Welcome new members and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our members! To new members-there is much in the archives and links-browse through them all!
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/ArtistPaycheck/

This past year I have made more of a transition to  our Facebook page …and that’s to help me out. I pretty much work all the blogs, newsletters, etc.  single handed. So if there are far fewer posts that is the reason! Of course all of you are all welcome to add your comments, recommendations, etc here and on our FB page!

The other reason I have not posted as much is, yes, you guessed it, work!. As artists whose every bill is paid solely from the sales of our art, our priority is creating and selling our art.

So I have about 20 minutes this morning, here in front of the fire with hot coffee on a cold rainy (and not sure why it’s not snowing!) 37 degree morning here in NC. We plan to leave to see family in Pennsylvania tomorrow where I KNOW there is snow and return just after New Years.

We worked our tails off this month! Steve painted enough to need ice on his shoulder each night a week before Christmas and I kept just as busy with the portraits, the deliveries , the art classes and the displays. We both were zapped with some creeping crud around Thanksgiving and hacked our way through the studio for two weeks…but hey, we got through it!  There is an old saying “Make hay while the sun shines” and for every month where the sales are overwhelming, there are two months where they are so so and 1, sometimes  2 during the year where I wonder what a regular paycheck would feel like! Then I remember the days where I did not want to work and drove through the countryside at random, walked wooded trails or took out a kayak or spent the day working in my herb and flower garden or just messed about with random art for the fun of it….and I think “Nah-h-h!”

So we’ll be sending out Jan newsletter when we return and I will share just HOW we are able to “live the life of an artist”.  SO if that doesn’t keep you on pins and needles, nothing will
To see that Steve and I are real people, below is a list of our FB pages. Don’t like or use FB? You should…many of our collectors respond quicker to our messaging through FB than even the phone!

Happy NEW Year!

Theresa    www.facebook.com/MTheresaBrown
Steve         http://www.facebook.com/stephen.filarsky

www.facebook.com/artcareerexperts

Feeling the sweat roll down your back while you slow bake over the asphalt at an outdoor art fair in Florida is not a good time to realize that you forgot the sunblock or your hat or the cooler. Discovering that the artists must all park 30 blocks from the show is not a good time to realize that you left the hand cart in the studio!
I could go on and on but you get the picture. Make a list.

Depending on what your art product is, the ability to find wholesale outlets can be a challenge. Partnering with active organizations or having an arts council that can do that is, as they say, a “win win” situation for all concerned. The critical point is that this organizations “gets it.” There is always more impetus [...]

Funny thing is that the trend today is to hire someone to unclutter your life, organize your closets, design the perfect clutter free environment, or join on line groups that make your lists for you .

Artists often need beauty and quiet times for inspiration…. it’s a perfect place for many of our classes and our art retreats. Sure you can find the beauty elsewhere as an option. But being a part of it, nourishing it and reveling in it…well now, that’s the artist’s life!

another key advantage for Pinterest is in its easy-to-use interface. People can navigate it and create new boards without much trouble or confusion – very clean, and very simple.

There are shortcomings, however……..

This says it all! Normally a portrait this size, commissioned by a client, would have fetched $900.00  Even though the Pennsylvania woman offered to pay me for the commission, I said “No.” There are times when you have to give back and this was one of those. -seriously, how can you charge a mainly all-volunteer [...]

“Sunn [sic], the difference ‘tween involvement and commitment is the same as the difference ‘tween eggs and bacon. The chicken is involved. The pig is committed.” It’s hard to argue with that.

Think of all the time some of you may be spending daily on the computer reading other people’s blogs and devote some of that time to your own creative research. Sometimes you just have to get out there and do it!