Time to get down to business

This is the year that I work to focus on the business end of my art business.  I have been taking plein air trips, taking business courses and experimenting with new techniques. 

It feels funny to be doing this instead of pushing to do small works.  Seriously, I feel at loose ends but I know if I take my focus off my goal, all of this work will be for nothing.  I am taking a business class that meets once a week through June.  It is a lot of homework but the end game is about building a real business plan and it is helping me focus on what I want.

You work hard creating art, you’re an artist; this is what you are supposed to do.  Somewhere along the way, you realize that you have all this inventory but no real plan on how to make any sustainable money.  You; I, put all my eggs in one basket and I am spinning my wheels professionally.  I am doing the same thing over and over again and I am not seeing any rise in my artistic income.

Being an artist isn’t cheap.  Being an artist of any caliber cost a bunch of money.  Materials, show fees, inventory, framing, shipping, promotion, taxes……  Selling a painting of a good size here and there is a stop gap.   Here I go into that breach, that gap; it’s time to get to work.  Getting to work means doing the homework to the best of my ability.  It means putting forth my best efforts when I am doing research and trying new things.

Yep, I’m a little anxious but that is alright.  I just need to keep focus and do the work.  Kids, just because we are grown up doesn’t mean we never have to do homework ever again.  School was a place where you were to learn how to put your nose to the grindstone to achieve the life you want.  Yep. Time to roll up my sleeves.