how to sell your art online Cory Huff and me

Over 4th of July extended weekend, we went on a road trip to Portland, Oregon to attend the one-day How to Sell Your Art Online conference put on by Cory Huff of The Abundant Artist. In the photo, I’m holding his book that was just released. Check it out on Amazon.

Super inspiring is the best way to describe the conference. It was small but sweet with only about 20-25 attendees. Opportunities to meet and really connect with people were abundant, a huge contrast to the typical conference experience I’ve had at tech conferences where thousands of people, jammed together in overflowing rooms, talk to no one other than the people they arrived with.

Six speakers addressed us in a rather stuffy room in a quirky area near downtown Portland. We were under a bridge that crosses the Willamette River – one of several bridges it seems. Just across the river is the actual downtown. At times, trains went by and completely drowned out the speakers. The name of the place was “Shout House”; very appropriately named, as the speakers shouted to be heard over the trains.

latte with a heart

The six speakers spoke on a wide range of topics, and like that latte with a heart, I loved it. Half were artists who spoke of their own personal experience in building an art career: Kelly Rae Roberts, Matt Richards of Ekko Mobiles and Gwenn Seemel. Gwen wrote about her experience here. The other three were Cory speaking about building an art career, Vicki Krohn Amorose on learning to write about art, and Stephen Rueff encouraging us to develop multiple streams of income in our business.

The world needs artists.

One of the refrains of the conference that most stuck with me is this: the world needs us artists. Almost everything you look at has the touch of an artist involved in the making of it. Society celebrates individuality but reinforces conformity. Conformity squelches creativity. Artists are the outliers. Us non-conformist artists have the potential accomplish much more by sticking together. Together we are more resilient, we help each other to succeed; and the world is a better place when we succeed.

Overall, I learned a lot and met some really interesting people. If Cory organizes another of these events, I’d consider going again, but next time I’d either fly or take more time to drive there. That short road trip was exhausting!

Here are a couple of photos from our road trip:

Mt. Shasta in California from our road trip

Eureka, California boardwalk at night