Beginning a profession as an artist is fraught with a broad range of obstacles and difficulties. It’s very close to being unfair. However, we attempt to argue that it is fair, which means that art, along with many other aspects of creative thinking, needs to recognize that they connect to a global market, and as a result, there are some rules that cannot be avoided that must be followed. If you take a look at our recommendations, you’ll be able to get a good idea of what can be done to turn your talent into a lucrative business. We hope that this will be somewhat comforting to you.
An Artist is Responsible for Many Roles In Their Business
If you’re a one-man band, it is essential for you to understand that the scope of your responsibilities goes beyond simply providing a creative outlet for yourself. That would make up about thirty percent of the total amount of work that you have to do, in the ideal scenario. You should always be wearing at least three distinct hats because you are running a one-man operation and doing all of your own promotion.
The Creative One
We are well aware that the reason you chose this line of work was to locate a creative outlet in which you could express who you are and articulate how you see the world in a way that is distinctive to you. This is wonderful, and there is no reason to splurge too much ink on it; however, the artist hat you should be wearing is in fact constrained by the other two positions you should also be exercising.
The Entrepreneur
As you work on your artwork, you should keep in mind that the finished product will have to satisfy the requirements of the market and will be governed by the supply and demand principles. This is something that you should keep in the forefront of your mind at all times. Because you want your art to be able to support itself economically, you are aware that your creative capacity will be constrained in the same way that it will be for everyone else who wishes to keep economic viability. But that’s not the point at all. There is still one more hat that you are going to be using, and we are going to talk about it in the following bullet point.
Chief Executive Officer of the Company
If you consider your work more comprehensively, taking into account the expense of your work, the expense of the products you’re using, or the expandability of your business, you’ll see that there are a number of other variables that you’ll need to keep in mind as you create your artworks. When you are the CEO of a company, you are responsible for a lot of different things, but one of the most important things you have to consider is the future of the project you are working on.
You are operating your company while keeping in mind, albeit with a certain degree of detachment, each of the complexities and difficulties that come with doing so. You will be constrained in some ways as a result of this, but as an entrepreneur, you ought to be able to see how the constraints that are imposed on your work can ultimately become factors that motivate you.
After giving it some thought, you should be able to see that in order to properly complete the task at hand, you need to consider a picture that is much broader than the one depicted on the canvas. We are going to talk about this idea throughout the rest of the post, but before we do, let’s focus on a very important issue, which is the reason you are doing this.
Spend Significant Time Contemplating the Significance of Your Work
We are not going to question the reasons behind your actions. We are aware of the fact that many people feel the need to express themselves creatively in the world, and that this feeling can be considered an existential necessity. However, when you consider your circumstance from a professional point of view, you need to recognize that the work you produce needs to be representative of something that is larger than just yourself. It is necessary for it to truly engage other people so that they will follow you or recognize the work you do for reasons that are completely unique to them.
In this context, you must always begin by explaining why something is happening. When you delve deeply into the motivation behind your art, you will be able to understand how to imbue your work with value systems that will make your artistic production modern, recent, and most importantly relevant. This will be possible because you will have gained a better understanding of the motivation behind your art.
The majority of artists put a significant amount of effort into comprehending why their work is significant to them; conversely, they put almost no effort whatsoever into comprehending why it ought to be significant to others. Taking this line of reasoning a step further, we would like to encourage you to give some thought to the following additional vital question: in what concrete ways does the message, cause, or issue that you are representing benefit from your work?
In today’s world, art does not need to be functional, but it does need to convey a meaning that is not limited to being merely self-indulgent or aesthetically pleasing. On the other hand, an artist needs to demonstrate a level of dedication and belief that is supported by a consistent path in both their personal and creative lives. Consider the work of artists who got their start by fashioning new pieces out of discarded materials, for instance. This kind of output demonstrates not only a concern for the environment but also an effort to recycle, which is very encouraging to see.
It is necessary for artists to conduct a significant amount of introspective research in order to determine what aspects of their lives are most important to them. Despite this, only a small percentage of artists go the additional mile to look for a cause that aligns with their artistic goals and thereby broadens the scope of their intended impact on the world.
When it comes to the process that an artist goes through to find their own unique stylistic individuality, there is another crucial step that must be taken. You don’t have to have everything figured out to be successful. In point of fact, you may also find that you are required to change and advance whenever you come to the conclusion that the individuality you have established no longer serves your needs.
Your journey presents a wonderful opportunity to build a following for yourself. Your journey to finding your artistic individuality will put you in a position where you can narrate a tale. If you are not developing a story or telling a narrative, you are losing out on a fantastic opportunity to build a following of people who share your values and who will take motivation from the difficulties you have overcome, the things you have tried, and the achievements you have achieved. You will find a large number of individuals prepared to share the hardship of entrepreneurialism with you if you’re open enough to demonstrate that you have struggled and that you have scars as a result of those struggles. This can be somewhat reassuring.
If You Are Able to Make a Living From Your Work
This happens all the time to us. The moment you entertain the idea of making money off of your work, its integrity is immediately compromised, and it is tainted with the avarice of the market. This is not something that we believe to be true, and we would strongly suggest that you keep your distance from people who hold such extreme viewpoints.
Even though many artists throughout the history of art, music, and cinema were constrained by the demands of difficult and bossy customers, this didn’t stop them from creating exceptional work that was appreciated by both critics and the general public. Mozart, for example, never composed music for the sake of art despite the fact that he was continuously endorsed to work starting at a very young age. However, nobody could accuse Mozart of being a sellout due to his talent.
The reality is that the guidelines of the industry have been formalized to assist us traverse a human terrain that is constituted of billions of individuals with divergent interests, value systems, requirements, and needs as well as differing opinions. Understand that in reality, you will need to devise a strategy all on your own even if you believe that the work you have done does not adhere to any of the concepts that have been recognized as a result of research that has been conducted over a number of decades. Don’t be under the impression that it can’t be done; in the event that you are successful, your approach will, in any case, become a marketing strategy.
If you wish to develop something that will consistently deliver value to other people, instead of simply commemorating yourself, you ought to care at least a small amount about what other individuals need (not really what they like; there is a critical difference there). What we mean this means that if you exist in society, you cannot abstract yourself from society.
No Two Creative Individuals Have the Same Requirements
As you begin to make your first sales, or even as you begin to set up your “operations,” you will be tempted to fall back on a series of scapegoats in order to excuse absolutely normal missteps as you create your work. Some people put the blame on their inability to find an agent, while others point the finger at their inability to find a gallery, and still, others point the finger at their lack of the relevant individuals by their side. The fact that there is no one person who can truly assist us is a reality that we have to come to terms with.
Any kind of expert assistance offered by the field will not in any way contribute to the durability of our achievements. On the other hand, it is a terrible waste of time to spend an excessive amount of time or funds searching for help from a professional to sort out problems from which we are capable of “bootstrapping” our way out. There is a phrase in Italian that literally translates to “arrange oneself.” It means making the most of the resources at your disposal while maintaining a positive attitude about the situation. The advantage is that, as we have already discussed, there is a great deal for you to understand if you wish to be successful. If this is the case, you will need to combine your artistic skills with some basics of running a business.
In addition, the only way to know for sure what kind of assistance you require is if you put in the effort to figure things out on your own to begin with. Before you start looking for assistance, you should challenge yourself by seeing how far you can go and how much you really can accomplish on your own, possibly with the assistance of a few tutorial videos. No two artists embark on the same adventure and are fitted with the precise mixture of talents, so before you start looking for assistance, you should do the difficult thing.
