When we made the decision to move from Charleston, really the only difficult part of that decision was leaving Hagan Fine Art and its owner, Karen Hewitt Hagan. I spent close to ten years working with Karen in helping her grow her gallery business, her artist roster, and selling millions of dollars worth of wonderful art. It was a proud period of my life.

At the beginning of August, some news came out. After fourteen years, Karen sold her gallery. WHOA! 

And, so... with every chapter that ends, a new one begins. I'm so happy Karen will be focusing on painting more and sharing her knowledge through workshops. I'm also thrilled to now include her as an independent artist and Legacy Art Mgt. client. I just finished building her an artist website on Artcloud. Check it out:

www.KarenHewittHagan.com

Welcome Karen! Thank you for choosing Legacy Art Management to help you grow your online presence for your art!

My career as an archivist has introduced me to so many different database system. I've enjoyed learning different systems, and even have been a beta tester for a couple. As an archivist, the #1 Rule I can give any artist is this:

A spreadsheet is not an inventory management system!

As technology has grown, so have the options on keeping yourself organized. It can be very overwhelming for anyone to choose a way to manage your artwork - both the physical and the digital records of said artwork... especially if you're not technically savvy.  

During the first couple of years at Hagan Fine Art, Karen and I had a heck of time trying to decide on what was the best system for us. We finally found it in a small Atlanta-based company called Artcloud.

Since the gallery signed up with them in 2016, I have been a self-proclaimed cheerleader for this company. I loved the system so much, I immediately started using them for my own website and management system. 
(Disclaimer: I am not being paid by Artcloud to say any of this.) 

Over the years, I've watched the system grow exponentially, with a lot of growth and improvement specially from learning what their users want. A company that listens to its clients and gives them what they want is a company that will always be successful, because they are helping their clients be successful.

So, as an artist, why would you choose Artcloud over one of the others?

Without breaking it all down, I'll just give you my top three reasons I recommend Artcloud over all others:

• Combining your inventory management with your website. One place to record and display your work.
  
• But that's not all! You also get organization for your gallery relations, Client CRM, marketing campaigns, invoicing, and online selling... to name a few, but not all. It's a robust system.
  
• Finally, the people. The Artcloud team are some of the hardest working, kindest, most hospitable people I've ever worked with. Not only that, but their support team is top notch AND they are always ALWAYS improving the system. They want to hear form their clients on what they can do to make your user experience better.

I could go on... truly. But, if you're serious about your art career, I recommend you check them out, yourself. And, if you need help organizing your digital inventory and/or building out your website, give me a holler. I love using their system and would love to help you get started using them, too.

When we bought our home in Saluda, I knew there were a handful of artists and galleries in the area, but I didn't realize exactly how big of an art community this town is. Saluda has a population of just under 650 residents. So, it was a great surprise to see 9 brick-and-mortar gallery/studio locations and over a dozen working artists living here. That's 3% of the population!

I have gotten to know and worked with a number of these artists and galleries over the past two years. Being a printmaking artist, myself, I see the need to help my art community market itself to become an art destination the way Charleston, Naples, and even Asheville are.

During my time in Charleston, I was the Secretary then Vice President and finally the President of the Charleston Gallery Association. I just saw it as helping out my art community and the gallerists I had gotten to know over the years. I never thought I would use this experience to help another community.

But... here I am, and enjoying every minute of it.

Together with a number of the Saluda gallerists, we started brainstorming how to bring more attention (and sales) to the art community. So, we have created a walking map  to put a spotlight on the galleries as well as list a number of artists' websites to introduce visitors to Saluda to even more art. I've also added a page called Saluda Arts to Legacy's website to help people visit 

When you move into a new community, especially one so small and quaint as this one, you want to participate and give to the community to feel a part of it. I never thought when I was building Legacy Art Management that I would use my consulting company to give to my new found community. I'm all for it!

It's amazing how quickly April turns into October, especially when you have a business to run. Prioritizing does not always help you fit in the little things that you want to do - like adding to your blog. 

So, what has been happening? Just as this blog post's title says - it's been a whirlwind few months. All the focus has been on my amazingly talented client, Alice Williams. We had been planning on a month-long trip she was making back home in the States, and decided to add two 3-day workshops and an exhibition in two different cities to the tail end of her trip. 

This called for Alice to paint an entire body of work, which we titled "A Good Year" (named after and inspired by one of her favorite movies) on top of also painting for this month's upcoming exhibition "French Daydreams" at my former Charleston gallery Hagan Fine Art.

​The workshops came and went without a hitch with many happy students, and I am proud to say I sold more than half of the exhibition. It was such a wonderful experience to see Alice working with so many talented artists and newcomers to painting, as well as pair her beautiful work with collectors.

So, what next? A BOOK! 

In addition to being a wonderful painter, Alice also has a passion for writing and has been writing stories to include in a big, beautiful coffee table book we hope to have published in 2024.

In addition, Alice's daughter - Christine Williams Mann - has a dream job of providing unimaginable safari experiences in Africa. Alice and her charming husband, Don Williams, will be hosting a special safari and painting opportunity to a limited number of artists. Click HERE to learn more and sign up for this amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

I had my sights set on the ground floor to turn it into a studio. Of course, I also needed to figure out where I was going to find the equipment and whatnot to actually have a studio, but as they say:

                                   IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME.

My former gallery, Hagan Fine Art, was making a move to a wonderful new location back in the heart of Charleston's French Quarter. Their landlords were a couple that included an artist named Margaret Peterson... 

