How to Talk About Your Art Without Feeling Awkward

You're listening to the Savvy Painter Podcast Episode 337. Hello, my friend, welcome to another episode of the Savvy Painter Podcast. I am your host, Antrese Wood. If you've been listening for a while, welcome back, and if you're new here, I am so glad you found the podcast. Savvy Painter is the podcast for artists who want practical, tactical tips to create a meaningful art practice that is both fulfilling and supports you.

Today I wanted to talk about something that I noticed has been showing up a lot in Growth Studio lately. I wanted to talk about it here on the podcast because I'm not just seeing it there, I'm seeing it with my private coaching clients, and I'm also seeing it in the Savvy Painter community.

When I lived in Los Angeles, I used to show my work at this place called The Brewery. The Brewery is, to me, this magical place. It is so cool. It is an artist colony that oddly used to be a brewery. That's why they called it The Brewery. But it's this huge space near downtown Los Angeles that is filled with artists. Twice a year, they would open it up to the public for open studio tours. I had a friend of mine who lived there. Since he was not an artist, I got to take over his space twice a year and use it for these open studio events. It was super, super fun.

Two weekends out of the year, thousands of people would flood The Brewery. If you are wanting to get your workout in front of people, it's an incredible opportunity. But if you're at all timid or nervous or anxious about having people walk up to your painting and ask, “What's this painting about?” It's 72 hours of nonstop anxiety and praying to keep yourself from going into a full-on panic attack. At least that's how it was for me when I did it.

It's weird because you really want people to see your work and to engage with it and to love it so much that they take it home and enjoy it. But at the same time, this overpowering feeling of dread when somebody walks up to a piece, leans in, takes a good long look, and then turns around and asks, “Is this yours?”

So if you have ever stumbled over words, kept it vague, or avoided the conversation entirely, my friend, you are not alone. I have been there. I have spent multiple weekends there and it felt like torture to me at first. But here's why that moment matters more than we might think.

It's not just about feeling uncomfortable and learning how to talk to people. We're going to talk in this episode about that, but we're also going to talk about why it's worth learning the skills, and yes, they are skills, and yes, you can learn them, even if you're highly introverted like me. That's what this episode is going to focus on. So buckle up, my friend, let's dive in.

You're about to learn how staying silent about your work really costs you, how even when you're an introvert, you can learn these skills and you're going to learn some of ideas around the hidden power of words and why using your words, I know this sounds like I'm talking to a two-year-old, I'm not, promised, but your words are powerful. When you find the words that you are comfortable with and that feel like you, it changes everything.

I'm also going to dig into a little bit of this fear that I don't know about you, but I had, and I think it's one of the most common fears that I hear about in Growth Studio and with my clients is, “What if I say the wrong thing? What if they misunderstand me?” We're going to dig into all of that starting now.

I think about those weekends at The Brewery often, especially when I am working with people who are really nervous and really scared and avoid talking about their work because I get it. I really, really get it. I used to hide behind this idea that, oh, well, my work should just speak for myself. That allowed me to just kind of stand in the corner and stay silent. I would justify it that way.

I heard that so often at art school and I heard other artists say that so often. I was just like, “Yeah, that works for me. The work should speak for myself. It's fantastic because then I don't have to say anything.” Then I don't have to put myself out there. Then I don't have to risk talking to somebody, which to me at that time was just absolutely terrifying.

The truth is people need more than that. Your work is beautiful and your work does speak volumes, but we are social creatures and people need stories. Stories matter. They put things into context. They help us understand. They help us connect emotionally to a piece. It's like opening the door and inviting somebody in. You might be throwing the best party in the world, but if you have people who are afraid to walk in that door, you've got to get them through the door and allow them to see how fun and exciting this party is.

What I eventually learned was that these open studios were a brilliant way for me to practice telling these stories, to practice talking to people about my work, and to practice engaging with them on their terms with my art, with my friend's art. It became this game later on, and I can talk about some of the tactics that I use but I think what I want to start with for this episode is just tackling this myth that your work should speak for itself. You need to help your work along.

There are many, many scenarios where talking about your work, learning how to advocate for it, learning how to put it into context for people, learning how to invite them in to experience your work, can really change the outcome. These people that come to an open studio, these people who come to a gallery, or these people that maybe come to a booth where you're showing your work, they're there because they're interested. But they do need a reason to buy and words give them that reason.

