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Lindemann: From art to market

By Jack Kintner

Local artist Sian Lindemann knows what it’s like to produce powerful art, and she’s not alone. “Most artists know when they’ve created something that sings, that quiets a room to total silence or gets an enthusiastic standing ovation,” she said, “when the drive to express an inner vision has a moment of artistic perfection.”

Lindemann, 47, calls this “being in a zone, creating something that shares a timeless artistic vision with the viewer, or listener, or however the audience perceives it.” The trouble is, most artists don’t know how to stay in that zone, especially when it comes to marketing their art, as Lindemann experienced personally when she moved to the Point nine years ago. After some initial frustrations at finding work, she found that when she approached the question as if it were an art project, things began falling into place.

“The question is, ‘What do I like to do, and is there a way to make money doing it so I can do more of it?’” Lindemann said. Her love of flowers led her ultimately to landscape design, her biggest project being John and Stephanie Friesen’s spectacular nine-story garden that rises over 50 feet up the bluff behind their Maple Beach home.

“They’d had flowers there, but wanted more color and I could see lots of possibilities. It was like a blank canvas for me,” the exuberant Marin County native said, her voice rising and arms waving in excitement. “I’d go for a splash of red over here, some blue and yellow over there ­ it was fun, and exhausting, but it led to a lot of other work.” She’s since turned over the landscape business to others as her art marketing seminars she leads under her “Freedom Arts” banner have caught on.

Lindemann, a musician as well as visual artist and clothing designer, developed her business and marketing savvy as co-owner of a chain of six big-ticket art galleries in Hawaii for nine years.

“When artists were slow in producing replacements for pieces that sold well,” Lindemann said, “I developed techniques to help them focus on expanding that which they do well. Often they’d see marketing as fundamentally different from the act of producing it, but it isn’t,” she continued.” The more you treat the business side of your art like you do the creative side, the more you use your creativity, the better off you are.”

The classes Lindemann has developed show you how to do that. “It’s my niche,” she said, “and while there are a lot of art teachers, I’m the only one I know of that approaches marketing by helping artists focus on being in their ‘zone’ so they can apply it to their career development as well as to what they produce artistically.”

Emerging artists face the Catch-22 of being ignored by established galleries, Lindemann said, because it can take so long to develop into a name that sells well. “The galleries are where stuff sells, but before they’ll take you they already want it to be selling well, to be a sure thing,” she said. Most artistic venues have similar frustrating barriers for newcomers.

Jazz composer Brian Harris of Portland took Lindemann’s seminar and has seen his disdain for marketing turn to enthusiasm. “I no longer feel like these new choices for revenue are detours,” Harris wrote in a letter to Lindemann, reviewing the course, “because it’s all interdependent and in service of my core values.”

Sculptor Andrew Cawrse, who’s been working as a modeler at George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, in San Rafael, California, said he’s “rented out a 2700 square foot sculpting studio and have recently had my work accepted into an exhibition in New York, on Park Avenue, so finally things are moving...all the best and thanks again.”

Writer Miriam Morales of San Diego, spoke of the shift in her sense of direction after attending the seminars, saying “Sian connected my inner artist with my creative writer and freed the hidden genius... Moreover, she possesses a magical coaching art. I highly recommend her for creative alignment.”

In less than a year, Lindemann has taken her program from a concept to being asked to present her marketing seminars to the entire art department at the University of Portland. Relationships with the Park City Summit County Arts Council and the Sundance Institute, both in Utah, are currently works in progress.

“At Sundance,” Lindemann said, “they would like to do for their visual artists what the film institute has done for independent film makers. Redford‘s got a 30-year track record in supporting emerging artists, so hopefully this will result in an art festival equal to the film festival.”

Lindemann offers a series of one-day seminars at $225 each that focus on business skills and career development for artists, preceded by a basic session called “Biz Art” that’s a prerequisite for the others.

As her work expands, Lindemann hopes to bring back both financial support and artists to the Point. A non-profit foundation will provide funding for artists to nationally market their work. In return, 15 percent of the money raised will stay on the Point for local programs, and artists who are funded must agree to come here to offer classes, exhibits, concerts and so on.

“That’s how a rural community can impact the whole country from a very remote location,” Lindemann said. The one-day “Biz Art” seminar will be offered next month in Salt Lake City and again in Bellingham after the first of the year.

To contact the Point Roberts Community Foundation for more information about supporting artists, please email prcf@point roberts.net.

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