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The Value of Originality

By Susan

When I think long and hard about inspiration and influences regarding our business, I find it is a few unique individuals which have inspired and influenced me most. While I was in college, one professor, John T. Downs, was most influential and truly key to my entrepreneurial growth as an artist. That is a rare gift from an art professor to an art student. I am happy to have been able to exhibit and sell his work in our gallery as a tribute and small thank you for these valuable lessons. His encouragement to promoting ones work has manifested itself in my ability to finally create a personal website for my own work this year. Talk about lasting effects! After college and before opening artstream I worked at the national level selling hifi equipment. Subsequently I was forced into a lot of stodgy “sales techniques” and “managing people in one minute” sort of training seminars, popular in the 80’s. There was one man, who’s company I worked for (they were all men in that industry!), which created a lasting impression on my growing business knowledge and that was Ivor Tiefenbrun of Linn Products, from Glasgow Scotland. It wasn’t so much his products, or his management skills, but more about how his philosophy of being true to his own ideas, his original thought which was belief that music (the arts mind you!) could change everyone’s life in a positive way. This hit home and attracted me as well as many others at the time. A true original. Being an original and keeping one’s focus in an ever increasing world of information and shared ideas gives me enough inspiration for a lifetime.

Making your life in the arts has the same challenge in the United States as growing lush vegetables in the desert. You have to keep scratching the soil, finding seeds, water and people to help you grow it along the way. You have to answer a lot of questions from on-lookers, such as why do it at all? But the rewards are great. In the past five years artstream has grown to be a cornerstone in our community, one that is enjoying a renaissance after a 20-year decline and we think that the arts have played a strong part of this. Our business has been dotted with influences, inspiration, and has been given a “leg up” by so many truly original and kind people from around the globe. To name a few (and give you some links to be inspired): Grace Bonney from design*sponge (and formerly writing here at BizBox too) has been not only a true original, but is deeply committed to showcasing emerging and established design and art talent with her intelligent, spirited daily writing, Rena Tom’s beautiful shop Rare Device was a huge inspiration to artstream deciding to set up our own online shop, Pretty Darn Swell, an online gallery serving artists and charity at the same time,(always give back), Seth Godin’s blog – filled with so much practical knowledge, (keep trying) Whip-up, celebrating the handmade of all sorts with an inclusive nature,(just do it) Penelope Dullaghan, a freelance illustrator who keeps a blog filled with pearls of wisdom and practical know-how for the small creative-types out there, (think it through) and last but never least, Gaping Void for keeping humor in the mix and important, (life without laughing is just plain dull).

I guess the underlying message here or perhaps it was not so underlying at all, is that it is best to find your own way through original ideas and thought along with learning from the mistakes and successes of others. As a gallery owner, specializing in original art, I have noticed that in an ever-increasing copycat world, everyone love an original.