Great article well worth thinking about. A little taster:
You don’t have to settle, it’s simply a choice you make every day. If you feel like you’re running in place there’s a good chance you’re tolerating things you shouldn’t be. It’s time to reclaim your life.
via 20 Things Life Is Too Short To Tolerate
Are you aware of what you have been tolerating for too long? If so, what is it, and how do you intend to work on it?
I’d love to hear from you…
© Petra Raspel 2014
This is a really excellent, informative article by Dr. Noa Kageyama I thought many of you might find interesting.
Here a little taster:
Sure, it’s important to obsess over all the particular technical or musical details which we struggle with. But are we also spending enough time identifying, nurturing, honing, and maximizing the things we naturally do best, that come easily to us?
Visit his blog The Bulletproof Musician, even if you are not a musician/performer – you will find a wealth of interesting, helpful and entertaining posts.
via On Becoming Strengths-Focused, Whole-Hearted Artists.
© Petra Raspel 2014
I just found a wonderful blog post by Barrie Davenport and thought I’d share it with you.
It is essentially about lying to ourselves, making excuses and blaming the past (and others) for not moving forward with our lives and careers.
Here’s a quote to get you started:
We say things like . . .
- Everything in my life is bad right now.
- I can’t do that or my family would fall apart.
- I’ve tried that before and it never works.
- I can’t live without him (her).
- I’m just not disciplined enough.
- I’m totally overwhelmed.
- I’ll never get out from under this debt.
- There’s no way to change my life.
- I’ll never be able to find a job I love.
- My childhood (divorce, break-up, job loss) has wounded me forever.
Find the full post at The Crippling Lies You May Be Telling Yourself | Live Bold & Bloom, and have a look at this post about resistance and fear of change.
If you are a singer/musician, you might also find this post from my singing blog interesting.
Do any of these things sound familiar to you?
© Petra Raspel 2013
Since the question “How do I sell my art?” came up a few times during my series “Finding your inner artist in 30 quotes“, I thought this article might be of interest to some of you. Here a little excerpt to get you started:
Mary-Alice Stack, director of ArtCo Projects, Arts Council England:
Put the customer first: I’d say that the sector as a whole could do more in terms of this. I know that from the artist’s perspective the process of creating and presenting contemporary art to an audience isn’t necessarily always about making a sale, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be clear about the opportunity to buy, if it exists.
Make it fun: The process of discovering a piece of work, bidding, buying it and taking it home for the first time is an exciting and rather addictive experience! That’s the thrill of collecting – no matter what you are interested in or how big your budget.
Stop chasing ‘collectors’ only: Too often both artists and galleries are concentrating so hard on that elusive and mythical ‘serious’ collector that they completely overlook the opportunity to foster the potential interest from ‘normal’ people. Even serious collectors were once first time buyers. Let’s not forget that.
Bare all: We all need to work together to help customers develop an understanding and appreciation of the way in which art is created and produced, so that they are able to get to grips with way in which work is valued and priced.
via Selling art: 17 top tips from the experts | Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional (this is where you can find the whole article, which is a condensed version of a live chat).
Would you like to share your own experience with your fellow artists? Please leave a comment below!
I can’t believe how quickly this month of inspirational quotes and related thoughts has went by. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I did.
First of all, here comes the last quote:
You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. ~ Rabindranath Tagore.
Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel prize for literature. It is the first Nobel prize won by Asia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is obviously a quote about being pro-active. And what better way of bringing this series to end than asking you(rself) what you feel your art is lacking at the moment. Is it related to the creative side of things, or do you think you could do with better business skills? Or maybe a mix of both?
Knowing this alone won’t help, but it is a first step – only awareness can lead to actually making changes.
And because I obviously don’t intend to stop blogging as of today, I would like to add a little poll to this post, because I’m interested in what you would like to read next. I obviously cannot write anything specifically related to an art-form I am not familiar with (I am predominantly a musician), but I can write something about artist coaching – both in the personal and business sense. So here comes:
Please also feel free to add any other options you are interested in. I look forward to your replies, and thanks again for stopping by!
artist sense 