The art biz blog features articles and solo podcast episodes that have substantial articles to accompany them. To reach podcast episodes only, including those with guests, visit The Art Biz page.
Be alert to signals you need to change course (278)
Comfort is a dangerous place to be in your art business.
This episode makes the case for staying alert to three specific signals that tell you it’s time to change course — the results signal that something familiar has stopped working, the joy signal that something is eating at your happiness, and the external signal that a new moment is emerging and worth paying attention to.
Even when life is heavy, your art business still needs you (276)
Artists are built to feel the world sharply. That sensitivity fuels the work, and it also means everything lands harder — headlines, illness, loss, the weddings and births and moves that pull you away from the studio. The instinct is to shut everything down.
But a business that stops moving is much harder to restart than one running on bare minimum. Here’s how to keep yours afloat when you can’t give it much.
Stop complicating your art marketing plan (275)
The traditional view of a marketing plan is a detailed spreadsheet full of tasks and self-imposed deadlines. It doesn’t have to be that hard.
On this episode of The Art Biz, I make the case for routines over spreadsheets, share the three distinct ways I see artists approach their marketing, and explain why marketing is bigger than self-promotion. If you’ve ever built a plan and abandoned it by week two, this one is for you.
The third path for artists that we aren’t talking about (274)
There are at least three paths a serious artist takes. One of them never gets talked about because we haven’t had the vocabulary for it. I introduce a new group called The Third Path for artists staying with the work on their own terms — recalibrating pace to fit the life they’re in now.
I also share what’s changing at Art Biz Success after more than 20 years of teaching online courses.
Only for ambitious artists (272)
Waiting has very little relationship to ambition. It feels like it because you want more, you’re hoping for more, you can picture the version of your career where it all breaks open.
But wanting isn’t the same as moving. Ambition without movement is just longing. Real ambition is smaller and steadier than waiting or hustling. It looks like your next move, and the move after that. Here’s how to find it.
Why artists should (and shouldn’t) blog
There are so many reasons why artists should maintain a blog, chief among them is that blogging helps you understand your work better—if you are honest in your writing.
But before I encourage any of my clients to blog, I first need to know that they’re okay with writing. Blogging is only for you if you want writing to be part of your practice.
