PERMISSION TO CHANGE OUR MINDS...

I've been reading Christine Kane's eZine, Uplevelyou, and really enjoying the way she delivers such powerful, immediately usable information (wisdom) each and every time. This woman is not only stunningly beautiful, she is smart and funny. If you haven't heard of her, definitely check her out.

So, last week her feature article was about magic words that will change your business/life. The words: "This is what I do". Simple, but profound. So of course, I started thinking about how they might apply to my life and I have to say I found quite a few examples of "This is what I don't do" (exercise, trust, smile alot). But I also had some breakthrough thoughts on the subject.

This is what I realized about myself... I am a naturally curious person, a creative, an artist. I like to try new things. It is part of my creative process. I have drawers and boxes and well, a few closets full of things that I have tried and decided that they weren't for me. More often than not, I find other uses for the things I invest in but sometimes I just pass them on to another person who will use them. Nothing goes to waste and I have fun exploring new idea and learning new skills. If I hadn't "tried" painting 8 years ago I wouldn't be a painter today.

I also like to try new things that involve my brain and blogging is one of those things. I don't really consider myself a good writer. I struggle with every sentence and words to express my exact thoughts come at a price but I also feel compelled to write. One of my secret (well not anymore) dreams for years has been to submit an article for publication to Sun magazine. We all have these sorts of dreams and this is one of mine.

So where am I going with this? As I internalized Christine's five magic words, I though about what was making this blogging thing "not fun". What I came up with was the rules I was imposing on myself. I wanted to write twice a week and now I find myself putting it off and feeling the energetic drain of procrastination. I said I would do one thing and now I want to do something else. And, this may not be the last time I change my mind before I find my groove. In the end, I decided to give myself permission to change my mind as many times as I wanted to about this blog. I may have said that it would be about preparing for an art show but now, I don't want to write about that. I want to have fun. I want to spend my time writing about what is in my heart. I want to be the creative that I am and trust that the right people will find me and the rest will move on.

My deal with myself... From now on, I am going to write when I feel like it and I am going to write about whatever I feel like writing about. I am going to have fun with it and you are welcome to join me. Hopefully, you will find value, but if nothing else, maybe you will find a way to give yourself permission to play at something you have been working too hard at. It is all good!

As far as art goes, I think this sort of deep inquiry into the why of our actions is essential. It is what keeps the heart and the mind engaged in the process and it is what keeps us reaching out from ourselves. Lately, I have been painting bald women. I don't know if there is a market for them. I don't care. I am doing it because it calls to me and I have chosen to answer the call and travel a ways down the path with them. I guess the same could be said of this blog and you who chose to join me.

Namaste,
Yarrow

To see my paintings, prints, cards, and now an original painting, please visit my Etsy shop.

NOT ALL GALLERIES ARE ALIKE…

I have been experimenting with different styles of painting recently and some I like and some not so much. It is important to me that I keep reaching and growing as an individual and as an artist if for no other reason than to keep myself amused. We creatives spend large amounts of our time alone and if we just keep doing the same old thing week after week it gets pretty boring. At least it does for me.

Sitting on my table, softly whispering her story.

So let’s talk about galleries today. You have been creating your art, you’ve got your artist statement and a portfolio and now you are ready to find someone to sell your work, probably a gallery. What you need to think about at this point is what type of gallery is going to be right for you and your work. You will encounter two types of galleries and each operates quite differently.

The first type of gallery is what I would call owner operated. It could be owned by a company or an individual (who may or may not actually work in the gallery). There is often a manager who is responsible for the day to day running of the gallery and several employees who work for the business. The art that is shown in this type of gallery is selected by one or more people and is taken in on consignment. The work is arranged in the gallery by the employees and the artist will usually be paid a commission ranging between 50 – 60 percent a month or two after the art is sold.

The other type of gallery is what is called a cooperative or collective gallery. This type of gallery is owned and operated by a group of artists who show their own work in the gallery. There are no employees (the artists do all of the work including sitting the gallery) and the work on display is up to the individual artists. Each person is given a set amount of space for their art and they are paid an agreed upon commission at the end of every month on anything that that has been sold. Commissions are much lower in these galleries because you often pay dues and spend a fair amount of time every month performing your duties. Artists who become members of cooperative galleries generally share a common vision with the other members and these galleries can be everything from funky and dysfunctional to really quite amazing.

