"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

My artist clients report via email at least two successes they have experienced in the previous week.  This keeps them focused on what they are doing right and helps them maintain momentum.

It’s a valuable exercise.  Share you most recent artistic sucess below and notice how it changes your focus and elevates your energy.

Artist Ann Rea

After over seven years of not painting, I quit my job, sold my house, and I moved to the beach in San Francisco determined to make a living as a painter.

I had no plan, but because I’m a creative, I created one. Then I turned a profit in my first year in business – shattering the starving artist myth.

And in the past five years I have received considerable national media attention without the benefit of a publicist.   They include national media features on the “Fine Living Channel” and NBC’s “In Wine Country“, and in “The Wine Enthusiast“, “Practical Winery and Vineyard Management” and “Fortune” magazines. And Jonathan Fields profiled my blue ocean business strategy in “Career Renegade“, published by Random House this year.

Along with my work, these features have focused on my business model, a blue ocean strategy.  As a result, artists began contacting me from across the globe asking for help.   They wanted to earn more money, they wanted to sell their art.  I suggested that they needed help defining their market, shaping a unique selling proposition, and growing their sales,  foreign concepts for too many artists.

Since the business of art is one of my favorite topics, each Monday I began coaching and consulting by phone with a select number of established, part-time, and reemerging artists from across the globe.  This list has grown to include painters, mixed media artists, photographers, sculptors, craftsmen, and fashion and interior designers.

Marketing is easy and innate for me. At my first job at a design firm, I initiated the concept of selling GM’s Saturn car for the same price to everyone.  My marketing clients range from E&J Gallo, a billion dollar corporation, to individual artists and entrepreneurs.

This year when the Dean of the business school at Mills College asked if I would consider helping them develop a MBA program for the Arts in the future, I realized that I had something.

But there are only so many Mondays and I have my own business to run and paintings to paint.

Maybe I can reach a broader audience and I can attract a community of thriving artists who I could profile in a future book?

So my intention is to cultivate a positive and productive on-line global community of thriving artists and to provide guidance through a series of Q&A posts.

You’re invited to submit your contribution or your question and I’ll do my best to provide useful answers based on my experience.  The more specific your question, the more likely that I can answer it.

And if you are interested in applying for my consulting services, I invite you to schedule a 10 minute complimentary phone consultation.

Here is my first draft of The Artists Who Thrive manifesto. I welcome your comments and contributions.

• We believe that we have shaped our artistic voice and that we have something to say.
• We believe we offer creative expression that adds value to the world and therefore the marketplace.
• We believe that we are creating and growing a business.
• We articulate our unique selling proposition to our defined market.
• We believe that we will not be discovered but our value can if we promote it.
• We believe that the traditional model of artist representation is too often broken so we represent ourselves using effective strategic marketing.
• We believe in getting a nice piece of the pie in the art market.
• We are confident and optimistic that we are in control of our destiny.
• We know that in the new economy “the right brainers will rule the world.”*

* “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink

I invite you to join this forum and post your question or comment to this whining free zone.

Post your specific question below.