Time for a Change

 

It has been nearly four years since I made the decision to join the gypsy train of art shows.  Indoor, outdoor, rain or shine you could often find me on the road, pitching my Trimline Canopy, hanging my art, and enjoying the adventure.  The journey took me from Aspen to Lexington, from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale and many points in between.  There comes a time however when change makes itself obvious.

Last week it did just that.  I have made the decision to pause the gypsy train and park my trailer in the station for a while.  I do not know at this point what I will do to replace the income that has come from these shows these past years, but as my wise hubby said, “You don’t have to know what you are going to do in order to know what you are NOT going to do any more.”

Another wise man, St. Paul wrote to the Philippians “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal.”  I truly believe that there are times when we must let go of something before we can reach for the next.

My mind is more available to possible opportunities because I am no longer checking the show and application schedule or concentrating on which paintings to include in each application.  Or trying to second guess which cities house my customers.  Or wondering what the weather will be like so I can guess which clothes to take.  You get my drift.  My mind and my time are free to explore.

Along the way I’ve discovered something about myself.  I love change.  I actually thrive on it.  Perhaps it is my creative brain that gets bored easily, but the idea of a new chapter is exciting to me.  Rather than using my creativity and vision to paint, I am exploring possibilities, weaving my way through the world wide web and asking the same question that inspires me at the easel.  “What if?” has been my guiding star for the past 25 years in terms of my art.  Now I will open myself to listen and watch where it leads my career.

Don’t know where I’m going but I’m enjoying the journey one step at a time.

Who Knows Where

I recently returned from an art festival in Louisville where I have previously shown with success.  Not so this year.  Not one sale.  Zip. Zero. Nada.  I left the show thinking “I could have had so much more fun with the $600 I just spent to be here!”  The experience left me pondering.  If I look to financial success to define the weekend it will always and forever be an abysmal failure.  However (you knew that was coming)…

If I look to the results of the show I will be left with a different view point.  The results:  a decision to pursue different types of shows and festivals, a confidence to know it wasn’t about the quality of the art I create, a confirmation to be intentional with my pursuit of honing my craft and developing my personal style, a sensitivity to the art festival market, a beginning of a 5-10 year plan that might take my art out of the outdoor festival model.

Armed with a different perspective, Louisville will never be a failure.  It will be a turning point.  The ah-ha weekend.  The starting line of the next leg of this adventure I call life. ” Failure” is only the end of the line if I allow it to be.  I vote for allowing it to be a catalyst to a creative problem solving process that will move me forward in my journey.  Not the end, but the beginning of the next step.  Who knows where that step will lead.  The possibilities are endless.  I’m all in.

Milliner’s Delight or How Many Hats Can I Wear in a Day?

Life as a professional artist on the gypsy train is seldom boring and often a bit chaotic.  Any given day will find me wearing any number of hats as I navigate the waters of this business called art.  What is certain but often misunderstood is that I seldom spend one full work day at the easel.

When one makes the jump into the professional arena (throwing their hat in the ring so to speak) an entire millinery shop opens to the artist.  Creating art is just the beginning of a process that shifts time, energy, and resources to any number of tasks at hand.  Let me share the journey of the painting shown here:

Step 1:  Create a painting (the artist and/or development director hat)

Step 2:  Name the painting (the wordsmith hat) In this case:  “Serendipity”

Step 3:  Price the painting and enter it into computerized inventory  (the director of finance hat)  $145

Step 4:  Create an image of the painting (the photographer hat)

Step 5:  Download, crop, size, and color correct the image (the digital photographer hat)

Step 6:  Upload the image to the internet, facebook,and/or  newsletter (multiple hats here:  web master, social media guru, and marketing director all included)

Step 7:  Ticket, label and display the painting appropriately in the gallery/studio/tent (the director of visual marketing hat)

Step 8:  Apply, travel to and set up the tent at an art show (again multiple hats:  director of operations, navigator, manual labor, etc.)

Step 9:  Share the story of the painting to any and all potential customers (the storyteller/salesperson hat) “Coming across a wild garden full of brilliant blossoms quite by accident.”

Step 10:  Make the sale!  Record the transaction and make appropriate banking records (the accounting hat)

No one ever told me that I’d be wearing so many hats as a professional artist.   What I shared above is just those associated with creating and selling a painting.  In any given week I am landlord, painter, teacher, adviser, sales person, marketing guru, web master, photographer, writer, and the list goes on. The challenge is to juggle all of these caps and of course to keep them all straight.  Knowing which to wear at any given time in any given day is a matter of…well prioritizing.