Before you approach a gallery, you should find out everything that you can about the gallery including what type of gallery it is, what type of work they show and what the general price range is. Even more importantly, visit the gallery! Look around. Talk to the people there, not about your art, but about the gallery and the artists that they represent. Get a feeling for the place. Are the people friendly, helpful, professional. Do you genuinely like the gallery and do you see your work there. I encourage you to be absolutely honest with yourself on this point and make your choices wisely.

Never, never, and again I say, never, walk into a gallery with your portfolio under your arm and ask if you can show it to the first person you encounter, especially if you have never set foot in the gallery before that moment. If it is the perfect gallery for your work you have just blown it and if it isn’t, then why are you asking? You would be surprised to know how many quivering emerging artists make just this mistake and it is (almost) never good. Always act like a professional, even if you have never shown your work in a gallery before. Call and introduce yourself. Ask if you can send some images of your work for consideration. Make an appointment to show your portfolio. It is what a good gallery will expect from its artists.

Entering into a relationship, a business partnership, with a gallery (or a group of artists in a co-op) can be wonderful or it can be a nightmare. The work you put into selecting galleries to approach will save you hours of wasted time and possibly some serious headaches down the road.

Personally, I only seek out businesses that are mentally, emotionally and financially healthy. I also prefer to do business with galleries that have been recommended to me by another artist (who I respect) and unless I know the gallery owners, I rarely do business with a gallery that is just starting out. I’m not shy about asking other artists about the galleries they work with, and I am especially interested in whether they pay their bills on time. Patience at this point in the process will reward you many times over!

Not a very spiritual post today but hopefully valuable. Soon to come… more from the heart.

Namaste,

Yarrow

To see more of my prints, cards and jewelry, please go to my Etsy shop

INTENTION….

Okay, I am not even going to apologize for not posting last week, you might say that Life had other plans for me and what amazing plans they were. I spent Saturday painting with Shiloh Sofia McCloud in her “Visionary Women – a Modern Day Vision Quest” class at the Cosmic Cowgirls University in Healdsburg, CA. I can honestly say that I will never be the same as a woman, a person or an artist. That is how powerful my experience was the first day, and the class is three months long!

As most of you know, am new to blogging, and writing in general, so my approach to this whole thing has been very seat of the pants. Just start somewhere and keep going. Now that I have been going for a few weeks, I’ve been thinking that I would like to balance the nuts and bolts of the art business with more about the heart and my emotional/spiritual journey as an artist. Sure, it is important to know about the business of art, and I hope to share lots of information that will make navigating the whole process of getting your work out there much easier. But what is it really all about? For me the answer is not the money or the prestige, it is a desire to live life on my own terms while honoring my most precious gifts. And that is where INTENTION comes in.

For the first few years of painting I readily surrendered to my higher power when I painted and I was always surprised. I couldn’t believe people were buying my paintings and it was fun! After a few years though, I found that I had woven a lot of other people into my story. I felt a responsibility to continue painting and making my art available to my galleries. This created a subtle but powerful shift in my painting and my approach to being an artist. I was making money at it but I had to constantly work at coming up with new imagery. It was my job now and I was committed. I couldn’t just decide that I wasn’t going to be a painter anymore without affecting a lot of other people. Not what I expected….

So I found myself painting pretty pictures that were well received but lacked the raw beauty and power of my earlier work. Part of it was my growing ability to render imagery at choice and part of it was my loss of intention. The spiritual practice of surrendering myself to the painting, the intention set before each painting, the listening to my higher power had been replaced by my idea that just showing up was enough. I wasn’t asking for guidance anymore, I was busily doing my job. And I began to feel dissatisfied and unsure of where I was going with the whole “I’m a painter” thing.

What I want to share with you today is this: You, like myself, will undoubtedly reach a place in your artist’s journey where you will need to make choices. It is so easy for artists, especially the ones that have found a market for their work, to lose that deeper connection with their purpose. I call it “finding your winning formula”. And this is where the choices come in. Do you make brightly colored coffee cups for years because that is what you become known for and they sell like hot cakes? Or do you chose to keep on walking just to find out what might be further down the path? For me, it is essential that my paintings express my intention and my personal spiritual journey and when I forget this, my paintings change.

