What’s the toughest decision you’re wrestling with right now regarding your art career?
Are you deciding whether or not to sign on with a gallery?
Are you deciding what font to use for your promotional material?
Are you deciding whether to try a new media?
What is it for you?
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22 thoughts on “Deep Thought Thursday”
Whether to offer a “spread the wealth” discount. It would give money back to the people and reduce my income so that Obama can’t touch it.
My decision right now is whether to keep working from my country (Argentina) for abroad through the Internet, or travelling abroad for getting interesting jobs in the real world. I would like to do the second, but I still have to recover from an economical breakdown that I had during this year, so I only can afford the first choice right now.
As the demand for my teaching becomes more prevalent, I need to find the appropriate balance between teaching and producing. It’s like walking a tightrope.
What type of work and selling best suits my personality
Many really great options out there – but there isn’t time to do it all right now. Pondering on in what order to tackle all the business projects I want to do: books, teaching, mentoring, galleries, website, etc.
I’m trying to decide whether to stay in my current gallery or start looking for a new one.
As always, follow my heart and work on one-of-a-kind pieces, or try to come up with lower-end, more saleable pieces that aren’t exactly where I want to go creatively. Sounds like a no-brainer until you add in that I want to earn a living from my art.
How do I promote the various elements of my working portfolio (practising artist, teacher, writer, facilitator, coach), separately or together? And how do I balance my business with the demands of a chronic illness? Okay that’s two questions…but both are important.
How to move beyond the series of work I’ve been working on for the past eight years… a toughie because it’s how I’ve built my name, my business and my reputation.
Which career aspect to focus on: seek commission work, gallery-representation, or online sales. I’m compelled to do it all, but how to balance is the issue. My current body of work needs all my time, but…the need to put myself out there is a pressing matter. And living on a tiny Caribbean island adds to the challenge, where there are very limited opportunities for growth, networking, marketing…ah, stuck in paradise! (Husband’s work is here, so I really have to make the best of it.)
Breaking through!!! Overhauling my studio so I can have the uncluttered space and mind to actually begin the creative process, which will lead to work created and finally the right to be able to call myself a real Artist. (finding the $ to take your Breakthrough Program would be awesome too!)In the meantime all this internet dialogue keeps me going….
I’m trying to decide whether to put my artwork aside for now in order to catch up on a huge backlog of undone art business/household/paying job projects or whether to try to do both and thus delay getting caught up. Hmmmmmm…… The backlog is weighing heavily on me, but I’m also very frustrated that I don’t have more time to paint. I’ve already decided to back off of marketing during these economic hard times and concentrate on building up inventory so that I’m prepared when better times return.
I work in several media – jewelry being my main “claim to fame”. With the cost of gold & silver going haywire, it messes with my disbursement percentages …and people are less likely to spend more in a flagging economy. So my big decision is: Do I continue doing jewelry, or put more emphasis on Sculpture & Painting? How to balance my time, effort & money in production and promotion?
my big decisions involve what kind of free ebook to offer with subscriptions, what market I should focus on next, and how to gain more studio time.
As I work in many techniques and have had a variety of commercial clients, I am wondering where to focus my energy; learning more computer skills, contacting new companies, pushing my mural work; right now I am working on all of the above.
My toughest decision is finding the answers to several questions that come around every few years. How to get myself motivated to get back in the studio; what should I really be creating; how can I find more time to work on my real work; should I just forget it and focus on the graphic design skills that have supported me for more than 30 years? I am at a crossroad again. Not quite old enough to retire so I can paint full time and old enough to be too exhausted to be creative after working all day. So I guess the real decision needing to be made is how to allocate my time and energy so that I will have more of for my artwork.
Trying to decide when to move from this computer chair and get to work 😉
I’ve started making work again after a little absence and the biggest thing I’m thinking about right now is developing a new glaze palette – or maybe I should say expanding it. I have some gallery inquiries, but have held back until my new work becomes more solid. I’m going to use the winter to flesh out my website and to get a little more organized. I also have some crazy ideas about starting a business/non-profit that would bring clay to people who might not otherwise ever touch it.
Asking myself whether it’s worthwhile continuing to paint and show my work. I get so many comments from visitors on how much they like this piece, or that piece, but doing show after show with little or not sales, is wearing me down. I know I won’t stop painting, but perhaps I should be doing it just for me and forget everything else?? Don’t know if I can do that either.
What a great day! My loving wife, Marge and I retired from our day jobs a year ago so we can live our dream together-we formed Springett Images a joint art venture specializing in wildlife photography and my wildlife paintings. We have not had so many opportunities in 40 years, we work together daily–we love our work and the great people in our lives, helping us find our way. We help one another. We are new to this industry so we don’t have a set of barriers, preconceived ideas or an exact view where we are going. The adventure and the journey is sweet, when wandering in the wilderness the days are exciting, with new sights everyday. We thank Alyson Stanfield for her recent book, “I’d Rather Be In The Studio” her insight is helping us in a lot of ways-the biggest gift she has given to us is the ability for us to be “trusting and believing in our artistic gifts” and seeing how our gifts will lead to an abundant life, not just financially, but spiritually for that which matters in all of us. Have a great day–Jimmy and Marge
At the moment I doubt if the step that I give is right for my career. It is that I will begin to sell my work directly on the Internet using new strategies that other artists have already used with success. I have decided to do this because I think I have been waiting a long time that the galleries give me a chance and this never arrives. My doubts are selling directly if you lose the credibility with gallery owners and no longer give me any opportunity. I debate between these two options: sale or prestige? both are compatible?. I apologize because I did not speak English and use a translator
Well, the decision I am facing is rather to go north or south for more gallery representation. I have limited marketing dollars. I have representation in LaJolla, which is near San Diego, and I’m in a central coast California gallery and the one I belong to here in the Sierra Foothills. The best way I’ve found to find the right fit for me is to go to an area and visit galleries, leaving portfolios if I come upon one that will show fiber arts. It can be a costly and often disappointing journey. However, a trip in one direction or the other is one more goal for the early part of ‘09. There are also the prestigious shows…often very costly and not always profitable when compared to cost. As I write this, I realize I’m in the middle of a lot of decisions a lot of the time. It’s all part of the business of art I guess. enjoy, julie http://juliemitchell.ebsqart.com http://www.spiralmuse.com