I am working to be a Professional Artist.
Professional Artist = wear big girl/boy boots and get paid for artwork.
I have been reading a lot about what entrepreneurs are supposed to do to be successful*. Do twitter, do facebook, comment your butt off, tweet your butt off, schmooze yourself silly, network … and so on. The more I read, the more I add to the list of things “every entrepreneur MUST do to be successful” that I do not appear to be doing. Enter despair and feelings of inadequacy.
Feeling inadequate = STUCK + The Resistance = Not a Professional Artist!
I was working on a new piece the other day (“Everything that rises may converge .. even though”) when I realized something about marketing.
I do know how to market! I am marketing right now. I am a rather successful marketer at that. I do illicit the exact response my subconscious has told me was the right thing all these years.
Theory:
The purpose of marketing is to illicit specific response or responses from the individuals that come into contact with the thing being marketed.
My marketing goal had been: do not get hit, do not get yelled at, do not get pushed down and do whatever you feel necessary to keep the peace. I have successfully accomplished those things by hiding my work and seeming to suddenly loose my mind when asked about any of my work.
Unfortunately those things don’t work very well to keep the spirit of the artwork alive, nor the actual artist.
Still interesting and useful information because it lead me to an understanding that we are always marketing! Yes. We are our marketing (or brand) always.
I had realized heard that we are our brand. If I don’t officially have a business how could I possibly be my brand? [Slaps head] I don’t have a business yet because of the why of my marketing!?
“Keep the peace!”
If the essence of my marketing had been to keep the peace, what are other or additional ways I could cultivate peace in a way that is sustainable to my artwork, health and well being?
How could I get my values and anti-values satiated more peacefully? From a place of love?
My why had been to “Keep the peace!”.
What could my new why be?
$elf-supporting.
Promote peace.
Cultivate Love.
Cultivate artists and our Great Work.
I have this thing in me to do.
We are all connected.
My right people and I need each other.
To climb higher and be in a place to offer a hand up.
What is my new why?
I’m not sure yet. Possibly all of the above and more. Possibly something totally different.
*Noter bien: thinking about it a bit more, it occurs to me that there exists a significant possibility that the writers of the articles I read had very different definitions of success than each other and myself. This is a good reminder to look at my own definition of success and re-evaluate it again.