So who are you and why do you create art?  This is the question I ask – myself – you – and anyone who spends the days of their lives working as an artist. The answer is different, and right, for each individual artist. Whatever form of creative self expression you chose, do it on purpose with clear intention and your art will have integrity. I believe that it is this integrity, no matter whether it is a lovely floral, or a political statement rendered in stone, that gives your art the ability to resonate and connect with others. And when you know this, and honor this gift you have, you are doing more than just showing up, you are embracing your artist's life fully.

Here’s a new painting that I started over the weekend. She is far from being finished, but I can tell you that she is not going to be another pretty painting! She has intentions of her own.

New Beginnings....

Namaste,
Yarrow

To see more of my prints, cards and jewelry, please go to my Etsy shop. 

DREAMS, GOALS AND STRATEGIES...

I have been putting off writing this blog post because I, like many of you, would rather be in my studio making art, and that is just what I have been doing. I have also been thinking a lot about what I would say and realizing that, although it was my original intention for this blog to follow my path from the present to my show in August, the voice that I have found has something different to say. I have done my calendar because it is important to me at this time but I am feeling that the whole calendar subject may be a bit premature in the context of this blog. First, let’s talk about how we get to a place where we may need a calendar.

"When Dreams Take Flight"
Acrylic    12" x 24"

Your dream is the big picture. It is what you will align your life with and what, if you achieve your dream, you will create as your reality. My dream from the very beginning has been to be a self-supporting artist which, in my mind, means that I don’t have to work for someone else in order to pay my bills. There are a number of ways to show and sell art but I would say that craft fairs, gallery representation and online shops/websites are the most common and easiest to access. Because I live in a remote Northern California town, I knew that I would have to embrace all three in order to succeed at realizing my dream.

So where does someone who is just starting out as an artist, or in a new medium, begin? I only have one answer: measurable goals and a strategy for achieving them. I say measurable because it is really difficult to know when you have achieved your goal if it isn’t measurable. The measurable goals are the WHAT, and the strategy is the HOW in this process.

This is how it looked for me.

First Measurable Goal: Get my paintings into a local cooperative gallery. Co-ops can be a hot bed of personality issues but they are often looking for new members. Many artists have gotten their start in a co-op gallery and what we are interested in at this point is showing our work and building a resume. It is called starting somewhere and your chances of success are pretty good.

Strategy: Paint a cohesive body of work (8-12 pieces in the same medium) and take professional quality photos of the pieces. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have them done professionally, but you do have to have them. There is a great tutorial on Etsy that tells you exactly how to do this with your own little digital camera.

Strategy: Develop a compelling Artist’s Statement. This is very important when you don’t have any experience to put on your resume. Anyone that you approach will want to know who you are just as much as they want to know what you do.

Strategy: Put photos and artist’s statement on a cd (to send or give away) and make a professional presentation binder with the same contents.

Strategy: Find a good artist’s coop that my paintings would work well in and apply for a guest membership.

Strategy: Enter my paintings into every local art show possible. Exposure and experience.

Strategy: Donate one or two GOOD paintings to charity events. This not only has the gratification of supporting a worthy cause, but gets your work seen by people with money. The first painting that I donated was the best painting that I had ever done. It broke my heart to “give” it away but I can tell you it paid off in the long run.

Strategy: Say YES! to opportunity even when I am scared or don't know how I am going to do it. "Yarrow, would like to show a few of your paintings in my shop at Christmas?" Yes! (Hurry home and start painting...)

Even though I list these strategies separately, they were all working together to get my work into it's first gallery setting. 

The strategies enable the measurable goals and the goals lead to the realization of the dream. It is a process, a journey, not a direct flight and I hate to tell you, sometimes you really DO have to go through Denver to get to China!

"Finding Her Voice"
Acrylic    6" x 12

It is all about making your voice heard, your art recognizable, and your presence known. If you live the truth of being an artist, others will believe you. Nurture this incredible gift of validation and your dream will move closer and closer.

Namaste,

Yarrow

To see more of my prints, cards and jewelry, please go to my Etsy shop.
                

NOT FOR SISSIES….

This business of being an artist and trying to make a living at it is definitely not for sissies! I can think of hundreds of ways to make a living that are more secure, more lucrative and definitely easier. But if this is what calls to you, I will share some of what I have learned as I have traveled my artist's path.

"Destiny Comes Calling"  Acrylic  20" x 20"
With the little messenger singing in her ear, she
contemplates the Koan (puzzle or riddle) of her destiny.

