Lisa Call

I currently have 2 full priced offers for my house, both from well qualified buyers, both received about 24 hours after my house went on the market, in what is supposedly is a very depressed buyers market.

Many people are amazed I pulled this off. How can I have people bidding up the price of my house in this economic climate? Here’s how I did it (and how I plan on achieving the dream of becoming a self supporting artist).

1. Listen to the Experts

I told my real estate agent what I wanted - to sell my house quickly and for a fair price although money was not as important as this being an effortless process. I told her my house was to sell in 2 weeks or less after it went on the market. Her advice was to fix everything, stage the house and to price it low (but not too low).

I pre-inspected my house and fixed everything, basically if it seemed worn or broken I made it like new again. Then I staged the house. Although I didn’t do it her way - I fired her stager, who wanted to turn my house into something it isn’t. It didn’t fit my vision or values. So I staged it my way - I’ve never staged a house before but how hard is it to toss out half my stuff and hang a few curtains? I then priced the house at the low end of what houses similar to mine were selling.

Her advice was absolutely accurate. Experts are experts for a reason. They are good to listen to but it’s never worth sacrificing ones values to do what they say. I was able to follow my agent’s advice and still feel good about my choices.

As I’ve been working on setting up my art business I’ve been looking to the experts, like Alyson Stanfield, to find out how to go about making this dream a reality. These types of people have a lot of good advice that is worth listening to.

2. Start with Quality

My house is an amazing house. It’s in one of the best neighborhoods in Parker because it’s not a cookie cutter neighborhood. We have large lots (I’m on a cul-de-sac). Plus my house is just fabulously beautiful with a perfect floor plan. I knew all those things when I bought the house, which is partly why I bought it, so it would be easier to sell later.

I know my textile paintings are extremely high quality. I’ve spent years perfecting my technique and my artistic vision. I know what I’m selling is superior quality, which makes it much easier to sell. I truly believe in the value of my art.

3. Visualize Success

Every day I said my house would sell in 2 weeks or less. I journaled about it. I constantly told my agent this would happen. I joked about it. I thought about it. I became very very clear as to exactly what I wanted and I visualized what that might look and feel like.

I am doing the same for my art business. I’m getting very clear as to what I want and I am thinking about how that feels and what it looks like. I talk about it often and journal about it. I keep the dream alive every day.

4. Take Action

All the thinking in the world wasn’t going to get my house on the market. I held a picture in my mind of what my house would look like when it sold quickly and I took action on making my house look exactly like my vision every single day for 2 months.

It was a huge amount of work but with my Getting Things Done lists and focused concentrated effort I was able to pull it all together. I coordinated dozens of contractors giving me estimates and 7 or 8 coming and doing the work in addition to doing a lot of the work myself. It made my head spin some days but I kept the vision of my house clear in my mind and just kept on working.

I know this is exactly the type of effort I need to get my art business off the ground. It’s hard work, fortunately it’s all work I enjoy (way more than having my hardwood floors refinished) so I’m really looking forward to it. I have a clear vision in my mind what my life will be like after I quit the day job and I’m doing everything I can to make it reality.

Doing things gets things done.

Moving Sale Update

I’ve been intending to create a list of all of my available artwork so I can post what’s part of my moving sale so you don’t have to guess in case you are interested in a piece. My plan is to do this on friday. Tomorrow I am going to go find a house to buy so I have somewhere to live after I sell this one.

Shaded Walk    ©2007 Stephen Carl
Reprinted with permission from the artist

Artist Breakthrough Program

The last 4 weeks I’ve been participating in the Alyson Stanfield’s online Artist Breakthrough Program.

Today is the last day, the last phone call. Time to evaluate how things went.

So to start here are the goals I stated for the month:

1. I work 5 or more hours a week in my studio making art.
2. I complete the rewrite of my website and blog and go live with them by May 12, 2008.
3. I update my resume to include jurors for all juried shows.
4. I create a complete resume for my personal use with every show in my career listed. This list also includes a list of which pieces were included in each of these shows.
5. I design a portfolio package to send to galleries (the package does not have to be complete but I identify all the parts and the format of the package)
6. I start a list of potential galleries to contact for representation. The list has 30 or more galleries listed.

