A new year continues and we are so encouraged with our totals for 2011 and our first few months of sales in 2012!

But it has not come without adjusting and adapting to market changes. Changing what we are doing and the way we have been doing things in our art business was not initially in our long range forecast . It is easy to think that things will stay the same and so it always comes as a surprise when it does not. :-)

But last night, while sitting with Steve in a Cracker Barrel restaurant, looking at all the historical objects on the wall...you know what I mean-old advertisements, photos, signs, artifacts....the vague thoughts that pop up every time I walk into that place finally accumulated into a cohesive realization. (drum roll please) I realized, truly realized, that "nothing stays the same." Looking at the walls, my former elusive thoughts finally came together. There were product signs of items that have come and gone and I never heard of some and had forgotten others! There were beautifully rendered hand created paintings and artwork ads, signage, ad copy and prints for the same past products.

And then I thought about how it applies to art and how we are all expecting to keep doing what we are doing because that's what we do. Art has changed so much since 1910 or even 1950. Ads have changed, products have changed, needs have apparently changed and how the art was originally created has changed dramatically.

So just how does this apply to your art? Well just like musicians and writers, some careers or products are a flash in the pan or one hit wonders. We expect that what we do in art to not change. We expect to "stay the course" even as sales with many artists drop or the time to produce them makes a profit impossible. Is this wise? So many past dreams hung on that Cracker Barrel wall that I wondered what happened.

Then I realized that nothing had happened but Time and the changes it brings to everything. This is not bad. We all know that technology has totally changed the art world. The influx of digital art and photography has killed off some of the previous giants of the industry. Who ever thought that Kodak as we all knew it would disappear? And yet it was a brand new world just 50 years ago! Apply that to television, video, newspapers, the US postal service, movies....the list goes on and on.

So what keeps a company afloat when the times change? What keeps an artist or a musician in the public eye for decades rather than a year? I thought about this for awhile as I waited for my order. It hasn't been the first time I have pondered this. but last night it stayed with me and today I had to form it into words. Actually it can all be condensed into three words : flexibility, adaptability and versatility.

I am grateful for my college art history courses for without them, I would be ignorant of how the past great artists truly lived those three words. How they adapted and changed with the times. How Picasso re-invented himself and his art every decade, how Degas worked from photos, or Rembrandt joined a guild run by a businessman who brokered the portrait deals, or how Michelangelo's abilities with various mediums got him the big commissions, or Andy Warhol was a trained commercial artist, or how Monet painted mainly in his studio and staged many of the outdoor photos of him painting for marketing or WInslow Homer used the same subject in a highly successful painting over and over, or how Martha Washington never got her famous Peale portrait of Washington because Peale was making too much money using it to paint reproductions of the late president......so many more and all of these artists adapted to changing times, expectations and the market to stay successful without damage to their reputations or image!

We have been successful because we have been flexible, adaptable and versatile. An example would be one of Steve's specialties as a sign artist. Reading our bios you will know that his specialty was hand lettering and gold leaf gilding. Computers totally changed that industry making inroads with computerized sign franchises and vinyl lettering and graphics. All of a sudden, anyone could be a sign artist! But Steve narrowed his niche down to his gold leaf market (which still must be hand lettered) and re-directed his marketing. This would be a classic case of "not seeing this coming" and that is where the unwelcome surprise can be disastrous. Sign artists were faced with a choice - adapt, specialize or get out of the business.

We often hear that it is not whether or not challenges will come your way but how you will cope with those challenges. Just like the many ads of past products on the walls in the Cracker Barrel, I wondered if the businesses had coped? Did someone go bankrupt? Did the company flounder or was that product just one of a few that just faded out? Did a company stubbornly refuse to believe that the need for their product would fade? Did they see it coming or were they caught off guard? Did they toss it and concentrate on another? Or did the failure of one product open their eyes to the benefit of another?

In the midst of wondering where the past products had gone, I could see that some of the old ads were for products that are still around-all that had changed was how they were being marketed. And I knew that there was a lesson on those walls that every artist and every business could benefit from!

The times WILL change and if you are an artist who truly wants to make a living from your art, being aware of the changes, the market and "which way the wind blows" will be your hedge against being caught off guard! Stay current, stay focused, and accept that nothing stays the same so run with it!

And, oh yes, the lemon peppered trout was fabulous!

Steve's Musings:

Well, I must confess that while Theresa's thoughts were on the walls of Cracker Barrel, mine were on whether to order the haddock or the meatloaf :-) I joined her with the fish. Once my coffee arrived I let my thoughts follow hers and she hit the nail right on the head with the hammer. It is a sobering fact when something you have trained for and studied for sort of goes out the window overnight and this is when you let a slamming door lead you in another direction! The changing times simply re-directed me into an area of art I had "thought about" but had not ventured into. I have never looked back.