Twelve years ago I was drifting. I was in a relationship that was unfulfilling and unsupportive of my art, I had a good job that no longer interested me and my days were passing slowly by without much “life” in them. I decided that what I wanted was a life where “who I was” and “what I did” were so closely aligned that I could not tell the difference. I wanted to get paid to be me, I wanted to be fully at choice in the matter and I wanted to love every minute of it. No small order but I can tell you it IS doable.

I had always dreamed of becoming a painter. Not just someone who paints, but a successful, full-time painter who spent her days in a beautiful light-flooded studio creating paintings that she would show AND sell in the best galleries in town. At 50 years old, I decided that it was “now or never” if I was going to realize my dream in this lifetime. First order of business… learn how to paint! Second order of business… begin to lay the foundation upon which I would nurture and grow my dream.

My first body of work focused on simple iconic imagery
colorfully rendered in a reductive style of painting.

Building a business is a lot like building a house but most people, especially us creatives, don’t think about things like building a strong foundation when they decide to start a business. They just wing it and hope for the best. A good foundation is imperative to building a healthy business and it starts with a commitment to right action each and every step of the way. Your integrity will reward you with a reputation as an artist that galleries can count on. I get asked to do more shows than I can say yes to because I have a good reputation. I always do what I say I will, I stay in communication with the gallery, I never miss a deadline and I always have a body of work ready to go if an opportunity that is too good to miss comes along.

Everyone loves a beautiful card. This is the back of a greeting card
with information on the image, a nice graphic of my chop, a little advertising
for my prints and contact information. Never miss an opportunity to get
your art out there and never send your art out without your contact information on it.

So many really talented artists fail at making a living selling their art because they have a reputation for being flaky. There are countless reasons for being flaky ranging from personal problems to having poor time management skills to simply being underfunded. Artists as a group (if I can generalize here) are all about the process and much less interested in the details of running a business or creating and preparing a body of work for a show. Even when you have the talent and do everything right, it can still be tough to make a living selling your art.

So how do you surrender to your creative muses and run a business at the same time? I use tools to help me stay on track, just like most businesses do. The very first thing that I do when starting to prepare for a show is make a calendar that spans from the present through the day that I will hang or ship the show. This is not very exciting to talk or even think about, but my next blog post will be covering the importance of this tool in the business of art. And, as you might expect from a creative type, the first thing that I am going to mark off is all of the days that I won’t be doing art!

Intrigued?

Namaste,
Yarrow

To see more of my paintings, prints, cards and jewelry, please visit my Etsy shop.

WHERE TO START...

I have been thinking a lot about how to discuss the various aspects of being in the business of art is such a way that it makes sense to an emerging artist, yet still has value to a more experienced artist. There are a lot of different things to consider, starting with were to START!

Not very many people have ever seen this painting, and please don't laugh,
but this is my very first painting. I  was very proud that I could actually paint what
I saw in the photograph and I still have this little dear. Everyone starts somewhere...

Most artists who make selling their art into a business, don't just wake up one morning and decide to do it. Most of us have been doing art for as long as we can remember and the shift to seeing it as a business opportunity may take years to formulate and then even more time to realize in tangible form.

The topics that I would like to speak about are many: developing a body of work, creating a portfolio and an artist statement, approaching galleries, what galleries want to see in an artist before they will represent them, what galleries will expect after they agree to represent an artist, and the list goes on and on. How to prepare for a feature show is something that comes after all of these other steps and while it is what I am doing right now, you probably are not. We will have plenty of time to discuss these other things over the next few weeks as I get to work on my show.

I created my first art-based business when I was about 27. I went to college right out of high school, got a degree, got a good job and then I was laid off. I was a Speech Pathologist and the teachers with more experience out numbered me 100 to 1. It wasn't looking good. "The Sewing Studio" grew out of my ability to sew just about anything at a time when I really needed to make some money and the business took on a life of its own before I knew what was happening.

One of my Wearable Art dresses made out of
hand-dyed and printed silk circa 1989.

I made award winning costumes for theater companies and at Halloween, I sewed wedding dresses, I designed and created Wearable Art pieces that sold in fancy boutiques, I took on production contracts for other artists, if you could make it out of fabric or leather, I could probably figure out how to sew it into a garment. I was incredibly busy all the time. But.... I was ill prepared, had no reserves and didn't have a clue how to run a profitable business. I over-committed, under-estimated and made every mistake that you could think of. By the end of five years I was divorced, exhausted and broke but I sure had learned a lot about owning a business and the next time, I did much better. I made the bulk of my living for the next 20 years from sewing and worked in galleries selling jewelry and art whenever I needed some extra income. It was not until 8 years ago that I started to paint and identify myself as a painter.

