Blog

For the past 7 months I have been working full time on my art career.  This is the first time in my life that I have been able to do this.  Prior to this time I was producing art while running a large gallery that carried about 80 other artist's work and before that I was attending college to study fine art and working part time jobs to help pay for college.  So these past 7 months have been just short of heaven for me!  Every day I am eager to get out of bed and get to work. 

If I am able to, I love painting out in the county side near my home or at one of the parks in the region.  If the weather is not conducive to doing that, I can always work in my studio.  Sometimes I am busy painting during the day outside and then working late into the night in my studio.  The amazing thing is that no matter how hard I have worked, I feel so happy that it really doesn't seem like work.  Even on the days when I am busy with paperwork or getting paintings ready for an upcoming exhibit or art fair, I don't mind the work!   I have often heard people say that they don't want to do art on a full time basis, because they don't want it to become a "job" and to lose their joy of creating art work.  I have come to think that, that line of thinking is totally wacked!  The more I progress and push myself, the more I enjoy myself!  So far I haven't run out of subject matter and I haven't gotten bored.  I'll let you know if that ever does happen, but right now I don't think it will! 

My biggest challenge working as a full time artist is finding a balance with my art and my other responsibilities in life!  But I am working on that as well.  Today and the past few days all I have done is worked on getting my house and studio reorganized.  I have a big commission piece that needs to be done within a few weeks and I know if everything is caught up and in order before I begin, then I can really put 100% into the creation of that painting! 

Robert Genn just wrote about the "Job of Art" in his last Twice Weekly Newsletter.  At the end he included with this statement by Winston Churchill: "Human beings are of two classes: those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and those whose work and pleasure are one."  I definitely fit into the last class of human beings that Churchill was referring to!