During the holidays, I spend more time looking back at the years when we owned our brick and mortar galleries.
I suppose this is because even though the holiday period generally meant working extremely long hours, it was also the time of the year when our business tended to be really good and so we felt like we could celebrate the fact that we were doing the right thing.
Being in the business end of art was never an easy task. As a fairly wise business person once advised me: "if you're looking to make money at something, art would probably be the wrong thing!"
At the time, I felt a bit insulted by that statement.
However, it is also largely true, although there are of course a few artists who make rather grand livings from their creativity, and there are definitely people in the art business — like major auction houses — who make millions and millions from selling the works of famous people from the past.
However, when I look at it from the bigger perspective, art sometimes strikes me as being much like professional sports. There are a handful of superstars who do extraordinarily well, and then there's "everybody else" who are essentially little more than glorified hobbyists who might get a bit of pocket money now and then.
But — much like sports — there are millions of people who enjoy art without deriving any kind of living from it.
And that's the thing that is important to remember in looking at concepts such as "success." What becomes important is to be creative and yet to be so from the perspective of maintaining some degree of being realistic.
No matter how talented we may be blessed with being from nature's side, and no matter how skillful we may be as a result of our training, there are a number of factors that combine to determine whether we happen to be the one who was in the right place at the right time in order to enable those talents and skills to be turned into an actual living.
As an artist, myself, I long since gave up on the idea that I was ever going to earn anything but a few handfuls a pocket money from creating art. That said, I do find it really enjoyable to attend Christmas Arts and Crafts shows and enjoy weekends where we do well enough that — at least for a brief while — I get to pretend that I'm a moderately successful artist.
And that will just have to do for me. And likely, for most of us!
Thanks for stopping by our little blog! Do feel free to leave a comment if you feel so inspired.
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