...but, wait! An artist needs tools. I'm not ready for prime time. Here are the tools I'm building:
- I had the horrifying experience of standing in the deli line next to a friendly woman in a fabulous coat. She turned out to be a local designer who was always on the lookout for new talent. Did I have business cards, a website or a portfolio?...well...ummm...no... I realized how truly unprepared I was to represent myself to the world. I decided to go straight home and commit to a business card design. I started paying attention to artist's cards and noticed that they tend to make business cards based on their current work. Instead of waffling over my "forever" business card, I simply picked a favorite piece of surface designed fabric and made a card. Very satisfying! A friend collects artist cards for inspiration. I'm starting my own collection too.
- Part of the grant writing process was to select samples of my work. I set up a photo shoot in my hall based on a photographer's talk at a local quilting guild. Was the lighting great? ...well... ummm... no... I dug up the photographer's notes and purchased a lighting system having proved it's necessity. (I will say that it was a hoot giving my work titles and measuring them as part of the description.) I am fortunate to belong to a quilting guild where many members are working artists who successfully exhibit their work. Most of those people have their work professionally photographed. It's clear that excellent photographs of your work are key to success. The top photograph below was overexposed. I tried again putting the piece on the floor and it came out too dark, but with a bit more detail. I'll have these photos for comparison as I continue to improve my photography skills.
- Did I have the foresight to document all those great classes I'd taken for my eventual artist resume? No such luck. Thank goodness some teacher drilled it into me to date all of my notes and save them. Digging up information on classes I'd taken for the grant application was really a first step to creating my artist resume. Winning the grant was a big boost for my resume as it allows me to list a grant win and an exhibit. Now that I've got an artist resume it will be easy to update as I go.
- A new habit is blocking out regular research days at the museum and in-home studio days on the family calendar to commit the time.
- I have an artist bio and statement in progress. Deciding who you are as an artist and writing it up in an interesting fashion is tricky business. I mentioned to a friend that I was stuck on this. She gave me prompts, asked questions and had me babbling about myself in no time. Did I mention that this was a very good friend?! Another example of using your resources.
- I started this art blog for documentation, visibility and accountability. I'm a software engineer by trade. The temptation to geek out on the blog loomed large. I researched blogging. The top two choices seemed to be Blogger and Wordpress. I quizzed the guild membership. They split evenly on their recommendations. One clever guild member suggested starting with the simpler blog to set up and see if it did the job. It was a very sensible solution. I determined that this blog is only a tool. My creative energy is better focused on the surface design pieces.
These are all incremental steps towards becoming a working artist. If you're upgrading from casual artist to working artist, feel free to learn from my mistakes! If you're a working artist and I've left any important tools out please leave a comment.
Diana, It sounds as if you are off to a great start!
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion on business cards is that you order fairly small quantities each time and change the image every time you order a new batch.