting. You will no doubt be more extroverted than normal, which will enable you to communicate with other people about your ideas and your direction. In fact, just chatting to people about whatever happens in your life can lead to unexpected turns of events. Very often things happen indirectly, in a mysterious way that is not really of your own making. You're just being open and actively putting yourself out there. You feel more in charge of your own life, but don't make the mistake of thinking that you can control it. Control is not the point, and there is a very important distinction between the two. I think one of the keys is that you stop putting your destiny in the wrong hands and decide what kind of people you want to interact with. These people will then be the right ones who facilitate your journey. It's always a two way street so you really must avoid manipulating or forcing other people to make things happen for you. Luckily at this time and age people have woken up to the advantages of networking. I certainly feel that real, profound and honest interaction with others can be quite fruitful. It's about a balance between being self-sufficient and acknowledging the need for other people. The truth and fluidity of being is a paradox somewhere between the two ways of being.

When you overcome your own prejudices and expectations of life, you often end up choosing the path of less resistance. I think it's important to remember that there are often alternatives, and when we cease to stubbornly hold onto a particular path, it turns out there is an easier one which is much better for you. This is my experience, anyway. 

It's interesting how inner decisions will lead to greater flow and how things just start to happen. It probably feels great. During this phase, it's useful to be outgoing and generous. I'm not saying it's a ride without any bumps. But if you follow your intuition - and this is of paramount importance - you will probably finally achieve some important goals on your journey. By goal I don't mean an end, but rather a milestone. It won't last, because it's not in the nature of reality to be stable. Embrace the changes that will happen in one way or another, and enjoy the rush while it lasts!

P.S. These are my own thoughts but there are two classic books by Mihalyi Csiksztentmihalyi, "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" and "Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention" that you might like to read if  you're interested in the subject matter.

Vivi-Mari

What's it for and what's in it for you and who are we anyway?

Vivi-Mari Carpelan: "Elegy on the Eternal Dilemma"

You may be asking yourself a lot of questions about our project. Of course, there is no way for us of telling what might be going through your mind, but I will venture to answer some hypothetical questions, some of which have come up in the discussion with a good friend.

For starters, you may wish to support us because we're poor struggling artists, but you're not sure if it's really true. After all, we're all dressed up with nice props in the video, and Martin is having a sip of wine from a beautiful wine glass... well, we felt that some investment was necessary although we didn't have the means for any greater ones, so we got a bottle of cheap Spanish wine for £ 3.49 from the Co-Op. After all, it would come to some good use after a hard day's video filming as fear and anxiety about the outcome of the project was kicking in! Well... ok... the truth of the matter is that I love beautiful things so I have spent half a century collecting them (what?! that long?!), often at the expense of nourishment and by stretching my credit card... that's what you see in the film. We could of course have filmed it with ragged clothes in an old plasticky caravan out in the frozen fields... I'm only joking! In reality, we are currently struggling to pay the bills as our tiny income doesn't match the cost of living here in rural Wales. This is one of the main reasons Martin wanted to embark on this project and take matters into his own hands. We really need some hard cash, and soon - and we don't have the choice of doing anything else to improve a rather dire situation. 

As an artist, you're either working part time on your art while you're making a living doing something else, or, alternatively, you're dependent on random sales of original art work to random people at random times through random channels... neither scenario is working out for us at the moment. We wanted to break out of this rather distressing situation by finding a new way of selling art. That is, a lot of art to a lot of people for a lot of small sums of money! I'm sure you can see how we have tried to turn things around to benefit ourselves as well as others.

So how are we benefiting other people? Well, other people are really only benefiting if they feel that art is relevant to their existence. Though we can't affect this frame of mind directly, perhaps we can help indirectly by offering an opportunity to make a stand point by supporting our artistic careers? Perhaps we can encourage people to think about the implications of collecting art, even when you're not rich or even ever thought you'd be an art collector? Perhaps a look at our art will contribute to some thoughts about the meaning of art in every day life..? 