And that requires the milliner to create an organizer/business/scheduling hat.  Wonder if I have room in my closet…

Act II: Got to Have Some Fun

I keep asking myself, “How do you follow that???”  The past two weeks have been full of life changing memories and miracles as we have watched our friend’s son progress from near death to going back to college next week!  Truly amazing.  What do I write next???

As I pondered that I realized once again the parallel to the art biz.  And perhaps the art biz is in fact playing into my emotional state about blogging as well.  As a part of our weekend to Indianapolis, I delivered a major piece and collection as I have shared previously.  Artistically I have also been asking myself “How do I follow that?”  It’s a familiar question upon delivery of a large commission or the end of a terrific show, or simply the completion of a painting that I know in my knower is a cut above.

The answer came in simply not trying to create another masterpiece but rather in having fun painting small pieces in a new technique.  When in doubt, let the child within play.  That is what I have learned through the years.  To force inspiration never results in a promising result, whether it be a painting or a blog.

So here I am, a week or so later, sharing the results of my labors this week…but really I was just havin’ fun!  Hope you enjoy!

  I even reverted to childhood memories as I named them:  “Grape Lollies”, “Lemon Lollies” and “Purple Tree”.  Fanciful, fun and oh so therapeutic.  All are just 6″ square and will adorn my tent as I travel to Madison, IN.  for a show this weekend.

Until next post…hope you let your inner child loose to enjoy the day!

Long Days and Hard Work

 

I know, I know, nobody said it would be easy.  It’s just amazing to me sometimes just how much hard work and long hours go into this business we call art.  I am in the midst of preparing for a pretty significant show (Penrod Arts Fair in Indianapolis) followed by a presentation of my three decades of being an art professional(Art:  Up Close and Personal sponsored by the Arts Council of Williamson County).  Oh and by the way, delivery of a major commission piece (finished:  see photo).  Most days I thrive on being busy.  After all, I hate being bored.  Lately however it seems I am trying to tell myself not to stress more often than not.

At our last art show, my husband encountered a gentleman (I use the term loosely) who suggested that all of the artists did this kind of thing as a hobby.  Can I just say that nobody but nobody puts themselves through what we professional artists do for the fun of it?  Do I love the gypsy train?  Indeed.  Do I appreciate that I make a living doing something that I’m passionate about?  Absolutely!  Is it grueling at times and mindless at other?  Too true!

Don’t get me wrong.  I wouldn’t trade my profession for another….ever!  As I posted last week (or was that two weeks ago???) I know that I know I was created to express myself artistically.  That said, I think there is a misconception that all we professional artists do is play all day.  Painting is fun;  it is the play part of the job.  Varnishing, wiring, framing…not so much.  Powerpoint presentations, email newsletters, social media marketing….work.

When your passion becomes your profession there will be long days and hard work if you want to succeed.  It goes with the territory.  Business plans, profit and loss statements, marketing strategies are all a part of the business of art.  Dare I say they are the work that balances the play.  But oh the pay off when a customer falls in love and has to have a painting I’ve created.  Then suddenly all of the hours melt away.  All of the hard work seems easy.  In other words it’s all worth the effort.  So to the studio I go to teach and paint and label and load up and…and…and…  Guess I’ll sleep well tonight!

Ready, Set, GO!

Today’s assignment was putting together the plan for tonight’s live painting event.  Or from my point of view, painting off site.  I hope I am always alive when I paint!

An hour and a half is not a long time to paint a 30″x24″ painting.  My layer upon layer process usually requires me to put the painting aside, work on another and come back to add the next layer.  For instance I will lay the sky in on a canvas and let it dry often until the next day before I add the background, mid-ground, and foreground.  Each might take at least an overnight before I move to the next design area.

Not so tonight.  So I have written a map of sorts, a sequence of areas to paint, hopefully allowing the background time to dry before adding the next design element.  I have also pre-mixed my paints with the medium I use for my first layer of color.

People often ask how long a painting takes to complete.  The hidden time is amazing:  pondering design elements, process, and specific paint colors can take a relatively huge amount of time.  The perfect color in the perfect spot is after all what makes a great piece of art.  Then there’s the time consumed in selection (as in where exactly is that tube of paint?) and mixing of the first layer, making sure I have the right tools in hand, the easel at the right height, the lighting correct, etc.  All before the first knife of paint has danced across the canvas.