In addition to the above, I was also working on getting my house ready to put on the market. Cleaning, packing, hiring contractors, yard work, etc.

How Did I do?

1. I worked in my studio 19 hours over the 4 weeks - very close to the my original goal.
2. Nope - the website is coming along nicely but it needs more work.
3. Didn’t even start
4. Didn’t even start
5. Didn’t even start
6. I have between 15-20 galleries on my list with contact info.

In addition I got a lot done on prepping my house. This weekend I completed the last of the decluttering, and have done a bunch of packing, cleaning and yardwork. I’m almost done getting contractors lined up to do the big stuff (paint, carpet, refinish hardwood, etc). This was a larger job than anticipated, getting estimates, rescheduling, etc, etc. I’m certainly learning a lot about how to deal with these guys (number one tip - don’t have expectations about getting anything done soon).

How Do I Feel About It?

I’m super happy with how things went. I probably stayed focused about 70-80% of the time I had available to "do stuff", which is a lot more than normal. Although I didn’t complete everything on my original list I didn’t really think I’d get it all done so that’s fine (more on this later).

I knew I’d be super busy, not just because of all I had going but also because my kids were with me almost the entire month since I didn’t get to see while they were in Europe for 3 months. Not every weekend was as crazy as the one I outlined in this post, but we were still busy. Staying this focused for a sustained period of time, with my kids at home, was probably a first so I’m very happy about that.

I got some really great ideas from other participants in the program for my website so I have more work to do than originally planned. I’m writing a custom plugin for wordpress to display my artwork images, as I couldn’t find anything out there that did what I wanted. I haven’t written code in a while so I’m excited.

What Did I Learn?

I set my goals higher than was realistic. I did this to keep myself motivated. But what I found as the weeks went on is that I wasn’t taking the goals quite seriously enough. I’d list 6 or 7 things to do in a day and only have time for 4 or maybe 5. So I set myself up from the start to not finish everything.

I think this is how I normally operate. It’s safe - because I know I never get everything done I fall back on that as the excuse every time to not do stuff. Eventually I start to think I don’t really need to finish things.

This month has shown me this is maybe not the most optimal way of doing stuff. I love my Getting Things Done project and tasks lists (from David Allen’s Book) as they are great at capturing the big picture. Yet this month I’ve found I need to get more specific, and more realistic, about what I am doing TODAY.

So in addition to my big lists, each morning I started to pick at most 3 things todo. The super most important things that absolutely have to get done. And I put my focus on getting those things done. At the end of the day it’s awesome to say I’ve completed them all.

Learning this new way of approaching my work was the best thing I got out of this class. Taking the time to think about how I get things done and to try some different approaches.

Where Does Blogging Fit In?

Obviously I stopped blogging about 1/2 way through the program. I’d find myself with an hour of time to work on my website or to write a blog post and more often than not I’d blog. So I decided to drop the goal to write and spent my free computer time on my website.

I don’t intend on making this a habit. Living my life at a pace where I don’t have time to blog is not okay with me. I love writing and I find it a great way to process information about my art and myself. So something else is going to have to give because I’m going to continue to blog 2 or 3 times a week throughout the process of selling my house.

One fun thing about this class was watching other artists work on their goals. Steve Carl (photographer - the above image is his work) had a goal of starting a blog and it’s been fun watching him and remembering back to when I started mine 3 years ago. I think he’s off to a great start. You can check it out here: Works by Steve Carl

What’s Next?

The other important thing I feel I learned is that trying to do 3 things at once (make art, build a website and get a house ready to put on the market) is too much. I think if I would have focused on just 1 thing at a time in the end I would have gotten more done.

Time to focus on the house and get it on the market. I’ll have a few moments here and there to do some art/art business work but at least 2 of the 3 must do items on my list each day are going to be house related. While I’m not excited about losing momentum on the website I think in the end this is the best choice. I’ve been feeling a bit too scattered the last few days not really making huge headway on any one thing.

