{"id":2589,"date":"2012-03-09T12:12:54","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T18:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistcommentary.com\/?p=2589"},"modified":"2012-03-09T12:18:17","modified_gmt":"2012-03-09T18:18:17","slug":"what-it-takes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistcommentary.com\/?p=2589","title":{"rendered":"What It Takes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wanted to take a moment to discuss some concerns that I hear repeatedly amongst artist friends and online.\u00a0 If you are reading this post, then more than likely you are an artist or maybe an art enthusiast.\u00a0 Some of you may have embarked upon making a career of your art while others are afraid to do so for various reasons.\u00a0 And of the ones that are currently working on their art careers, you may find yourselves discouraged at times or frustrated that things are not going as planned.\u00a0 So what do you do about it?\u00a0 Well, I am here to say that first of all, don’t give up.\u00a0 And don’t be scared, or discouraged, or angry, or sad, or frustrated, etc., etc., etc.\u00a0 This is a subjective business<\/strong> and not everyone will feel that your work suits their gallery or their living rooms.\u00a0 And that’s okay.<\/p>\n

Let’s face it.\u00a0 This career is not for sissies.\u00a0 But if you love your art, which I’m sure you do, then the other stuff won’t really matter.\u00a0 Take pride in your work and take pride in all that you have accomplished.\u00a0 Even if you’re just starting out, you have a lot to be proud of just in taking the first step to starting your career.\u00a0 Shockingly enough, most people do not take those first steps (and that’s including those that are not even artists).\u00a0 It takes guts to make the first move.\u00a0 You’re getting out of your comfort zone.\u00a0 And even once you are well into your career, you will find that you still have to shake things up and get out of your comfort zone<\/strong> again and again.\u00a0 As the stakes get higher, you need to do more as well as reach more.\u00a0 But that’s okay because you love what you do.<\/p>\n

Aside from loving your work, you have to be consistent.\u00a0 That is the one thing that I see so many artists drop the ball on.\u00a0 Consistency is key<\/strong>.\u00a0 You can’t expect to accomplish everything overnight.\u00a0 You will have to slowly build and take each step towards building your exhibition experience, your portfolio, your sales, your awards, etc.\u00a0 And just because you accomplish one goal, doesn’t mean you can stop.\u00a0 You have to keep on plugging away at your career.\u00a0 You can’t just coast or rest on your laurels.\u00a0 You’ll need to have new work to show, you’ll need to expand to other cities, other states, other countries even.\u00a0 You’ll need to keep moving.\u00a0 How many bands can you think of that were one-hit wonders<\/strong>?\u00a0 How many actors can you think of that were popular and then seemed to disappear from the face of the Earth?\u00a0 You may find it hard to even think of examples but once you do, you’ll be thinking, “oh yeah… whatever happened to…?”\u00a0 Don’t be one of those cases.\u00a0 You are not a flash in the pan.\u00a0 You’re serious about your career and you are here to stay.<\/p>\n

The good news is it’s not about luck<\/strong>!\u00a0 Sure, sometimes you may happen to be in the right place at the right time, but that won’t be often.\u00a0 And even if it does happen, it won’t necessarily make your career.\u00a0 Even for the positive things that happen in your career, if it wasn’t directly related to your doing, if you trace it back, you will probably find that it was thanks to one of the “seeds” you planted<\/strong> in the first place.\u00a0 You don’t need to buy a Magic 8 ball or get a tarot reading.\u00a0 Just keep putting yourself out there, creating more, improving as much as possible, marketing, networking, exhibiting, etc.\u00a0 You don’t need luck- luck is hard to get anyway.\u00a0 Consistency is easy enough to do and is a sure bet.<\/p>\n

Stay strong, be consistent, and be professional.\u00a0 The rest will follow.<\/p>\n

————<\/p>\n

www.AmyGuidry.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up for my monthly newsletter at: www.amyguidry.com\/contact.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow me on Facebook: www.facebook.com\/pages\/Amy-Guidry\/51953219932<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wanted to take a moment to discuss some concerns that I hear repeatedly amongst artist friends and online.\u00a0 If you are reading this post, then more than likely you are an artist or maybe an art enthusiast.\u00a0 Some of you may have embarked upon making a career of your art while others are afraid … Continue reading What It Takes<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1098,407,967,107,603,57,5,55,194,203,53,1177,517,13,47,958],"class_list":["post-2589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-help","tag-art-business","tag-art-career","tag-art-marketing","tag-exhibition","tag-how-to-get-into-galleries","tag-successful-artist","tag-art","tag-artist","tag-career","tag-galleries","tag-gallery","tag-job","tag-painter","tag-painting","tag-portfolio","tag-resume"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistcommentary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistcommentary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistcommentary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistcommentary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistcommentary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2589"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/artistcommentary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2602,"href":"https:\/\/artistcommentary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589\/revisions\/2602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistcommentary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistcommentary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistcommentary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}