I know the time frame for our project is a bit tight and that some people might like to ponder all this for a much longer time. Unfortunately as with many things in life, we simply have to follow a dead line. As Martin has already stated, all contributions may potentially help us even if we don't reach our financial target. We will go ahead and try to get a good printing press so that we can at least do some small scale fine art printing (having someone else do it for us is financially unsustainable). 

It goes without saying that the internet allows us to reach people all over the world, but unfortunately the internet is a big noisy platform where it's quite difficult to get heard even when you're speaking English, the great universal language. Martin, who is more in charge of getting the word out there than I am, is trying to use various platforms for this purpose, but internet media aren't really all as great as they cracked up to be. The reason is very simple, and it's that there are too many voices calling out from our  boundless, echoing cyberspace. 

We are hoping that our ethical stance will speak to people. We don't want to be hard core marketers. We don't particularly like the way you have to sell yourself as an artist. But on the other hand, we want to engage with our audience and potential clientele in a personal and meaningful way. This is part of our ethos. We want everything to be fair and square and direct, without any funny business. We have a very deep conscience about these things. While you can't avoid the way the world is set up from a financial point of view, we're all about "conscious capitalism", i.e. a way of dealing with money that is as permeated with spiritual and moral consciousness as we can possibly muster.

What you can do is to support us a bit like you might support your local grocery store so they won't be out of business because of the big supermarkets that shoulder their ways into your neighbourhood. In this case, "the supermarket" is the elitist art market, which on the one hand favours the big brands that make the financial turn over really profitable, but on the other sells badly painted landscapes by the dozen, just to go with somebody's sofa. We're not condemning any of this (neither the supermarkets nor the art market - or even the sofas) but we do want to say hey! we're here too! and we can offer an alternative! 

We want to provide a service that is fun and meaningful for all concerned. Of course, there is only so much we can do! We can't really engage you in the process directly... though... hang on! Who knows what we can do? If there is an audience, there are always ways in which people can become part of the process. For instance, I would love to talk to people a lot more about the kind of art that speaks to them, and that could affect what kind of art I do! After all, I want to communicate, not just indulge in a self-absorbed artistic practice. Personally, Martin and I have become much more involved with each other's creative processes through this project, and that's been beneficial to us. We are also on the look-out for other artists. If we had a sustainable business, then we'd be able to commission other artists to come and do some art specifically to go out to our clients. Really, there is no end to what one can come up with in conjunction with an interactive audience!

Vivi-Mari

What art will you get?

From Martin's exhibition "Synthesis" in November 2012 in the Radnorshire Gallery in Llandrindod Wells - Renaissance style drawings on 100 % recycled handmade paper.

From Vivi-Mari's exhibition "The Art of Becoming Human" in a gallery in Cardiff, June 2012 - handmade collages on paper

From these pictures, you'll get an idea of what kind of art we have been creating recently. When you start subscribing to our art, you'll get a small format fine art print (i.e. non-fading pigment based ink on fine art paper) which you can either start collecting for yourself or give as a gift. We have also put some thought into the packaging of your print, but the final result still remains to be seen. If the business takes off, we'll be able to suggest frames and maybe offer some beautiful albums in which you can collect them too! A lot of things will naturally depend on the amount of subscribers that we get. This is really only for starters... by subscribing to our newsletter, you'll find out more as time goes on! You can also read quite a bit about the project on our project website.

Please visit our gallery for a taste of the kind of art you'll get in the first few months. You may also like to rummage through some of our online galleries, for instance my own website, or Martin's blog. There will be a cross section of what we think of as interesting pieces... once we have a sustainable practice, we will commission other artists to participate in this project, as well. It really shouldn't get boring, as we will send work made in different styles and with techniques. And you can always unsubscribe at any time if you feel that we're not meeting with your expectations.

