For as long as I could remember, it was a great day if I spent a good portion of it with my pencil and paper. So, naturally, one day I thought, “Hey, what if I turn this into a business? I’ll have so much more time to create art, right?” Wrong! I soon found out that running a business is…running a business. Yes, my business was about art, but that didn’t mean that the endless laundry list of business tasks wasn’t still there.

Instead of creating art, I was working on SEO, writing blog posts, collaborating with companies, doing paperwork, the list goes on and on. How had I ended up running a business about art without having time to create art? More importantly, what fun was it to strip all the art out of my life in exchange for SEO and paperwork? No thank you! Things needed to change.

I’m happy to say that I eventually found a way to bring art creation back into my life, while still checking the boring business stuff off the list. I achieved what I like to call “work-art balance.”

Here are some strategies I used to find my own work-art balance that you can use to find your own.

1. TREAT YOUR ART LIKE WORK

For most of my life, art has been a passion of mine. When I turned my art into a business, I didn’t want to put it in the same category as all my tedious business tasks.

I was wrong. In fact, it was really helpful to see my art as “work,” living in the same category as all of my other business tasks. Prior to this categorization, my art was easy to dismiss. There was always something more urgent to do relating to my business. Once I put my art into the same category as my business, it leveled the playing field. Suddenly, my art was an important task that I needed to get done every day.

One of the reasons I was hesitant to see my art as work is that I didn’t want to destroy my enjoyment of it by seeing it as a job. This concern was valid. That said, I had already decided to start a business around my art, which shattered this distinction anyways.

Like it or not, my art was now my job and deserved to be a high priority in my work life. It also deserved to be just as enjoyable as it was before. There was no reason why I needed to enjoy my art less just because it became my job.

Understanding this concept was key to seeing art creation as an important part of my workday.

I also get the added benefit of saying that I’m going to work, which really means that I’m going to sit on the couch and watch my favorite show as I draw on Procreate.

2. SCHEDULE TIME FOR YOUR ART

Once I started appropriately viewing art as my job, it was time to add it to my schedule. I scheduled all my other work commitments and finally saw art as one of those work commitments. I needed to schedule time for it as well.

We all know that scheduling can be an overly complicated mathematical equation that’s unique for every individual. I’d like to say that I found a special way to make extra time appear in my day, but I didn’t. Just like everyone else, I needed to solve my own mathematical equation, shift some numbers around, and evaluate the outcome. After some trial and error and missteps, I landed on a schedule that lets me create art almost every day.

It’s not perfect, and I miss more days than I would like, but having it on my schedule has increased my consistency and output. It also has ensured that my art is kept as a high priority in my life that can’t be pushed aside.

While it might feel daunting at first, commit to scheduling your art creation time in the same way you would your other work commitments. It’s not going to be perfect, but that’s ok! Simply committing to scheduling your art creation, even if you can’t always stick to it, can go a long way to making art creation a regular part of your workday that doesn’t get overshadowed by other tasks.

3. HAVE ART MARATHONS

Given my last tip, it’s clear that I’m a fan of scheduling making art into my daily workflow. That said, something else I’ve become a fan of is art marathons. These are days where the only work-related thing I do is create art. I announce it to my family, so they don’t fill my day with laundry and yard work; I queue up a movie marathon or TV series I’ve been meaning to watch; I make sure we have enough snacks and tea. I make a big deal of it! This keeps it fun, as well as productive.

I can’t even tell you how much I love these art marathons. A full day of art sounds dreamy. A full day of art that also doubles as a productive workday? Now that’s bliss.

If you’re someone who struggles to task switch throughout the day, art marathons can be especially helpful. Instead of having to put away your art at the very moment when you’re in a good groove, the whole day is open for your creativity and production. If I’m enjoying my art, I don’t have to stop in 20 minutes to write a social media post or handle the endless amount of other tasks on my to-do list. Just create art.

I also find that art marathons ease the pressure of finding time to create art regularly, while bringing the passion back into it at the same time. If I happen to miss one of my daily art sessions, I know that I have an art marathon ahead to make up for it.

I find myself looking forward to these art marathon days. I daydream about what I’m going to create and how fun it will be. When creating art starts to feel more like a work necessity than a passion, an art marathon day spent reconnecting with my love for art can go a long way.

4. MAKE TIME FOR ART YOU ENJOY

Once I started my art business, I felt like I needed to maximize my efficiency and productivity so that my art would cater to the upward trajectory of my business. Creativity squasher? Pretty much. Very quickly, I realized that I needed to create art I enjoyed. Ironically enough, this is the art that I feature most often on my website.

