 Before you go on a trip there’s a lot you have to do. You buy tickets, book a place to stay, find someone to feed the cat, and pack a suitcase. You get ready.
What does it mean for an artist to be ready? It’s not a passive state, where you sit around waiting to be discovered. Getting ready involves intense preparation for what hasn’t happened yet, and won’t, unless you are ready. This preparation is especially important because the art world seems to function in a random way. Your friend gets into a gallery even though you’re the better painter. A jeweler’s ordinary work is selling out on Etsy.com, while your one-of-a-kind pieces attract few buyers. That photographer’s fuzzy experiments get reviewed in Lensculture and suddenly he’s a phenomenon. If you are an emerging artist, you have to ignore all of this noise and concentrate on one thing: getting ready. Perhaps the best way to understand this idea is to remember the last time a moment of opportunity appeared, and then quickly disappeared, because you were not ready. Here are some examples:
Each of these questions assumes that you have an up-do-date website, a resume, and a price list. You want to respond right away, and you can’t. Instead of feeling bad about it, use your energy to get ready. Getting ready may take you a few weeks or a few months. You may need help with parts of it. Just remember that getting ready will save you time (and frustration) later on. You will also develop the confidence that comes from knowing you are ready. Getting ready includes knowing what you want from your art practice. Be honest with yourself about your intentions and circumstances. Think carefully about where you are right now, and what success would look and feel like for you. What’s important to you? Maybe recognition is your primary goal, or you want to increase sales, or just spend more time in the studio, making art. Take a moment, and try to visualize your own success. What do you imagine? You’ll also need to take into account the circumstances in your life. You might have a full-time job, or two small children at home, or elderly parents to care for. Part of getting ready is being clear about what you’re willing and able to do now in order to create the future you envision. A successful art career, no matter how you define it, takes time, energy, resources, and (above all) perseverance. You might have to learn new skills, ask other people for advice, put yourself out there and even risk rejection. But nothing will happen until you begin. Ask yourself, “what’s one thing I can do to get ready?” Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists www.coachingforartists.com I’m a Career and Life Coach for Artists, based in the San Francisco Bay Area and working with artists across the United States and internationally. If you’d like to ask a question or set up a time to talk, please write to me at: coaching@coachingforartists.com.  Recently I’ve been describing three successful artists with unusual careers. We saw that they were guided by moments of insight and they found a creative community. What else do these artists share?
Alisa Burke (alisaburke.com) Alisa Burke is a painter, printmaker, teacher and writer. She supports her family by running a multi-faceted art business. She offers online classes, sells books and DVDS, hosts workshops and retreats, sells her paintings and collages and adult coloring books, and even started a fashion accessory line. Alisa writes a daily blog and has 50,000 followers. Chris Motley (chrismotleyart.com) Chris Motley spent 30 years in a “left-brain” job, as a lawyer in the public sector. She has no formal art credentials. After retiring from her legal career, she began to knit 3-dimensional sculptures whose originality gradually brought her national recognition. She has shown her work in galleries and art centers across the United States, and recently had a solo museum show. Lia Cook (liacook.com) You can find Lia Cook’s ground-breaking work in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian, among many others. She works in a variety of media, combining weaving with painting, photography, video and digital technology. She is currently collaborating with neuroscientists to investigate our emotional response to images by mapping these responses in the brain. Alisa, Chris, and Lia share another quality common to artists who eventually become well known. Before they discovered universal themes or reached large audiences, their art was first personal. It grew out of their own lives. One of Chris Motley’s early sculptures was “Living Alone,” a female torso holding a backscratcher. “It was for me, the essence of my mother’s life after my father died, since she’d never lived alone in her life.” The work is both humorous and sad, conveying complex emotions. As Motley’s art developed, it became more abstract. Such works as “Confusion” and “Up, Really Down and Up Again” evoke different states of mind that punctuate our days. Other works, such as “Homeless” and “Brown is the New Green,” address issues we face as a society. Motley’s work now explores universal themes, but her Mother’s personal story started it all. Lia’s Cook’s work with neuroscientists grew out of her own curiosity. “I was always interested in how the brain works.” When she started to explore