By Justin Barker, Producer, Creative Live

Minutes from boarding a 16 hour flight in Istanbul to San Francisco I got a text from my friend Ann Rea.

Shivers went down my spine, goosebumps covered my body, my eyes filled with tears that wouldn’t stop — I immediately texted my Mom, Dad and Brother telling them I love them.

Ann had delivered terrible news. That Scott Dinsmore had died on Mt. Kilimanjaro. He was on a round the world trip with his wife Chelsea — doing what he loved — Traveling the world and creating a life he wouldn’t regret.

If you don’t know Scott  — you should. His mission was to change the world by helping people find what excites them. Check out his website and take time to get to know him.

I was lucky to meet Scott when I produced Ann Rea’s Fulfill Your Creative Purpose on CreativeLive.

“Scott Dinsmore was true a bright light, inspiring, kind and generous” Ann Rea reflects “I remember being in the green room with him when I warned him that my CreativeLive course that he was about to join was controversial. He said if you’re not doing something controversial you’re not doing anything that’s of much importance. He and I both escaped  the corporate cubicle to create a life and business that we loved. Although he was smarter than me because he didn’t stay in a place where he was unhappy for a very long. He went outside of his comfort zone, sought mentors, and walked his talk — inspiring people all around the world.”

He left for his around the world trip only two days after this appearance. At the time his words moved me and watching it now is overwhelming with the news of his death.

This exchange on the show was particularly poignant for me:

Ann: You don’t want to look back on the landscape that was your life and say I wish I would have taken that chance and I wish I would have gone for it.

Scott: You just touched on the biggest risk in the history of the world. The risk that you regret you didn’t do it. That is how I run my life, my decision making process, everything. It’s not like you won’t fail because you will always fail, things won’t always work out, the best things happen that you didn’t plan.

Ann: Is that why you decided to go travel around the world? Because you’ll look back and you and your wife would have been really regretful if you didn’t go for it?

Scott: For Sure!! In 20 years, 30 years. I am 80 years old and I’ll look back wishing I wouldn’t have traveled around the world. I mean come on!

Sadly Scott didn’t live to be 80. He died at the age of 33. But he left his mark on the world. He had created a global community of people who refused to live mediocre lives and that community will continue after Scott’s death.

Scott’s mission was to bring people together and he did that.

Scott’s death is sad for so many reason — But it has inspired me to ditch my fears and make the most of every moment I have, knowing it could be my last.

“Death is our inevitable fate and ironically it can stop most of us from living fully.” Says Rea ”It’s Better to pass climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and touring the world inspiring others than to leave this earth getting a gallon of milk at the Safeway.”

Our lives are all hanging by a thread. We never know when our time is up — so make the most out of every moment. Call your family and tell them you love them, go and mend that broken friendship, tell the barista that you like their haircut, say hi to the person you catch eyes with on the street, leave that job you are not happy at. Don’t wait for next year to take that dream trip. Create that business or art piece that’s been on your mind. GO. NOW.

In honor of Scott, I invite you to do four things. Go read Scott’s favorite book “The Alchemist”, read Scott’s blog, reflect on what parts of your life where fear is causing paralysis and remember:

“People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.” — Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist .

RIP Scott Dinsmore 1982-2015. You left a powerful mark on the world.

 

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (Slick Willy) and Academy of Art University President Elisa Stephens at the school’s annual fashion show in May 2015.

Katia Savchuk of Forbes magazine recently published an expose on the San Francisco Art Academy.

All I have to say is…thank you Katia, it’s about damn time that someone spells out the truth.

The San Francisco Art Academy is the largest private college in the United States, over 18,000 students.

What helps fuel their size is that they promise that anyone can be an artist because you don’t actually have to show a portfolio to be admitted into the San Francisco Art Academy.

Although the San Francisco Art Academy’s annual tuition is steep at $23,000 a year, plus there’s the cost of living in San Francisco, the most expensive city in the nation, their tuition is about half of the top 42 art and design schools in North America.

So if you don’t have the talent to get into an established art school or can’t afford it, you can always go to San Francisco Art Academy.

The liberal “no talent required” clause sets up a lot of unsuspecting and hopeful art students, and their supportive parents, for very disappointing failure.

It’s a bit like American Idol, one or two artists in the open call might actually have talent. It could happen.

The San Francisco Art Academy’s top market share is also helped along by the fact that they market well to foreign students.

