Working as an Artist

My last art show, long-ago Artfest Midwest

It's interesting how much better-off financially I am than when I was selling my art work.  I have a lot of thoughts about working as an artist, some of it pretty opinionated.  I am not so sure that I would have just kept mosaic as a hobby while continuing to  work for the government full-time, but I sure would have gone about things differently. 

I've read that people who grew up with and were involved with self-employed parents, perfect example would be a family-owned restaurant, do better when they take the leap. I've seen this first-hand and believe it 100%. 

A truism spoken by a woman at the Small Business Association that I should have paid more attention to:  Banks don't loan money to chefs for a new restaurant, and they don't loan money to artists to open a gallery.  In fact, a long-time dishwasher at a restaurant has a better chance at that loan than the chef. 

And good luck finding time to create as you follow guidelines from "experts" to join, post and "share" in a billion different social media platforms. It was hard when I started in 2004, but damned near impossible now, unless you don't require much sleep. 

Art shows -- WHOA, don't even get me started.  But of course I won't be able to resist telling you ALL about those types of events. 

It always feels good to vent, as long as I don't get into the habit of doing it all of the time.  Stay tuned for more musings, and thanks for reading!