Hello! Welcome to my blog, “Left Brain Skills for Right Brained People”. I’m a Career & Life Coach for artists and other creative people. I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area but work with artists throughout the U. S. and all over the world. This is the next installment of my blog, where we’re reviewing a checklist of 10 behaviors that are characteristic of successful artists. Use the checklist to see how you’re doing. Checklist for a Successful Art Career (26 KB) Don’t worry—nobody does everything every day. The goal is to build more of these behaviors into your own life, whenever you can. Let’s take a look at question #10: “It is easy to find my work online.” There are many reasons why it should be easy to find your work online, but the most important is to build an audience for your art. In 2018 people expect to find you online. Potential buyers who just met you or saw your work at Open Studios quickly check you out online. They read your biography on your website or follow your “art story” on Instagram, where you reveal details about your art-making process and activities. Your potential audience includes gallery owners, curators, art consultants, interior designers and other people looking for artists. They all expect to find you online. Even if you don’t yet have a website, google your name (+ artist) and see what comes up. You might be surprised at how little or how much you find. This first step tells you what’s already out there about you. It may also motivate you to strengthen and develop your “online presence.” Artists sometimes start out with a simple Facebook “fan page” or Instagram account. Right now Instagram seems to be the best way to begin, as it is a visual tool that allows you to connect with other artists and art organizations, including galleries and museums. Instagram is a visual journal, where you can build your “art story” over time. Remember, you use Instagram on your cell phone rather than a computer. No matter how you begin, you’ll soon need to have a simple website. Decide whether you want to do it yourself, ask a techie friend or family member to help you, or hire a professional website designer. Doing it yourself assumes you are comfortable and skilled using technology, which is a big assumption for many artists. If you have the skills, consider using tools like WordPress or Squarespace, or a platform designed for artists, such as Fine Art Studio Online. If you’re asking a friend or family member to design your site as a favor, get a clear commitment and timeline, and make sure they understand what you need. Show them examples of the sites you like. Make sure you have all the images and written documents ready before you begin. If you decide to hire a professional, choose someone who has experience designing websites for artists. They will be easier for you to work with, and more sensitive to visual aesthetics. Professionals can also help you with many other technical details, such as making your site more visible in search engines. Make sure your website is visually appealing and easy to navigate, and that you include links to any social media sites where you are active. That’s the last item on our Checklist for a Successful Art Career. You might want to go back now and identify two or three areas where you want to improve. Start with tiny steps so that you build momentum gradually. Let me know how you are doing! ~ Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists Hello! Welcome to my blog, “Left Brain Skills for Right Brained People”. I’m a Career & Life Coach for artists and other creative people. I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area but work with artists throughout the U. S. and all over the world. This is the next installment of my blog, where we’re reviewing a checklist of 10 behaviors that are characteristic of successful artists. Use the checklist to see how you’re doing. Checklist for a Successful Art Career (26 KB) Don’t worry—nobody does everything every day. The goal is to build more of these behaviors into your own life, whenever you can. Let’s take a look at question #9: “I am following an action plan.” There couldn’t be a more “left brain” activity than the idea of following an action plan. It is the kind of linear, sequential, step-by-step activity that most artists hate and yet desperately need. Why do you need an action plan? The art world operates in a strange way: it is both hierarchical and random. There are unwritten rules about how artists progress. For example, you won’t get a solo show at a museum if you don’t already have a pretty strong resume of exhibitions. And your work needs to be consistently visible at major art venues before critics can “discover” you. At the same time the world of art can be random and unpredictable. You might be making the best art of your life but the gallery that was interested in your work doesn’t return your emails. Since you cannot control other people’s behavior, you try to control your own. An action plan is an anchor that imposes a kind of order on the chaos of the world. The best action plans start with a tiny, easy step. Let’s say that your big goal is to license your images on products. Art licensing is a complicated business, so you need to find the first steps that will put you in motion. Perhaps you’ll want to start by looking online for artists who are already licensing their work. Or maybe you’ll decide to research licensing companies. Choose a specific goal and then break it down, smaller and smaller, until you find a step that you WANT to take. When you think of this step you smile, or feel relieved, or it gives you a little ping of energy: “I can do that!” A good first step might connect you with another person. Since many artists prefer to ask someone