When are you Ready?
Structures #62 © 2007 33" x 19"
A Slow Reply
Eight or nine months ago Meagan asked me the following question on one of my posts:
Something a little off topic, but still related: How do you know when your art work is “good enough” to start marketing it? (Obviously this isn’t a problem for you, Lisa, since your art is amazing!) Previous commenters (Ed) have mentioned that in the beginning of their career, they sold stuff that really wasn’t very good. How do you know when your art work has reached that particular level?
I’ve had a draft of this question sitting around waiting for an answer ever since. As I wasn’t up to a dissection of my studio newsletter as promised, I decided to go back and deliver on an older unanswered query.
It’s about Growth
The article I wrote was about selling my artwork (click to read). My thoughts have changed over the years and today I will answer this differently than I might have 3 or 5 or 8 years ago when I was not looking to pursue an income generating career from my art.
Today my answer is: You are ready to start marketing your artwork when you are ready to take that bold step and put yourself out there. It’s a big leap as it comes with many risks but also many rewards.
Sure, five years from now you might look back and think "Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I tried to sell that junk." But that’s the future. What matters is right now, today, this moment. How do you feel about your artwork? Are you happy with it? Do you think it is good? Do you want to market it? Great - go for it.
And I don’t think that’s such a bad future, to be a bit embarrassed about your work from years back, because it means you are growing as an artist. This is a great thing. Maybe something to look forward to.
How Will You Handle Set Backs
Artists are often advised to ask others for opinions about their work. Is it good enough? Will it sell? While this isn’t bad advice I’m not sure I’d recommend that. I suggest just going with your intuition. If you have the desire and resources to market your artwork, then go for it!
What’s the worse thing that could happen? You might fail on first try. The question is, what will you do with that failure? Will you let it destroy your dream? If so maybe you aren’t ready. I think this is probably the single most important question to answer.
Sure you might never face rejection, but chances are good you’ll face more than a few "we aren’t interested" situations. As Christine Kane says:
SWSWSWSW: Some will. Some won’t. So what? Someone’s waiting!
[Read her excellent article about not taking things personally here]
Even if you do face failure you might learn something. You might get better and grow. You might find new ways to do things. You might meet people that want to help you over that hurdle.
When you are ready to fall down and get up and keep on going. That’s when you are ready.
I’m Finally Ready
I’ve been making art that I really love for the past 10 years. Yet I’ve never taken the leap to go after an solid income with my art. I always have an excuse:
- I need to build up cash reserves.
- The kids are only at home for a few short (18) years.
- This work isn’t quite good enough yet.
- No one buys art quilts.
- I could never replace my software engineering salary with an art income.
Well, no more. I’m doing whatever it takes to get rid of the day job and replace it with the art income.
First up on the list of to-dos is to sell the house that requires a really big income. If I wait until I have enough money from my art to pay this mortgage it could be a pretty long wait. So I’m short circuiting that problem and downsizing.
It’s a huge task and when I think of all that needs to be done to get this huge home on the market I freak out, which is the reason I’m still here. I thought about moving 6 years ago after my divorce and then again 3 years ago, but I didn’t have the courage to do it.
Now it’s the year of courage, which gives me the focus needed to work through all that needs done. I don’t think about the huge list of to-dos. I make short lists of easily doable tasks. Things I can accomplish in a few hours. I’m just focusing on each step, one and time, and steady progress is made every day.
In the meantime I’m not ignoring my art. I’m in the 7th day of Artist Breakthrough Program with Alyson Stanfield and it’s fabulous. I’ve made huge strides in getting my new website ready to go. Tomorrow I’ll blog about how I did with my goals this week and what’s up for next week.
And yes - at some point I’ll write about all I learned when doing my studio newsletter. Hopefully you will not have to wait 8-9 months for that answer.
The above image was the one I selected for this post 9 months ago, I can’t tell you why. It’s orange. Maybe that was it.
