The Business of Art

Fleeting Moments

Work in Paint, Thread, Wool & Silk

sold

Major storm hit Ontario this morning with unbelievable wind gusts, snow then rain then snow again. Yuck!  Days like this make me so very happy that I work at home.  Made some tea (not the chai latte as that is a ritual that begins precisely at 3:00pm) started a small fire, answered emails...took care of business.  Speaking of business, I think it's only dawned on me in the last year of so that art is a business.  I think my head was somewhere up in the clouds previous to that realization.....  Now don't get me wrong because I am head over heels passionate about what I do and could never for a split second imagine what my day to day existence would be like without creating art BUT, and don't you know there always is one, art is a business like any other.  If money were unlimited then I could just go about my merry way in the studio creating work and not caring if it sells  but unfortunately money is not unlimited and I need to sell work to continue to work.  It is that simple. 

Within the last year I made a decision that the career path I had  chosen was going to be a successful one.  No ifs and or buts.  It was time to pull that head out of the clouds and work to make it happen and to realize only I can do that.   It is my responsibility.......

I was always talking about submitting to a variety of galleries and now I am. Is there rejection?  Of course there is but if you believe in what you do you shrug it off and keep on going.  It's the only way.  Since I took this approach it's amazing how far I've come and how many galleries are interested.  The biggest drawback of my work is the way it photographs.  Capturing two dimensionality in a jpeg is all but impossible so the work needs to be seen in person to appreciate the texture of it. 

I also began realizing that all the work I was creating just wasn't getting seen so I started marketing which I knew absolutely nothing about.  The Cityline segment came about because I sent an email, a few jpegs and my website explaining to them what I did and why I thought their viewers may be interested.  I love the age of technology for that reason alone....ease of communication. Now perhaps I would never have heard back from them but that's not the point, the point is that I took action and put myself out there and you just never know what the possibilities from that effort will be. There is a wonderful self confidence that washes over you when that realization occurs. 

So what am I doing now?  Well there has been a great response from the Cityline segment, I'm in talks with a few different galleries regarding representation and two leading magazines have approached me regarding an artist profile. Won't talk about who until it's a done deal.   I guess what I'm trying to say is that for me, all of this has taken place because I started understanding that there are two parts to what I do....the artistic part that fuels my creativity, makes me feel alive and connected  and the business part that is simply that..........business.