If you do commissions or assignments, you can’t always create the art you want to create. That said, I strongly advocate for finding time to make art you enjoy. The art that lights you up and makes you forget what time it is. The art that made you fall in love with creating art in the first place. This might be 5 minutes once a week, or an entire marathon day. Wherever you can fit it in, do it.

From my own experience, scheduling time to do whatever the heck I want artistically keeps me grounded in the reason for starting my business in the first place. I love art! I started my business because I love art! I don’t want the business I started because I love art to ultimately squash my love of art!

Whenever you feel like you’re losing sight of why you love art in the first place, spend some time reconnecting with it. In fact, write “create art I enjoy” on your to-do list for the day. Don’t think about all the Pinterest pins you can make with it or how much you could sell it for. Heck, throw it in the trash when you’re done! Create art you enjoy just for the sake of it.

Remember that art is what you do for work now. When striving for work-art balance, don’t merge the two. Let the art you create for your business be on the “work” side of the “work-art” equation, and don’t forget about the “art” side. The side where you come alive creating art that isn’t serving a deadline, client, social media algorithm, or website design. The side where you create art for the sake of creating art. That’s where the beauty of work-art balance truly lives. Happy creating!

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Author Bio

Diana Fitts is the artist and writer behind Adventures with Art, a place where she shares her expertise and love for Procreate, Canva, painting, drawing, crochet, and so much more. Diana also has experience selling her art across a number of platforms and loves helping other artists learn how to make money from their art as well.

The post No Time for Art While Running Your Business? appeared first on Art Business News.

But I was moving and shaking, baby! I needed to be on that phone. I couldn’t be disconnected! My phone defined my life.
I recently read a study suggesting that our iPhones have become extensions of ourselves. When separated from them, we get anxious; our heart rates increase, our blood pressure soars, and we get all antsy.

That was me.

But I finally did disconnect when I left the art world and moved to France to focus on my creativity. There, I still found it difficult to stop checking my phone, but I soon realized it kept giving me the same answer: radio silence.

For someone who’d made a living from talking to people, it was strange to find myself with no one to talk to. But my days of wheeling and dealing with gallerists and collectors were over. And without the phone at my ear, I was forced for the first time to listen to my own thoughts.

Eventually, I would hang up my phone and learn to embrace the peace of living alone in the French countryside. And this is how I fell in love with the sound of silence.

Today, with my return to civilization, people expect me to be married to my phone again. They get alarmed when it takes me a few days to notice a text or check my messages. I constantly leave my phone at home and don’t even notice.

I understand that it’s time for me to connect now. I have responsibilities and decisions and deadlines. We live in a dangerous world and phones can help us stay safe. But my feelings about the telephone have remained on hold. I can’t bring myself to start jumping at its ring again, or allow it to sabotage my attention.

We don’t define artists by their tools, for tools are only there to serve the message. Art is communication. And real communication comes from the heart.

That’s the only call I want to answer.

The post Can You Hear Me Now? appeared first on Art Business News.

Where’s the fabulous gallery opening in New York City? Where are the international collectors to lavish praise and money on you? Where’s the gallery to take care of all those pesky marketing tasks and details? Instead, you battle rejection. You wonder where the money is going to come from. You find closed doors and indifference. This isn’t what you signed up for.

Some of us are still so shaken from taking the jump that we don’t even realize that we’ve already landed. Stop. Take a breath. Look around.

You’re an artist! You’ve taken that giant step toward authenticity. Do you recognize how very blessed you are? How many people never choose to take that jump but continue to hide their light in fear? How many more never even have the opportunity?

Don’t look at your world with eyes that see lack. Instead, search for the blessings. Be grateful for all you see. Yes, there are things that need to change to get to where you want to go next. Guess what? There always will be. As soon as you get to the next level, you’ll badly want to get to the next one. And then the next, and then the next.

Art world superstar Kiki Smith once admitted to me that choosing to be an artist is like choosing to be in a free-fall for the rest of your life. And this is an artist who’s got the fabulous openings, the attentive collectors and caring galleries. Yet she still feels that way!

So instead of complaining about what you don’t have, identify what you need to do to get it. Then start taking the steps. Baby steps. Every day. Bless the fact that you’re an artist; that you’re doing what you love. Acknowledge the courage it took to take that jump.

And then enjoy the ride.

The post So You’re An Artist. Now What? appeared first on Art Business News.