Nigel Fox Artworks

My Paddle at the Studio, FDS 2011

I was talking with Marty at Community Futures today and we went over what I have for my business plan today. He had a number of pointers for how to market. Marty asked me in the middle of the review, “do you contact customers on a quarterly basis?” I said no. And he looked at me with a surprised look on his face, almost incredulous. He went on to tell me that past customers are the most important market to reach. He said that I should be sending out quarterly letters or fliers or some sort of token that I still exist and appreciate their business. And you know what? Marty was right.

Geo McKay is an aboriginal artist from the Nisga’a nation, who resides in Terrace. Geo has been at this game for a whole lot longer than I–40 years in fact–and has a lot to offer the native art market and the local community of artists.

I invited Geo McKay out for a coffee tonight with the intentions of gleaning some of his wisdom and maybe a good story or two. Geo, not wanting to miss a beat went into telling stories right away. Geo told me about his childhood and difficulties with school and how he dropped out to help out his family at home. Geo later came back to school and graduated within a short period of time. In drafting and architecture classes, Geo excelled with an A+ average.

Geo was mentored for a time by Freda Diesing, a Haida artist whom Dempsey Bob described as “the only teacher [of traditional northwest coast art] around at the time.” Also, one thing that Geo noticed about Terrace when he started carving, was that there was no native representation in the tourist markets around Terrace. Geo was determined to change this and worked hard over many years to develop his skills.

Over the years, Geo would come to sell to the museum in Prince Rupert–where a friend told him that people were buying. Geo lived for 15 years in Prince Rupert. Geo also sold to certain galleries in Vancouver, developing relations with the Spirit Wrestler Gallery and the Royal BC Museum.

Geo related to me a story about how he had three masks that he had carved that he was hoping to sell to the Royal BC Museum. He said that one of the masks he was selling for $800, another for $1200 and another for $1500. When asked why the difference in price, Geo referred to the fact that the first mask had one face, the second two and the third three faces. So, the buyer purchased the first two masks, but told Geo that she couldn’t afford the third mask. Not wanting to let Geo get away with the mask, she made a counter offer; she would take the mask on a 40% commission. Geo got a fraction of what he was hoping for, but he was still happy because it was more than what he would have had otherwise.  I think that the moral of the story was that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Geo also went on to say that when an artist sells to galleries in Vancouver “it doesn’t matter how many emails or photos that an artist sends to the galleries down there, the artist has to actually meet with the gallery owners that he wants to do business with, because the artist is selling himself.”

Geo went on to share his knowledge on pricing, mentoring, artist representation, target markets, relevant market factors, sponsorship, business partnership, and why some art businesses fail.

With Amy in Rupert for the week, I have been busy at my art for most of my spare time. I am currently working on about four different projects, with my paddle taking precedence. Here is a photo of the paddle in its current state.

We had a surprise visit from Geo McKay and Ron Jackson today. They stopped in to see what we were up to.

My eagle/killer whale paddle is almost finished. I have a few more coats of red to go. The photo of where I am at with it is below. This paddle has been quite the project. I have received quite a few complements on it, and it is the best paddle I have ever done.

It was good to see Dean in class again today.  Dean is working on a series of carvings and a box right now.

Kelly Robertson and Dean Heron

Other than that, we went to the Terrace Art Gallery today and talked with the curator, who turned out to be quite the flamboyant fellow. I included a blurry photo of him below, adjusting his welsh dragon shadow theater-prop–and though you can’t see it, just imagine it :)…

Terrace Art Gallery Curator

I was looking forward to hearing Roy Henry Vickers talk in class today, but unfortunately with the amount of snow that we have been receiving, he was snowed in and couldn’t make it until next month.

There was a huge dump of snow over the weekend, and all over Terrace there are these piles of snow in the middle of the road where the plows just left it.  This is the second time this year that the plows have done this.  This year has been a record for snowfall I think.

It was good to be back in class today as I had a lot to catch up on.  I finished off the two-dimensional painting of my newest paddle design today and there have been a few positive comments already.