What Separates the Living From the Dying

Date: 2012.04.19 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: 0

If you aren’t growing, you’re dying.  It’s as simple as that and there are no exceptions to the rule. My question to you is which one describes you?

It is a fact that more than 90% of people on this planet have no desire to change their lives for the better.  Sadly, with these statistics, the rest of us, the dreamers, have quite a lonely quest.  Daily, we’re bombarded by people’s opinions and lectures about how we could be living our lives differently.  It doesn’t matter if you’re that young student in art school or you’re the mid-career artist, you’ll always find a circle of friends and family that have something to “school you” on.

Thankfully, I’ve always been too thick-headed to listen to any of it.  It’s probably the one thing, besides my drive that has kept me on track – I like proving people wrong.  I’m amused by it in my own life, but I’m repulsed by it when I see it happen to my fellow artists.  I’ve watched dreams being killed right before my eyes by people who couldn’t walk a second in the shoes of the great potential they were chopping down.  Let’s, for once, turn the tables and analyze where the real problem comes from.

When someone approaches you with “free advice,” please understand it has nothing to do with you.  It has EVERYTHING to do with them.  You see, as humans we all have a desire for significance.  This has to be fulfilled in order for us to be alive.  You can fill it with good things or with bad things.  Most people choose the latter.  Sadly, over the course of our lives even we, the creative, are influenced and clouded by a lifetime of this bad influence and it can even affect our own growth as artists.

“Normal” people fill themselves with lesser things.  They complain about their circumstances, they have well-scripted stories about how something, that happened long ago, set them on a course to imminent failure.  They’re depressed, they have phony ailments, they whine and bitch on Facebook about their lives, they complain about money and they’re whores for attention for their bad behavior.  Many of them medicate with alcohol, drugs or just the satisfaction that they got everyone’s attention for a moment.  This vicious cycle of seeking lesser things for significance is the road to dying.  You can’t grow if you’re making excuses and complaining or escaping.  In an instant these same people could be filling themselves with the same enriching creativity as you are, but that would involve guts – something they lack.  So be strong and keep doing what you do and continue to grow.  Prove to them, by your success, that what you do has real significance.

Let’s face it.  What we want from this profession is simple.  We all want to do what we love and we want to be rewarded for it in terms of money or recognition or both.  People who do not fill themselves with these things have no concept about how or why we would even want to do this.   Most people either gave up long ago and lost that optimism that helped them to truly live.  Your desire for these things triggers jealousy or the pain of their own failures.  At the best they’ll just try to pop the bubble of your dreams by trying to keep you from experiencing failure like they did.  At the worst, they’ll kill your desire so you become “normal” and unfulfilled like they are.

The worst thing one can do it to kill one’s spirit.  As a mentor for artists I’ve seen first-hand what encouragement and direction can do to set someone’s life on the right path.  When my students and colleagues succeed I get a rush that surpasses any accomplishment I’ve ever made.  I love nothing more than to see artists truly “living.” It really isn’t an impossible concept to embrace either.  Look at your life compared to those around you.  Are you making excuses like them or are you focusing on greatness?

Remember, in history, only those who have truly lived were rewarded with greatness.  Learn to appreciate every moment you have on this earth and spend that time leaving your mark.  Centuries from today no one will remember the naysayers.  They will remember your courage and persistence because you decided to “live.”  It’s your choice.  Choose life.

You Are Wasting Your Time

Date: 2012.03.15 | Category: artist advice, artist career help, artist marketing, artist mentor, artist promtion, eric armusik, self help artist, sell more art, sleep deprivation, starving artist, time management | Response: 1

There is no such thing as “I don’t have enough time.”  I hear this time and time again from artists when they tell me why they aren’t doing well in their business.  With this mindset, one must believe that anyone that is succeeding, somehow has all the time in the world to paint, market and sell their work.  If you ask anyone that is succeeding they’ll tell you that’s far from the case.  Take my schedule, for instance…

5:30 AM I wake up, I make coffee, sit with Mrs. Armusik to enjoy it for an hour.  Soon I have to feed three hungry and crazy kids, clean up, exercise for an hour, shower, beds made, clothes washed, home school two of my children for the entire morning while chasing my four year old who’s intent on destroying my home or bothering mommy while she tries to write.  Lunch at noon, clean up, spend the afternoon marketing my work, play with the kids. Dinner, clean up, kids down at 7PM, final house clean up, spend time with Mrs. Armusik, have some more coffee, then she writes and I paint until about 2AM – 3AM.  It all starts again in the morning when the kids storm down the stairs at 5:30AM.

