To Be An Artist Is A Gift!

To become a successful artist-entrepreneur is challenging. As a result, it requires mastering many skills, not the least of which the ability to create art that continuously sells well. Indeed, it takes talent, dedication, and ability to make art, to learn how to find buyers and make sales on a steady basis. These hurdles have always been present, and they will never go away.

These Are the Good Old Days

We are witness to an incredible moment in human history as we experience the most significant advancements in technology, communication, and product distribution ever seen. The pace and scope of significant developments in these fields are increasing at dizzying speeds. Among these changes are tremendous opportunities for artists who are ready to take them.

15 Reasons Why Now Is the Best Time to Be An Artist

1. 1. Artists have the most extensive and best choices ever in art-making tools.
   2. Creative new ways to make art are expanding along with buyer interest in the growing variety of art forms and genres.
   3. Consumer buying habits have changed, which makes them more likely to buy directly from artists and their websites and blogs.
   4. Many galleries are more willing to explore new opportunities to collaborate with artists who bring their fans and marketing expertise to the table.
   5. Artists have access to affordable, practical, easy-to-use, marketing tools to help them spread the word and find new customers.
   6. The number of places to sell art both through brick and mortar and online venues is developing and growing.
   7. Print-on-demand technology allows for remarkably high-quality reproductions with virtually no inventory costs.
   8. Licensing offers artists ways to create new, passive income streams.
   9. Artists can list their work online at no charge. Then have it sold and fulfilled without any action from them, through sites such as Fine Art America, and a growing list of many others.
   10. The wealth of freely available, practical art marketing advice from blogs such as this one, and dozens of others, is a blessing upon artists.
   11. The breadth and availability of webinars, free art business podcasts, and self-paced art marketing workshops, that help artists learn how to be more efficient business operators.
   12. Alternative marketing through home shows, artists staged events, selling retail in antique malls, upscale coffee shops, boutiques and restaurants, and numerous other locations, venues, and situations is a growing trend.
   13. Artists can tap free publicity to take significant advantage of the explosion of media and the demand it creates for more content.
   14. Free and affordable digital submission of press releases provides artists with more and broader access to journalists and media outlets.
   15. Social media provides new channels for artists to develop relationships with buyers who they would have never found through traditional means.

Great News! It Is Not All or Nothing

As an artist, you don’t have to master or use all the items mentioned above to be successful. However, the more you use to help you get your work seen and sold, the more likely the success you dream about becomes a reality.  Start by mastering one or two and grow your expertise. The faster you learn, the quicker you can hand off many of those items to assistants.

You Don't Need Anyone's Blessing or Approval

There's a popular phrase going around, "Those are not my monkeys, and that's not my circus." When it comes to your career, it's the exact opposite. You are the ringmaster of your life and your career. If you don't believe you are, you need to change your thinking and take charge of your life. Sometimes when you turn the looking glass inward, you find you are the bottleneck clogging the lanes to your success.

Clear Out the Clutter! Break Up the Bottleneck

If you are feeling put out, put down or put upon, you have the power to stop those feelings. That's all they are, feelings or perceptions you can change. You also are empowered to realign your thinking and start taking actions to bring about a massive change in your life. While you may have dire circumstances, it's most likely you don't. Even more, it doesn't matter. Whatever your situation is, you can change it. You can lift yourself and beat the odds. It's possible to take a successful career and ramp it higher than you imagine right now.

Artists Leave Footprints!

There are mountains to climb, masterpieces to sell and legacies to leave. It's mind over matter. That's because if you don't mind, it doesn't matter. Success is limited only by your imagination and your willingness to not let it matter how hard you will work to achieve it. Art is many things. By its nature,  art is ever-changing in how it is perceived as much as how it is made. Furthermore, you don't know what impact your artwork will have in the future. No artist ever does, not really. Above all, the one thing you can know for sure is that your art is a gift to the future. Construct it well with archival and conservation quality materials, and it can last for centuries. That is an incredible feeling. I know the quality woodworking pieces I've made over the years will outlast me by decades and more. I'm proud that something that came from my imagination that was crafted by my hands will endure. It gives me goosebumps when I think about it genuinely. Finally, take care in how you make your art and how you brand yourself as an artist. Those are the two things you control. I can't help you make your art and wouldn't try. You have your go-to sources for that.

Helping You Now and Then

My job, my mission is supporting artists. It's been a passion for nearly 30 years. Hence, I've have become quite good at it if I say so myself. That's how I ended up with a range of services and products from free to full-service. As a result, I teach my artist followers one can't expect others to toot their horn if they're not willing to do it first and with pride. When you are confident about what you are doing, it's not boastful to say what you do is excellent. If you're not there yet to toot your horn, for internal reasons, for lack of skill, or other issues, know nothing is impossible. Consequently, nothing boosts confidence like excellence and success.