I'm not sure what triggered my overwhelming need to FINALLY do something with my art (other than to hang it on every single vertical surface in our house!), but it's been something I've wanted to do for a long time.
For the past two weeks I've been getting up at about 4:30 in the morning doing something to support my art. If I haven't been creating art, I've been reading about creating art. If I haven't been building my own website, I've been looking at other artists' websites. It's been both exciting and exhausting. I've been more than an artist with a day job. I've been an artist with a day job, night job and crack-of-dawn job. Just ask my husband (who has been very patient, by the way....thanks, Honey!).
Rebecca's progress towards becoming a REAL artist:
- Purchased two domain names, my own and artistwithadayjob.
- Tried to create a website using the tools on GoDaddy, but found bugs, grew frustrated and delayed for several months.
- Created a member site on artid and put out a few blog posts there. Very, very nice people at artid, but still felt I needed my own website "home."
- Was absolutely THRILLED when ICO gallery in NYC said they saw my work and was interested in possibly including me in an upcoming show and book.
- Was absolutely devastated when reviewing all of the costs for the artist. I guess there's a price to vanity that I am not (yet) willing to pay.
- Joined Facebook and start posting my art there. Positive feedback received made me feel a bit bolder, so I created a fan page dedicated to my art. When I checked today, there were 46 fans including a handful of people I don't even know. Very cool indeed!
- Decided to become a member of imagekind so I can offer prints of my art (on-line gallery there almost ready to go...if link doesn't work, keep checking).
- Stumbled upon a great e-book by Chris Guillebeau and instantly became a HUGE fan of his. Seriously, you need to check him out- he has great philosophy on life and has something for everyone, not just artists. Anyway, reading his book confirmed that I was on the right track and inspired me to FINALLY print some business cards and to get a personal website going (what he refers to as the "heart" of my on-line presence (Awwww…doesn’t that give you a warm and fuzzy feeling?).
- Through Facebook I connected with an old friend, Jen, who sells cool vintage clothing and patterns and she told me about about another friend, Cindi who just opened up a shop right down the street from my house (can anyone say "serendipity?"). So, I put a few original paintings and prints in Cindi's store, The Shop on Park Avenue.
- Found a great artist website hosting company (foliotwist) and got a website up and running within a matter of a few hours. Why did I wait so long!?!?!! Now my dad has a place where he can come to critique my work (remember, Dad, you're the reason my work is abstract...be nice).
So that takes us up to today, folks. There's still a lot of work to be done, but I have made more progress in the last two weeks than I have made in over the last two years. It feels really, really, (really) good.
What about you? Is there something that you've wanted to do for a long time that you've put on the back burner? If you're like me, a lot can get in the way of our dreams....the "day" job, family, TV, web-surfing, sleep, procrastination, OCD, ADD and every other kind of "D." I challenge you this week to take one single, tiny little baby step towards your dream and see what happens. If you want to tell me about it, I’d love to hear from you. Go for it!
Until next time…
Rebecca (A w/a DJ)
Posted in Thoughts on Becoming a REAL Artist.
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