Defining (redefining?) Success
I have an art marketing accountability partner. We talk weekly , encouraging each other in marketing our art and in brainstorming ideas.
One question we ask ourselves is, "what's the end point anyway.... what are we after? What exactly is success?" We need a clear view of what we're after so we can set our aim and reach it, right?
Is success attaining a certain yearly income with our art? Is it gaining respect and fame in the art community? Or finding representation in the top galleries in the country?
All of the above would be nice, but the more I ponder this, I think it's the daily grind, the process itself, that really matters.
In looking back on various achievements in my own life, it's been the arduous process of becoming that's been more interesting and fulfilling than the actual attaining of the goal.
For instance, all the long hours of studying and training to become a doctor were, it seems now, more satisfying to me than the daily ins and outs of actually being a doctor. All of the hours of practice in becoming a musician were more captivating and rewarding than finally being a musician in a band, stuck in smoky bars until 2 am and playing to a crowd that wasn't really listening to the music. Raising children to become independent adults was so difficult at times that I sometimes thought I couldn't wait to have an empty nest. Now the nest is empty and I realize raising the kids, despite some tough times was, without question for me, the most fulfilling thing of all. How much better to have embraced every single moment, then to waste one of them wishing for something in the future!
Taking this back to art, what I've concluded is that, in large part, success is found in the daily doing of the thing. And that success can be lost the moment artificial goals supplant the unbridled joy in the daily doing.
I'm truly grateful that I have the opportunity at this point in my life to be able to paint every day.
As for the smaller part, well, supplies, workshops and classes, just to name a few items, are ridiculously expensive. The painter does need to sell art in order to continue making art. ( and the spouse is only willing to hear and accept, "you have to spend money in order to make money" so many times before he kicks you out the door)
With that in mind, are you in the market for a piece of art? 😉
On Sale:
Ken Caryl, Stylized
12x12 acrylic, framed!
