The Business of Art: Insights from Shakerra Monét
Shakerra Monét, a multidisciplinary artist based in Denver, recently shared valuable insights into the business side of her art career. Known for her vibrant oil paintings that highlight Black culture, particularly Black women, and often incorporate floral motifs, Monét's journey offers a unique perspective on managing an art business in today's creative landscape.
Building an Online Presence: Squarespace and Beyond
Monét has utilized Squarespace for her website for over a decade, choosing it for its accessibility and user-friendliness. However, she questions whether she’d still choose it today since so many alternatives now exist. In her view Squarespace was the most adaptable and coolest choice at the time. Now, she sometimes finds it limiting and is considering alternatives. In particular, she’s struggled to get custom elements (like the overlapping scrolling images on her homepage) to display consistently on mobile and desktop. Website builders are generally a compromise between ease of use and ability to customize. The easier it is to use, the less you can customize.
A custom feature on the bottom of the home page where the left panel is static and the right panel scrolls so that images pile on top of each other.
She emphasizes the importance of driving traffic directly to her site by creating an internal link page rather than relying on third-party services like Linktree. It’s easy to set up a page on your website with a list of links rather than using some other tool and you can make sure everything is branded the way you want.
Her website has undergone recent updates, including a revamped homepage and a new projects page, despite some technical limitations with the platform. Monét has incorporated custom coding to achieve desired visual effects and functionality, expressing a desire for Squarespace to offer more design flexibility without extensive coding. Looking ahead, she plans to further streamline her website by adding an inquiry form for original oil paintings and making it easier for clients to schedule appointments.
Print Production and Inventory Management
Monét's approach to print sales evolved after moving to Denver, where she experienced a high demand for her prints. She opts for limited edition runs of 30 prints to maintain exclusivity and manage costs, as local print production can be expensive.
She primarily uses a local fine art print company, for high-quality Giclée prints of her oil paintings. While she prefers to be hands-on with quality control, she sometimes relies on them for drop shipping, especially for larger prints. Monét also mentioned using Mpix, a company in Philadelphia, for her older digital art pieces and SWAG items, praising their quick service, good customer service, and affordability. (Check out our recent post for a guide to types of print services)
Inventory is managed using Squarespace's tracking system, supplemented by personal sticky notes for quick reference. As avid users of sticky notes ourselves, we love the combo of analog and digital record keeping. Monét highlighted the unpredictable nature of print sales, noting periods of high activity followed by lulls, making it challenging to predict demand for on-hand inventory.
Marketing and Personal Brand
Social media, particularly TikTok, has proven to be Monét's most effective marketing tool. This platform even led to a partnership with Comcast for a national campaign during Black History Month. She observes that TikTok users tend to engage more with the artistic process rather than just the finished product compared to Instagram. In testing, she consistently found higher engagement with process on TikTok vs higher engagement with finished images on Instagram. It would be interesting to dig deeper into this since many artists we know rely heavily on Instagram and find success in what we think of as “behind-the-scenes” content, particularly on their stories.
Monét also emphasized the significant role of her personal brand in attracting an audience. She describes her personality as a "character" and a "ball of fire," noting that people often connect with her as an entity as much as they do with her art. We were impressed with her presence during the interview, so this isn’t surprising. Often the most successful artists we know on social media aren’t afraid of showing their face to the camera.
The Power of Collaboration and Future Aspirations
Collaboration, especially within the community and with other artists, is crucial for networking and gaining visibility in Monét's business. While we were talking, she was actively testing out a new jumpsuit project from Denver artist Detour for user feedback. While she receives inbound requests from larger corporations, she prefers to create her own projects or rely on word-of-mouth referrals rather than doing outreach directly to companies.
Monét's long-term goal is to create art freely, unburdened by capitalism, and to make art accessible at all levels. She aims to provide resources and knowledge to young artists, advocating against the necessity of traditional art school for creative careers. She critiques traditional art education, arguing it's often designed for those with significant financial backing and doesn't guarantee success. Monét is actively seeking a mentor to deepen her artistic practice and explore creativity beyond financial motivations, believing that forced creation for monetary gain can result in lackluster work.
Conclusion
It was great to connect with Shakerra Monét to get her perspective on art business. Her energy is infectious and her art is exploding with color and life. You can find her on TikTok and her website.
Photos of the artist were taken by Sierra Hunn.