for advice rather than do internet research, your first step might be to brainstorm with a friend so you get your ideas out of your own head. Just make sure your first step is easy and appealing to you, so you don’t put it off. Be sure to attach a date so you can check it off when you’re done. The best action plans are focused on activity rather than results, and include simple measurements. For example, you might be trying to become more visible through juried exhibitions. These opportunities are highly competitive, with many shows receiving hundreds of entries. You might decide to follow an action plan of entering two juried shows a month, for a year. Sometimes you get in, sometimes you don’t, but you just keep going. You put yourself in motion. When you focus on your efforts, the results will eventually follow. Next time we’ll consider the last item on the checklist: “It is easy to find my work online.” ~ Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists Hello! Welcome to my blog, “Left Brain Skills for Right Brained People”. I’m a Career & Life Coach for artists and other creative people. I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area but work with artists throughout the U. S. and all over the world. This is the next installment of my blog, where we’re reviewing a checklist of 10 behaviors that are characteristic of successful artists. Use the checklist (“Free Tips for Artists” link) to see how you’re doing. Checklist for a Successful Art Career (26 KB) Don’t worry—nobody does everything every day. The goal is to build more of these behaviors into your own life, whenever you can. Let’s take a look at question #8: “I’m clear about the goals for my art practice.” When I mention goals to artists, many think I’m talking about reducing their art practice to an excel spreadsheet, with timelines, income projections, and cost/benefit analyses. Artists rightly resist this form of goal-setting, but don’t realize there are alternatives. Goals are important, especially when you are stuck, or just wanting to make more progress in your art career. Start with your own vision of what success looks and feels like for you. Remember that artists are “right-brained” creatures. This means that you are a visual thinker. Your ideas and intentions only become real when you can see them. We all think visually to a certain extent, but for artists a picture isn’t just “worth a thousand words,” it’s the whole dictionary. Try to see yourself successful. Let your imagination run free, and discover what you really want. You might see your work in a gallery, or see yourself teaching or giving a talk, or spending all day in your studio, without interruption. Just let a picture arise from your imagination. Your goals are embedded in your vision of success. Now try to capture your vision: draw it, or paint it, or make it into a collage. Give tangible form to your vision of success so that you can look at it as you work in your studio or at your desk. If clarity about your goals does include a business plan, try to make it visual. Here’s an example of an “artist-friendly” plan in the form of a pie chart, where each slice of the pie represents a percentage of overall income: The artist whose income is pictured here never quite understood her business until she saw the different colors of her plan.
After you have a picture of your own goals, what happens next? You need to break down those goals into tiny action steps that you want to take. That will be the subject of my next blog! ~ Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists Hello! Welcome to my blog, “Left Brain Skills for Right Brained People”. I’m a Career & Life Coach for artists and other creative people. I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area but work with artists throughout the U. S. and all over the world. This is the seventh installment of my blog, where we’re reviewing a checklist of 10 behaviors that are characteristic of successful artists. Use the checklist (“Free Tips for Artists” link) to see how you’re doing. Checklist for a Successful Art Career (26 KB) Don’t worry—nobody does everything every day. The goal is to build more of these behaviors into your own life, whenever you can. Let’s take a look at question #7, “My work has a signature style or content.” I once met a painter who was having her first show at a local nonprofit art center. She had rented a small gallery space, and the walls were covered with paintings. I’m afraid my first question said it all: “Is this a group show?” It was not. Later we laughed about my question, but it opened up an important issue for emerging artists. The paintings were all over the place—in subject matter, palette, style and composition. The paintings were so different that they could have been made by a dozen artists. So why is this a problem? Think about the well-known artists you admire. You’re not likely to mistake a Cezanne for a Picasso, partly because their work is so completely and compellingly their own. These artists are now iconic because they spent years developing their “signature”. This is also true of established contemporary artists. When you’re just starting out you do need to experiment in order to discover who you are as an artist. Your work may well be “all over the place” because you need to experiment in order to grow. But as you mature your work becomes more and more coherent. You may seem to be exploring the same ground, or the same ideas, because you are going deeper. If you allow yourself to keep going in this direction, your work becomes more consistent, more subtle and complex. It is also more recognizable as YOU, even before your name is well known. In the next blog I’ll consider question #8 on the checklist: “I’m clear about the goals for my art