I’m not saying my life is for everyone, but consider this, instead of complaining that you have no time to achieve your dreams, why don’t you look closely at what occupies your time at home and begin to cannibalize that time and use if for productivity.  If you’re doing any of the things I’ve listed below, you have more time than you realize and you have no reason to continue bitching that your life isn’t going as well as you want.

• Playing video games – If you’re over the age of 13 you shouldn’t be doing it anyway.  Grow up and spend your time doing something in the real world like changing the life you’re complaining about.
• Watching TV – Watching TV is something you do when everything else you’re complaining about is finished.  With more and more TV stations being offered there is less and less worth your time to view.  Example: The E! Channel.
• Zoning out on Social Media – Unless you’re doing something related to doing business or promoting yourself, this is leisure time.  This is a very tough one because a lot of artists feel that if they’re on Facebook or Twitter that they’re doing business if they’re socializing with other artists.  I’m not saying this is a bad thing.  I enjoy it too,  but if you’re wasting time posting comments about what happened with Madonna during the last Super Bowl, then you’re wasting valuable time.
• Watching the news  – The biggest waste of time ever.  The 24 hour news cycle has clearly enslaved our society.  Do we really need that much news?  99.9% of what you’re reading or watching that constitutes itself as “news” has no bearing on your life.  Knowledge is only power if you can do something with it.  Even Thomas Jefferson championed the virtues of using time that others wasted on reading the news for more productive purposes.
• Engaging in politics and gossip – No matter what political side you are on, does all that shouting at the TV and blaming the other guy effect you or those around you one bit?  The answer is no.  Believe me, I did it for a long time.  You’re wasting time.  Ignore all of it and watch the issues just fade away.  Take that passion and pour it into promoting your self.

You have a lot of time available during your day.  USE IT.  I try to use every second I am awake to do something productive.  The only things that are important to me are my wife, my kids and my art.  If you’re driving somewhere, listen to something motivating like a book on tape or something positive on YouTube.  If you’re in an elevator check your email.  If you’re waiting for the bus or a subway make a connection via Facebook or via the phone.  If you work and your employer lets you listen to your headphones use that time to educate yourself.  Look for that free time and use it.  It may be ten minutes today but in a week you’ve found over an hour and in a month you’ve found 5 extra hours and in a year you’ve added an extra 2 1/2 days.

Another great way to find time is by stealing it from sleep time.  Most of us sleep way too much anyhow.  Take an extra hour at night or an hour early and use it to do something for your career.  These are peaceful hours even if you have a family.  When I started having kids ten years ago I adopted a night schedule.  Every three to five hours of work time I worked during those years added years of experience to my career.  Had I given up because I wanted sleep or used the excuse that because I was now a family man that I didn’t have the time to be an artist, I wouldn’t be here today selling the art I do for the price I am and I wouldn’t be writing this blog, helping you out to do the same.

Stop making excuses and stop wasting your time.  Do something about it.  You hold the keys to your solution.  We’re all constrained by the same 24 hours each day.  Use it the best you can each and every day and start making a difference in your life.

Eric is a figurative artist, liturgical painter and portrait artist.  His work can be seen at http://www.ericarmusik.com

Marketing Boot Camp – Plein Air Convention – Register Now

Date: 2012.03.13 | Category: aletta de wal, artist advocate, artist marketing, eric armusik, eric rhoads, no artist should starve, plein air convention, plein air magazine, starving artist | Response: 0

We talk a lot about creating a successful mindset to do business as an artist on noartistshouldstarve.com.  What this blog prepares you for, whether you are an artist, a musician, entrepreneur or anyone who does business with a creative emphasis is how to look for and to act upon opportunities.  One such opportunity is coming up this April 12-15, 2012 at Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, the 1st Annual Plein Air Convention and Expo.  For more information click here. 

In addition to the many workshops with today’s big names in art, my friend Eric Rhoads is offering an essential workshop that every artist needs in order to succeed in this business – a marketing plan.