What I think a lot of artists don't understand is that so often the collector, the person that they're talking to, the person that is there because they are interested in the work, they're also a little bit nervous, they're also a little bit uncertain. Your job is to help them feel at ease and make your art accessible. Staying quiet in the corner does not make your artwork accessible.

I really thought it did. I completely bought that idea. I would just stand in the corner and try to “look professional” and really avoid eye contact. I didn't want to pressure them, all these reasons. Those were the reasons that I gave myself. But what I was doing was I was not allowing them to connect with me or my work. I just want to highlight that for you because it is big.

Collectors are people and it might seem funny to just say that that collectors are people but so often, artists have this idea of a collector that's not actually a person and so often, we act like a collector is this mythical creature that is hidden and out there among the masses and our job is to find this golden unicorn.

When the truth is the people coming in to look at your work are coming in to look at your work because they are already interested and they are the collectors. They just need a reason to buy and your words, your conversation, your engagement, your connection to them, that's what gives them the reason.

Another scenario where your words have the potential to really change the outcome is when a gallery is considering your work, but they need to understand your vision to sell it. They need to understand what it's about. They need to understand how you think about it so then they can tell your story to the people who come in to look at your work and become your collectors.

Also, sometimes there are people who are coming in to promote the arts in some way or to write about it or to blog about it or to talk about it on a podcast even. So they need to understand also what it is that your work is about. If you are able to talk about your work in a very clear and concise manner, then they're likely to feature you if you give them a compelling quote.

These are all just possibilities that are open to you when you become comfortable with talking about your work, when you become clear on what your work is about, and when you allow yourself to have these opportunities. Because what happens when you don't engage is that people will just assume things about your work. Oftentimes, they might assume things that are incorrect and they miss this incredible opportunity to engage with your work, or they miss this incredible opportunity to see something differently.

People will also hesitate to buy when they don't fully get it. People in Growth Studio know this, but for several years, I was working with a company that helps small businesses, small e-commerce businesses scale their stores using Shopify. One of the biggest reasons that people don't buy anything, not just art, they don't buy, is because they are confused. There's this saying that a confused mind doesn't buy.

If you allow them to have doubts about it because you're not explaining things to them or you are hesitating or you are somehow giving the impression that there's something “off,” they will just become confused. Most likely what they will tell themselves is, "Oh, okay, I'll think about it," which oftentimes means they're going to go somewhere else and get distracted and forget.

You don't want people looking at your work and being confused. There are so many other emotions that you can evoke with your art and with the way that you talk about them, but confused is not one that you want to create. Intrigue, yes. Curiosity, yes. Challenging, thought-provoking, those kinds of emotions, absolutely. Confusion, avoid that one.

You want to learn how to become really clear with how you talk about your work, what is important to you about your work, what you do, why you do it, because when you are able to speak to your work with clarity, any type of application you might ever need to fill out becomes so much easier. Applications for shows, for grants, for press releases, anything like that, when you have developed the skill and understand how to talk about your work and you become really clear about what you think about your work, what you like about your work, what you're trying to do, how you convey that, et cetera, et cetera, you open up so many possibilities.

Listen, talking about your work doesn't just open doors. It is the key to walking through those doors and taking advantage of those opportunities. Your words are powerful, and when you learn to use them to talk about your work in a way that feels natural and authentic to you and lights up the person who is listening to you, that changes everything.

Collectors buy connection. They're not just buying art. I remember talking to a collector once and they told me the story and I thought it was so interesting and also just so very human and so very true, but he told me the story about this painting that he had purchased and he had some difficulty with the buying process.

There was some challenging back-and-forth between him and the artist and in this case, the artist was just really kind of transactional about it and it ended up not being a great experience for this collector, even though this was a painting by an artist that he truly admired. When he originally saw the painting, he just absolutely loved it.

What ended up happening was he got the painting and everything was fine and on paper, everything worked out. But what happened was he has his painting in his house now. Every time he walked into the room and he looked at that painting, what he remembered was the difficulties and being uncomfortable and being uncertain and having that kind of negative experience with it.

