Art Musings: Becoming a Working Artist

There has been a lot going on for my career as of late. All of the networking, and hard work is coming together. For the past two years I have been utilizing a two pronged strategy: Create eye catching iPad paintings and market them intelligently. I still have a ways to go before I reach my end goal but I have new opportunities to help me get there. For starters I am involved with Metropolitan Business Academy and Artspace in New Haven. MBA has me every Thursday for iPad art classes with High School students and Artspace is fronting the bill. I have a great relationship with the school and Artspace and they've been very supportive of my endeavors.

Secondly an ad I placed on Craigslist bared fruit recently. I secured my first steady Cartooning job drawing comic strips for The Orange Times. They've been very receptive of my ideas and they give me an enormous amount of freedom when it comes to putting together the strips. Some of my artist friends ask me if I have an agent and I simply say no. I would much rather be my own agent and learn how the game works then leave the handling of my art to someone else. In most cases I want 100% of the profits. And opportunity like this wouldn't have come without me putting myself out there. I think creative types can be afraid to do just that yet we expect results. We want recognition but shudder at the thought of others critiquing our work.

I used to be that way myself until going to SVA broke me out of it. I just had to roll with the punches. Part of becoming known as an artist is getting critiqued and challenged. I see that happening to me more as I participate in events like City Wide Open Studios. As I said before feedback is generally positive but the art I do is not for everyone, especially since it's iPad art. Some just won't see the vision I have and that's ok.

Lastly my most exciting job opportunity comes from Sony and Pello Events. I will be working nine days on and off using the Sony Duo tablet and ArtRage. This could be my biggest gig yet. My friend Richard Shulman referred me awhile ago and I almost forgot all about it. If you're good to people it usually comes back to you ten fold. I treat everyone that shows interest in my work with gratitude and respect. You can only do so much by yourself.

 

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