You can learn to paint better than your contemporaries but if you don’t have a plan on how to sell you’ll join the ranks of artists that have a studio full of artwork.  You must dedicate yourself to be an artist that balances their time between painting and marketing if you want to succeed.  If you’re mid-career, you can expect to be spending as mush as 50% of your time doing it, according to Aletta de Wal in her new book “My Real Job is Being an Artist – What You Should Know Before you Quit Your Day Job (or Get One)”


Now, back to the Plein Air Convention.  If you’re considering what might be the best opportunity for you to sharpen your skills, work with artists from around the globe and learning to market yourself all in one three day event, you can’t do much better than this.  In addition to being the publisher of two great publications, Fine Art Connoisseur and Artist Advocate, Eric Rhoads has to be one of the most generous and down to earth people I’ve ever had the pleasure to talk with.  What I can assure you is that your life and your art business will change for the better.  Opportunities like this do not happen often so make the decision now to invest in your career and your self and register today.

Details from the event:

Want to sell more paintings, more quickly, and earn what your art is really worth?

Of course you do. We’re with you.

You’ve asked, and as a special bonus at this year’s convention, we’re adding a FREE “Marketing Boot Camp” exclusively for attendees presented by PleinAir publisher B. Eric Rhoads.

Leave with a swiss army knife of ideas on how to:

- Get invited into more and higher-end shows and festivals
- Utilize social media to build a ravenous following
- Raise your rates AND increase demand
- Spot collecting trends and learn how to capitalize on them
- Double your sales in each of the next five years
- Achieve your financial goals
- Get invited into the galleries you desire
- Sell more at events
- Become a local and national celebrity
- Sell more workshop seats
- Build a secure future
- plus much more……

You’ll wake up early (6:30am) because early birds get the worm …. or the sales in your case. And, as they say, money never sleeps! Invest three mornings (just over an hour each day) and you’ll leave well-equipped to sell more paintings and build your name. Start your day with fervor and passion! While the others sleep in you’ll be learning how to gain advantage, achieve your goals and outsell them!  This FREE workshop is a bonus so register now!

Stop Hating the Rich

Date: 2012.03.10 | Category: art career advice, artist activist, artist empowerment, artist marketing, artist promotion, bernie madoff, hate rich, hating the rich, wall street protest | Response: 1

The Problem:
I am aware that among my peers, what I am about to say will be very unpopular.  Stop hating the rich.  Stop blaming people, who have no contact with you whatsoever, for your problems.  Scumbags like Bernie Madoff may have swindled a sizable group of people for their money a few years back but can we say that he represents ALL rich people?   Do we really need people disrupting business on Wall Street so we can all feel better about ourselves?  Do people really think that taking money from one group of people is going to somehow solve the world’s problems for the rest of us?  Ask the people from any country that bought into that philosophy and you’ll see what road that leads to.

FACT: Rich people are not evil. Money is not evil. Desiring money and to be rich is not evil. Making money from your art is not selling out. Making a lot of money from your art is neither evil or selling out. Yet, an outstanding amount of artists believe this nonsense. Why?  The answer can only be found by looking deep inside at what led you to these beliefs.  Whatever it is, and if it is not working for you today, you need to dump these beliefs if you want to embrace success.  Furthermore, just because someone has something you want, it doesn’t mean they took it from you.  The road to prosperity isn’t paved by making everyone else miserable so you feel better.  Believing in this nonsense will keep you in the land of failure for a lifetime.  I know, it sounds confrontational but it’s true!  Think about it!  Not convinced?  Let me draw another comparison.

When Michael Phelps trained for the Olympics, what ratio of time did he spend bitching about his competition vs. the time he spent developing himself mentally and physically to walk in and annihilate his competition?  Enough said.

Stop complaining, blaming, bitching, protesting (the fact that activists are now considered “artists” incenses me to no end, but that’s another blog,) and develop yourself to BE the best.  Rich people are not the problem – they are what gets you out of your real problem – failure.