If we don't raise enough money to raise a big printing press, we hope we'll still raise enough for a smaller one. In that case, whoever has contributed and chosen one of the perks, will receive the fine art prints. If things don't go according to plan, the money will be returned (minus the ten percent commission we have to pay the crowd funding site).

What art are we doing at the moment? Well, Martin is working on an amazing drawing of a hat and a lady with some intense eyes... let's see if you recognise her... He's preparing for a show in MoMa Wales. and I'm doing  the demo for a multimedia show involving my abstract photography (for which Martin will do the music!). We hope to keep feeling encouraged by you, the audience, so that we'll feel even more motivated to go on creating art... ;)!

Vivi-Mari

"The Hockney" - Perk No. 4 - Cheap art for a year!

"Crocodiles, Hens, Beetles, Armadillos & Fish (do not evince any remarkable partiality for man)"
Ink, pencil, gouache and transfer print on tempera-washed handmade Khadi paper
Copyright © 2012 by Martin Herbert

Time to look in a bit more detail about another of the perks you can get in return for supporting our fine-art publishing startup wowlookwhatigot.com. Today we'll explain:

"The Hockney"

$75 ( £45 / €60 ) – a year's subscription at a reduced price – normally $80/£50 per year. PLUS another month FREE! i.e. you get 13 fine-art prints. It wont buy us a new swimming pool, but you will have our immense gratitude. We will not automatically re-bill you – we'll ask nicely whether you want to take out a subscription when you get close to the end of your first year. NB: For INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING (outside the UK), PLEASE ADD $20 at checkout.

A regular subscription to wowlookwhatigot.com can take one of two forms - pay monthly or pay yearly. It's cheaper to pay yearly, but on the other hand if someone pays monthly then they can cancel at any time. The regular price for a yearly subscription will be £50, for which you would get a piece of artwork every month for the year - i.e. 12 pieces.

As a perk in return for supporting us during the startup phase we're offering that year's worth of art for the reduced price of £45 AND then throwing in an extra month free! Sounds like a good deal to me :-)

As with all of these 'trial subscription' perks, you aren't committing yourself to a regular payment, nor do you have to remember to cancel the credit card payment before the year is up - we will not re-bill you. We'll just send a reminder before the end of the year along with an order form so if you would like to continue the subscription you then have the option.

So - 13 months worth of art for less than the price of 12- and don't forget - if you'd like to buy this as a gift for someone, we'll send (either to you or direct to them - you choose) a signed gift card for you to present to them. We're halfway through the campaign now - this week would be a good time to remember those birthdays coming up!

De-clutter your space, your internet, your mind, your emotions...

Studio? What studio?

I guess spring is in the air because spring cleaning seems to come to mind in somewhat unorthodox forms! People with pagan belief systems would say that it's all in tune with spring equinox. I believe that de-cluttering one's physical space is necessary at regular intervals. This also goes for the computer and the internet. A thousand e-mails have been deleted, newsletters have been un-subscribed from, personal photo albums have been deleted from the internet, several internet accounts have been closed down, and on it goes. One must re-centre, re-focus and re-prioritise. The internet is a kind of ghost land, and maintaining a presence there most certainly requires energy. Equally, I can sense people's presence, but I can't see their physical shape... so it's like moving in a haunted house with a lot of ghostly presences. Don't get me wrong, I am all for technological advancement, but there are obvious pitfalls in the form of the amount of time and energy it requires from you, and the way the illusory aspects of virtual reality mess with your head.

