This Week Notepad | $10 | kindlivingdesigns

It would be like heaven for me to spend an entire week in my fiber art studio. I would be elbow-deep in wool for two straight days, followed by detailed embroidery and perfect photography, and then the weekend would roll around, and I would rest. Sadly, over the long run, I could never make a living this way!

As an artist, I am in business, and making my art is only one part—not the whole job—of making a living. As my folks used to say, self-employed people wear many hats, and a profitable artist and crafter needs to switch hats on a regular basis (and sadly, will likely work many weekends).

I wear three hats consistently: Artist, Marketer, and Communicator

My Artist time is key time for designing art or making art that I have sold. As a full-time professional folk artist, I allow myself approximately 25 hours a week in the wool! I hand needle felt my art, so working more than this is a carpal tunnel concern. Skipping my artist time is not a good idea, either. If I don’t make art every week, I feel dissatisfied. I also know that Internet sales success requires new art on a regular basis. I need to keep my offerings fresh, and I also need to keep orders caught up, and thankfully, there are orders.

My marketing hat time is organized into two sections. I limit my work on my Internet presence, which includes my etsy shop, my own website, and all of my smaller online galleries, to two hours each morning (7 days a week—gotta do it), and another 15 minutes each evening to refresh my online shops. This includes posting new art as well as other site maintenance. The second section in my marketing effort involves participation in artistic communities, both online and face-to-face. This takes the form of blog readership, gallery visits, and Council on the Arts communities. I believe it is important to avoid creating in a vacuum…I keep my eyes on what is happening in my industry, as well as what is happening in nature, as that is my subject of choice.

The final hat I wear is that of Communicator. By this I mean the time I spend emailing my customers, packaging my art with interesting and relevant information, and sending my writing out into the world. I know that not all artists like to write, and if you do not, there still needs to be a communication element to being a successful business person/artist. So, we all plug away, communicating to the best of our ability. For those artists who do not have a brick and mortar shop, this face-time with others is really computer time, and it needs to be tended to.

I have two truly helpful resources to pass along as you think about the hats you wear as an artist/craftsperson. My friend Caroll Michels wrote an important book called How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist. It is now in its sixth edition, so my guess is that many folks have found this book and Caroll’s expertise to be helpful. I know I have! She can be found at www.artisthelpnetwork.com

The second resource I hope you will enjoy is called Art-Support. This website lists many, many resources to organizations, commissions, grants, and books all about helping artists succeed. I certainly have found many useful resources there. You can find Art-Support at http://art-support.com/artisthelp.htm

I still daydream about putting all of the business-oriented work involved in being a well-fed artist into a big basket and handing it over to some super-talented business manager-type sweetheart. Oh, that would be like heaven, to know that someone other than me was wearing all of these business hats! I could spend long days and peaceful weeks playing with color and plumping wool. And then, I wake up, and know I can handle all of the jobs required of a successful artist. I can handle them, and I can have balance, and it all begins by tending to my time organization.

~ Georgianne Holland