The Answer
Are you ready for a way out?  I’m going to give it to you plain and simple in three steps:

a. Take full responsibility for your own failure – forget your past, what you believe about money or success or who told you that you couldn’t do it.  If it holds you back – dump it.  If you want success even more in spite of it, then it’s fuel for your tank
b. Adopt a limitless mentality.  This is the hardest thing for artists.  The art world continues to change.  Change with it.  If galleries are going under, find another way.  If there aren’t enough grants anymore, find another way.  Adopt the belief that your success is meant to be no matter what way it comes.
c. When you find it, share it -  This one pisses me off the most.  It’s my single biggest complaint I have of this profession.  Artists hoard information.  They get a little piece of success and they deliberatly cover their tracks so no one else will have an easier time than they did.  This is sick, and it’s probably the reason why there are so many “starving” artists.  In order for all of us to succeed we have to do a lot more giving to each other.  Give advice, do favors, put in a good word, give a referral, share information.  It all comes back to you tenfold and it does a world of good.

Get all the junk out of your head.  Tame your mind and start looking at what YOU can do to fix what is not working in your life.  Don’t take my word for it, anyone who was ever great will tell you the same.

Constant complaint is the poorest sort of pay for all the comforts we enjoy.” – Benjamin Franklin
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain – and most fools do.” – Dale Carnegie

Take responsibility, strive to be successful and do great things for yourself, the people you love and those that need your help. 

** I’ve set up a new page on Facebook for No Artist Should Starve.  Take a second and LIKE it.  Big things coming soon…

Eric’s paintings can be seen on ericarmusik.com

Eric is the new Expert for the Weekly Artist Journal

Date: 2012.03.05 | Category: eric armusik, no artist should starve, steve diadoo, waj, weekly artist journal | Response: 1

Today’s issue of the Weekly Artist Journal...

“Between painting masterpieces on canvas and playing with fire, Eric coaches Artists to avoid the dreaded lack of income inherent in Artistry. The crappy “starving artist” bs. Eric whipped 2011′s soft economy with no bs marketing you gotta read. It’s clear, to the point and with no bull.”

(Today’s) Weekly Artist Journal – sign up for free here http://theweeklyartistjournal.com/

If you aren’t subscribed to the Weekly Artist Journal, what are you waiting for? 

I am proud to be a part of such a bold an energetic publication.  I can promise you that if you read what the publisher Steve Diadoo compiles for you each day you’ll keep your mind focused towards opportunity and success in this business.  Steve has the vision and the Weekly Artist Journal is a gift to anyone in the art business who is looking for answers on how to sell more work, be more efficient, have better relationships and to experience greater happiness every day.  We all deserve those things.  So what are you waiting for?  Subscribe today!  It’s good stuff for the mind – get it and use it!

If You Want to Sell Your Art, You MUST Direct Your Attention There

Date: 2012.01.30 | Category: aletta de wal, ariane goodwin, art coaching, art marketing, art workshop, artist advice, artnetwork, eric armusik, renee phillips | Response: 1

I hear it from artists all the time, “I can’t sell my work.”  First and foremost, don’t articulate things like that out loud.  For one it is damaging to your self esteem and it is truly bad for your business and your worth.  Always keep in mind that people are not buying your work.  They are buying a part of YOU.  If that person is the fool that mopes around telling everyone they “can’t sell their work” then you can expect to be worth very little. No one invests in failure.

So how do you learn how to sell your work?  Well, first let me ask you a question.  What are your directing your time towards?  If you aren’t trying to sell your work then you can’t expect good results.   Sounds like a stupid answer but you’d be amazed how many artists are sitting with a studio full of work, waiting for a millionaire to find them.  

In order to succeed in sales as an artist you must direct your attention there and believe in yourself.  Whatever you want you must direct focus towards.  I’ve heard Donald Trump remark that you should devote 80 percent of your time on the 20 percent of your activities responsible for driving your income.  What are you spending 80 percent of your time on?  If you’re spending most of your time painting, honing your technical art skills or lamenting on how bad your career is going then you are reaping what you’ve invested that time on.  Simply put, you have to put the time in on sales the same way you do in your studio.


