Opusframing.com | Opinion by Chris Tyrell

Focus and Passion (and a New Name)

Erik - Opus Marketing — Tue, 01 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

There’s nothing like a good story, and the story about the change of my name at the bottom of this article is a great one. Why I have done this is now a script that is to be produced in Vancouver’s PAL Studio Theatre in April of 2013....Read more

Chris Tyrell Loranger

Selling Emotions, Not Art

Erik - Opus Marketing — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:00:00 +0000

A great way to become a better seller of artwork is to go through a challenging purchase in full consciousness, so I like to assign my students the hypothetical challenge of selecting a domestic product that they have never owned and know nothing about. The point of the assignment is to make my students hyper-aware of how they buy, what criteria they use to make their selection, what triggers their purchase, and what they are seeking when they make their decision.

In many cases, my students will realize that what they want from their purchase is an emotion – often, that emotion is confidence or fulfillment. They want to feel happy with their decision; that they paid a fair price and that their product will last....Read more

Chris Tyrell

Fact-Informed Visual Art Marketing

Erik - Opus Marketing — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:53:28 +0000

An arts service organization that I admire is MyArtClub.Com. In 2008, its founders, Cam Anderson and Peter Newell, designed a survey to gather some consumer and sales information about the Metro Vancouver art market. The publication, Canadian Fine Art Market Report, contains the results of that survey and provides valuable information for every visual artist selling in the market they studied, and it is relevant to all Canadian visual artists....Read more

Chris Tyrell

Art Prices & Hard Times

Christine - Opus Marketing — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000

What establishes the value of artwork, especially the ones that demand incredibly high prices, and how many artists are making “the big bucks?” These questions intrigue me, so I found press reports about some recent events in the art market of serious interest – one about Andy Warhol and the other about Andreas Gursky....Read more

Chris Tyrell

The Yin and Yang of the Artist’s Ego

Christine - Opus Marketing — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:05:00 +0000

It’s hard to know who is learning more in CEPD 190, the Professional Studies course offered in Emily Carr University’s Continuing Studies program – the teacher (me) or the students. Having completed three years and nine terms of teaching, I have learned much more than my students who attend for only one term....Read more

Chris Tyrell

Selling Art in a Tough Economy

Erik - Opus Marketing — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:01:00 +0000

I read a lot of doom and gloom about the long-term status of the economy. Few pundits are optimistic and the spreading popularity of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement suggests that even those of us at the base of the economic pyramid are worried as well. This pervasive economic pessimism is going to affect art markets – globally and locally. Artists, like all other “manufacturers,” must have adaptation strategies for times like these....Read more

Chris Tyrell

Reverting to Old Technologies

Erik - Opus Marketing — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0000

After merely a few decades, the digital revolution has transformed our lives. It has changed the way we take, store and share photographs, listen to music, send mail and entertain ourselves.

It seems not so long ago that I said to someone, “What’s email?” Then, for a while I started asking people, “Do you have email?” But in no time at all, I was asking, “What’s your email address?” I moved from wondering if you had email to assuming you had it, in a heartbeat. The power, speed and convenience of email stunned me. The pen had long been mightier than the sword; email was a mega arsenal....Read more

Chris Tryrell

Advantage or Disadvantage?

J-Ray — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 07:01:00 +0000

She calls it her "blacklisting dilemma." As she tells it, it is a David and Goliath story; her versus the Canadian government. She feels her government is angry with her, but can that be? Can a government be angry with one of its citizens? No, it can’t. Only people get angry, so who is angry with artist Franke James?...Read more

Chris Tyrell

Short Takes

Erik - Opus Marketing — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 07:01:00 +0000

Kickstarter
Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) is a website that links creators and funders. And, as is said on their site, “Projects are big and small, serious and whimsical, traditional and experimental. They’re inspiring, entertaining and unbelievably diverse.” On the site, creators pitch projects for which they seek financial support so that patrons the world over can offer their support. According to the website, millions of dollars are pledged every week for projects from the diverse fields of creative expression. On Kickstarter, creators retain ownership of their work – the donors are patrons, not investors....Read more

Chris Tyrell

What If There Were No More Galleries?

Chelsey - Opus Marketing — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:20:00 +0000

Recently in Vancouver, two well-known galleries, Buschlen Mowatt Gallery and Dianne Farris Gallery, closed their doors. Their owner/operators are both staying active in the visual art field: Barrie Mowatt with the Vancouver Biennale and Dianne Farris with her online gallery, but the closures of these two galleries could be the canaries in the coal mine....Read more

Chris Tyrell