The unfinished painting that is on my table right now.
I am thinking about calling her "Woman with a Secret"
but  I will have to see what she says.

I have over 30 years of experience in the art/gallery business that I would like to share with other artists. Over the weekend, I plan on really looking at the different topics that I could discuss and share in this  blog. Hopefully you will return to see what I come up with!

Have an inspiring, creative weekend and take time to practice some delicious self-care.

Namaste,
Yarrow

To see more of my my paintings, prints, cards and jewelry, please visit my Etsy shop.

LIFE CHOICES...

I have been giving a lot of thought to what this second post will address, where to start with this whole art as a business concept. It isn’t easy to speak the truth about this as it is different for each individual and certainly different for the various art forms. Being a production potter and making several hundred coffee cups is totally different than painting 15 paintings a year. I am a painter, so I will be speaking from what I know.

This is "Hope". It literally took me years to paint this painting.
I repainted her garment and her face multiple times until
one day she was complete. The Earth that she holds
to her was exactly perfect the very first day!

I make a significant distinction between being an artist, or an artistically talented person, and being in the business of selling one’s art. An artist with no thought towards their work being a business does what they want to do, when they have time to do it, spends money on supplies as they can afford to and generally enjoys creating simply because they love the process. This doesn’t mean that they won’t occasionally sell something they have made; it just means that it isn’t part of their intention when they go into their studios.

My painting table made out of reclaimed kitchen cabinets from a friend's remodel.
Lots of light  both natural and incandescent and lots of drawers for pencils,
scissors, etc. Everything is easily within my reach when I am working.

Being in the business of selling your art is a Life Choice. An artist who is committed to making their living through their creative self-expression must go into their studio and work whether they feel like it or not, they have to spend money on supplies whether they can afford to or not and they have deadlines and commitments that often involve other people and stretch out for months or sometimes years. It is a business like any other business and its health and well-being depends on the artist’s willingness and ability to nurture and grow it. The huge difference is that we artists can’t just go to a trade show and order a selection of merchandise to sell. We make our merchandise ourselves. The other huge difference is that for many of us, the process of creating is our spiritual practice. We don’t just crank out the goods. We lovingly pour ourselves into our creations and this is what gives them their life and their ability to speak to others.

A ready to hang mounted giclee of "Grace".

A selection of greeting cards with
images of my original paintings.

I never, and I mean NEVER, think about whether a certain painting is going to sell when I am painting it. I paint because it gives me joy. I am passionate about process of painting and see it is my daily spiritual practice as well as my life. The business of selling my work is built on this, not the other way around.

Believe it or not, I only sold 5 original paintings last year. I show them, and occasionally I sell one or two, but for the most part I keep them and enjoy them in my own home. So how can I call myself a successful artist? I don’t make my living from selling my original paintings! In fact, sales of original paintings accounted for less than 10% of my income last year. Archival reproductions and greeting cards of my original paintings sold through galleries and my Etsy shop accounted for approximately half of my income. The rest came from other things that I make and sell, namely Fringe Adornments (small hand-crocheted scarf/neck ornaments) and my jewelry. I may be a painter, but I have a few other skills as well.

Earrings made from paper that I design and print.
Sold on Etsy and in galleries locally.

Thinking about all of this and what it means to you will help you put your art and whether you want to make it into a business into perspective.

Personally, there is nothing I would rather do more than be an artist. It is how I think, it is what I do best and it is what gives me indescribable joy. It is not simply what I do, it is truly WHO I AM. Making a living as an artist is my reward for showing up and allowing my creator to work through me and I honor this great blessing by doing everything within my power to make it happen, including working a part-time job for the first 6 years while I established myself as a painter.

Anew piece that I am working on.
Exploring the use of Scribblertoo
to give the fabric texture.

WHO ARE YOU?


To see more of my paintings, prints, cards, and jewelry, please visit my Etsy shop.


I want to apologize in advance for those of you who got multiple notices regarding updates to my blog. It didn't occur to me that this would happen if I edited errors as I found them... live. Sorry. It won't happen again!