In her upcoming book My Real Job is Being an Artist: What You Should Know Before You Quit Your Day Job (or Get One),”  artist marketing strategist Aletta de Wal talks about different stages of an artist career and what they can expect in the balance of actual studio time vs. art business.  What I found interesting is that the longer you are a professional artist the more time you can expect to focus on art business.  If you’re an emerging artist you should be working on developing your skills and a body of work.  This is by no means an excuse to not focus on marketing and promotion.  Even if you aren’t ready to get your work out you had better be learning the business.  Go on social media sites.  Meet the artists that are doing what you want to do.  I am constantly approached by artists for advice.  I’ve been there and though I can’t speak to the egos of all artists, I remember what it was like and I’m glad to help.  Learn the ropes as much as you can.  When you’re ready the groundwork will be laid.  If you’re mid-career you should be devoting half of your time to art promotion, marketing and paperwork.  This is the expansion phase of your career.  Own the time you need to invest in things other than art making.  Observe how you’ve performed each year with sales and contacts.  Find out what works and try new things to replace those that did not do well for you.  This business is constantly changing so be aware of any and all new things to be aware of in promoting yourself.   If your career isn’t looking like that then you can’t possibly expect to grow and expand in your business.  Nothing stays static.  


You want to learn how to sell your work you had better be prepared to do research.  Get yourself a note pad and start writing down all you can learn.  Attend workshops on marketing, attend teleconferences, look online, do research in your area.  Learn skills necessary to run your art business like a professional giving it the attention it needs to expand for a lifetime.  Some good resources to learn the art business are Renee Phillips , ArtNetwork and Ariane Goodwin.  

I will be personally involved in two art marketing workshops with Aletta de Wal this February and March that I’d recommend.  

• February 7, 2012 – FREE Teleconference
  In February Aletta will be hosting a FREE artist marketing teleconference.  If you don’t have an hour to spend on something that is FREE then you really don’t have an excuse.  Go and register here NOW.  I spend several hours each month attending teleconferences and webinars develop and hone my marketing and sales skills.  You need to invest the time if you want to succeed. 
  
• March 2, 3, 4, 2012 – Main Line Art Center, Philadelphia, PA
  I’ll be co-hosting a three day event with Aletta in person on March 2,3 and 4, 2012 in Philadelphia.  Go here to register.  I’ve already spoken with many of you about this event via email and I’ll be glad once I get to meet you there in person.  On Friday we’ll introduce an overview of the weekend workshop.  On Saturday and Sunday is where we get in depth into your careers, we’ll give you the insight and individual attention necessary to make a huge difference in your art business.  Our goal is to infuse your business end with the same passion and fun you enjoy creating your art with. 
  

I love the business side of being an artist.  That is why over the last two years of this “recession,” my business has doubled each year WITHOUT the help of galleries or art dealers.  I want this for all of you too.  Don’t let anyone tell you that it can’t be done.  It can.  Do yourself a favor.  Make the commitment.  Direct your attention to being a master of your art business this year and reap of the benefits of being a successful artist.  




Eric is a Romantic figurative artist and his paintings can be seen at www.ericarmusik.com.

Interview with Aletta de Wal from ArtistCareerTraining.com

Date: 2012.01.16 | Category: aletta de wal, artist advice, artist career training center, artist help, artist sales advice, eric armusik | Response: 0

Eric is a Romantic figurative artist and his paintings can be seen at www.ericarmusik.com

Wipe the Slate Clean – A New Year is Here!

Date: 2011.12.29 | Category: aletta de wal, art marketing, artist career help, artist help, artist promotion, eric armusik, main line art center, sell more art | Response: 0

In 2011 I had the most successful year of my career and in 2012 I will double my success again.

That is an ambitious statement and one we all should have for the coming year.  It doesn’t matter what your year looked like in 2011.  If it was a bad year for sales, hinge your perspective on something that worked for you.  Did you put up a new website, create a large amount of work, did you get a lot of new press or did you learn some valuable lessons?  These are all good things!  Take anything that worked an compound it with further promotion of it. 