Although good things occur, I have also found that social media and forums consistently create stress and unwanted emotional ups and downs in myself. So the advantages of keeping in touch with some people and sharing aspects of my life that I want to share with others have to be weighed against the disadvantages. Martin and I have talked about it long and hard and come to the simple conclusion that the internet isn't serving us well enough to warrant all the energy we're putting into it; there is on top of everything that feeling that one should do more, and more and more... and it really is endless, and never enough. We also feel that social media is not all it's cracked up to be. One reason may be that novelty value is wearing off. We feel that people are maybe getting jaded and aren't quite so interested in responding to other people online... the responses are so inconsistent and random, and quite few and far between, that it's starting to look futile. No one likes being bombarded with so much stuff all the time... While internet developers are working on making the internet easier to use, there are more and more adverts and more general noise. This is possibly a time of great transitions, but at the moment it's really all quite strenuous and not very user friendly. Learning new technology all the time (for instance, just setting up a simple account somewhere) is very time/energy consuming too, so it's worth thinking about which bits one feels a real need to learn. Perhaps one could talk about de-scattering one's brain!

While social media gurus abound, it seems to us that there's a lot of hype but very little real substance to the claims that the social media can help you reach people's consciousness. We are fully aware that it may still work for some people who have certain advantages, for instance youth, glamour and the ability to engage with people in real life through performance. Having a really cool gadget to develop is also something that wakes people up. Through our current project and fundraising campaign we have found out quite a lot about the way it really works, or doesn't work. While some truths are painful, I feel that my own online presence has served several purposes and it has certainly not all been in vain. However, it may be time to refocus and rethink one's attitudes and strategies. Trumpeting one's truth into the void when no one is listening is certainly pointless, and it scatters the mind. I don't intend to abandon the internet altogether, but I'm going to make my presence more restricted and focused. Feeling too dependent on the internet for solutions to one's own life issues and feeling too desperate to be heard is a bit like entertaining a co-dependent romantic relationship (in real life, of course), and it's not healthy.

It's too soon to say just what our crowd-funding campaign has taught us, as it's running for another three weeks. Real media such as newspapers and Finnish TV have shown a lot of interest, but for many lay people out there it's still a bit hard to grasp the concept. My own dad said he hoped we weren't embarrassing ourselves by begging for money from our friends. He may be excused due to his age. Of course, most people understand that it's not about that at all. It's about showing support, which you can do either by sharing the idea with your own friends, or by donating a sum of your choice. My own Achilles' heel is that I expect people to be loyal and supportive in ways that most people aren't able to be. On the other hand, some people feel they want to support by giving unsolicited advice, and that's something I'm not happy about at all as it often takes the form of a patronising attitude. But dealing with my own reactions and deciding not to hold onto some relationships is all part and parcel of my own process of "growing up" and finding the steps I have to take in order to minimise exposure to stress in my own life. "Letting go" is that one thing that keeps creeping up in my mind... 

So what happens to us middle-aged artists? Well, if one direction isn't fruitful then another one will surely appear if one keeps an open mind. It's tempting to abandon art as another pointless exercise - if it tends to be a one way communication and you feel that your whole existence depends on whether you reach other people or not, then it's not healthy. Of course, giving up is always an option if you're truly better off doing something else. But - my feeling is that Martin really wants to make art (he just needs to spend more time doing it in the real world) and that as he's evolving as an artist, he should by no means give up at this point. We are really, really struggling with the finances but on the other hand there aren't any other jobs available for him in this region either. As for myself, well I have to find ways of minimizing the impact of stress in my own life. My health is a priority. I could imagine doing lots of different arty things that demand time and energy if my reality was not restricted by health issues, but as it is, I have to live with them and organise my life around them. In discussions with Martin I have started to see some new ideas emerge about the role of art, and how some of my work fits in with these ideas... We'll just have to see where it takes me.

Vivi-Mari Carpelan

March 2013

"The Emin" - Perk No. 3 - Get even more free art!

"That Tracey Emin Says my Art Looks Like a Plane Crash" : Ink, pencil & transfer printing on handmade paper : Copyright © 2012 by Martin Herbert

Another update in our series looking at the various levels of perks you can claim in return for contributing to our project at indiegogo.com/wowlookwhatigot. This time we're looking at ...

