I am a Working Artist

{Print of an original acrylic and ink illustration by creativethrusday on Etsy
who embodies exactly where I want to go with my own art!}

"I am an artist… I am here to live out loud."
~ Emile Zola

You may remember my post here where I indicated that I was joining a group called the Working Artist Initiative (WAI). We are a pilot program from the International Arts Movement (IAM) out of New York City.

So what does New York City have to do with dinky ol' Stevens Point, WI (population 25,294)?

I think that the biggest commonality is that artists can be found in every conceivable place on earth. Just because a city has the highest concentration of people or the largest and best known art galleries doesn't mean that art doesn't exist elsewhere.

The premise behind this group is simple: artists of all disciplines can come together to offer support and direction and encourage each other to create a body of work for the simple sake of making art. There is no requirement to be shown in a gallery or make a heap of cash from selling your art at the end {although those things are nice perks to having a body of work}. We exist to share our struggles, celebrate our triumphs and push on through with a plan of our own making.

Our group will meet every other week for 32 weeks. We each had to develop a plan with REAL action steps {this is the hardest part for me} to show acheivable, accountable results {I have already been told that I need actual milestones that need to be reached. Ugh.}. To keep me honest, I have decided that I will be blogging once per week on my progress. That way you can all see what this process is like for my art. Maybe it will inspire you to set up a plan for your own creative expression or form a group like this of your own.

In our WAI we currently have the following participants:

Rainy - painting
Chuck - photography
Ryan - portrait drawing
Lois - painting
Karen - dream interpretation
Jay - songwriting
Kristin - pottery (she isn't officially in yet, but I am working on it! ;-)
and me - jewelry

We commit to a minimum of 5 hours per week to actually creating art. Each time we meet we will have a series of readings which we will discuss. Then one of our members will offer up their art for review and critique by the others. I volunteered to go first on Monday, October 11th {what was I thinking?}. And there will also be monthly outings or experiences curated by each member in turn that could be as simple as going to someone's house to sing songs to more elaborate excursions like driving to local art galleries or exhibits.


Here is my 32 week goal:

• To develop a line of jewelry {or jewelry components} that are each unique and handmade but can be easily created. Packaging, pricing, marketing and selling this jewelry through multiple outlets will be part of this plan.

Here is my outcome:

• Create and sell 50 pieces of this jewelry line by the end of the program.
  

Here are some initial action steps I am taking:

• Determine what I do best that can be translated into this project


• Research if there are similar offerings in the marketplace


• Read any resources that might help me


• Develop the prototypes in at least three different media


• Market research the prototypes to see how they are received in the different media


• Determine if additional tools, materials, training are required
  

Sorry to be so vague, but I don't want to give away all the information that I am using for this to be a road map. This is more of a suggestion of some of the things that are occurring in my plan. My action steps are supposed to have actual projected deadline dates. Let's just say that all of these things are slated to happen in the month of October-ish. There will be more concrete action steps/dates once I can get through these.

Truth be told, my action steps are lacking a bit. If you know me at all, then you know that goals and I are not friends. I am a shiftless soul who flits in and out of daily life. I don't carry around a planner {although I have calendars up in various places} and writing down goals is something I abhor. Still, when I have set goals for myself, I am surprised that I actually do them. But this is larger than anything I have every attempted, so maybe that is why I need to put it out there. So you can all help keep me on track ;-)

I think that a lot of the potential success of a group like WAI will be in the support network, the accountability and the envisioning of a goal that you want to achieve.

I thought that you might be interested in this short paragraph which was one of the readings that we discussed this week detailing how contemporary fantasy author Peter Brett wrote his first novel:

While you were busy checking out possible candidates for a Missed Connection post and listening to your podcasts, 36-year-old Brooklyn writer Peter Brett wrote a novel while commuting on the F train. Feeling like an underachiever yet? He wrote the novel, his first, entirely on his Smartphone. Now the "dark, demonic fantasy," titled The Warded Man, is sitting pretty in bookstores. The Daily News reports that Brett worked in medical publishing, and for the two years it took him to finish the 400-page novel, the F was his muse on his daily commute to and from the Fort Hamilton Parkway stop and Times Square. He told the paper, "I trained myself that at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. every day when I got on the train, that was my writing time. I had about 45 minutes each way, and everyone who takes the F knows that 45 minutes can turn into an hour and a half." Now a full-time writer, he combats writer's block by taking rides on the train.

We discussed what this says about discipline for artists.

My thoughts are that there really should be no excuses and that you can find the time even if it is on the daily commute. As working artists it is essential to commit to a time and keep at it. And to make it a priority to make art every day. Sometimes that means just thinking about it and doodling. Or writing about it as I am doing now. It is really easy to fall into the trap that there are other things that take your focus away from your creative time. And if a best-selling novel can be written on a Smartphone on the F train, then there is no reason to believe that I can't create this line of jewelry in my spaces in-between.

So...What do you think?

• Where in your daytime can you carve out time to be creative? Can you get creative with creating that time from the spaces in-between?


• In what ways do you lack the discipline and focus needed to be creative?


• What would help you acheive your goals?


• Do you cringe when it comes to setting goals? or are you the sort that never met a goal you couldn't make?


• Do you have a far-out goal that you would like to make manifest?


• What do you think I should do for my curated monthly event with this group?

Do tell!

Enjoy the day!