Sorry, But This Is How It Really Is
At college, my art teacher told me “don’t be an artist, it’s really hard”. I didn’t listen to her of course. Away I went in to the big wide world to become an artist. And it was big, and it was very, very wide…
What did I discover? That she was irritatingly right, of course. How right? Well, if anything she had been kind to me. Being an artist, as I quickly found out, was nothing to do with art. It was (and is) all about business.
In my opinion, and using the experience I have garnered over the last few years, most artist’s don’t get this. They believe that it’s to do with luck, being in the right place at the right time, or self-belief. While all of these things are critical to the success of an artist, they are not everything. Good business sense is, unfortunately, the over-riding thing: have this and you’re made. Don’t have it and, well, you’re in a whole lot of trouble.
I can demonstrate this easily: take two artists. One is good at art and the other is mediocre at art, but a darn good business woman. Now, as they begin their careers the artist who can paint amazingly struggles. Nobody wants his work. You can guess the rest. The business woman gets lots of people interested in her work, and she does well.
So here’s a stark warning if you are thinking of becoming an artist: know marketing, know who you are selling to, and do it as good or better than everyone around you. Don’t forget to paint, of course, just make sure that the entire world knows you are doing it, or you may find yourself needing to pay for a storage space that you fill with art no one knows about.