Whats Your Story?
What’s Your Story?
Artists/Designers/Makers – Have you been asked before to talk about ‘your story’, tell your story or share your story – and have you spent time wondering what your story actually is?
Surely an image speaks 1000 words and all that? I spent a long time pondering this, all I kept hearing was, ‘story, story, story’, you need to be telling your ‘story’ more!!! Surely as a creative person my ‘story’ is evident through my work and the ‘visualness’ of this, surely someone visiting my jewellery website and viewing all my beautiful pieces will ‘see’ my story, surely in the case of us ‘artists’ an image speaks more than words? Well yes and no!
As artists, our visual output is actually the LAST part of our story! There’s so much of our story that no-one gets to see, all the background work, concept, passion and soul-searching that goes on in our heads, lives and work BEFORE we even get to the final product. Often these processes are hidden away, never seen, never talked about but actually THIS IS our story.
We ask people to fall-in-love-with, critique and (hopefully) buy our ‘end results’ or ‘final chapter’! We forget about the in-betweens, so lets educate them to our introduction, beginnings and all the juicy middle grounds. We have to learn how to communicate this ‘complete story’ both in visual and in words so that our audience can build a connection with us.
I’ve been reading how the majority of purchases are based on an ’emotional’ response to a product rather than need. However, I believe that with art/design/craft the first response by a viewer has to be visual – an instant reaction to looking at something, do I like it yes or no? After that the viewer will look for this emotional ‘feeling’.
More importantly, the viewer will further look for some form of ‘trust attachment’ before they decide whether to buy your piece or you not. They will do this be ‘reading’ about your story and finding out more about you – who are you, what are you about and does the buyer feel a connection with you.
Telling your story is easier than you think! Yes, don’t panic! It’s much easier than you think to start telling your story. Everything you do as an artist / designer / maker tells your story – Your everyday life, your working space, your work in progress, behind-the-scenes, your thoughts, your opinions, your personality.
So go on, find your story!
#findyourstory #story #whatsyourstory #changeyourmindset #mentortip
So I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below & if you liked this post then please share it with a friend and spread the love!
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I feel finding your story for some artists, especially figurative artists, can come easier then for an abstract artist that lets the paint “talk to her”.
This is such a great comment Brittany. I would say that many artists create from some subconscious level and its very hard to put into words why this happens and what this is. BUT our ‘story’ as an artist isn’t just about describing our ‘end result / product’ so we can talk about all the other ‘things’ that will ultimately describe who we are as a whole and helps to convey ‘the world of you’. What do you feel when you’re making your work, are there certain tools you always use, what does your workspace look like, what do you look at for inspiration, what do you do every day, what are you thinking, do you have an opinion on a certain topic. Some of these everyday ‘things’ can be recorded visually in photographs which you can use on your website and in social media and then we can write a sentence or two about them.