How Do You Know if Your Work is Worth Selling?
10 Prompts for Evaluating Your Work, Collections, and Voice
If you’ve been a creative for longer than ten minutes, then I can bet that you have felt that sticky, squirmy feeling of inadequacy and vulnerability. All creatives deal with imposter syndrome in some capacity throughout their artistic career. And the crazy thing is, it can sneak in at ANY stage of the process — the inspiration phase, the middle phase when you’re really in-the-weeds, at the end right after completing the work, while sharing with your audience, when trying to sell the piece… That toxic whisper just gets right in there and does its best to hold us back.
Our creativity is so innately tied up in who we are that when we are creating things to sell or share, it feels extra personal and scary to put ourselves out there. And then when we do, there's the fear sinking that this work just isn’t good enough, or we aren’t good enough to deserve taking up this space, or we don’t know enough. And the list of fears goes on.
You feel that? Yuck. But here’s the thing— the fear isn’t the problem. While what you do with fear can be, we can take these limiting beliefs of ourselves and our work and use as momentum. This imposter syndrome can be a great push to nuture values, priorities, limitations, capacity, and resources. So while you may be identifying with any part of this so far, let’s use it to evaluate your body of work and how you share with your audience!
A couple things to sink into first: Your creativity wants to reward you. It wants you to be successful. It wants to live boldly. AND, you are not your work. The value is different, the impact is different. And that distinction is necessary! Tell the fear in your head to take a back seat to allow yourself the space to explore, learn, and grow.
Because, here’s the deal: not all artwork is “good,” but all artwork is valuable. I ditch or repurpose many paintings in each collection I create! And that’s a good thing, because the point of those pieces was not to hang on someone’s wall, but to nurture my mind and creative ability.
Here are some objective questions I work through as I evaluate which pieces to sell. Sit with each, grab a piece of paper or a fresh page of a notes app, and see what comes up from each one.
Does this piece resonate with me? Does the concept excite me?
Did I enjoy the creative process? What were my motives in creating this piece?
Having the art in my studio or creative space, how do I feel living around the work?
When looking at this piece, is there a sense of timelessness, or does it feel anchored to a specific time, theme, idea? How can I ensure my work feels both enduring and relevent?
How does this piece align with my vision and voice?
How does this collection build upon my previous work? Is there. clear evolution in my style, technique, themes, and focuses that I can use in my storytelling?
How do my personal experiences and inspirations influence the themes in my collections?
How do I approach the technical aspects of my art (composition, technique, medium, etc) compared to the conceptiual ones (message, emotion, them, etc.)? Is there a balance, or does one dominate?
Does my artistic voice feel authentic to me, or do I notice any external influences shaping it? How can I bring it closer to my own vision?
Am I proud of how I communicate the narrative behind each collection? How can I refine my storytelling both visually and in the way I present my work to the world?
Eager for more quick insider tips on how to sell your work and connect with your audience? This is just a taste of what you’ll find in the artist community I created and that you can be a part of…
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