Posted by Lisa in: Art Marketing
Tagged: ABP, Alyson Stanfield, Christine Kane, courage, goals, marketing, Structures Series, Taking a Leap
Cheryl Collins said,
April 20, 2008 @ 9:54 pm
Go for it Lisa! Although I take your point about not relying on the opinion of other people I just want to feed into the discussion that sometimes others have more confidence in your artwork than you do yourself. I’m still way behind Lisa on the journey and because my day job is a vocation too ( I’m a priest) may never seek to make a lving from my art. But I do take it seriously and am part of a monthly independent study group mentored by 2 textile artists here in the U.K ( Committed to cloth- see website). Last week at the group I put up my newest piece which I’m just starting to quilt and remarked that someone local to me had expressed a mild interest in buying such a piece, what kind of value should I put on it? Immediately my mentors responded with £450-500 ( which I guess at the nmoment is roughly $900-1000). Since it’s not that big a piece I was stunned but it did give me a huge dose of confidence in my work and in myself as an artist. And my fellow group members affirmed this throughout the day. So sometimes its worth discovering that other people see you as an artist even though you’re still fairly near the beginning of the journey.
Susie Monday said,
April 21, 2008 @ 8:54 am
Wow! Lisa. I think you just slipped in that “I’m ready,” amid a lot of other information. I have been reading your blog regularly now for a couple of years — you were one of the first textile artists I found who blogged more than just a personal diary. I am so happy to hear you ready to make the leap. I know that no matter how many reasons you may have to NOT make to commitment to a move to supporting yourself and your family with “otherthanart”, and no matter even how satisfying some of the software work that you do may be, when someone is as talented and dedicated and passionate about her work as you are, I think other works is just simply short of your highest purpose on the planet.
Also, at 60 I am looking back over the past 10 years of developing my art and my business as an artist, and really wishing I had taken that leap sooner. I worry that I will run short of time or health or stamina and not get where I’d like to. The financial foundation is still not as deep and firm as I’d like it to be, but in all other ways my life is abundantly blessed. And, things just keep working out! Somehow, whether the bank account looks solvent or not, I find that I can do, go, be, explore and commit to just about anything I want to do, as long as I keep doing my part with the work.
Stacey Peterson said,
April 21, 2008 @ 1:55 pm
I’m glad that you’re taking the leap Lisa - I think your work is fantastic and different, and I think you have the drive to achieve success. We downsized our house last year so I could paint and Nate could quit his job, and I haven’t regretted it a moment since. Yes, our finances have changed, but we’re so much more satisfied doing what we love that it’s been okay to make some sacrifices along the way.
As for the initial question from Meagan, I think you’re ready to sell when you think you’re ready to sell and when you’re able to find buyers. I don’t think I’ll ever reach a point where I don’t cringe about paintings that sold previously. I’m already cringing right now about the quality of paintings I did for my solo show last November - only six months have gone by, but I’ve improved a ton. It’s a sign of growth, and that’s okay.
Lisa Call said,
April 25, 2008 @ 12:58 pm
Cheryl - I agree with all you said. First - I do not believe that every artist needs to sell their work. It’s not the only path to take. But if one does want to go that route then I think at some point you realize you don’t need other’s approval to do what you want - you have enough confidence on your own to do it. And yes - to build that confidence getting feedback is a wonderful tool..
Susie - Thank you for the encouragement!
Stacey - your move was part of what inspired me to take the leap myself. Life is too short to do something that isn’t my dream.
Sheila said,
April 25, 2008 @ 7:34 pm
My mother used to tell me that if I waited until I was “ready” financially and in other ways before starting a family, I’d never have children. Well, I never had children, but for more reasons than just not being ready. ;-) Yet she had a very good point. Sometimes we just have to do things on faith, get started the best that we can and adjust as it goes along.
As for whether one’s work is good enough to market, I recently attended a concert that focused on the early work of three Romantic composers. These were compositions penned in their 20’s when they were starting out and still heavily influenced by the “famous” composers of their day. Yes, you could definitely tell that these pieces were not “mature” work, could readily hear the influence of their mentors, could hear some of the novice in them, yet they were still wonderful to listen to.
As Stacy said, growth is continual, and I suppose we will always look back on older work with fresh, more experienced eyes, noting its shortcomings, yet that is no reason to delay putting it out there. It certainly didn’t stop more famous artists than we…
Lisa Call said,
April 29, 2008 @ 6:40 pm
Shelia - great comments, I like the analogy to composers, thanks for chiming in on the discussion.