Podcasts | Felicity O'Connor

By Felicity O'ConnorSociety & Culture Education Arts Self-Improvement Personal Journals Visual Arts

Podcasts | Felicity O'Connor episodes

February 06, 201709: Richard Claremont
Show Notes:
Richard is an artist based on the South Coast and has a Bachelor of Arts from the Sydney College of the Arts
His career started to take off a couple of years ago when he became more intentional with his art practice
The biggest struggle that creative professionals face is the expectation to produce high quality work on a consistent basis
He is still working on honing his skills and says that it would take 10,000+ hours to become an expert
There is a time to pause, reflect and refine
He also talked about asymmetry and balance as composition for his painting
We are hardwired to tell stories and that is a useful entry point to engage people which Richard incorporates with his work
When people get to know your story, they start to trust you and for artists they get to buy your art as well

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47 min
January 12, 2017Art Prizes: why you’re not entering them
Show notes:
Prizes – should they enter, should they not enter?
It’s the cost of the game. You’ve got the jump in and you’ve got to expect that it’s going to happen
Factors into entering prizes that is out of control
Many artists take it to heart and feel depressed and rejected
Go for your best stuff
Don’t take it on personally if you haven’t been selected for the prize
It’s worth trying loads if you want to up level your art career
You’ve got to take risk and toughen up when it comes to rejection
Your career as an artist matters to you
Start somewhere you can start, afford and pull your energy where you can work
The post Art Prizes: why you’re not entering them appeared first on Felicity O'Connor.
14 min
October 31, 201607: Alyson Stanfield
Art Biz Coach started in early 2002, and Alyson worked with artists for 11 years prior to that.
The Art Biz Blog launched in the fall of 2004. Her book, I’d Rather Be in the Studio: The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion, was first published in 2008. The third edition was published in 2015. Alyson has taught workshops and been a speaker at artist events in 27 states. She’s taught online classes since 2003. Alyson works with with hundreds of visual artists every year in her online classes, membership programs, 1-on-1 consultations, and live events.
Show Notes:
Alyson B. Stanfield is the author of ” I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion”
She has a wonderful array of experience and is currently in Colorado, USA
She helps artists to promote their art effectively, sell more of it and make more money
Alyson has done lots of coaching and that’s how Felicity and Alyson met back in 2002. She had a coaching session with her and it was a game changer!
Her emphasis is on the business side of things
First edition of the book came out in 2008 and 3rd edition came out in 2015
The book is based on the top excuses she hears from artists about why they are not getting their art out of the studio and in front of people
She used the book to help artists with those excuses
When you’re building a business you don’t have time to whine, time to make excuses. You either do it or don’t!
It’s a dream-breaker
Procrastination – a lot of people procrastinate because they are perfectionists. They use perfectionism as an excuse for procrastination
The best artists in the world just makes art under any circumstances. They just make it work
It can also be based on fear – fear of failure or fear of success
A lot of artists are confused that they are also business people. They are people running a small business
How to get buyers? The word is not “get” but instead “attract”
Adopt a different mind-set which has a different energy and a more positive move
Share, Attract and Engage
Be super excited about your work
Show people that you care about them before you expect them to turn around and care about your work
Listening to them instead of talking to them can make a huge difference
Show up at their galleries, commenting on their posts on Facebook, be part of the art community, you need to be seen
Nurture the relationship
Every artist has a unique set of people that they need to get their art in front of
When you market to everyone, you market to no one
The art world is changing
In your next exhibition, pull out your camera and video – get lots of photos and footage to share with your followers
Alyson started out as a painting major and then she went to work in Washington D.C. to work for a Senator
Successes are built around the world that you cultivate
Alyson’s own personal taste in art is different from the art she seeks out in galleries. She likes to buy art from people that she knows (which is a relationship thing)
She likes art that makes her think
Alyson’s website is artbizcoach.com and her book can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks or her site (2015 edition is ebook only)
http://artbizcoach.com/
https://www.facebook.com/artbizcoach/
The post 07: Alyson Stanfield appeared first on Felicity O'Connor.
51 min
October 13, 201606: Amanda Gascoigne
I have had the opportunity to interview the amazing Amanda Gascoigne of the Biz Buddy! In this episode, we talked about how she got into accounting, how to make accounting simple and easy, and great tips on how you should value your art works or business so as to make a profit!
If you would like to know about Amanda you can visit her website at TheBizBuddy.com or her Facebook page.
Show Notes:
Felicity and Amanda met 8 months ago through a business network opportunity
Amanda has been an accountant for the last 20 years. Over the last 17 years she had her own accounting practice, ‘Gascoigne Consulting’ and it is a practice that deals with small-medium sized businesses and individual taxpayers
Started at her home in East Maitland
She ended up doing Accounting when she was doing her HSC – she had two choices: Accounting or Textiles Design so she is a creative person as well!
