inFocus interview with jewelry artist Kelly Morgen

Recently I talked with jeweler Kelly Morgen. Kelly is a full-time artist based in San Rafael, California, and is the creator of gorgeous goddess necklaces and shrines. She combines a unique, differentiated style with serious business savvy, and I think she has a lot of valuable information to share with professional artists and photographers. In addition to her website, you can find her on Facebook and Twitter.

I discovered Kelly in 2008 at the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival and, while traveling last year, I decided I had to have her Spirit of the Lotus pendant. She was kind enough to ship it to me in New Zealand. LOVE it!

Here are some examples of her work:

 

I’m trying something new with this interview. Each of the clips below is short — one to four minutes each. How do you like this vs. the longer form interview with Maria Ross? Please let me know in the comments below.

In this first clip, Kelly talks about how to make your work stand out:

Next, Kelly shares tips on how to discover and develop your style:

And in the final clip, Kelly shares two things all artists need to know:

Here are some of my favorite takeaways. On bringing your strengths to your art and business:

“I think it’s very important to recognize who you are as a person, and honor that. Don’t conform to someone else’s style just because it’s what’s selling or even if you just think it’s beautiful. I think it’s really important to look inside you and what makes you passionate, and really learn a way to express that that’s unique to you.”

On differentiating:

“It’s really those things that you’re keeping sacred to yourself because you’re scared they won’t be accepted, it’s really those things that make you who you are, and that’s what you need to go inside yourself, pull out and express because that’s truly what’s going to stand your work apart from everyone else’s…and also keep you excited, too.”

On finding and developing your style:

“Collect and surround yourself with stuff that excites you and, when you have that environment of things that you really love and that inspire you, your own style will eventually emerge. And then there’s also the [need to] practice, practice, practice. The more you actually do your artwork, the more it’s clear that you’ve touched that object, that you’ve painted that painting, you’ve taken that photograph, your fingerprints are on it more and more the more you do it. Also, the larger the body of work, the more you can go through it and say, ‘Oh, this is where I’m headed to, this is what makes me unique.'”

On persistence and business:

“Two things helped me the most when I was starting, and the first was persistence. Do not take no for an answer…Sheer persistence and showing up is half the battle, and then the other piece is: When you sign up to become an artist, they do not tell you about the second full-time job that comes with being an artist, which is all the business side: accounting, marketing, PR…From the get-go, you have to allocate equal time to both. You can’t spend all your time making your art. You also have to allocate a lot of time, especially when you’re getting started, to creating a business system that works for you.”

Can you tell how passionate Kelly is about her art and about helping other artists succeed? If you’d like to hear the rest of her 30-minute interview, please subscribe to my newsletter in the upper right corner. In addition to full audio recordings from interviews featured on this blog, subscribers receive access to secret sales, early bird offers and more.

If you have any other questions for Kelly, please do let me know. She has volunteered to answer additional questions and I may even be able to talk her into a group Q&A call. Sound fun? Let me know. 🙂

Cheers,