Tips on starting your artistic career
May 15, 2009 by admin
Filed under Arts & Entertainment Jobs
Who says you need to be a starving artist? The public perception of artists is that they are free-spirited and therefore should not concern themselves with the sordid business of money. The artist themselves often fall prey to this type of thinking, but if you are going to be successful at making a living by doing what you love best, you must approach it as a business.
The only way to live comfortably off your earnings as an artist is to set yourself a goal of writing a business plan.
The following tips are designed to help the right-brained among us to hone some much needed left-brain planning and analytical skills.
1. Don’t quit your day job. Holding on to your ‘traditional’ job before you decide to launch into your art full time gives you the luxury of freedom from worry of how your bills will be paid. Anxiety may stimulate some to work in frenzy but it can cause others to clam up and block all their creative channels. The artistic process ideally should not be sabotaged by forcing your hand at things simply to make the rent payment.
2. Find out what you don’t know. Unless you studied art at university along with some business courses on how to launch your career, you may be a creative genius without a clue of what it takes to market and sell your work. Find courses in your area or on the internet that can help you to fill in the blanks.
3. Identify your brand. Every artist eventually finds his signature style. Don’t be put off if you haven’t developed into one of your own as yet but be conscious of your trends. It is always useful to keep a record of your work overtime so you can discover patterns and maybe your brand may emerge. Having an identifiable brand helps to add value to your work and also helps you to become recognized. Probably the most popular modern day example of this is Andy Warhol.
4. Don’t undervalue your work. Pricing is probably one of the most difficult aspects of business for artists. The best example of this was an exchange overheard between a promenade artist and a patron. The patron was shocked at the price the artist quoted and exclaimed “but it only took you twenty minutes!” to which the artist replied “Ten years and twenty minutes”.
5. Create goals for yourself. Having written goals is important to keep your career on target. These goals will feed off your plan and will help keep you focused and motivated. They can range anywhere from gaining access to a gallery to selling one piece a month. Of course once the goal is set you also need to document what it would take to turn it into a reality.
Deciding to make a living as an artist is not the easiest route, but it is definitely rewarding getting the earning money from living out a dream. The most important thing to remember is to focus on the business side just as much as you focus on the creative aspect. After all, an artist that focuses only on producing art is like a retailer that purchases stock without ever bothering to find a storefront, price the product or advertise he is open for business.