How you manage money, how organised and charging for the creative work that you do is incredibly important for Felicity
Business owners – there’s no way to get around that but why not use that information for your benefit first and let the tax office use it to lodge your tax return or a BAS
Just understanding why you’re doing what you’re doing makes it easier to get your head around
with creative things that you are actually producing, your clients are putting a value on that – likewise accountants can put a value on what they’re providing as far as what we’re giving to the tax information because they’re actually giving more than just lodging a form – they are actually helping business owners understand business better and potentially improve record keeping and profitability
Accountants generally do not ask some relevant questions before working with someone – they assume that clients understand it whereas clients do not like to ask because they think it is too basic to ask but no one achieves out of that
Very basic questions to ask an accountant – bookkeeping and keeping of your records – one of the biggest problems is business owners come to accountants to do their tax returns and they don’t have all the information in a nice, sorted manner
Keep everything because it is not an embarrassment to bring something that isn’t deductible
It is better to have more than really not enough
Every time you get a receipt, put it in a folder – which is a very simple way of keeping records – there are lots of apps out there which is nice, but you can also pop in the folder and see at the end of the month to summarise how you are going
Categorise at the end of the month on how much you have spent on travelling, art supplies, telephone, etc.
Another place that accountants can help is to extract the value of your services – if they know how much it is costing you to run your business, they then have an idea of how much extra profit they’d like to make to remunerate you. All of a sudden you’ve got a target on how much sales or how much do you need to sell each month to start covering your overhead and then making a profit to actually reward you for your time and effort
If you don’t know what it is costing you to operate your business and know what you need to live off your own personal budget, how do you get to be a profitable business? Quite often, they don’t get looked at especially with creative people they concentrate on their productions. They just need to have a simple filing system – 10 minutes at the end of every week.
As artists, they don’t really think much about investing for themselves – future proofing their business
Hobby artists vs professional artists
If someone is doing art as a hobby there is no need to declare it for tax purposes
Still keep the receipts even if you are just doing it as a hobby
Amanda is rewarding herself now after working full time for 17 years and more. She is now doing the reverse
Winning prize money or getting grants? What taxation issues might be around that? Yes it goes back to the hobby. If it is part and parcel of your business, it will be included. If it is just a one-off thing but you are still working on that hobby stage, you probably might not need to worry about paying tax on that
Her website is thebizbuddy.com.au where she shares some blogs and helpful information, etc.
Her future projects include e-courses that involve Record Keeping, Understanding your Financial Statements, etc. checklists on what business owners must do on a monthly and quarterly basis and will open up a 1-on-1 coaching
The post 06: Amanda Gascoigne appeared first on Felicity O'Connor.
45 min
October 06, 201605: Sandra Bliim
Show Notes:
Sandra Bliim is an artist and sculptor
Sandra and Felicity recently met at the Manly Art Gallery at an event called Creative Women’s Circle
Back in the early 2000s Sandra (or Sandy) started going to TAFE taking the Fine Arts Course
This is an important opportunity for women who wanted to get back into the workforce and also for people who are in retirement and looking to live a creative life
Sandy thinks that all that travelling, observing and living has given her some good ideas and gives her something to say visually
She got her Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours at the National Arts School
For a long time, she never considered herself as an artist and felt that she was just a student
Calling yourself an artist is the hardest thing – Do I deserve the title? Am I good enough? Do I need a degree to prove it?
You need a body of work because it helps to prove to yourself that you are progressing and developing and that gives you pleasure and helps your visual expression
Even when you are selling, always keep a record of your work because you can always look back and say “That was really quite good!” and something that you can build on in the future since nothing ever stays the same
Getting that circle of intimate friends who you trust is very important and it will give you the confidence to take your work into exhibition
Getting an unbiased response to work is also valuable
People in isolated areas can connect with like-minded people through social media (i.e. Facebook groups – such as From the Easel)
If you are unable to go to a local art society, do it in a local school as there are some really great, interesting people
Entering competitions, particularly for sculptors, is actually a really good way to maintain momentum with your practice because it gives you a deadline
Different materials have their own problems, but that is part of the adventure
It is a great idea to get on the mailing list of galleries feasible for you to reach and to make work around a busy life
Big shows are quite expensive to enter so it is always worthwhile to check out the local scene as a way of imposing yourself some discipline to keep proceeding
Artists need to be practical and make art that is achievable
Residencies can be tremendously enhancing for your practice because it’s all about you and your practice. They select you because they see you as an artist – something that resonates with the place where the residency is
To be successful at it you do have to be business-like unless you have a patron or someone who will do all those unpleasant tasks for you – start by making lists
Drawing is the most fundamental skill in art form. It is the basic language of art
Sandy’s parents were expats who lived outside of Australia and she has 3 older sisters. When her sisters went to boarding school, she found herself as a kid to be creative in her play since she was on her own
Not being able to grow up in Australia gave her the notion of “who am I? and where did I come from?” and it is quite strong which is why a lot of her work shows that sense of displacement and talks to memory
What she has is a heritage from childhood is not necessarily tangible but they are memories
She’s hoping that when she comes back from Europe she’ll have an exhibition to show some of the works she’ll have produced while she was on residency in Paris and from her Italian trip
The post 05: Sandra Bliim appeared first on Felicity O'Connor.
