Sunday, March 15, 2015

Life Changing Career Decision



  I'm taking the plunge and depending on my artwork to make a living, this is really scary to me although I have always wanted to try. Raising two children just didn't allow me to try when I was younger, things like insurance and eating were much too important. My health isn't getting any better and I am definitely not a spring chicken. I can no longer work in the construction/millwork industry with my arthritis problems.

I have decided I would like to do something I love with whatever time I have left in this world and creating things is what makes me happiest. I plan on diversifying between conventional painting, drawing, photography and digital art to keep it interesting. (Maybe even a little woodworking and sculpture as well) If I can find the discipline to work on at least one project every day I believe I could make it work.

  I think Chuck Close sums it up best, “The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case.”


Carl Jung Quote
 I don't enjoy the business part of promoting my work on social media but it is an essential evil when your art becomes a business. It takes a lot of time and I can't help but feel I am annoying more people than selling. Hopefully once I get a nice pile of work I can get back into a couple galleries to do my dirty work for me. My wife and I are moving back to Northern Nevada this year and I did have a couple gallery connections there.




                        

 We plan on taking our time traveling across country in the move to Nevada and taking the time to create as much art as possible during the trip. I will post things as I can but expect internet to be spotty at best but will probably post a journal of the adventure when completed. 

Stay tuned for more as it happens.

 

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