If you put up a website, promote it everywhere.  Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t sell on the internet.  If I believed that I wouldn’t be so happy with the success I’ve had the last 14 years being on the internet.  Set your site up with Paypal and accept credit cards.  I wouldn’t tell you to do it if it didn’t work.  Get cards, promotional items, promote your website online, in the press and make sure everyone on your social media channels know that is where they can see your work.  If you created a bunch of work and it is in your studio, don’t despair.  That is money sitting on the floor of your studio.  Get it out of your studio any way you can.  Show it anywhere you can.  Get it in a gallery show, show it at a festival, experiment with alternative venues like symphonies and ballet theaters or restaurants. Go where a lot of people go and promote yourself.  Even if you don’t sell anything that day bring tons of business cards or post cards and pass them out to EVERYONE.  Sales come from anywhere, trust me.  If you got some press, promote it!  That’s right.  If you got into a national magazine, go to your regional paper and get them to do a story on the fact that you got national press.  Hometown papers love a success story and it is an easy sell.  You never know who is going to read about you and where. 

If you had some setbacks or failures it is important that you look at them closely and really decide what failed, what you shouldn’t do again and what you can take from it for the future.  Most times a failure is really an idea in disguise.  It’s been said by Napolean Hill that within failure lies the seeds of success.  Only victims look at all setbacks as bad.  Keep doing that and you’ll doom your career to failure.  Find out what held you back this last year and try again.  If you want to grow you can’t afford to keep making the same mistakes.  Learn from them.

The biggest advice I can give to you is to follow your own intuition.  The best person that can promote your work is you!  When I took full control of my own sales at a time when the recession began people said I was crazy.  You know, artists don’t have a chance of succeeding during a recession, right?  Once I realized how much I could do and that I didn’t have to answer to anyone, it made all of this so easy and really a lot of fun.  Imagine waking up every day doing what you love and not having to follow any rules.  All it takes it faith that you can do it.  If you have that you can do anything.  You’ll be called crazy, foolish or not taken seriously by your peers but at the end of the day when your hard work nets you consistent, large sales of your artwork, you’ll be the one laughing.  What I’ve learned is that you can spend your time playing by everyone else’s rules and trying to garnish respect or you can gain respect on your own by succeeding.  The proof is in the sales.

My message to you these last few days of 2011 is to dream BIG!  The bigger the better.  You can do anything you dream of.  It takes daily discipline to maintain the mindset.  Start now by writing out a list of 20 things you want to accomplish this year.  Prioritize it and begin taking action on each of those things as soon as possible without allowing anything to limit your intentions.  NEVER lose faith.  You may have setbacks and detours time to time but never lose faith.  If you want it you can do it.  Tenacity is what fools call luck.  I wish you a VERY prosperous new year in 2012.

Sell More Art – Come to My Art Marketing Workshop in March 2012
If you’d like to increase your sales in 2012 I urge you to come to a weekend workshop at the Main Line Art Center in Philadelphia, March 2-4.  I’ll be teaming up with art marketing guru Aletta de Wal on a two day workshop that is guaranteed to put your career in the fast lane.  We’re all pressed for time these days.  What I’m offering to you is a way to save years of work trying to figure things out.  This is a rare opportunity for you to learn from a guru that has worked with thousands of artists over the past two decades and to pick the brain of an artist that has gone above and beyond the traditional methods of selling art.  It is a must for anyone looking to explode their careers.  For more information about the March 2012 workshop click here.

Failure is a Choice

Date: 2011.11.30 | Category: ar, art advice, art career advice, art consultations, art marketing, art promotion, art talk, artist advice, artist coach | Response: 0

Nobody wants to fail but how many of you still think you’re headed to stardom or financial success by virtue of your daily, limiting behaviors? Think about it. How many times a day do you use words like “if” or “when things turn around…” or “I hope” or “I wish” or the worst of all, “someday…” You may think these are just mere words, but what they reveal about you is your belief system. Ask any successful person what got them there and you’ll see that they act much differently. This is what separates successful artists from failing artists – you choose to fail. Wake up everyday and tell yourself that you probably won’t succeed at something and you’ll do just that. Wake up and look around seeing only potential, and train your mind to see only opportunities, and you’ll easily find that too. That is what is truly lacking in this profession. There is a divide between right and wrong thinking and it affects the very fabric of our destiny as artists.

Here is an appropriate quote for you to print out and keep somewhere visible:

There are two ways to live your life – one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle.   Albert Einstein

Let me suggest something different. You are creative, right? You are an artist after all. Why aren’t you being creative about your career? You’re supposed to have talent, creativity, vision. Where the hell are you employing it beyond your canvas? Why are so many of us so brilliant with a paintbrush but we’re terrified to take our lives into those same creative waters. Do you paint what others tell you or do you take it upon yourself to give it that unique signature style?