Priorities

In my series of posts on holding intent I’ve talked about some of the quotes I have on my studio wall. Here’s another related to priorities:

My Take on the Parts

What: I need to identify the specific tasks, or at the minimum the next task, that will get me to my goal. Without this breakdown of the parts it’s hard to identify the next action I should take to achieve a goal. Priorities imply that there are things to choose from, I need to identify those things.

I: There is only 1 person that is in charge of me reaching my goals - and it’s me. Taking responsibility for all of my choices and actions is a huge help in reaching my goals. It is not the internet’s fault that I waste time reading email and blogs, it was my choice. If I don’t like that choice and I can change it.

Doing: If I just sit around it’s unlikely my goals will be met.

Right Now: Worrying about the future or stressing out about the past isn’t going to move me forward. It’s when I stay in the present moment I make progress.

Closer: This is a process (and not a quick one), not a destination. Doing things gets me closer to my goals but I need to be patient and enjoy the journey, because without that the goal is rather empty. For me it’s about a life time commitment to living life one day at a time with the intention to be the person I want to be and living the life I want to have each day giving my situation in that exact moment.

Ultimate Goal: If I don’t know what I want and who I want to be, it’s kind of hard to make progress in that direction.

The Universe

On Alyson Standfield’s recommendation in January I signed up to get Notes from the Universe. I love these emails each morning as they make me smile and remind me that my thoughts do become my reality. Today’s was particularly relevant to my topic:

Where are you spending your time?

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.

Sign by the Front Door

 

View from the front entrance

Lux Center For the Arts

My trip to Nebraska for the opening of the shows at the Lux Art Center was short but fun. I arrived in Lincoln not long after 3:30pm on friday and left the next day around noon. I had to get back to Colorado to take my daughter to dinner for her birthday last night.

The opening was well attended and I enjoyed giving another gallery talk. I’ll post more pictures of the show tomorrow and talk about my trip. Today I had a few odds and ends I wanted to write about.

Etsy

I’ve decided to try Etsy again. I was deciding between shutting down the shop or using it to sell some of my older work. Because the fees are so low I decided to give it a try. If this doesn’t work out well or feel right I think the next plan is to try putting something on my website, which is in the process of being redesigned. I’m moving the entire thing to wordpress so it’s easier to maintain.

I’d Rather Be In The Studio

As I mentioned last tuesday, I’m giving away a copy of Alyson Stanfield’s wonderful book I’d Rather Be in the The Studio.

I used an online random number generator to select the winner - and that winner is Patty O’Rourke. Thanks to everyone for playing along and creating the links. Patty - congrats! Contact me with your address and I’ll get the book in the mail to you.

What’s Next

I spent some time on the 7 hour drive home from Nebraska thinking about what’s next for me. On January 1st I posted the following goals for my art career:

1. I complete the new Markings pieces that I need for my solo show at the Macky Gallery in February by February 14th.
2. I frame my plains drawings by February 14th so they can be included in my solo show.
3. I create new Structures pieces for my solo show at Lux art center by March 15th.
4. I complete all paperwork and provide requested materials for both solo shows and the show I am curating at the Lux on time.
5. I ship all artwork for upcoming juried shows on time (Materials Hard and Soft, Art Quilt Elements, Artist as Quiltmaker XIII at Firelands Association for the Visual Arts).
6. I determine with crystal clarity my definition of success for my art career.
7. I write goals for the remainder of the year that will lead me to the success I define.

I’ve now completed 1-5 with some minor exceptions. Like deciding to skip #2 so I could hang more of my textile paintings and I won’t be shipping the work to FAVA until the end of the month.

That leaves me with 6 & 7. My goal is to complete #6 (my definition of success) by April 13th and post it on my blog. Then I’ll move on to #7.

What’s Happening in the Studio

Honestly - not much. I completed the work for my 2 shows and haven’t done much since. I put a total of 3 or 4 hours of work into my studio in March. I was sick for longer than I’d like to admit. I had an infection that resulted in a very unpleasant lower back ache and I had no motivation to make art. Now that I’m healthy I can’t wait to get back to my studio.