faces she based her work on her own family photographs. “My mother was a photographer, and so we had a huge collection of family photographs.” She tried using anonymous images, but found that her personal photographs were more evocative. These intimate faces from her early life made viewers recall their own family histories. Alisa Burke’s life and business grew out of her personal vision. She created her art business in order to live on her own terms. Alisa was raised in a family of artists, whose pottery studio was part of the family home. She assumed that running a creative business from home was a natural way of life. Alisa integrated her art practice and her life into a creative whole, based on her DNA. “I always saw the world though a lens of creativity.” Each of these artists reminds us that art grows out of the core of yourself. The famous artists you admire started with a personal vision. Remember this and honor your own beginnings. All the best, Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists www.coachingforartists.com I’m a Career and Life Coach for Artists, based in the San Francisco Bay Area and working with artists across the United States and internationally. If you’d like to ask a question or set up a time to talk, please write to me at: coaching@coachingforartists.com.  In my last blog post (“Moments of Insight”) I introduced three artists whose unusual careers reveal what successful artists have in common. Here they are again:
Alisa Burke (alisaburke.com) Alisa Burke is a painter, printmaker, teacher and writer. She supports her family by running a multi-faceted art business. She offers online classes, sells books and DVDS, hosts workshops and retreats, sells her paintings and collages and adult coloring books, and even started a fashion accessory line. Alisa writes a daily blog and has 50,000 followers. Chris Motley (chrismotleyart.com) Chris Motley spent 30 years in a “left-brain” job, as a lawyer in the public sector. She has no formal art credentials. After retiring from her legal career, she began to knit 3-dimensional sculptures whose originality gradually brought her national recognition. She has shown her work in galleries and art centers across the United States, and recently had a solo museum show. Lia Cook (liacook.com) You can find Lia Cook’s ground-breaking work in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian, among many others. She works in a variety of media, combining weaving with painting, photography, video and digital technology. She is currently collaborating with neuroscientists to investigate our emotional response to images by mapping these responses in the brain. Each of these artists followed her own unique path to success. Yet when asked, “how did your art career happen?” all three artists mentioned the importance of finding a creative community. Their success didn’t happen alone. They found people who offered support, encouragement, information, validation, and a connection to a wider world. Lia Cook found her first community of artists when she exhibited her work at the International Biennial of Tapestry in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1973. The opportunity was unusual because established artists were exhibiting their work alongside unknowns. She applied, got in, and as a result got connected to an international group of textile artists, some of them already well known. Fifty years later this network is still part of her creative community. Chris Motley wouldn’t have become an artist without the support of her community. She met her first critique group at a workshop. When they invited her to join she realized that her fiber sculptures could be taken seriously as art. Another critique group continues to give her feedback on developing work, often encouraging her to explore new directions. Chris also finds community by showing her work at galleries, museums, and art centers across the United States. Whenever possible she shows up at receptions to connect with the other artists. Alisa Burke created the community that now supports her business. She was one of the earliest art bloggers (2005), sharing her do-it-yourself creative projects before she even had a website. The enthusiastic response to her early efforts established a loyal customer base for all of the products and services she offers today. While Alisa offers many online classes, artists still sign up for the retreats she holds in her home studio several times a year. The human connection is part of a creative community for both Alisa and her students. These three artists show us the importance of reaching out to other artists and art organizations. When you get a response from the larger world of art you know that your art matters and understand how it fits into a larger context. Being connected to other artists gives you objective feedback and support. A creativity community helps you grow. Think about it. What can you do to find or develop your own community? All the best, Mary Mary Edwards, Ph.D. Career & Life Coach for Artists www.coachingforartists.com I’m a Career and Life Coach for Artists, based in the San Francisco Bay Area and working with artists across the United States. If you’d like to ask a question or set up a time to talk, please write to me at: coaching@coachingforartists.com. |