I LOVE marketing and promotion as much as painting. It’s fun to have an idea and to try it out. I’ve learned to enjoy the more outrageous ones even more than typical methods. It puts you on shaky ground but sometimes the most outlandish ideas glean the most unique and rewarding opportunities.

The big message here is to fight to win! Don’t spend your time fighting NOT to lose. You are greater than you could possibly know. If you think for a moment that the recession or depression, or whatever the hell interested people are calling it (sorry I don’t spend my time focusing on it and neither should you,) should be your excuse for not working as hard on marketing, you’re SADLY mistaken. This is the best time to be doing it. I’ve doubled my business in the last year with NO help. You can too if you only make the choice to succeed. Make the choice to succeed. If you don’t, you’ll never get there.

Remember this, the only way you truly fail in life is if you quit.  We all get knocked down in life – own it and get back up to try another strategy.  Never give up and you will never fail.

Thicken Your Skin

Date: 2011.10.19 | Category: art advice, art career advice, art criticism, art editor, critique, thick skin | Response: 0

For some reason, I am no stranger to criticism. Certainly anyone who puts themselves out there in the public eye had better learn the lesson very quickly that everyone has an opinion. Your choice is to accept whether their opinion has validity. That’s it, plain and simple.

From the time we enter our first art class in college we’re told to listen and learn. It isn’t always the easiest thing to digest when your professor is telling you why the girl that makes Cheerios in her underwear for a performance piece is better than the life-sized masterpiece of classical inspiration you’ve slaved over for three months – but you have to take it all with a grain of salt. It has been eluded that this profession seems to have it share of crazy people. I personally have found some truth to this. However, if you limit it just to what is said vs. how you take it, you’ll learn how to deal with it. The best thing about it is that the more you hear, and the more experience you get, the easier it all becomes.

Today I received this email, by accident, of course, from the editor of a particular publication I was promoting my artwork in. His wife, as it turned out had corresponded with me and was very professional and courteous. I’m sad for her that she had to be berated like a silly girl by her husband. But the best part is, that it didn’t even reach her, initially that is. Well, unless this man felt the need to call me sweetheart… I made sure I copied his wife so she had it for her records too. I mean, it seems only fair that she knows what an idiot she married – right?

(Name withheld)

Sweetheart, I thought you agreed never to respond to these e-mails.

This guy’s a nutter, and now he has a reason to expect me to treat him seriously.

Just keep forwarding the e-mails to me.

g

Wow, what a lovely thing to have sent to my inbox this afternoon – I’m a nutter! Now of course I responded, quickly and very directly, to this ridiculous accusation from a person that I’ve never met or has even corresponded with me. Worst of all, now he had to do is job! I think one could argue his intelligence when he replied to her but the email went to me instead. I love being berated by the Academe. They have tons of education but little poise to interact with real people in this business.

The problem is that I could have accepted the slander towards me. Many artists would because we’ve all been told to listen and suck it up. I don’t care who the person is, what their title is or who they know, if their opinion of me or my art is wrong I don’t have to give it my attention. The problem with accepting all opinions from others is that it should be restricted to discussions on artistic technique and context, not how you conduct your business. In my opinion, the chick eating the cereal out of her panties was a nutter – me, I’m just an ambitious painter.

This is the art business, not the studio. You don’t have to accept what others think of you. If you don’t realize that early in your career you are done for. I’ve been picked apart in my hometown newspaper on the front page, I’ve had people attack me for doing the Fire Sale and the Portrait Marathon and not one of the accusations were for doing anything that was provoking in nature. It doesn’t get easier as you get more and more successful – in this profession or any other. Everyone always has an opinion and I break down criticism from anyone down into two categories:

1. You don’t know me well enough to realize I am as good as I am at what I do

2. Jealousy because you can’t do what I can do

Keep that advice with you all of your career and it will easily derail any feelings you react with. Never take what anyone says at face value and allow it to take you down. The only advice you listen to is that of those that love you AND share your vision. Do not let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. I’ve spent a lifetime using things like this as fuel and that is exactly what I am suggesting to you.

Oh, and lastly, a secondary lesson, always look at your “To” box when you send emails…