Art, like business, is nearly impossible to develop a formula for. Unlike business, marketing art often seems like an oxymoron.
Like great entrepreneurs, artists focus on vision and manifesting constructive, beautiful things, but frequently struggle to market and sell themselves and their productions. There’s probably nothing more difficult than marketing art effectively.
This article profiles Sienna Martz, and how she has unlocked a formula to effectively market, exhibit and sell her art.
Before she began implementing marketing strategies into her professional practice, during the five years between 2008 and 2013, Sienna had nine exhibitions, one press release and no commissions.
Between the nine years of 2013 to 2022, as an emerging artist experimenting with mid-level marketing, Sienna had 26 exhibitions, 27 press opportunities and seven commissions.
Since she began focusing on her practice holistically as a professional artist in 2022, going full-time with marketing and even hiring a PR firm, she’s had a total of 14 exhibitions, 26 press opportunities and 19 commissions.
These are principles that HageyMedia teaches and uses to get results for its clients. Read on to learn about how she unlocked this!
Digital marketing for a hand-crafted life
Nearly two years ago, sculptor and fiber artist Sienna Martz shuttered her marketing company and took the leap to focus on her growing fine art career. Today, art has become her full-time job and she supports her family as its sole income provider.
The vegan artist has spent the last decade of her practice dedicated to a blend of art, activism and sustainability. She worked with PETA for years before shifting to her own marketing company where she supported clients like holistic herbalist Compton Health Bar, professional development teams and creative studio highgloss nyc who works with brands such as Nine West, Teen Vogue, Irish Springs and Kiehl’s.
In this past November’s Carpet Diem exhibition in Paris, which featured works by 30 international artists and brands at Espace Commines, Sienna’s piece, Solace of the Sea, hung like a tufted waterfall plush with river rocks, a 9-foot by 6.5-foot by 4-inch panel of softness.
Solace of the Sea, made of secondhand garments, recycled polyester and other natural materials, exemplifies the Vermont-based artist’s work with eco-conscious sustainable materials as a form of gentle activism. The process for her soft sculptures consists of thrifting secondhand fabrics which she then stuffs with filling and often adheres to a specially cut wooden board.
Most recently, the toddler mom of one completed her first full-scale immersive installation for the Royal Botanical Gardens of Canada’s Of Wonders Wild and New exhibition, an 18-foot by 18-foot by 7-foot world of cushioned color, called A Portal Blooms in the Cradle of Night. It filled a room top to bottom – including the entire floor which viewers can experience by walking and sitting on. It sold before the exhibit ended.
Digital practices
In today’s world, the majority of successful fine arts practices require maintaining a digital component – magnified when the artist’s home studio lies tucked away into the mountains of Vermont, surrounded by acres of trees, rocks and rivers.
“On the surface level, being an artist, people think you just do the art-making,” says Sienna. “But as we’re beginning to see, artists are having to embrace so many different roles.”
Some artists struggle with this or view it as a burden, especially if their practice consists of ancestral or esoteric, hand-crafted techniques. However, Sienna, who also explored sound and video design at Philadelphia’s Tyler School of Art where she received her BFA in Sculpture, has found a way to incorporate this digital aspect as its own crucial part of her practice.
“I’ve wired my brain to view this as part of the gig,” says Sienna, “how I become the artist I want to be and have the opportunities that allow me to expand.”
The idea of the artist becomes half work and half myth surrounding them and their work. Now more than ever, artists have the power to control that narrative and build the story they show.
For Sienna, it has become increasingly important to embrace all of the facets of marketing. Rather than viewing it as a burden, she leans into the interconnectedness of these aspects, including technology – a powerful landscape that can amplify and add depth to any story.
In addition to her soft sculptures, Sienna focuses on creating social media content and prioritizes filming – even on the days she doesn’t want to – because she knows the importance of this component to her career.
Her content creation practice takes the form of process videos, installation shots and press releases which she shares on Instagram and YouTube. Whereas Sienna’s YouTube hosts longer-form videos, her Instagram account, which has 106 thousand followers, focuses on shorter, narrative videos with quick cuts, voice-over storytelling and ASMR-style audio. Think – the snipping of scissors, the dull roar of a sewing machine.
Sienna also frequently works with organizations like Make Polluters Pay, and her videos tap into the larger narratives surrounding pollution, waste and natural disasters — like this one here.
Since launching her Instagram account 10 years ago, it’s taken almost a decade to see significant growth to over 100 thousand followers, learning what works and what doesn’t through trial and error. We’ve asked her to break down what works and what doesn’t in her experience.
What works:
Videos
Video format tends to perform the highest. Videos share a lot more than just an image and people can really connect with your practice. Posting images is a good way to reach existing followers, but videos and reels bring new eyes to your work.
Experimentation
Constantly experiment to see what type of video performs the best. Do field research, see what other people are doing. (Set healthy boundaries so you don’t end up doom scrolling.)
Sometimes, this can mean finding new ways to show work that you haven’t tried before. If you’re tired of showing the world your studio, put on a fun outfit, go outside and show your work in nature. Show it in the snow, hang it from a tree, spin it from an invisible fishing line.
For Sienna, ASMR of snipping, sewing and sounds of the studio have risen to the top. Over the last year, she has also noticed that Instagram started to prioritize storytelling content. Sienna creates montage-style videos of herself working in the studio, incorporating lots of b-roll because people tend to have short attention spans, with lots of cuts and edits to stimulate the eye and keep the viewer active. She then applies gentle music in the background and calming voiceover to describe what she’s doing so that people can feel connected to the process.
Remember that trial and error is a vital part of experimentation. To Sienna, “nothing is a failure – it’s a lesson.” Anything that doesn’t perform well becomes an opportunity for growth.
