Five Artists share lessons learned

Learn­ing from past actions is impor­tant for us all…it is how we grow and in the case of cre­atives, sharpen our cre­ativ­ity. As I men­tioned yes­ter­day the more we keep judg­ment out and let learn­ing in the more cre­ative we become and more will­ing we are to let go of fear. When we let go of fear we open up to new oppor­tu­ni­ties on all lev­els. Today our five artists talk about what they learned in 2009 and how those lessons will shape their future. For all, 2009 rep­re­sented great leaps in faith and depar­ture from the “accepted” way to “do art”. Each artist actively engaged new ways to become vis­i­ble whether social media, or more tra­di­tional methods.

They also expe­ri­enced per­sonal insight into the impor­tance of bal­ance in their lives as well as the impor­tance of open non-structured time to allow their muses time to work.

What did you learn from 2009?

Jan Blencowe

| web site | blog | twit­ter | face­book |

Social media and inter­net vis­i­bil­ity is impor­tant, and will con­tinue to have grow­ing importance.

It’s impor­tant to invest in your art career and seek out the help of experts when nec­es­sary. The mon­e­tary invest­ment to pur­chase their ser­vices is worth it on many levels.

Giv­ing is as impor­tant as get­ting. I donated sev­eral paint­ings this year to wor­thy orga­ni­za­tions and will do so again in 2010. Clearly I can’t donate to every request, because I get quite a few, but choos­ing causes close to my heart to donate to felt really good!

Tak­ing time to fill my cre­ative well and let new ideas per­co­late is as impor­tant to the paint­ing process as time at the easel.

Sys­tems for orga­niz­ing data, files, mail­ing lists etc are help­ful and impor­tant even though I resist using them, because of the time required to set them up and imple­ment them.

Kris­ten Stein

| web site | blog | twit­ter |face­book |

For me 2009 was the year of social media. I actively cre­ated fan pages and per­sonal pro­file pages on Face­book (http://artist.to/kristensteinfineart), Twit­ter(http://twitter.com/kristensteinart) and LinkedIn ( http://www.linkedin.com/in/kristensteinfineart) as well as sev­eral local artist sites. I met a whole new group of artists, crafters and friends who all share great entre­pre­neur­ial spirit. Their love for what they cre­ate is truly inspi­ra­tional and moti­vates me to con­tinue on my artis­tic path.  In 2009, even more than in pre­vi­ous years, I real­ize that cre­at­ing and mar­ket­ing art­work truly is a full-time 24/7 job. I feel for­tu­nate to have friends and fam­ily who are incred­i­bly sup­port­ive and seem to under­stand the time involved.

Michelle Ciarlo-Hayes

|web site |etsy |

Set­ting a lofty goal does not mean dis­ap­point­ment if you do not achieve it. Don’t be afraid of not reach­ing your num­ber — sim­ply fig­ure out what you could do to improve the next time around.

Liese Mar­tin

| blog | twit­ter |

If you are super dri­ven like I am, you need to take a break once and a while. Early in the year I missed out on some oppor­tu­ni­ties to spend qual­ity time with my hus­band due to over­work­ing myself, so I made sure once and a while to get out of town with no lap­top so I was sure to focus on what is REALLY impor­tant in my life. I never want to take those I love for granted, as deter­mined as I am to suc­ceed. I also learned that I have to say “no” some­times. I will try to remem­ber that more in the com­ing year.

Also, I learned that it can’t ALL be about what is “mar­ketable”. I have got­ten to the point where I actu­ally feel guilty about cre­at­ing some­thing that is just to please myself. I am learn­ing that that is not good for my cre­ative spirit. I will strive for more self-fulfilling works in 2010 in between the “pop­u­lar” works, and just enjoy it!

*I started the year with some­thing just for me. I am attach­ing it to this inter­view. It may not sell, but it felt damn good to cre­ate some­thing with my own taste in mind.

Jane Camp­bell

| blog | Twit­ter |

I learned that bal­ance is so impor­tant. I have to find bal­ance. Daily struc­ture when work­ing at home is a must. Time to mar­ket, time to paint, time to play and there has to be a quit­ting time!