How Selling Artwork Frees You to Do Your Best Work

I recently watched an interview with a novelist who talked about the difference between when he was working odd jobs and now that he is steadily selling books. He said the difference between then and now is how much more he is able to write. Before he received advances and royalties, a large portion of each day was spent at a job. Now, he can totally devote his daytime hours to writing – and not just his time, but his thoughts and energy.

As artists, we often spend the beginning part of our career just trying to fit our passion into all the other aspects of our life, with work being a big part of it. By selling art and building up a reputation, we are free to pursue art as a larger portion of our day. That transfer might be quick, or it might be gradual. Perhaps as your art begins to sell, you move from working a job full time to part time. The important thing is that you are moving in that direction with purpose.

Consider this scenario that you may have seen with some artists, maybe even yourself. An artist works on his or her art month after month, year after year, building up a repository of work. Perhaps the thought is that the time will be right when the artist has enough “good” pieces for a gallery opening of sorts. Meanwhile, available creative time is limited by all the demands of job and life. Development is hampered by more than the lack of time. It also lacks feedback from human response.

Now look at another scenario. Every piece you create is put up for sale. This may be through attending art events, posting online, or even pounding the pavement between galleries – the latter being a difficult, though doable start. As people see and respond to your work, you can understand what communicates and what does not. Even though the income may be small at first, it will grow as you build both your reputation and your talent.

This may not be everyone’s way of seeing things, but I believe an artist grows best with an audience. I’m not talking about people who fawn over the artist or simply adore the work because they consider themselves art lovers. I’m talking about those who connect with the art in some way and can communicate that connection. Those are the people who help an artist grow, because they can also communicate when a piece or a new direction does not connect. The only way to find those people is to put the work out there to be found.

Even putting your work out to the world and making a living from your art requires you to strike a balance. The balance is between time creating your art – the passion you worked for – and time promoting your art. Keeping the promoting from interfering with the creating may sometimes seem selfish. However, every creator of note will tell you that selfishly guarding your creative time is the only way to sustain both your art career and your passion – and possibly your sanity.

The most proven strategy for guarding your creative time is to delegate or automate as much of the promotion work as you can. For artists who’ve “made it,” this usually means an agent. For those who are still on the road toward that level of commercial success, technology needs to be your agent. Add in just enough art events to let you see how people respond to your work and stick to it. Make the system of selling your work as automated as you can. After all, the point of selling your work is to free you from some of the busy work of life to pursue creating more art.