Human element
People tend to prefer images or videos with Sienna involved. Whether this footage portrays her working on her art, hanging it on a wall or even just holding it, these captures perform better and have higher engagement than simply displaying the artwork alone.
Sienna believes that seeing the artwork to scale with a human being gives it context and depth. Seeing someone’s body moving on screen can also engage and relate to the artwork in a different way than presenting the art alone: not just the movement, the color from the clothing, hair and skin tone but the emotion on the person’s face all add a dynamic layer of narrative to it.
Community
While this may not obviously translate into hard numbers or sales, a large part of Sienna’s digital practice has grown around building community. This attitude stems partially from her own experience with mentors along the way, but also in her passion for education – which has become a part of both her strategy and her practice.
She likes to help others by sharing what’s worked and what hasn’t, and at least once a month gets a message to which she responds in paragraphs, even sharing examples of her artist contract or proposals.
Once, an artist in Canada who reached out to Sienna, having landed an opportunity to present a proposal for a big commission but not knowing where to start. Sienna spent 45 minutes sharing everything with her, including an example of a proposal of hers to use as a template. The artist got the commission!
To Sienna, these moments truly stand out in terms of growing as an artist and helping others grow. Other ways to create community online include looking for new art accounts and engaging with them. Encourage people and share their work!
Consistency
Most importantly – continue to be active, but don’t strive for perfection. Instead, strive for posting at least once a week if not more. Daily posting is unnecessary. Currently Sienna aims to post on Instagram two to three times a week.
What doesn’t work:
Following all trends
Sienna has tried lots of different trends and styles, but she tends to stay away from most of the bigger trends if they don’t feel authentic to her and her practice. If artists do try trending videos, she recommends picking those which truly support and amplify their practice and fit with their style of work.
Constructed visuals
Apps like Canva can help artists make cool images for marketing and promotion, but in Sienna’s experience incorporating these as part of her online presentation did not work as well as authentic storytelling or videos. Depending on the style of art, they may work for some artists, but tend to look a bit over-commercialized if overdone or not carefully integrated.
Oversharing
While authenticity goes a long way in the virtual world, Sienna has found it necessary to keep strong boundaries around what to share and what to keep private. For example, an artist online is a business; a business wouldn’t let people know it’s struggling.
No matter what an artist’s bank account looks like, or how many orders they actually take, Sienna recommends continuing to emphasize successes and showcase quality work. This does not mean being dishonest, it simply allows for a strategy that focuses on success rather than failure, and it also aids in the construction of a positive narrative around the artist.
Not diversifying content
Everybody loves finding something that works, but a vital part of creation – especially in the social media world – revolves around diversifying content. Just because something worked six months ago or a year ago does not mean it will work today.
For example, her first viral video reached 2.5 million views a year ago and catapulted her followers. She has tried to recreate similar styles of this video since then but has found performance hit or miss, some hitting 5.6 million views while others fall to the wayside.
Sienna has seen talented artists go viral off of one type of video and continue to do the same thing at the detriment of their growth. When this happens, it’s easy to feel dissatisfied with the platform or betrayed by followers, but the real culprit may rest in the resistance to diversify.
Measuring performance
While she doesn’t do a deep dive to study every single analytic that’s available, Sienna actively looks at the analytics for each post, her overall account, and she uses the high points of information to inform her next content.
Foremost, Sienna measures based on views and reach rather than likes and comments. She also looks at follower growth. If she sees that a post brings in a certain amount of followers, that helps gauge success because it shows people want to see more of a certain thing.
She also notes the amount of shares and saves a post will get since that indicates successful content.
Become findable
No matter what kind of artist you are, embracing digital media will only expand your potential. People look at social media presence. They visit websites. Having a firm digital footprint allows artists to become findable in a way they otherwise never have the chance.
Sienna credits her success as a full-time artist, including the ability to support her family, largely to social media. As her account has grown, Sienna has connected with interior designers, art consulting firms, galleries, museums and private collectors. In 2024, her work hung at VFA Gallery in NYC alongside works by legends like Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Salvador Dali and Jasper Johns.
Over the years, she has shown work internationally in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Dubai, Switzerland, Portugal, France, Australia and the UK. One of her pieces even unintentionally made it into the background of a photo with Cardi B at Virgin Hotels NYC.
Through thousands of meticulous hours working with her hands, amplified by video, sound and storytelling, Sienna has built an immersive, four-dimensional world that expands far beyond the reaches of her Vermont studio.
When to hire a PR firm
Along with maintaining a social media presence and a frequently updated website, Sienna has also recently hired a PR firm to help her promote specific events – such as her solo show back in the summer of 2024 for which it generated around 10 articles and interviews.
The PR team puts together a comprehensive media list, writes up a press release, pitches that release to media outlets and follows up to secure interviews. They also put together a press kit for the artist. It’s an upfront investment but will ultimately generate sales that pay for itself.
Sienna provides all of the information about the event and imagery and does all of the interview prep. The firm does not provide any stats or analytics; Sienna tracks success based on how many articles she gets.
While at this stage in her art career, a PR firm has proved extremely helpful, Sienna advises to wait on this until an artist’s career has become a bit more developed due to the cost of investment and the gamble that comes with it.
You may spend $3,000 and not get a single hit – a reason strategy is so important when it comes to considering which projects you’ll pull a firm in for. For greater return, it helps to have backing that the media will be more intrigued by – a solid foundation of work and vibrant digital presence. Currently, Sienna works with the firm on a project-to-project basis.
Sienna advises emerging artists to hold off on hiring a PR team and instead focus their energy on curating a digital space representative of their creative world. This way, down the line when they do invest in this sort of supplemental help, it will pay off.
