I was having a conversation with a friend on DMs on Instagram after she replied to one of my stories. 

I shared another artist’s post about how retirement for an artist is doing more of the good stuff of making art.

She said its great if you love something that it doesn’t seem like work. And that is exactly my sentiment 🙂 I can see myself happily tucked away in my studio, in my world of colours and paints coming up with ideas and works that make me frustrated, happy, curious and trying to figure things out. That would definitely be a big part of my ideal life of the future.

And I said that yeah, the art part is great, but I think the work comes in being an entrepreneur, and making sure one keeps growing as an artist. At least, these two things are my challenges. 

I have no experience with running, let alone, starting a business. I am figuring out from the very scratch all the things I need to think about, plan and execute. 

And learning is forever. I would get bored of making the same kind of art over and over again. And even if I do, I mean for it to grow with me, get better, more sensitive, more free…more me. 

My friend then talked about the pressure of being a professional makes any creative endeavor into a job, and it puts off many talented artists and musicians from getting the recognition because they don’t want to bother with the business and hustling side of things. 

We’ve all heard this story before, right? A person who wanted to sew a few dresses for herself and her friends because it made her happy, is suddenly making 50 a month to sell, and hating it. Or the deadline pressure of having written a book that one wanted to take their time and enjoy writing, evaporates all the enjoyment out of writing. Etc. etc.

That obviously got me thinking.

The business side of things is the hardest part for me. In the beginning when I was brand new to doing anything close to being an organized effort to put my art out in the world, and making sure I have records, and a website and pricing and marketing ideas in place, it just seemed like a back breaking endevour.

I would wonder why I couldn’t get anyone else to just do the rest for me while I hone my skills, spend hours in the studio and get my creativity flowing.

So two things are wrong with this situation. Now that I am a little bit wiser than a few years ago.

Number one: No one uses time efficiently if they have hours and hours at their disposal. 

There is a lot of procrastination in the form of hanging out on the phone, finding other things to do (clean up the studio, wash some dishes, read a book- I am guilty of all of these!). Or simply just not doing the work. Because deep down we know the work doesn’t take that long. But that also doesn’t mean we know how much time we really need, and may end up short changing ourselves due to all the procrastination that went on before we hunkered down. Which means, having too much time on hand to do anything is not conducive to doing good work.

Number two: Good work is never just the one thing we enjoy.

This is something I have to remind my teenager all the time. He loves playing his piano to learn new songs, but he is not so interested in practicing his scales, or working on music theory.

And then I say to him, well, making a beautiful dish of food that we really enjoy doing also comes with grocery shopping, washing the produce, chopping them, prepping the ingredients, cleaning up after and taking care of the dishes.

Or that going on a lovely vacation takes all the planning, packing, getting to the airport on time, and coming back to an empty fridge, and getting back to work still jet-lagged.

We can’t just have the good thing. We also have to take care of the details that make that good thing happen. And we have to move ahead and it all over again once the good thing is over.

In fact there is more of the drudgery than of the good thing. But the good thing we desire makes all the drudgery worth it. And all the work we put in makes it a more satisfying experience, I believe.

Otherwise, there won’t be all the books that get published every week, or movies that get made, or the paintings that we see in galleries, or all the music we can stream on Spotify. We wouldn’t be listening to all the podcasts that come out every single day, if someone was not willing to put in the work. 

None of that would happen if some of us did not sign up to go through the drudgery of making one good thing at a time, and then keep making more with all the expected drudgery that surrounds it.

Thankfully, people do the work and put the good things out in the world. And we all benefit from it. We all get to live in the richness of their endevours- both creatively, and entrepreneurially. 

So, yes, I do identify that there is WAY more to being an artist than just hanging out in the studio getting some blissful time in making art. 

But mindset matters in a big way too. We can choose to have fun, and get through the hard parts, or scale the hard parts according to our needs and abilities. Or we can give up.

And in all honesty, I actually do enjoy the business side of things too. Because it is a big learning curve for me, it’s a great challenge that keeps me on my toes. And lets me craft it in my very own way. 

But that is a topic for another post.

Right now, I am dreaming of being an old lady happy to make art and using the vehicle of my very own business that I build with intention and purpose over time to make my art available to the world.

And having this dream will help me be excited about life every single morning when it’s time to get out of bed…

And, I am thankful to my friend for helping me sort out my own thoughts and plans on this topic…