Time to head there now.

Blog Book Tour

Well known artist coach Alyson Stanfield of ArtBizBlog is embarking on a blog book tour to promote her new book I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion. I’m stop number 3 on the tour and my interview with Alyson is below. My very first podcast for my blog.

I asked Alyson about the importance of defining success for an artist and how that definition might change throughout an artist’s career. We also touched upon several other topics - like studio newsletters. Be sure to check out the other stops on the blog book tour as each artist has asked Alyson a different question.

You can listen to the interview by clicking here (it’s about 12-14 minutes long)

Or you can download the mp3 file to listen to later.

Get Your Own Copy

If you have a blog and are interested in winning a free copy of I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion? Visit this site, read the instructions, and enter. Remember to come back here and let me know if you’ve linked to us. I’ll announce the winner on April 6th on my blog.

Or you can purchase the book directly here.

Studio Newlsetter

As I mentioned in this podcast and on my blog, I’m working on my very first studio newsletter. Alyson’s book was invaluable in helping me come to some decisions with what to do with my newsletter. Thank you Alyson!

My self imposed deadline of March 31st seems to have come and gone but I’m very close to having it finished. I anticipate sending it out within the next few hours so look for it in your inbox soon if you’ve signed up.

[Update - 6pm MST - I’ve come down with a bug. A short lived one I’ve decided. So the studio newsletter is delayed 1 more day as tomorrow I will feel wonderful and can complete the work. Everyone please send me healthy thoughts!]

I Need a Better System

I’ve tried various plans for organizing my office and files but they generally don’t work for me and instead of filing I start stacking papers and eventually it’s completely out of control with years of papers piled up around my office. The result is forgotten deadlines and missed opportunities.

I’m great at making lists but I tend to have several lists going on different scraps of paper and some online and they are never complete so my brain spends a lot of time trying to remember what I need to do. I’ve decided it’s time for a change. I couldn’t deal with the clutter anymore and I was tired of forgetting important things.

Getting Things Done

I’ve read several organization books in the past and none of them really worked for me. Until this month, I finally read David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

I love it.

It’s about writing everything down so you can forget about it and relax. Everything has a clear category (can you take action on it or can’t you) so everything is in an obvious place. It’s probably not for everyone as he’s got a flow chart for how to determine what to do with a piece of paper, but I’m finding it extremely helpful. Once I got going it’s not as complicated as it seemed when I read about it.

One of the things I love about it is he’s not selling a day timer or electronic gadget. He’s just explains his ideas and leaves the reader to implement it in a way that works for them.

I spent the first week of March (the week before my kids came home) organizing my office. Tossing out huge piles of papers and redoing my filing system.

• I now have a real world in box and my desktop is cleared.
• My email inbox is at 0 at the end of most days.
• I don’t have stacks of papers without a home.
• At a glance I know all the balls I have up in the air at any time and which ones need action.

Important but Not Urgent

As a result of identifying all the projects I was working on and the next steps I needed to do on them I’ve made some big progress in completing some of the projects. Projects that I’ve always wanted to do but haven’t tackled because they aren’t the most urgent things in my life.

As an example I knew I wanted to get some limbs cut off of a tree so my garden would get more light but it never made it onto a list as it was never urgent. With this system I wrote it down and in a few free minutes at work I found someone to do the work on craiglist and they came out that day and did the job.

It feels great to be making progress on more than just the things with a deadline this week.

Ready for the Big Breakthrough

I’m now in a position to tackle a really big project and bring it to completion - getting a professional portfolio pulled together along with a rewrite of my website as I’m ready to start looking for gallery representation.

This is a pretty big project and instead of going it alone I’ve signed up for Alyson Stanfield’s Artist Breakthrough Program (on the classes tab, it starts in April). After taking Christine Kane’s e-seminar I know the value in having outside support. And I love the amazing benefits of group energy. I’ll be holding myself accountable to completing these projects by working with a group and setting some deadlines.