"The Emin"

$25 / £15 – 3 month's trial membership, PLUS one extra month FREE! i.e. you get 4 fine art prints. Worth getting out of an unmade bed for! We will not automatically re-bill you – we'll ask nicely whether you want to take out a subscription when you get your first artwork. NB: For INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING (outside the UK), PLEASE ADD $10 at checkout!

The point of the perks we're offering is to give people a chance to try out the service and see the quality of the artwork before they decide to take out a regular subscription. So - none of this '30 days free' stuff where you have to hand over your credit card details and if you forget to cancel you suddenly find you've been charged again. Nope, you just get to try it out and then we'll send a letter asking you to sign up if you liked the trial - that's the deal - no pressure, no automatic re-billing, no hassle :-)

To end up with a viable business in the long term we need two things - the equipment and consumables to produce the goods, and someone to sell them to. Crowd-funding is ideal in that in theory it will give us both at the same time - we raise the capital we need to get started and in the process get a list of people who we know are at least potentially interested in a subscription. You get a really good deal on some art, with no pressure to continue ... a win-win situation for everyone, no?

So, this weekend would be a really good time to take the plunge and give it a try - nothing to lose, after all - so please take a few minutes to pop along to indiegogo.com/wowlookwhatigot, contribute to the project, and recommend all your friends and relations to do the same! I highly recommend you get yourself an "Emin", before they all run out!

News feature - getting famouser and famouser ...

Newtown, Powys County Times, March 15th 2013

In the news again! A great feature for wowlookwhatigot.com in this week's County Times newspaper - thanks to reporter Bronwen Jones!

In the news

Brecon & Radnor Express, March 7th 2013

An entertaining piece by Nigel Evans about crowd-funding in last week's Brecon & Radnor Express, featuring wowlookwhatigot.com ! Thanks Nigel! (And thanks for the assiduous research finding the photo of us impersonating Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at Llani Fancy Dress ... I think!).

Is there really a place for art in modern society?

"The Blessing" : Handmade collage : Copyright © 2008 by Vivi-Mari Carpelan

Is art important to everyone, and is there a truly positive attitude towards art within the framework of society? I've been giving some though to some of the prevailing attitudes towards art and creativity in general in modern society.

Firstly, there certainly is a lot of art around! In fact, we're truly saturated with images in modern society. The fact that any images we may want are so readily available, and that we're also bombarded with images that aren't significant to us personally, surely has a negative effect on people's perception of the value of images. Secondly, as people have been made redundant or find themselves out of a job for other reasons, or even on disability allowance, suffering the consequences of the recession and the fast pace of modern living, they often turn to arts and crafts. Authorities usually care very little if people make art while they are living off benefits, as it's generally speaking not regarded as work. There may be the illusion that we have freedom to do what we want because basic needs are met, but does it help if the attitudes within society aren't supportive of creative freedom and nobody wants what you do? Perhaps this is one of the reasons why there is such a great flux of creativity within modern society but not a truly deep and overarching appreciation of it.

I would say that neither creativity nor art is being held in great regard because it's usually not supporting the economy in any significant way. In fact many in the higher ranks of society consider it a unnecessary evil that sucks money. I'm not an economist but it's pretty obvious to a lay person like myself that there is a deep seated attitude within society today that pure labour that creates goods that in turn are easy to sell is still more valuable than anything else. Perhaps the future will see a different attitude, where robots have taken over all the labour and people are being given the blessing to be creative in any way they want. I myself have experienced the kind of pressure authorities put on their citizens in order to force them to perform like marionettes in a predetermined reality show. Unless you have independent means of some kind, you will be subjected to pressure. If society gives you anything, you must give back what society wants from you. And it's probably not going to be a work of art.