practice.” ~ Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists Hello! Welcome to my blog, “Left Brain Skills for Right Brained People” I’m a Career & Life Coach for artists and other creative people. I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area but work with artists throughout the U. S. and all over the world. This is the sixth installment of my blog, where we’re reviewing a checklist of 10 behaviors that are characteristic of successful artists. Use the checklist below to see how you’re doing. Checklist for a Successful Art Career (26 KB) Don’t worry—nobody does everything every day. The goal is to build more of these behaviors into your own life, whenever you can. Let’s take a look at #6: “I’m good at talking about my art.” Sometimes artists think that they shouldn’t have to find the words to “explain” their art, but they do! Many opportunities to promote yourself come at you in a random way. You meet someone at an art event, or a family reunion, or even at the gym. When they find out you’re an artist, they might ask you about your work. The first time this happens, you’ll probably freeze and mumble and avoid the question, because you’re not prepared. To make the most of such opportunities, you need to be ready with three or four clear sentences that describe your work. These comments should feel natural, and be in your own voice, not in art school language. Here are two “before” and “after” versions of artists talking about their work. Question: “Oh, you’re an artist. What kind of art do you make?” First answer: “Oh well, I sort of work with stuff I find, like old papers and things ….. and I make art out of it.” The artist, unprepared, doesn’t sound like she wants to talk about her work and the questioner wandered off, seeming a bit disappointed. Here’s a better response: “I make collages from paint and paper and materials I collect. First I paint colorful shapes, and then add unusual materials, like old wallpaper I find at antique stores. Sometimes I call these works “urban landscapes” because they have a kind of gritty feel.” Notice how much information the artist has packed into her three sentences. She keeps the tone easy and conversational, but offers interesting detail about her process and materials. She uses an art world term, “urban landscapes,” but explains what it means. Here’s another example. This artist was talking with a gallery owner about his work: First try: “I call this my water series, because it is inspired by my concern for the environment. Each painting explores a different aspect of our relationship to nature.” While the artist sounds serious, he isn’t very specific. His description could apply to thousands of artists who depict the natural world. After a couple of rehearsals, here’s what he came up with: “My water series is about the effects of climate change on the San Francisco Bay. In this painting you see abstract shapes that look like separate pieces of land floating together, but they are actually disconnected from each other. At first glance is looks like a pleasant harbor, but when you look closely you get a sense of dislocation, that something has gone wrong here ….” In this second attempt the artist draws attention to details in the painting. Instead of talking about general ideas, like the environment, he reveals how his own work creates a specific meaning. Talking about your art is important because it makes people want to look at it, or look at it longer. Think about your experience with a good docent at a museum. Instead of putting you to sleep with a lecture on art history, good docents point out details in style, materials, and subject matter, and use those details to help you understand how the work conveys its meaning. When you talk well about your art, you help the viewer see it. Remember, nobody falls in love with a work of art, or considers buying it, unless they look at it for a considerable length of time. In the next blog I’ll consider question #7 on the checklist, “My work has a signature style or content.” ~ Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists Hello! Welcome to my blog, “Left Brain Skills for Right Brained People” I’m a Career & Life Coach for artists and other creative people. I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area but work with artists throughout the U. S. and all over the world. This is the fifth installment of my blog, where we’re reviewing a checklist of 10 behaviors that are characteristic of successful artists. Use the checklist below to see how you’re doing. Checklist for a Successful Art Career (26 KB) Don’t worry—nobody does everything every day. The goal is to build more of these behaviors into your own life, whenever you can. Let’s take a look at #5: “I use the art resources in my community.” You may live in a small town or an urban center, or somewhere in between, but every artist needs to get connected to the world of art outside their studio. Such connections bring a wealth of resources: exhibition opportunities, juried shows, classes, critique groups, or just a place to hang out with other artists so that you don’t feel so isolated. Your first step is to discover the resources in your own community. I am based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I’m always surprised to discover how often local artists know very little about the resources available to them. Small museums, nonprofit art venues, community centers, libraries, colleges and universities all offer opportunities for artists. Urban centers like New York present a different challenge: too many resources, too much going on all at the same time. If this is your situation, you may need a filtering device, like the New York Foundation for the Arts (www.nyfa.org), to help you find the opportunities that are right for