Embrace Business.

A few years ago I was able to quit a few of my day jobs and become more or less, a full-time artist. Heaven. But sometimes it seems like I am now spending as much (if not more) time sending email campaigns, Facebooking, writing press releases, applying for grants, responding to emails, updating my website, and thinking of new ways to increase sales. And writing blog posts... Ugh. 

The best way I have found to combat the frustration of this feeling is to make sure I am painting every day. Even just a little 3"x3" painting, or a sketch. This is how my "tinyExpanses" got started, and it has been an effective way of staying connected to what I find meaningful about the career I have chosen. Make time for your creative work first, and then embrace the business side of things as the avenue for sharing what you do in the studio. If you get out to your studio first thing in the morning and get your juices flowing, your excitement about your new work will fuel a website updating session later in the day. Do what you love and what inspires you first. Before 11am, according to The Four Hour Work Week (Which by the way I highly recommend reading and picking what ideas work for you). 

Another way I try to stay excited about the business of art is to make it fun. For example, I held a contest on Facebook to have people post pictures of their dog portraits next to their dogs on my page and get their friends to "like" their photos. The person with the most likes got a free portrait, and I got some exposure on Facebook. Use your gift of creativity to come up with some fun marketing strategies, and try to enjoy the process!

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, if you feel reluctant to promote your work but would like to sell your work, consider the source of your reluctance. Sometimes I realize that it is because I am not truly satisfied with the work I am creating. At this point it's time to spend some time in the studio creating work that you just can't wait to share. And then give this work the honor it deserves by promoting it with pride.

I am always learning from other artists about how they negotiate the two worlds of creation and promotion. One source I enjoy are the newsletters I subscribe to from Padraig McCaul, a landscape painter in Ireland.  I also pay attention to how local artists are promoting their work and decide what is effective in my particular community. How do you find your balance? Do tell!

Make time for your work, make time to promote it, and see both facets of being an artist as part of your job.

ps. For those of you who were curious about the story behind the picture of the poor kitten with green paint on his toes...I was housesitting a few years ago for a family with a prize show-kitten (a Scottish Folded Ear cat, to be exact). Well little Scottie had some fun on my painting palette and his snow white fur. Why is it that green paint in particular manages to get everywhere?