Usually I paint the first layer before I select the detail palette and prepare my tray of paints for finishing.  Not so today.  Anticipating the details is what it’s been about as I have prepared my tray of over 30 hues to develop tonight’s masterpiece.  I am as ready as I can be.  Master plan in writing in case my mind forgets, enough paint to finish at least two pieces I’m sure (don’t want to run out!), palettes prepared, supplies boxed.  I am set.

Now it’s time to GO!

Failure is not an Option

It seems fitting in an ironic sort of way that shortly after I wrote about Success, we (that is the 10 or so artists that I work with) would host an event that truly was an abysmal failure.  No one came.  That was a first.  Live music, wine, cheese,  great art and no one showed up.  So naturally my pondering mind went into hyper drive.

I suppose it could be said that failure is the opposite side of the success coin.  In my musings, however, I have come to believe that failure and success are on opposite ends of a very long continuum.  Being a geometric thinker, I like to see it as two facets to a multifaceted sphere.  So, combining my last post with last week’s post looks something like this:

What if failure was not an option?

What if I gained perspective on one failed painting, event, show and looked at the whole career instead?

What if I learned from this failure and put into place something new and unusual?

What if I allowed this failure to blow the sides off the box I’d placed around myself, my work, or my schedule?

What if I gained enough experience through failure that I could help others emerging on the path behind me?

What if failure at one thing was exactly what propelled me into a new exciting adventure on this road called life?

What if I looked at “failure” not as defeat, but as fine tuning, direction, and motivation?

Then I would have turned the sphere a bit and the facet I’d be looking at would be success.  I’m working on it….

What is Success?

We are in the dog days of summer.  No doubt about it.  Heat index is well in the “dangerous” zone and people are walking around The Factory looking like zombies in search of rest.  Enthusiasm wanes.  Inspiration sags.   A good time to ponder a bit.

This morning my mind wandered to the idea of success.  What does a successful art business look like?  Is it measured in dollars of art sold?  Numbers of paintings purchased?  A schedule of non stop shows and/or speaking engagements?  Galleries?  Exhibits?  Ribbons?  I have found that success in the art biz has many faces.  I have found that success is a moving target.  I have found that success is a loyal partner and a fickle date all at the same time.

Another artist recently asked me how to make a six figure income in the art biz.  I chuckled and said, to “Ask another artist”.  Six figure income is not my goal or motivation.  Success for me is not wrapped up in how much disposable income I make.

When I stand back from a newly completed painting and say “Well done!”  I am successful.  When I hear a testimony of someone comforted through a life storm by the angel I created, I am successful.  When a customer trusts me to create the perfect painting for their home or office, I am successful.  When I can pay my rent, donate to a mission trip,  buy groceries, I am successful.  When I am making a living by pursuing my passion, I am successful

Being in the business of art, it’s good to be reminded that success is in the eyes and heart of the one defining it.  How do you define success?  Ponder and share.  I’d love to hear from you.

 

Color and Impact

It happens wherever I go.  Indoor shows, outdoor shows, or in my studio (which is open to the public), individuals or couples come in with numbers floating around in their heads.  The size of the wall, the size of the piece they are replacing, the size of art they think they need.  I commend those who  take the time to measure before shopping for art.  The size of the space is important.  It is in fact the jumping off point for selecting the perfect piece.

Many things go into finding the perfect piece for the spot;  heart response to a painting being of course the biggie.  However today I want to discuss the impact of color in a room.  A little color theory:  warm colors (think fire and sun:  red, orange, yellow) are the strongest colors in the spectrum.  It takes the least amount of yellow compared to other colors to be seen from a distance.  Cool colors (think cool mountain lake:  blue, green, purple) are the weakest colors in the spectrum.  Purple is the weakest; it takes a bigger spot of violet to be seen across a room.  Want to test this?  Next time you are in a stadium look across to the other side and squint your eyes.  You will see those yellow Cheeseheads before you see the Purple People Eaters.  But I digress.  What that means to you as an art collector is that it takes less red, orange, or yellow to have an impact on a space than blue, green, or purple.

Point is dimensions of the perfect piece can be determined by the impact of the painting.  Color is not the only element that affects the impact of a piece of art.  But for now, let’s leave it at this:   a smaller painting done in a warm palette may be just the ticket, or a larger piece in a cooler palette.  Now you’re on your way to becoming an expert!

Today’s paintings:  Warm: ” East of Eden”,  20×20, $350  Cool:  “From One to Another”, 12×12 $200