Here he was, he's got this beautiful collection of art. This particular piece was by an artist who had some renown. On paper, it would be a painting that he would want to feel proud about and that he would feel proud about having in his collection. Then he had this other painting by a completely unknown artist that he bought on a whim. That painting, when he looked at it, he had his own stories about that painting and what it meant to him, and he had his own engagement with the painting.

He would look at it, and he would notice these little areas in it, and he would notice the play of the colors and just things that he really loved about that painting. Also, when he looked at the painting, he remembered the conversations that he had with the artist about it.

He remembered the artist talking about how excited she was when she painted that painting and how there were certain things that you wouldn't know by looking at the painting, but little stories about what had happened as she was painting and a particular mark that she had a story about because a dog ran up to her or something like that. I don't remember the exact story, but he does.

Every time he looks at this painting, he remembers this engagement and he has a completely different connection to it. Who knows? I mean, I haven't seen those paintings. I wouldn't be able to pick them out of a lineup and maybe objectively, if you put those paintings side by side, you might be able to say, “Well, okay, this one has better X and this one has better Y.” But for this collector, the painting that he enjoys the most, the painting that he continually looks at the most is the one that he had that connection with.

Sadly, what ended up happening is he ended up taking that painting by that more renowned painter and he moved it out of his house to somewhere else because it just made him feel ick when he walked in. I don't know if that's an inspiring tale or a cautionary tale or a little bit of both, but collectors really do buy connection and not just art, and your words and the way that you talk about your work are very, very, very powerful in creating that.

Another way that your words have power is when you are clear, when you have that clarity about your work and about how you talk about it and the things that light you up about your work, and maybe you have some stories about your work that you enjoy telling and that are fun for you to share, it creates confidence. The more that you can explain what you do, the more conviction you will feel in your work.

When you are clear about what you do, why you do it, and the impact that it has on you, you have that conviction and you feel so much more confident about your work. The thing is that confidence is contagious. When you believe in your work, other people will too.

Just imagine for a second, I talk about this often in Growth Studio and whatever, it's kind of a silly example, but if you walk into an Apple store to buy an iPhone, you walk in there, and anybody who works there is happy to tell you all the different ways that an iPhone will make your life fabulous, fantastic, and how it can help you do X, Y, and Z, and how you will feel when you're using it, and how easy it is, etc., etc. You sort of expect that when you walk into an Apple Store.

But just imagine for a second, if you walked into an Apple store and you're standing there looking at this phone and you're wanting to buy this phone and then you notice this Apple person standing in the corner just kind of looking at you and then looking away, maybe you go over and you ask them a question about the iPhone and they stumble over it and they're like, “Oh, well it's really good at this, but this one part doesn't really work that well. I wish it was different in this way, and I really wanted it to be able to do X, Y, and Z, but yeah, it's a good phone.”

Just imagine that and how you would feel about buying that phone. I would get nervous. I would start to wonder what is wrong with this phone? Why does this person seem so kind of unsure about it? The way that you think about your art and the confidence that you have around your art is contagious so you need to be able to convey that to people when you talk about your work. Where does that confidence come from? That confidence comes from your own clarity about what you do, why you do it, and how it connects to people.

A third way that your words are just so powerful is that it's going to help you when you apply for the shows and the grants and the residencies and all of those things, if you cannot describe why your work matters and why somebody should care about it, again, this is similar to the confidence issue, but why would a curator, a gallery, or the person who's going through the applications for residency, why would they take a chance on you if you don't stand behind your own work, if you can't describe and show them why it matters?

I want you to just think about this for a second and maybe thinking about that example that I just gave you in the Apple Store and now think about the last time that you were listening to an artist talk, maybe you were at a gallery or maybe you were watching something on YouTube and you saw an artist describe their work confidently. How did that make you feel? How did that allow you to connect with the work? How did you see the work differently after you heard that artist talk about it? I want you to just kind of think about that because that's the effect that you want to create when you talk about your work.

One of the most common fears—and I know I'm leading right up to it, I'm tickling the edge of this—the most common fear that people have when they talk about their work is, "What if I say the wrong thing?" Yeah. What if I say something wrong? Here's the interesting thing about this, and I ask my Growth Studio members these questions all the time so I know they're listening so they're probably giggling at this moment, but this idea that you can say the wrong thing about your artwork.

