"When bankers get together they talk about art. When artists get together, they talk about money." -Oscar Wilde

Sound familiar?

When I started to paint again I joined an “artist support group.” It was horrifying. All they did was whine about money.

It had taken all my courage to put myself out there and to start painting again after a seven-year absence from the easel.  This group was doing nothing to help me feel supported and I couldn’t support them because they were so invested in complaining and being victims. I realized that keeping this kind of company would keep me in the same space.

So I dropped out and started to interview successful and reasonably happy artists.  Each was generous with their time and advice.

When I met Wayne Thiebaud he had reached the pinnacle of his career with a retrospective of his life’s work traveling the nation’s most significant art institutions.  His friend and colleague, Gregory Kondos, had a huge backlog of private commissions and real estate investments in several countries.  And when I met with Donna Billick, she told me how she had created a number of lucrative public work commissions and her gallery sales were nothing that she relied upon but simply icing on the cake.

Donna and her brother, Brian Billick, a NFL football coach, discussed their winning strategies every week.  She said that so much of success is one’s attitude.  Donna looked me straight in the eye and said, “If you want to succeed, you’ll need to take the reins.”

Standing on the street in downtown Davis, California, across from the Natsoulis Gallery, I thanked Gregory for advising me.  Then he made me promise him that if he helped me succeed that I must promise him that one day I would help other artists succeed.

In part that conversation with Gregory Kondos is what inspired me to created ArtistsWhoTHRIVE.com. My intention is to change the conversation in a virtual community of entrepreneurial creatives.  I invite you to join that conversation at ArtistsWhoTHRIVE.com

Tags: Academy of Art University, Ann Rea coaching, Artists and Money, Oscar Wilde, successful artists

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am and is filed under Artists and Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.