49 min
September 29, 201604: Rediscovering Your Creative Self
Show notes:
Chat about extraordinary book and process called “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron which was written 22 years ago
Felicity is a psychologist and practicing artist – painter (abstract art) which she has a mixture of skills which she brings to support coach/ mentor other artists
Your looking for way forward or struggling with some limiting beliefs which is she is interested in helping people clear up (emerging or established artists alike)
“New level, new devil” – no matter where you are in your creative life/ career you probably have things that you need to challenge, move through and improve; increase idea/ productivity/ profile/ success/ sales that you’re doing
“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” – this is one of the things that Felicity hear and challenge one of the artists she works with.
It’s important to understand that being a creative person you need to be self-expressed.
When you allow yourself to be spontaneous, you feel a surge of energy and often get the sense of being connected more wholeheartedly to who you really are.
Being blocked creative means you’re not using your creativity
“Judging your creative efforts is artistic abuse.” We can really be our worst critics. Your inner critic can be screaming at you.
Julia Cameron talks about our artist as a child and that child needs nurturing and we wouldn’t abuse or scream that child instead be encouraging and provide opportunities
Key points: Morning pages and Artist’s Dates
Morning pages – ritual that you partake in everyday. A morning journal and you have to do this first thing in the morning.
Artist’s dates – prescribed as a weekly activity and encourage to do this alone.
When you are blocked as a creative, you are limited by your beliefs
There are patterns of limiting beliefs in people
Depression and anxiety have been seen around people and in creative people
It is important to sort these stuff out and when you free yourself from these limiting beliefs and replace it with more empowering beliefs, then we get change
When there is change, you start to turn up – in your morning journal, artist’s dates and your studio
Taking action
Declutter – clearing out old materials can be very therapeutic
Trust the process
Taking action is the key for blocked artists – shifting the energy and the key to improving the situation in every way
The post 04: Rediscovering Your Creative Self appeared first on Felicity O'Connor.
33 min
September 01, 201603: Yantra de Vilder
Show Notes
Yantra is a composer and she composed the music for this podcast
She went to a Steiner School and an all-girls private school. Had a really good balance of creative and academic rigor. Grew up with her mother on TV. Culture and creativity were important in her upbringing
She was ungrateful for the education that her parents gave her
Never had a 9 to 5 job. Always project-based
Yantra believes that there is creative force that runs through everything
Yantra wants a career that has to do with music, still have a career until she’s 80 and still be earning money
Doctors are 75% practical and 25% academic. PhD are 100% theoretical
Doesn’t want to put financial pressure on music
Felicity wants a second career as a Psychologist to create income so that the pressure is not on her art
Some artists are purely comfortable to create something for sale
Yantra did 4 major projects – including a collaboration with David Helfgott (classical pianist)
Commercialism comes under career
It is hard to get gigs in the Australian film and music industry
The statistics for film composers is tiny – women is at 3%
There should be legislation government-level to change the current circumstance
If Yantra gets stuck with composing music, she does the opposite – which is the physical – go in the garden or do some walking. She is interested with the American-Indian style of balance; each direction has a certain position
Felicity talks about the creative space – warming up the space for performance
Yantra lights a candle and sets up Buddhist ritual and intention
Yantra has done BBC work – working with Burmese refugees and incredible musicians. Wonderful period of her life
Energy is changing as we get older but there are so many important projects to do
It really depends on what’s going on at the time – when saying yes to a project
Yantra will be playing in some concerts – Sydney Sacred Music Festival, Gypsy Ensemble, etc. She also produces people
Felicity have been speaking to a lot of artists recently and how they balance all the necessities of life effectively
Yantra is project-focused but has downtime watching movies which is important to keep balanced
Felicity finds when she works at home, people find it easy to interrupt her
Yantra has a lot of work on iTunes and currently updating my website http://www.yantra.com.au/ and her Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-3MolyYWKX8_394VwPZmdQ
Yantra wants to do a 3-month residency in New York for NeuroScience
The post 03: Yantra de Vilder appeared first on Felicity O'Connor.