I want you to just consider that for a moment. When we have this fear, this sentence in our head that says, “What if I say the wrong thing?” it's really vague. What is the wrong thing that you are worried that you might say? I want you to ask yourself that question and really think about it because if we have this big vague fear of saying the wrong thing, then our brain is going to go out and find all of these big vague things to fill that fear, to answer that question.

Really get specific about what is this “wrong” thing that you think you're going to say and allow yourself to really dial in on it and get specific because I guarantee you that when you get really specific about what that wrong thing is, you're going to find that it's a tiny little thing and it's not anything that you're going to be concerned about.

Also, I will add into that, really consider this question that I have for you, how could you say the wrong thing about your own work? Nobody knows your work as well as you do. Nobody understands your work as well as you do. Nobody else was there—most likely, unless you're me and it's my dogs, but they can't speak—nobody else was there while you created that entire painting. So you know the answers. You can't speak wrongly about your own experience creating your own work.

Really think about that for a second, because it's going to allow you to disassemble this fear of saying the wrong thing and really get to the heart of what it is that you're actually afraid of. Sometimes what artists are actually afraid of is “I don't want to sound pretentious,” “I don't know how to describe it,” or “What if I bore people?” Those are all fears that artists typically have.

Really quickly, what I will say about “I don't want to sound pretentious,” if you're talking about your work using your words and your experiences, there's no way that you're going to sound pretentious about your work. People sound pretentious talking about art when they try to make their ideas bigger than they actually are and when they try to use artspeak or academic speak or they try to use big words that they never actually use in real life to talk about their work and that don't mean anything and that leave the person that they're talking to feeling confused.

I want you to circle back to confused people never buy. You do not want to confuse your audience, your collectors, the people that you're talking to, you're talking with about your work. The fear around sounding pretentious kind of boils down to "I'm not comfortable being myself when I talk about my work, so I'm going to pretend to be somebody else." And yes, in that case, you might sound pretentious.

There are tools that I can help you with. This podcast isn't the place to do that. But really think about that, this idea of sounding pretentious. The only way that you're going to sound pretentious is if you are trying to be something that you're not.

“I don't know how to describe it and what if I bore people?” Again, if you are being authentic and if you are leaning into the truth of your work, those two fears go away. You don't need fancy artspeak to talk about your work. You just need clarity. I have some strong opinions about fancy artspeak. I will not go down that rabbit hole right now. That might be an entirely other episode or email.

If you're not on my list, you want to get on there because I do write about these things sometimes. But you don't need fancy artspeak. You just need to talk like a human being and you are a human being. That part's covered.

The solution to talking about your work really is to think of it as inviting people into your work and allowing them to have a connection, not impressing them or trying to trick them into thinking something that's not true about your work. Your words should feel as natural as a conversation with a good friend and they can when you let them.

Here's a quick challenge for you. Just pick a recent piece that you've worked on and describe it in one sentence. Don't overthink it, just describe it to yourself. What feeling or idea sparked this piece? Just start there and play around with that and see where you get with it. If you want, email me and let me know what you came up with or if you're in the community, post it in the community and tag me, I would love to hear it.

But just picking a recent piece and describing it in one sentence, it's kind of a good entryway, you know? It's not a big deal, it's one sentence. Don't overthink it, just kind of play around with it and get in the habit of jotting these sentences down and see where that takes you. Just a really quick little exercise that you can do that starts you getting to a place where you feel comfortable thinking about and talking about your work.

Here's what I want you to remember. Learning to talk about your work is a skill that you can develop. It's not about your ego, it's about connection. Connection is what makes people buy, support, and believe in your art. This is a huge topic, talking about your work and developing the skills. So if this topic is resonating with you, you're not going to want to miss the next few episodes of the podcast. If you are not already on my email list, I will be talking about it and adding some ideas there. You definitely want to get in on that. All right, my friend, have a beautiful week and I will talk to you soon.

Hey, if you want to take what you are learning here on the Savvy Painter Podcast even further, join us in Growth Studio. This is where you will take what you've learned here on the podcast and apply it, practice it, and take these concepts from just good ideas that maybe you'll do someday to habits that become part of your practice. Growth Studio is a unique community of artists. We meet multiple times a week for live coaching, critiques, and demos. Just go to savvypainter.com/join.