I’m excited about getting this work finished and moving to the next level with my art career.

Blog Book Tour

Speaking of Alyson, I’m going to be hosting her on my blog on April 1 as part of her blog book tour. I love her new book I’d Rather Be in The Studio and I was excited for the opportunity to interview her for the book tour. Although I’ve read Alyson’s blog for years and attended a workshop with her I still learned quite a bit from her book. I definitely recommend it.

OC#9 ©2007 David Castle 12"x12"

Self Care

Lately I have been practicing abundant self care. I believe this is an important element to holding intent. Self love and self care are super important pieces to living the life I want. When I set an intent or a goal I find it easier to hold that intent or complete that goal if I am at peace with myself.

Here are some things I’ve done in the last month as part of my self care:

• Start acupuncture. I’ve thought out this many times but I wasn’t on first name terms with needles so I was never willing to take the leap. Then Alyson Stanfield posted a referral for an acupuncturist and I took this as a sign it was time to become buddies with the needles. I had my second treatment today with Renae Einspahr and I’m hooked. Good thing my insurance pays for this cause I can see it a frequent element of my self care.
• Buy art I love. I’ve always wanted to purchase some of David Castle’s art and now the piece above is part of my collection. I love his work. You can read about how he makes these amazing water media pieces on his blog.
• Drinking plenty of water is something I have to work at, it doesn’t come naturally for me yet. I’m working on adding this to my daily ritual as I feel tons better when I’m well hydrated.
• I decided to celebrate my sense of well being today by buying myself a big box of my favorite chocolates. Yum. Why wait for someone else to pamper me when I can pamper myself. Expecting someone else to treat me better than I treat myself is a recipe for unhappiness.
• It doesn’t matter what I’m doing or what the weather is like, I always feel happier if I’ve been outside for a while. I would like to fit a walk into my life every day and I’m working up to that goal. Last friday the sun had the first hint of heat in it peaking through the bite of the cold wind and on saturday it was down right warm. It felt incredible.
• My cats are really missing my kids. [they are in Europe with their father for 3 months. Two down, 1 more to go. The cats aren’t the only ones missing them.] I’m spending much more time each day sitting and petting my cats. They are so excited to have me SIT DOWN. They have an internal radar for this activity and come running. "ohmygawd - she’s sat down and it’s not in front of the computer or sewing machine - quick jump in her lap!". Not only do the cats love it but slowing down like this has brought a lot of inner peace for me.

 
How do you practice self care?

Related Posts

Transitioning and Intent
Holding Intent - Part I [Realistic Goals]
Holding Intent - Part II [Excuses]
Holding Intent - Part III [Focus]
Holding Intent - Part IV [Enough Time]

 
[I said I’d talk about fear this time but I didn’t want to go there tonight as the acupuncture and chocolate have lulled me into peacefulness. Next time.]

Square Dance #1    ©1999    14"x 14"

Miscellaneous Stuff in Random Order

• This week I received Alyson Stanfield’s new book in the mail - I’d Rather be in the studio! It’s beautifully designed and full of tons of useful promotion ideas and strategies for artists. I definitely recommend this book, and not just because I’m quoted. I helped Alyson by looking over the chapter about having an online presence and she turned one of my comments into a quote. Okay she had me write a quote in relationship to something I said about blogging. Check out page 112 for my brilliant comment.
• Super talented artist Deidre Adams has started a blog. She photographed some artwork for me and in exchange I showed her how easy wordpress is to use. So now we can all enjoy Deidre’s Blog.
• Today the last of my 450 postcards to promote my solo show Markings: Repetition and Pattern arrived. I order from Vistaprint - in several small orders (it’s the cheapest way) so they’ve been trickling in the last week. Tomorrow I’ll print out labels and stamp them and get them in the mail. I’m very happy we now have self adhesive stamps.