We often tend to forget that society consists of real people. Some of them are career minded go getters and others are numb clerks who only work nine-to-five because they don't see any other option. What we can safely assume is that most of them were not encouraged to be creative while they were at school. As long as the school system promotes logic and productivity over intuition and inspiration, attitudes aren't going to change. If the foundation of society isn't supportive of the "deviant personality", then art is not going to be considered a necessity. It's quite obvious that the artists who thrive are the ones who are also go getters and have an entrepreneurial mind (for instance Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst). They make millions because they have the talent to make money, not necessarily because they are artists. The rest of us are paddling against the stream.

When Martin started to work out the details for our artistic enterprise "Wow! Look what I got!", we naturally discussed the possibility of selling the idea to the general public that anyone can become an art collector. Do people want to be art collectors for very little money? Do people prefer to sustain the myth of art as a luxury product that only the rich can afford? Or do people simply not care about art at all? By asking people to share our project with their friends, we were in fact encouraging them to make a statement, to have a standpoint... While we need money in order to make it all happen, and the fundraising campaign is crucial to the business idea, we still feel that checking out the attitudes towards art is our main objective. Obviously, we can't start a business without a state-of-the-art printing press, which we hoped that in these dire times, we could acquire through the support of many, many members of the public. There are deeper questions at stake. What we really want to know is whether the art that we make actually makes a difference, and what manner of consumption we should expect from the audience. Does the general public want our art in the first place? Is it in any way meaningful to them? Is it at least meaningful to some of them? Is it meaningful as a body of work, or are only single pieces meaningful? And finally, are potential friends of our art willing to commit to paying subscriptions in order to get a print every month? 

We knew that market research is of the essence when you're building up a business, but we didn't have the resources for that. Instead the market research has been built into the project. The crucial bit is whether people feel interested and impressed enough to share the idea with their friends. It's a gamble, but we felt that this idea just had to be tried and tested. If we didn't try this then we'd never know whether an alternative to the typical way of selling art through galleries was an option at all. The campaign is still running so there is still time for reactions from the general public. 

We feel that there may be a lot of creativity about, but I feel that it doesn't necessarily involve many deeper, philosophical musings about the nature of art and life. Why would that be? Well, most people's basic necessities in life may well be met (cf. Maslow's hierarchy of needs), but most people are still struggling to survive. Survival may be a relative terms so for some people it means managing on £1,200 a year while for other it's £40,000 ... Sums are not of any importance in this respect. What matters is the sense of struggle, the sense of not having enough time or energy for the deeper layers in life. People generally speaking live with a sense of dissatisfaction with life's basic set up, are jaded, and will possibly be paying for a Sky TV subscription each month rather than for any kind of artistic product, let alone a subscription for art. I would love to be proved wrong!

In fact, I would suggest that people are fleeing the deeper questions in life, whether they be religious/spiritual, moral or artistic. From this point of view, it's not about the money, i.e. it doesn't really matter what art costs. In this kind of setting, art is definitely a luxury product that people only pay for because it raises their status within a particular peer group, or because their inner longing for something more soulful becomes strong enough to put them on course for an exhibition of some kind. I would like to think that the soul's yearning will gradually override a lot of the kind of "noise" we are subjected to in today's world... I would like to think that there are already a lot of people out there who feel this yearning and who realise that hanging on Facebook all day or watching X Factor or Eastenders every day is not satisfying a hunger that stems from deep within a human being, on the level of what I would call essential humanity. I like to believe that there are infinite dimensions within us all that call out from the deep, with persistance and pure passion for that which sustains human life through art, culture and other expressions of creativity. This is where art comes from, and also where it goes to.

Vivi-Mari Carpelan

March 2013

"The Hirst" - Perk No. 2 - Get free art!

Perk No. 2 - "The Hirst"

No. 2 in our series giving more details about the perks you can claim in exchange for contributing towards our project fund at indiegogo.com/wowlookwhatigot...

No. 2 - "The Hirst"

$8 / £5 - one month's trial membership PLUS one extra month FREE! i.e. you get 2 fine-art prints. We will not automatically re-bill you or send you a pickled cow – we'll ask nicely whether you want to take out a subscription when you get your first artwork. NB: for INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING (outside the UK), PLEASE ADD $4 at checkout!

