10-27-08 Artist Slump
I am struggling with keeping my own excitement going in my art career, much less my clients interest. Have you ever felt this too? What did you do?
When I owned a working studio with public gallery I had to get certain things done every day in order to be ready for customers. I spent the winter months coming up with new ideas and works of art before we opened in May. I had to fill the gallery with some 30 to 40 pieces of new works (handmade paper on canvas) each and every season! Then when work sold, I had to make more work to fill the empty spots on the wall.
Now that the gallery is closed, and art is moving v-e-r-y slowly in Michigan’s lousy economy…I’ve lost my incentive, my internal drive for keeping the artistic wheels moving forward. I am in my first ever art slump!
When I was a writer, I’d read about writers block, but in all honesty I never actually experienced it. While I read about it “intellectually,” it cetainly did not speak to me personally in the same way as having experienced it is now doing.
WHAT HAVE I DONE:
- I have been looking for a 3-D papermaking workshop to help lite the fire under me, but have not been able to find the one I want. They are all to basic and for beginners.
- I’ve been looking for an apprenticeship experience to grease my wheels…but have come up dry.
- I’ve set a goal of finding two news galleries every year. I find them but either they close or they disappoint me as either they do not take enough work to make it worth the work to be allowed to exhibit there. Or it costs so much to drivethere (when not enough work is selling) that I can’t justify the expense.
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