you. Maybe you live in a small town, nowhere near an urban center. As a native Californian who has also lived in small towns in the Midwest, I remember that the art resources were often located in churches, bookstores, libraries, schools and colleges. Many “emerging” artists have their first show in a café or bookstore or at a local church. Any venue that welcomes art and artists can be part of your community. So your first step is a discovery process. Find a local resource in your community and GO there. Talk to people, find out what’s available to you. Ask: “what is the process for selecting artists?” At an art center or small museum, you might become a member for a small fee and eligible to enter “member shows.” Your local bookstore or library may have an art program. Sometimes, when it seems like nothing is accessible, artists start their own “nontraditional” spaces in apartment hallways or garages. So, ask yourself: what are the resources in my community, and how can I use them to support my art career? Let me know what you find out. In the next blog I’ll be talking about question #6 on the checklist, “I’m good at talking about my art.” ~ Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists Hello! Welcome to my blog, “Left Brain Skills for Right Brained People” I’m a Career & Life Coach for artists and other creative people. I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area but work with artists throughout the U. S. and all over the world. This is the fourth installment of my blog, where we’re reviewing a checklist of 10 behaviors that make a difference in an artist’s career. It gives you a way to think about what you’re doing (and not doing) right now. Checklist for a Successful Art Career (26 KB) Let’s take a look at the fourth question: “I’m comfortable using technology.” If you grew up in the early days of computer technology, you are constantly worried about making a mistake, thinking the computer might crash and you’ll lose all your data. (Yes, this actually used to happen!) Anyone watching a 3-year-old pounding the keys of an iPad knows such disasters are unlikely now, but your fear lingers on. Often your first step in building confidence and skill in any field is to learn the names of things. When I take my car in for service I need help from the guys who speak car. I used to say: “the funny-shaped light you were supposed to fix last time is flashing again.” With five minutes of homework (reading their receipt) I came up with: “the SES light is on again, and last time you replaced the exhaust cam solenoid. What’s next?” This question made me feel smart, and I got faster help because I spoke the right language. Your computer speaks a foreign language that sounds close to ordinary English, but isn’t. Many terms (like function or format or interface) are abstract and opaque to you. Other terms sound familiar but actually have a different meaning, like firewall or application, or my personal favorite, cookies. When you don’t know what a technology term means, look it up. Internetslang.com is a good place to start. So what should you do to become more comfortable using technology? The best approach is to identify a short list of technical tasks you need to do to advance your art career, and then set about learning them. These are basic tasks that you stumble over frequently and make you feel incompetent. Here are some examples:
If you don’t know how to do these basic tasks, you can hire someone to teach you, look at YouTube videos, or you can teach yourself by asking Dr. Google. If you prefer the third option, as I do, go to Google and enter “how to create and send a jpeg image.” You will get many links in answer to the question, so look at a few and then choose an entry that is written clearly and provides step-by-step numbered instructions. PRINT OUT the instructions and put them beside your computer. Now practice doing the task several times, following the instructions, creating and sending images to yourself. You will mess it up at first, and then eventually it will work. You might not know what you did right, but you will smile proudly when you see the result in your inbox. SAVE the instructions for next time. Eventually you’ll discover that your learning comes more easily. You learn how one thing works, and then see that other processes work in a similar way. This is what people mean when they say that a process is “intuitive.” In the next blog I’ll be talking about question #5 on the checklist, “I use the art resources in my community.” Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists Hello! Welcome to my blog, “Left Brain Skills for Right Brained People” I’m a Career & Life Coach for artists and other creative people. I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area but work with artists throughout the U. S. and all over the world. This is the third installment of my blog, where we’re reviewing a checklist of 10 behaviors that make a difference in an artist’s career. It gives you a way to think about what you’re doing (and not doing) right now. Checklist for a Successful Art Career (26 KB) Let’s take a look at the third question: “I am able to overcome rejection quickly.” When you’re trying to make progress in an art career, you have to put yourself out there. To build a resume, you enter juried shows. When seeking funding, you apply for grants. When you’re looking for community, you apply for residencies. If you’re building a business, you reach out to potential customers. Since the art world is a competitive place, your efforts make you vulnerable. You open yourself up to rejection. Faced with this possibility, you might decide to limit the number of shows, or grants, or residencies you apply for. You choose “the best one,” or “the ideal customer,” and put