Ind-E-Focus

All eyes on you... piercing, judging, scrutinising every heartbeat; you open your mouth. Nothing. Silence. That awkward silence that reminds you that it’s not meant to be silent at all. Cough. Whisper. Shuffle of agitated bums in uncomfortable seats. Still more silence, it persists, it pervades, enters your body and squeezes the air out of your lungs, the words out of your mouth, the sense out of your brain. It’s all gone. All eyes on you...

For every dream there is a nightmare. The Artists nightmare; freezing on stage, forgetting a line or just not being received well by the audience. Many of us have felt that devastating moment of silence take its hold. But what causes it?

99% of the time it’s caused by being unprepared, either physically, mentally or both.

Preparation requires more than just knowing what you physically have to do. You also need to understand why you are doing it. What is the motivation behind your art? What drives or inspires you?

If your work has a specific message, or fits into a particular category or genre, it’s important to fully research this area. The word research seems boring at best, but when you consider that you are working towards a career in the subject you love, you realise that as a musician, for example, listening to lots of different types of music is part of your research. It’s the same with every art form. Watching lots of plays or films, going to art galleries etc, is all part of essential industry research, and if you love your art, then it should also be fun and inspiring.

Inspiration is a massive part of the creative process. You can be inspired in an infinite number of ways. When creating your own work, it’s always a good idea to surround yourself with the things that inspire you. To go a step further, you could break these things down and try to understand what it is that makes them so influential. How do they achieve their affect? If you can answer that question, you can then recreate that effect in your own art, and take steps towards avoiding a nightmare situation.

Taking this idea into the business side of work means, taking the time to identify your art and the audience it will attract. This involves the almost sacrilegious practice of labelling your art.

Many artists will stop reading now.

I’m an individual, I don’t fit into your boxes!

May be screamed at computer screens around the world, but the unfortunate fact is, people are going to label you, whether you want them to or not. It’s how we understand things, by placing them neatly into categories in our minds.
 
An Independent Artist will realise this and rather than reject the idea, they will try to exploit it. It’s about associating your work with the most positive images, so that when people think of these images, they also think of you, and vice versa.
                                
This is a very basic marketing tactic which can seriously improve your chance of reaching a target audience. If you pick the correct images to associate your work with, then people who enjoy those images will be attracted to your art.

Having an in depth understanding of what is available in the industry, gives you an opportunity to find Artistic and Business gold dust; a Niche in the market.

This involves identifying a tiny gap in the market that is not currently being filled. This could be based on the style of your work, or the type of audience it will appeal too. If you can find your own niche, it’s more likely that people will take notice of what you are creating as you will have less competition. Essentially you make your work Ind-E-vidual.

Ind-E-Focus aims to help you and your artwork on its path to Individuality by offering you essential links to resources for your chosen industry. A place to discuss your ideas, develop your own niche, find an audience and give the people who appreciate your work the chance to gain exclusive access to behind the scenes information and specialised content.

We want to bring your audiences focus onto you, so that you can focus on making your dreams a reality.

Show your Ind-E-viduality by writing an article about how you turned your art into a business. If you are not confident about your writing abilities, create a Podcast or VLog and link it directly to your own personal profile page.

This is a help and be helped environment for the Independent Artist. Put your nightmares to sleep.

Express your Ind-E-Viduality here,

Ind-E-Focus; Eyes on the Independent Artist.

Continue to Ind-E-Mand.