6 Truths About Being a Full Time Artist
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I’ve been a professional artist for my entire life, and I’ve been making a decent living from it for the past 5 years or so. I have the best job in the world and I love it so much. I’m so grateful every day that I get to think about beauty and color and, let’s face it, use a lot of paint FOR MY JOB. A lot of people might think I have a very romantic life, and I do…. but it turns out, being a professional artist is also a job and there are parts of it that aren’t quite as amazing as you’d imagine. Today I have 6 surprising truths to tell you about what it’s like being a professional artist.
TRUTH NUMBER 1: EPIC DISCIPLINE
The first truth is very important, and a lot of makers resent this. It takes a LOT of discipline to develop a unique voice. To be a pro, you’ll need to say NO to far more ideas and possibilities than you’ll say yes to. Early on, excitable exploration is beneficial and a powerful way to learn and grow as an artist. But in the maturing process, some hard decisions need to get made. Some attractive creative ideas will have to be back burnered. Some cute, meandering paths in the wood will have to go unexplored. You’ll have to show up for your creative practice like a mule in a mine, hauling out the dirt. It’s WORK.
TRUTH NUMBER 2: COLLABORATING WITH THE AUDIENCE
The second truth about being a professional audience is how it changes your thoughts about your fans, your audience and your collectors.
When you are making the transition from hobbyist to a pro, you have to start thinking about your audience, or your potential audience. Not only are you making art that will hopefully create a dynamic impression on your target collectors, you also need to think about how you are communicating your art and your story to people on the outside. You need to start thinking about your photography, your use of social media or a website, representation in an exhibition or a gallery, your artist statement or other writing, and your artist “brand”. You can no longer just think about your art and pleasing your own curiosity.
TRUTH NUMBER 3: YOU MIGHT HAVE TO MAKE ART YOU DON’T WANT TO MAKE
The third truth about being a pro is that your art might get boxed in.
When you start selling art, it’s lovely! It’s amazing! You have found something that people love and want to pay you for. So you start making more of that. But after a while, maybe you get bored. You want to try other expressions and other concepts. I have a friend that sells tons of small, modestly priced drawings. But she WANTS to paint big oil paintings that will be expensive. And the big oil paintings just don’t sell in the market she has developed. So in order to keep the business alive she has to keep making the small drawings. After finding success selling a particular concept, creating a pivot to a different style is difficult and sometimes impossible
TRUTH NUMBER 4: YOU DON’T GET TO MAKE THAT MUCH ART
The fourth truth about being a professional artist is all about time.
Years ago I was talking to a very successful photographer who had prestigious galleries representing her and was in major exhibitions at places like MOMA. She was not active on social media, she had found her success the old fashioned way. And she said that 50% of her work time was not related to making art. It was corresponding with printers and framers and gallerists and collectors and writing grants and writing proposals and dealing with tech. I thought that was shocking at the time. How can this be? She was living the dream, selling photographs for 5 figures, and yet she didn’t have much time to make art? Now that I am making art full time, and making a good living, I think art making for half of my time sounds pretty good! Maybe it’s the addition of social media and running a website shop, but sometimes it feels like art making is more like 25% of my time. There’s A LOT of other stuff to do to keep the business running
TRUTH NUMBER 5: YOU’LL NEED A BIG STUDIO SPACE
The fifth truth is about your needs of space.
This might not change much from being a hobbyist. No matter what, making art takes a lot of space. If you are selling art in quantities enough to live on, you will likely be making a lot. The finished art takes up space, the packaging takes up space, the art materials take up space, the art making process takes up a lot of space. As your studio practice levels up, so will your need for square footage.
TRUTH NUMBER 6: YOU NEED TO THINK LIKE A SMALL BUSINESS
Finally, the 6th cold, brutal truth of being a professional artist is you have to think like a small business. Not only do you have to consider your audience and how you are communicating, but you also have to think about things like income taxes, sales taxes, write offs, record keeping, margins, profit and loss, expenses, labor, liability, business banking, accounting, and a million other fees and complications that comes from running a small business. And you have to be as creative with your business as you are with your art, but it’s a different kind of skill.
Have I scared you off yet? I still think I have the best job in the world, and I actually love the tremendous complexity of the components that go into it. What do you think? Were any of these truths surprising to you? Can you think of more “truths” about being a full time artist?