40 min
August 25, 201602: Belinda L
Show Notes
Belinda is an artist and a graphic/website designer – started working as a website designer 20 years ago
Her whole 20 years of working has been adapting and not being afraid to try things out because that’s how you learn
If you are just starting out with social media, try just one. If you do all things at once it can be very overwhelming
Use what is comfortable since it’s you will be driving the platform
Different platforms have different audiences – know who you’re targeting and where they are on social media – it all depends on your style of art
Facebook just recently changed their algorithm so unless you are talking or engaging with your audience they won’t post your photos on your timeline
Why use social media? Quite simply it’s because you’re getting your art in front of people who otherwise won’t see it. It is a necessity these days.
How are you getting people to find you? It depends on the gallery owner, if you already have profile out there if you have a website that may be an advantage. Although, some gallery owners don’t like it
Google AdWords – you are investing a lot of money with some return – it’s like the stock market because the words change each day
Organic means you’re not paying anything to get on top of the search results page
Being mobile responsive – how people are going to see your site on your phone
Big tip: make sure that you have a some sort of reporting or analytics on your website or social media to look at on who is coming your site, page and make sure to look at that regularly. That information gives you the ability to get feedback
http://www.creativehardt.com.au/ is my illustration website. Check out Belinda’s services through her website: http://www.belindalindhardt.com.au/
She offers packages and training to people, and is excellent at her craft!
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38 min
August 17, 201601: Belinda Street
Show Notes
Belinda has been in lots of prizes and has lots of experience as an exhibiting artist
She started early and has always loved art
She was always ‘holding a pencil’ and loved art in high school. Had a turbulent few years and planned to do Graphic Design, ended up getting into an Art degree and stayed doing that and grew from there
She did a desktop publishing course and started in a junior designer job
Full scholarship at Julian Ashton art school
Entered Mossman Youth Art Prize and won the drawing section one year and the painting section the next year
Belinda had a job and travel planned so ended up doing all three
Julian Ashton was very technical and structured
Went backpacking around Europe with an artist friend – they would do a drawing every day, sitting around drinking beer and drawing and all on a shoestring
Now is in more landscapes but was more interested in the human form before travelling
Most landscape work now is strongly Australian – there’s not so much travel these days with two kids and design business.
Belinda finds the Australian landscape infinitely fascinating and will usually take a trip to a place, sketch, take photos and then surrounds herself with little bits of information all around her in the studio and makes her own composition
The painting becomes it’s own composition – some are more like the actual view than others
She doesn’t know how it will end up until it’s done
The painting is a work in itself and not necessarily the landscape you remember – it’s driven by other things like composition, the colours, how it’s all brought together and you make decisions on the way
Felicity agrees there’s a point where the painting begins to speak back to you
Belinda has been a finalist in a lot of big name prizes – some are expensive and time consuming to enter
Felicity finds it takes a lot of planning and preparation and it’s frustrating that you can’t find all the information in one place
Belinda gets notified from Art Almanac, social media, emails but it all adds to the confusion
Some days you feel like you’re doing more admin than work
Biggest challenge is the juggle – all the things I need to do for the week
The phone always rings as soon as you’ve gotten past the procrastination and actually put paint on a brush
Likes routine and deadlines and work better with structure but don’t so much any more
Impossible to schedule in exact times – my design work had to take priority – it was the income
Going to work towards having more routine now that she’s past some family struggles
When things aren’t going well with your painting you get off track and demotivated
It’s nice to be in silence sometimes… but it’s easy to slip into yourself
Music is the best thing to get me inspired again and warms up the space
A lot of artists are selling through social media but I don’t really put mine out there until I have a whole body of work and then I sell out at an exhibition
You lose a hefty chunk by selling via galleries with commissions
Belinda came up with the idea for her latest exhibition, which Felicity was part of, called A Social Landscape at Dank Street Galleries in Waterloo, from an admiration of other people’s works on social media
You tend to gravitate to people who work in a similar way to yourself
A lot of the artists I was admiring weren’t represented and I couldn’t work out why
Never met any of the artists in person – the first time will be during bump in
Sometimes you don’t have a lot of contact with other artists in person so I thought it would be great to connect
Depot Gallery at #2 Dank Street, Waterloo Sydney – it’s changing but a fantastic gallery space – only about 3-4 left open now
Top Tip: You’ve got so much time and opportunities… apply for everything when you’re in the ‘Emerging Artist’ – put yourself out there
Choose what you want people to see on social media and how you group what people do and don’t want to see
Make contact with galleries from the start, even though it can feel intimidating
It’s off-putting to gallery owners to be forced into shows
It’s more difficult to organically grow a relationship when you don’t live in the big centres and that can hinder things
If your art is good enough and you’re doing your background work, you will get noticed
The post 01: Belinda Street appeared first on Felicity O'Connor.
39 min

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Podcasts | Felicity O'Connor

Podcasts | Felicity O'Connor episodes