The problem with this admission free policy is that it contributes to the San Francisco Art Academy’s paltry graduation rate of around 32%. Frankly, I think that’s optimistic.

I suppose that would be just fine if you could actually make a decent living after graduating from art school.

But as we all know, art school is not the place to develop skill and knowledge that’s currently marketable. It just isn’t.

Now no one, including myself, can guarantee artists that they will make a living from their art. However, I have a big problem with selling false hope.

And this is exactly why I advertise a clear earnings disclaimer and “13 reasons why you should not apply to The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester.”

How is the San Francisco Art Academy selling false hope?

They are selling the dream of a promising career as an artist.

They use the phrase “career as an artist.”

That’s the first big damn red flag.

According to the United States Bureau of Labor and statistics, only 3300 fine artist where employed in the United States in 2014.

So there are no jobs for fine artists.

If there are no jobs for fine artists, then there are no careers for them.

Now I’m not talking about designers but they too have to brand and market themselves to succeed and they will not learn marketing and sales in art school.

Bottom line is this. If you want to make art and make money with it then pursuing an art career is a dead end road.

Successful artists run businesses and that is not something that the San Francisco Art Academy, nor any art school, is prepared to teach art students how to do.

How do we know? Because art schools have career offices and because academics are just not wired to teach entrepreneurship. They don’t teach business because they can’t.

Whether you attend the San Francisco Art Academy, or any other art school or art program, they may be able to teach you to make art but that is very subjective and it will largely depend on your innate talent.

Talent, is a critical success factor yet the San Francisco Art Academy omits it from their admission process.

The problem is when over 18,000 young unsuspecting students and their parents swallow this false hope they can unwittingly enter into student loan debt that they will never escape.

The other issue is that our tax dollars finance San Francisco Art Academy’s ill gotten gains.

How? Because the tuition revenues are backed in large part by the U.S. government via guaranteed federal student loans. Yes. Your tax dollars are at work.

This revenue, and the student housing rental income, makes First Republic Bank more than happy to extend mortgage loans to the San Francisco Art Academy.

BTW my former intern from the Art Academy paid $1,000 a month several years back to be crammed into a room with four or five other students. That was the lowest rate back then. It has to be much higher now.

And this is why the San Francisco Art Academy can boast such an impressive portfolio of 40, and counting, prime San Francisco properties.

Interestingly, they yanked down their red logo signs from the face of their many properties after some heat in the press over about their code violations amidst the affordable housing crisis here in San Francisco.

Let’s not forget to mention their other assets, an incredible antique art collection. One car currently on display is worth over $8 million.

Year after year the San Francisco Art Academy is in blatant violation of San Francisco building code law and they continue to rack up unpaid fines like no other property owner. Seems that they get to play by different rules, it’s not like they don’t have the money to pay the fines or to correct their code violations.

Yet not even half of their students, who they are indebted to, will ever graduate.

Too many of the San Francisco Art Academy students will be forever working off their student loan debt as baristas or Uber drivers.

I don’t begrudge the San Francisco Art Academy, or any business, earning a fair profit.

But selling false hope is not earning a fair profit it is taking a profit at the expense of U.S. taxpayers, the citizens of San Francisco, and a record population of unsuspecting students and their hard working parents. That’s not fair.

It’s abundantly clear that the first priority of the San Francisco Art Academy is not to teach promising artists how to make a good living.

Let’s call a spade a spade.

The San Francisco Art Academy’s first priority is to employ an ingenious real estate play that fuels a small private family trust bought and paid for with futures that belong to young artists their parents.

Did you attend this school? What was your experience? Are you earning a good living now?

 

This week I would like to share a recent question and answer exchange from “Ask Ann.” Where anyone can post a reasonable question and I will answer.

This exchange represents a common heart ache that I hear from suffocating creatives from across the globe.

I once lived this myself. There is a way out.

We are meant to experience success and happiness. Not all of the time of course but a good bit of the time.

Don’t linger in your despair too long.   Life is short. So if you’re not happy. Make a move. Today.

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Hi Ann,

10 years ago I dropped out of art school because I was scared to go into roughly $150K of debt to pursue a career in art. I went the “practical” route and got a degree in Electrical Engineering and gave up art entirely. Now I work for a massive corporation as a Sales Engineer, selling our products to other businesses.

To get straight to the point, I’ve hated every job I’ve ever had, including the one I have now. I feel un-happy, un-fulfilled, depressed, and scared. Scared that I’ll live my whole life feeling this way…whether “my whole life” means if I die of old age or die today in an accident.

