rethinking

here's a few photos of this past weekends art show...

i have to say that everything leading up to this show and the show itself created a huge change/shift in me. a realization that swept over me at 3 am friday morning and has stuck with me since. i'm still processing it all and trying to catch up on my sleep! but i will definitely be making some changes this year with my art.

i know my art has a limited audience and for me that has always been alright as my art was one of the few areas in my life that i totally and stubbornly controlled...no one could tell me what i should and should not create. so there's this fine line between creating art for oneself and creating to sell. this weekend made me really see, for the first time, that up to this point i really have created for myself. so i can't honestly expect to have a large audience for it and expect to sell a lot of it.

the question is am i ready to let go of just creating for myself in order to sell?

i believe i am

and i think i found a subject matter that will be more marketable, altho i hate that word as it sounds like selling out. trust me i wouldn't.

it meant a lot to me, this past weekend that others found meaning within what i do. i've always done art because i have to, which, i suppose is another way of saying i do it for myself.

i am an artist. plain and simple.

but...i'm slowly coming to realize that if i am to succeed at this~ thereby making a living at it, i need to think about what the audience wants to see, what will sell. i know that thinking about your art as a product takes all the mystery and romance out of it, but it is essential to do if i want to become a financially successful and creative professional.

a shout out and many thanks to my friend mark who took the photos of me with different people and made friday night really fun! and to a new artist friend nina koumachian ehlig for letting me snag some of her photos!!