Joanne Mattera Art Blog + Success

Since I've been focusing on the business side of things lately, I've been really appreciating Joanne Mattera's blog in which she dedicates her Monday posts to marketing (Marketing Mondays). Her latest post on this Monday morning lays out some hopes and realities for success for artists. What does it look like? What can we hope it to look like and what is the reality for most of us? While it can be discouraging to recognize that I could work a lifetime and not receive the the success or recognition that I dream of, it's nice to know that most artists are in the same boat. We won't know if/when success will come and what it will look like, so you have to just keep creating for your own pleasure or out of blind faith.

The College Art Association Conference happened here in Chicago this last weekend and my Alma Mater, the Savannah College of Art and Design, had an alumni reception. I thought it might be fun to check out- to see if I knew any of the professors there and maybe meet other SCAD graduates in Chicago. Unfortunately word got out about the open bar and I didn't really meet anyone that actually went to SCAD. I did have a conversation with one person who had been a dean (I think at SCAD, although I'm not sure) in which the conversation felt like he was trying to maintain his superior status by whatever means possible. He would ask me about my work and only to make sure I wasn't making any major mistakes. Do I get model release forms? What type of lighting do I use on my models? Am I using acrylic or oil?

After describing that I work two part time jobs in addition to working as an artist and that most of the shows I've been in I have fallen into by being contacted or invited to, he took it to mean that I'm not really focusing on being an artist. He then decided to to enlighten me as to what it would be like to be an artist "once I got serious". This coming from someone who at 60 (?) is just being published (and when I say published, I mean he's printing out a book he put together with a friend at Kinko's). I took this as my cue to go replenish my drink at the bar.

Getting stuck in an awkward conversation where I was being treated like a child and looked at as a hobby artist was frustrating until I remembered that immediately after this reception I was going to a show opening in which I have work included, and that in less than a month, my solo show will be opening as well.

It's not exactly major success (yet), but that night I felt pretty good about where I'm at right now, knowing that I've really only just begun.