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!

So what happens when your Art group, council, society or club begins to shift from talking about volunteers and committees to assigning “Teams?” Is this a good change or a bad change? Or a wolf in sheep’s clothing?

Consumer demands are changing. Customers want more immediate access to the best relevant deals and are using the Internet as the primary way to redeem coupons. Now, one in five smartphone users use mobile coupons and the demographics of coupon users are shifting. AN excerpt:

Developing a strong work ethic has never stunted any artist’s creativity. And whoever thinks that is simply looking for an easy out! So with that in mind, if you need your ego stroked and your hand held, and my “get ‘er done” directness offends you, there are plenty of other bloggers making big money soft peddling the “artist life fantasy!” So I won’t apologize for skipping the feel good stuff because if you are serious about making a living with your art, you will be more interested, and won’t mind, getting down to brass tacks and making a Plan of Action for the year!

You would do well to follow the patterns of successful businesses and see what the trends are (they all have invested big bucks into market analysis) before randomly deciding to increase or decrease something as complex as pricing.

As the economy rolls on, all businesses are faced with decisions that were not in a long range business plan! Even the big boys are struggling to make sense of changing customer needs and have had to come up with creative and innovative marketing ideas to stay afloat.