Making Room for the New

I’ve been listening to Cheryl Richardson on CD recently and she reinforces something that Christine Kane talks about in her retreats and eseminars. That of getting rid of things to make way for creativity and passion. I made a detailed list (what a surprise) of all the clutter in my house and I’m slowly tackling each corner, ruthlessly purging piles of stuff that I no longer need or want or that drains my energy.

One thing I’ve decided to do is sell most my older artwork. Much of it is hidden in a closet and serving no purpose. I’d love for it to find a home in this world if it speaks to someone. I hadn’t hit upon how to go about doing this but the other day when photographing artwork for some reason I grabbed this piece and added it in. I think the universe was telling me to just do it and stop thinking I had to have the perfect plan.

Beads

I love all of the work I’ve made in my path as an artist. I used to not feel this way, and hence it’s hiding in the closet. Sure some is better than others but all of it shows my growth,choices and progress. There is nothing to be ashamed of and there are some really cool pieces lurking in there.

I went through a phase where I was obsessed with beads. Bought tons of them. Thought I’d sew them on all my quilts. Instead I made just 2 or 3 embellished pieces. I then moved to the next thing in my development

[side note - the last year or so I got back into some beading work and when I finish the piece I’ll post it. I still love the beading - I just love the type of work I do now more. That’s a topic for another day - why I choose to narrowly define my focus with my artwork.]

The piece here, Square Dance #1, was started in a workshop with David Walker many years ago. I quilted it and added the beads later, completing the piece in 1999.

Detail of beading:

 
I’ve thought about listing these pieces on ebay or etsy but decided to list them on my website for now. As I work on the redesign to incorporate them I’ll list a few here on the blog.

This artwork is for sale and is $50 Sold. It’s signed Lisa Leutenegger on the front (as are all pieces made before 2001) and I’ve resigned it on the back with my birth name (Lisa Call).

Structures #55    ©2006    33" x 74"

Stuck

I’ve talked about them before. On and on. Saying I won’t enter them, or limiting how many I enter. All the drawbacks, etc.

Then I went and entered a bunch last fall in the midst of me feeling like I wasn’t getting anything done in my life and I was feeling pretty down. Given that my dad was sick and passed away in October and my boyfriend of 2+ years broke up with me a few weeks before the funeral, I am going to say in hindsight I was probably WAS being way too hard on myself.

But enter the shows I did, and as usual, I got accepted, which is, of course, why I entered. I knew I’d get in, I knew it would boost my ego and I’d feel better.

So I ask myself - If I knew I would get in - why was I entering these shows? It sure sounds like the behavior of someone that is stuck in an easy comfortable place and not challenging herself.

I know, I’ve said it before. This time I’m going to listen. A few weeks ago I was ready to swear off every juried show out there and declare that I would never again enter any juried show ever.

I decided to let these thoughts sit for a while and see how it feels.

Selling Art

I came to the conclusion that there are a couple of juried shows that might still be worth the expense. There is something that seems so wrong about the artist paying to exhibit their art, but if the benefits out way the costs it can be worth it.

Today, for me, that means the show needs to sell a lot of work, and more specifically my work. If I believe the show can do that, then I will enter it. Right now there are 2 shows that I have this faith in - one is Quilt National and the other is Art Quilts Elements. And I’m open to the shows I entered this last fall giving me the same faith by selling my work during the show.

The above piece is currently traveling with Quilt National 2007. It didn’t sell at the opening but I’m ready for it to sell now. I think this is one of my really excellent pieces so I believe it will find an owner that will love it enough to purchase it.

I love being an artist but I am done paying to be an artist. My art is going to sell, and I am going to get unstuck and move my art career forward.

Other Thoughts on Juried Shows

I’ve been planning on this post for a few weeks, waiting for my thoughts to gel. Then today Alyson’s newsletter and blog post over on art biz blog were on this exact topic. Some of the very questions I was asking myself about juried shows. A highly recommended read.

[The newsletter link will only be current until Jan 21, 2008 - read it quick because it’s a really excellent list of questions to think about when entering juried shows. Her weekly newsletters are an excellent source of art business advice - worth much more than the price - free! You can sign up through the newsletter link above.]