There's a bit of a philosophical decision to be made when deciding what to give to contributors in a campaign like this. You might decide that you're simply asking for donations and that the value of the perk received is purely symbolic rather than directly related to the amount pledged. For instance, a 'thank-you' card signed by the team in return for $25, or a campaign t-shirt in return for $100. This is the route we might go if, fit instance, we were looking for donations to a relief charity.

On the other hand if, for instance, you're developing some new hi-tech gadget and looking for funding for product development, you might simply offer pre-orders at the usual price, the 'hook' being the 'snob value' of being the first on the block to own the latest thing ("Be the envy of your friends...!").

In our case we've decided to go with offering 'free gifts' at various levels. In return for your contribution you don't just get a pre-order, but also extra art free! That can't be a bad thing can it?

What do you think motivates people the most to contribute to a start-up campaign like this? We'd love to hear from you on the comments page at indiegogo.com! Details of more groovy perks to come later this week!

Love
Martin & Vivi-Mari

The Rolf - Perk no. 1

Number one in a series of posts about the perks you can get in return for contributing to our crowd-funding project - wowlookwhatigot.com.

The way crowd-funding works is simply to create a project which you hope people will find inspiring and innovative, and to ask your friends, family, colleagues and total strangers who like the look of the idea to contribute funds because they want to help make it happen. Although it's not compulsory to offer anything in return, of course most campaigners do.  Typically it might be a pre-order of a new techie gadget, or a CD of a band's new album, the production of which will be funded by the project, etc. etc....

In our case, the project is all about setting up a new business to publish our artworks, so of course we're offering art-related perks in return for contributions.

The Rolf - Perk no. 1 ($1)

Really we want to sell people trial subscriptions to our new service, in the hope that after trying it out, they'll want to take out a regular subscription later on, but we realise not everyone who might want to help make the project successful may want regular deliveries of artwork, or may not be able to afford the high price perks, hence -

The Rolf:
Just give us $1 because you like the idea (even if you can´t tell what it is yet!) – gets you our undying gratitude and your name on the mailing list for up-to-date information on how our brave new art world is doing. EVERY contributor will be signed up for invitations to exhibition private views, news of auctions of our original art, future membership offers, and details of other events.


We'll be continuing this series of posts telling you all about the perks available over the next week, but to find out more, just go to indiegogo.com/wowlookwhatigot.

Bye for now!

Why a comment and a dollar are important..

Funny old thing, this crowd-funding business. The way you think it's going to work isn't always the way things turn out. For instance, I naively thought that if you tell all your friends about the whole idea as clearly and succinctly as possible, they will immediately rush to your support. And they do, of course, in an abstract "wow, that's a great idea" or "that's interesting - I hope it works out" kind of way.

"A Twist of Pearl" : Digital painting : Copyright © 2005 by Martin Herbert

In internet terms, that kind of translates to a 'like' on Facebook. Unfortunately, that's it. Don't get me wrong, I mean it's great that someone 'likes' my meticulously crafted Facebook update which is promoting my equally meticulously crafted blog post, which is creatively illustrating my equally meticulously crafted and innovative creative business concept. That's great, and I'm really grateful for all and any attention we can garner for the project. Thanks - everyone!

However, as far as crowd-funding goes, there are 2 things necessary for it to work - firstly people have to give us actual money. There is a vast chasm between saying "best of luck with that" and saying "best of luck with that - here's £1". If 1000 people do the former, we receive a nice warm glow and a feeling that we're appreciated. And that's it. If, on the other hand, 1000 people do the latter, we receive a nice warm glow and £1000, which is enough to buy a good quality A2+ giclée printer. Spot the difference? I hope so!