...and she just so happened to have an entire printmaking studio she was planning to sell. I was blown away by what I was purchasing and how generous both she and her husband, Harold, were to help me make this ​happen.

And so, with a deadline to get the equipment moved, Ethan and I busted our butts to get the downstairs space emptied of all we'd been storing it in, lay down subfloors, put up insulation and walls, and get the place ready for a printmaker's dream studio. 

My educational background was Art History and Studio Art with a focus on Printmaking. For years (over a decade!) after college, I didn't do any printmaking. I didn't have the money to rent a studio, a space in my home to create a proper, and didn't make the time. 

My husband, Ethan, has always been rooting for me to get back into it. The first (and only) print I did while still living in New York was an abstract view looking down the bike path of the Manhattan Bridge. This was his commute every day for the thirteen years he lived in Brooklyn. He used it for the cover of a chapbook he wrote called Cadence. 

Well, I finally got the studio of my dreams. But, you'll have to keep reading in Part 2 to find out exactly what that means...

Fun Fact: Oscar Wilde was not the originator of the first half of this quote. He did add the bit about mediocrity, though. I always thought this was quite the burn.

An artist friend of mine recently sent me an image of a post another artist posted on their social media of a couple different pieces that were extremely similar to my friend's work. No, they weren't exact copies of any specific pieces, but they were distinctly my friend's style, palette and compositions. The sting, I think, is that they know each other.

The first half of Wilde's quote, the original proverb, was the first thing I said to my friend in hopes to lessen the frustration and insult she felt. But, I think the second half is more important for the other artist:

Don't be mediocre. Be the great one.
​
I'm not going to get into the whole copyright infringement issue in this post. That's a beast in and of itself. I do want to talk about being your own artist and finding your own style. Yes, artists out there paint in the style of Impressionism, Realism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, on and on. There's a difference between influence and copy. But, a Hirst is a Hirst, a Slonem is a Slonem. Do start carving up sharks or doing quick paints of bunnies and call it your own.

Another impressionist-style artist friend of mine took a private class from an abstract artist and walked away enriched from the experience. She didn't turn into an abstract artist, but she did incorporate different tricks and tools to create pattern and texture. 

I always encourage artists that are learning their craft to take workshops and classes from other artists. These opportunities, though, are to walk away with nuggets of information and different ways that artist creates.

Find the inspiration of who you admire and see how you can apply it to your work... but don't copy.

(How did my friend handle it, you may be curious? She was the bigger person. She left it be and moved on, knowing that she has established herself and her work to be something not only sought after by collectors but by artists as well.)

NFTs... Non-Fungible Token. Huh?

In May of 2014 a Charleston-based digital artist named Kevin McCoy created and sold the first-known NFT for a whopping $1.5 million at a Sotheby's auction. And suddenly the whole world was nuts about NFTs. But what are they and how are they being used to scam?

Full disclosure, I still don't completely get NFTs, and I am probably not 100% accurate in the workings of how they're done. But, NFTs essentially are a high res digital file of a work of art. In McCoy's case (and the intended purpose of NFTs) is there's a single high res digital piece with a single buyer... and that's it. It cannot be reproduced. 
NFTs are bought and sold through cryptocurrency. Originally it was to move digital money around. But, these days NFTs are pretty much done and worthless as a commodity... but not as a scam. They're used to capture real currency from you and convert and move it into cryptocurrency.

The scam, as always, is to get your money. 

What they do is make you an offer (that's too good to be true), and invite you to upload the digital images to a specific site. But, that site requires a credit card payment for each upload. We're talking around $150 for each upload. And then there's something they call a Gas Fee, which is a and $500 a pop to "convert" the file to an NFT.

Fortunately, I do not have any direct experience with this to carry on in explaining the manner of the scam beyond this. All I can say is DO NOT BUY INTO NFT OFFERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

​If it's too good to be true, it is. Don't engage.

Have you ever received an email inquiry like this:

If it's you're first, you may be tricked into believing it's authentic. But, chances are you'll received another one, close to exactly like this one but the name and where they're from has changed. Sometimes they'll be more specific and list artwork they want to buy.

It's not even about getting your artwork. It's about getting your money. What they do is they find a high ticket item on your site, offer to buy it full price plus whatever your shipping cost is. Then they mail a check... or what looks like a check.
When you see the check, though, it will be fore more than the agreed upon amount. Usually by a couple thousand dollars. So, you contact them. They apologize 'ohhh, my accountant sent the wrong amount. How about you send me a cashiers check for the difference and send that along with the artworks?'

You shouldn't even bother going any further with this conversation.

If you deposit the check, the bank will hold it because the funds cannot be verified. And then, boom - you can be hit with your own bank fees for their bounced check.

I used to receive emails like this at least once a week... sometimes three or four times. At first, I would reply and string them along. After while, I would email them simply "I'm reporting you to Gmail for using their platform for nefarious reasons." - because 100% of those I received were coming through Gmail. Now... I just delete.

Engaging with scammers opens the door. Who knows what they do with your information if you do reply. Who they share it with. So, I highly encourage you to just delete the email. 

At the beginning of September, I had the wonderful opportunity to fly out to Provence to meet with Alice, her husband Don and her daughter Christine, to start our adventure together.

I am proud to announce I am now the Agent and Business Manager for Post-Impressionist artist Alice Williams!
 
What exactly does this mean? It means I am here to help Alice build out and manage her business, marketing strategies, and goals to help her strengthen her legacy in art history. She's had a wonderful team, aka her family, to provide the support to help her grow her business relationships with the galleries that represent her. I'm here to help expand that.