Mood: Reflective | Post Type: Behind the Scenes | After the Show: Week +8
What About the Press?
I had grand plans for press coverage. Devon Life and Dartmoor Magazine were both on my list, and I'd even written a press release ready to send out.
And then I backed out.
Partly, I think, because I was already putting so much pressure on myself that eventually I decided this was one thing I could let go. If I didn't get featured in a magazine, it wasn't the end of the world. Writing about my work wasn't really the problem — particularly with a little help from Chatty G (ChatGPT) — it was having the right photographs to go with it.
The problem with photographs
I had some great photographs of me working in my home studio (aka the dining room), but they were taken in the summer of 2024. Two years on, I don't look quite the same. The last couple of years haven't been the easiest, including surgical menopause, and although part of me would quite like to pretend I'm still looking as youthful as I did in those photographs, the reality is slightly different!
I'd planned to have some new lifestyle photographs taken by the same photographer, but time disappeared and there was also the small matter of money. The solo show and all its paraphernalia were already costing me dearly.
Then there were photographs of the actual work. I've got photographing my pendants down to an art form. I've also become pretty good at taking close-up photographs of my larger pieces of glass, particularly because I've been reproducing some of those images as fine art prints and notecards. But photographing a larger framed piece on a wall and making it look professional?
Still working on that one!
I'd also only really started producing my larger work relatively recently. It wasn't until early June, for the Fresh Air Sculpture exhibition, that I'd created one of my larger pieces. I was still getting to grips with the work itself, never mind creating a polished library of photographs to send to magazines.
All of that made me hesitate.
If I'd had good images of previous work — even if they weren't completely up to date, but at least showed the sort of work visitors could expect — I think I'd have felt much more confident approaching the magazines. Instead, I had this nagging worry: what happens if they are interested and I don't have enough suitable images or work to give them? Trying to blag my way through that felt like one pressure too many.
But I Did Get Some Press
I'd already made a note of the What's On deadline for Dartmoor Magazine and sent them the exhibition details. They came back to say they had some additional space and asked whether I could provide more information.
Excellent, I thought.
Perhaps this was going to turn into something bigger. When the magazine appeared, I was probably less than an eighth of a page. And actually, there's a lesson in that too: you don't have complete control over what happens once you've sent something out into the world.
I'd initially only hoped for a sentence in the What's On section. For a moment, it looked as though it might become something more substantial and ultimately it didn't — but how could I really feel aggrieved or disappointed?
It was still free publicity.
A Full Page — with a Surprise!
I had a completely different experience with a free local magazine that's delivered to around 16,000 homes. Again, I'd submitted the exhibition for the What's On section. They came back and asked whether I had a press release and some photographs. As it happened, I did.
This time I ended up with an entire A5 page using my words and imagery. The font was something of a surprise. Think ye olde medieval. Definitely not part of my brand guidelines.
But again — free publicity.
I noticed something similar with Dartmoor Magazine. Rather than reproducing my exhibition poster, they'd used the photograph of my artwork from the poster and placed the exhibition information alongside it. I suspect that's because a complete poster looks more like an advert, whereas editorial pages need to look like editorial content.
It's another useful thing to remember: once you provide your words and photographs, the publication ultimately decides how they're presented.
Perhaps in future I'd also consider paying for something like an A6 advert using my actual poster design. Yes, there's a cost involved — and I currently have no idea how much — but in return I'd have more control over how my branding actually appears.
Maybe there's room for both.
Did Anybody Actually See It?
Yes. And this is where it gets interesting. During the exhibition, one visitor looked at me and said something along the lines of, “I'm sure I've seen you before.” We went through various events where we might have crossed paths.
No. Not that one. Nope. Then she said she remembered the tree.
And suddenly I realised. It was from the local magazine. “Yes! That's where I saw you.” That one conversation made me think I probably need to give this whole area far more consideration in future. I haven't given up on the idea of approaching somewhere like Devon Life for a proper feature. Quite the opposite. I just don't want to rush it.
Next time, I'd rather approach it properly: plan ahead, understand the deadlines, have new lifestyle photographs ready and, importantly, have really good photographs showing my framed pieces in situ.
And Possibly Even Radio…
Radio briefly entered the equation too.
A creative friend had been invited onto BBC Radio Devon to talk about her work, which made me realise it was another possible avenue I'd never really considered.
For me, though, that one would take some preparation. I'm an incredibly visual person. Describing my work without somebody being able to see it doesn't come naturally, so I'd want to rehearse how I talked about it and how I could create a picture of the work in somebody's mind. For another artist, that might be far easier. But it's another possibility.
And I think that's one of my bigger lessons from all of this: there are people actively looking for stories and content. You just need to know who they are, what they're looking for and, crucially, when their deadlines are.
If I were doing this again, I'd start building that list much earlier.
This is Episode 34 in my ‘Solo Show Diary’ series — a behind-the-scenes look at how my work develops. You can find my earlier posts here.