Yesterday I had a student in my art appreciation class approach me with the question: Do you have any advice on how to become an artist?
To clarify, the student meant a ‘full-time’ fine-artist. To which I had to respond “I don’t know”. Many know that I am not yet full-time in the art world and whereas I take my career very seriously, I have had to find alternative forms of income in order to pay the bills (and go out for sushi). One, of course, is teaching and web development is another.
It is an interesting question and one that has no definitive answer. What makes it truly interesting is that there are a great deal of young artists who desire to be full-time out of college. My best advice for these artists is to think small. You will have to find a job (unless you have support) and slowly build yourself up. You could always hope for the overnight fame road, but that requires either truly extraordinary art or a billionaire backer.
This can’t be understated, but build up your portfolio. Don’t expect to be in any gallery exhibition with a catalog of say, 20 paintings. However, you can start looking to exhibit at libraries and restaurants, who are always open to new artists. My first showing was at the Enfield library in northern CT. It was the ugliest and most underdeveloped show on the planet… but it helped me evolve.
The reality is, don’t expect galleries to pay attention to you. I was once told by a gallery owner (and not a renown one) that they received over a dozen artist inquires a day via email. Meaning that most artists get completely overlooked. However, that should not discourage anyone. Your job as an aspiring artist is to dazzle gallery owners so that they are the ones trying to woo you. Yes, I said woo.
My biggest piece of advice is to either be serious about it or don’t even try. Trying to become a full-time artist takes years and many aspiring artists give up after several months claiming that it was “too hard”. So be tenacious and try not to get discourage. Sometimes art is all about persistence.
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