all your energy into a single effort. Then you wait and wait and wait … and eventually get a NO. Often they tell you about the numbers: “there were 950 entries and the juror could only choose 50 artists.” And so what happens? You fall into a rabbit hole of confusion and self-doubt, and wait two years before attempting anything again. In order to overcome rejection quickly, you need to get rejected more often. You apply for MORE opportunities so that the numbers work for you. Here are a few examples from my coaching practice. An emerging artist who was trying to build her resume set a goal of entering 2 juried exhibitions every month (24 per year). At the end of the year she had been accepted into 6 shows. A mid-career artist who wanted a solo show at a museum sent out 14 proposals. Two museums said YES. The more possibilities you try, the more likely it is that you’ll succeed. When a rejection comes in, you feel disappointed, but then you move on to the next opportunity. You build momentum, so that a single rejection doesn’t derail you. In the next blog I’ll be talking about question #4 on the checklist, “I’m comfortable using technology.” ~ Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists Hello! Welcome to my blog, “Left Brain Skills for Right Brained People” As many of you know, I’m a Career & Life Coach for artists and other creative people. I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area but work with artists throughout the U. S. and all over the world. This is the second installment of my blog, where we’re reviewing a checklist of 10 behaviors that make a difference in an artist’s career. It gives you a way to think about what you’re doing (and not doing) right now. Checklist for a Successful Art Career (26 KB) Let’s take a look at the second question: “I ask others for advice about my career.” Why would you want to do this? It is because almost everything that happens in your career happens through other people. When you get recommended for a grant or residency, nominated for an award, or invited to participate in an exhibition, it is usually through people you know. Asking for advice is a way to get connected. I recommend that you ask for advice rather than help. Just think about the difference. How do people act when you ask for help? They look at the clock, check their phone, and protest: “I don’t have time.” “I don’t know anybody.” “I don’t know anything.” Busy people, even those who care about you, don’t really want to add your agenda to their to-do list. Funny enough though, everyone enjoys giving advice about what YOU should be doing. And sometimes that advice morphs into the help you need. When you are asking for advice about your art career or business, don’t write letters to Oprah. Start with the people you know or can easily reach. Find someone who is a few steps ahead of you on your chosen path. The person’s art should be different from your own, so that you’re not in direct competition. Choose people who are generous in spirit, or at a point in their own careers when they are ready and able to give back. Prepare your listener ahead of time. Tell them you are seeking advice about your career. Send your resume, or a list of your goals, a link to your website. Be specific about what you want to know. Always ask, what should I do? Who should I contact? What’s the best way for me to reach them? Keep the responsibility for follow-up actions in your own hands. So, who do you want to ask for advice? Please send me an email (coaching@coachingforartits.com) to let me know what’s on your mind. Next time I’ll be talking about question #3 on the checklist, how to overcome rejection quickly. ~ Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists Hello! Welcome to my blog, "Left Brain Skills for Right Brained People" As many of you know, I’m a Career & Life Coach for artists and other creative people. I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area but work with artists throughout the U. S. and all over the world. I wanted to share some of the best "artist-friendly" tools I use in my coaching practice. These are business-like tools that speak your language, are easy to use, and are offered in bite-sized pieces that don’t require a lot of your time. Checklist for a Successful Art Career (26 KB) So here’s one of them, a checklist of 10 behaviors that make a difference in an artist’s career. It gives you a way to think about what you're doing (and not doing) right now. Take a look at the first question: "I have a regular, consistent studio practice." That sounds so reasonable and adult, doesn’t it? If you’re an artist, of course you have a regular studio practice. But it isn’t so easy. Your "studio" might be in your garage, or your spare room, or your living room, or in a corner of your kitchen or in a corner of your mind. That's OK. We’re just talking about where you make art. Think about an ordinary day. Does it include spending time making art? If you’re lucky enough to have a real studio, do you actually go there? Do you go every day, or several days a week, or just when you can? The odd thing about having a separate studio is that sometimes you end up using it as a storage space for your art. So just be honest. DO you have a regular, consistent studio practice? Think about why you do, or why you don’t. When could you make more time for your art? Please feel free to respond to my blog, and let me know what's on your mind. Next time I'll be talking about question #2 on the checklist, asking others for advice about your career. ~ Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists coaching@coachingforartists.com |
Mary's BlogAs an artist coach, I bring a unique combination of business knowledge, art world experience, and professional coaching skill to my practice. |