The difference between a 'like' on Facebook and a 'share' on Facebook, on the other hand, is not as easy to spot, bit it's equally, if not even more, important. A 'like' says "I wish you luck", but a 'share' says "I wish you luck, and to show it I'm going to tell all my friends about your project!". Crowd-funding only works if your message is reaching a crowd, and a big one at that.

There is a third part of the equation which is even harder to grasp immediately. If you visit our campaign page it would be great if you could leave a comment! The reason - one thing which is guaranteed to make a campaign successful is if it gets featured in the indiegogo home page or in their newsletter. The campaigns that happens to are not selected by the indiegogo staff, but by their computer, according to some complex calculations that decide how popular your campaign is. That's not just about how much money you're raising, but many other things including the number of comments we receive. It's wonderful if everyone goes to the campaign page and appreciates it, but appreciating it visibly actually makes a big difference to our bottom line.(Look for the tab that says ´Comments´on it near the top of the page).

So, much as I hate to harangue and beseech our friends and relations, please take 10 minutes out of your life to read, donate, share and comment! To meticulously craft a creative metaphor, we've spent the last four months kneading the dough, encouraging it to rise, and trying to bake the perfect loaf. Our bread is well and truly cast upon the waters - whether it returns to us or not is in your hands.

It's Wow-day!! wowlookwhatigot.com launches today!

Click here to go to indiegogo.com/wowlookwhatigot

The wowlookwhatigot.com crowd-funding campaign at indiegogo.com/wowlookwhatigot is now up and running, from 1st March to 15th April 2013.  That's the important bit - PLEASE go there and find out all about it!  Most of all, please share this post with your friends, colleagues and professional networks - we need as many people as possible to pass on the news.  For those who would like some more background though, here goes ...

I'll start with a heartfelt plea - we HAVE to raise our first funds within 2 days to even appear on the indiegogo website campaign browser so people can actually find us, so to all our friends & family, please visit the funding page right now and make a contribution - the minimum is just $1, about 70p, so it's not going to break the bank!  Also the more visits we get, and the more comments, the higher the campaign's rating is, and the more it is likely to be featured on the site.  Read on for details of the competition for the first 50 contributors - Thanks!!

From initial concept through talking over the idea, to outline sketches, to planning the details. From deciding on the crazy colour of the logo to putting together the website, then this blog, shooting and editing the video, setting up the crowd-funding site, drafting newsletters, press releases, social media updates, and finally ... pressing the (virtual) big red Go! button ... it's taken 4 months to get this far.

To recap, the basic idea was simple - for artists, there is a basic flaw in the art market - not enough customers! Why? Because art is expensive - original art often has to be expensive - it can take weeks or months to create something, and it has to be sold for enough money to feed, house and clothe the artist for the weeks or months it takes to make the next thing.  How many people are willing and able to pay that kind of money? Hardly any, and they are spending their money on artists who are well-established. Collectors, understandably, have an eye on the resale value.

So who makes all the money in this world? Generally the people who can sell a lot of something cheap (look at the pound shops!).  Why not apply the same principle to art, so that those people who love art but aren't rolling in money actually have something real, attractive and engaging to buy?

Hence wowlookwhatigot.com - a simple deal - you pay us £5 a month, we send you a fine-art print every month. Our problem - no money to start up the business. Solution - should we go borrow £10k from a bank at a punitive interest rate that guarantees we're going to fail before we even start? Er, nope. Should we ask our friends, acquaintances  former co-workers, previous customers and collectors and complete strangers who we can inspire, each to invest just a few pounds each in our future? Sounds like a plan!

Invest in wowlookwhatigot.com for a chance to win a dragon!

Oh, and to make it even more interesting, the first 50 contributors to the campaign will be entered in a draw to win an original dragon drawing by Martin, so get in there quick! (By the way, you are not committing yourself to subscribing by contributing to the campaign - we'll ask you about that later, when you've actually received some samples!).

Go for it!

Love

Martin & Vivi-Mari

1st March 2013 (Wow! day)