I hadn’t done any form of art in 10 years, until 2 weeks ago. I un-packed all my old brushes and bought some acrylic paints and a canvas. I did a painting for my wife of our wedding venue. I wanted to do something nice for her…and remember what it feels like to do art. I had so much fun…and it made me feel good…it made me feel happy. For the first time in YEARS. Afterwords I thought to myself, “maybe other people who got married at my venue would pay for something like this.” And just like that, a business plan started forming. For the first time in 10 years I feel like I might have a chance at being happy…doing what I love.

Now that you know the background, here’s my question. How did you get past feeling like you weren’t good enough? I love the painting I made for my wife because it means a lot to her…but the longer I stare at it, the more I convince myself that it’s not any good. I’ve convinced myself that my painting/drawing skills are not any good compared to 10 years ago. I’ve convinced myself that I’m not good enough for people to ever purchase my art. So even though I think I have a really good and unique idea for an art business, I’ve convinced myself that my art and my skills aren’t good enough to execute the idea. I think deep down I’m scared to put myself out there and let others judge my art. Did you ever feel this way? If so, how’d you get past it? Have you ever struggled with self-confidence when it comes to your artwork?

Thanks so much Ann. I’m really looking forward to hearing back. Your story and art is inspiring to me. I hope that some day in the future I can achieve the happiness you seem to have.

Brandon

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Hello Brandon,

You asked, “How did you get past feeling like you weren’t good enough?” I think you meant my art was not good enough.

Two different and separate things but Artists often get them twisted 😉

I think I believed that my art was “good” when my mentors, Wayne Thiebaud and Gregory Kondos, Yan Nascimbene, said that it was much more that “good.”

Frankly, I really didn’t care about anyone else’s opinion besides these experts.

I only care what other people think of me and or my art to a certain degree.

I fully expect that not everyone will like me or my art or me. That is okay. That is as it should be.

What matters is that I like and respect myself.

I struggled with self-confidence around my work until I got over my perfectionist tendencies. Read “Art and Fear.”

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

If you are not happy you need to commit to changing that now. Right now. None of us know how long we have.

My sincere suggestion. Get pissed off.

That’s when things really started to change for me. Depression is anger turned inside. Flip it!

Kindly,

Ann

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Ann,

Thanks so much for the response. Something happened the day you wrote me that I’d like to share:

The day you messaged me I was driving to a sales call and I got cut-off on the freeway by someone driving recklessly. It wasn’t too close, but close enough to be scary. It got me thinking…what if I just died? I would have just died…driving to a sales meeting…for a job I hate. For a life I hate. Then to top it off, I get to the sales call and they cancel on me on the spot. I got back in the car and thought…I would have died…driving to a sales meeting…for a job I hate…for a canceled meeting.

I got in my car and cried. I cried not because I was upset, but because I was so angry. I am so angry. Angry that if my life ended in that moment, it would have truly been for nothing. I was thinking, “It just isn’t fair life is meant to be lived this way.”

Then, as fate would have it, your response pops up on my phone.

I’ve always turned my anger inside so that I can continue to survive. Not anymore. It’s time to let my anger motivate me instead of incapacitate me. It’s time to change. It’s time to fight.

As for feeling like my art isn’t good enough:

I think the biggest thing I need to get over is that I expect my art to be just as good now, as it was 10 years ago when I was in art school painting/drawing every day. That’s simply not possible!

How long did your practice and hone your skills/style before quitting your job and pursuing a career in art full time? I have a wife and a baby on the way so I can’t exactly jump ship and go for it. Right now the timeline I’m telling myself is end of 2016. That gives me 1 year and 4 months to practice, prove out my idea, and start saving money to build a safety net. Do you think that’s a reasonable plan/time-frame? What was your plan when you took the leap…was it only to make 100K in a year? Or was there more to it?

Thank you so much Ann. This conversation has been one I’ve needed to have for a long time.

-Brandon

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Dear Brandon,

Your near death incident was a gift. A wake up call.

It’s time to direct your rage. It’s not too late. You have your whole life a head of you to discover and live your purpose and to be an example for your child.

Keep in all perspective. You and I have many privileges and opportunities granted to us just by living in the U.S.

We have an internet connection so that you and I can type at each other and connect.

You have a job, even if you hate it, you have a wife, and a baby on the way.

Because you and I have these privileges, we have a responsibility to enjoy them, to make the most of them, to pursue happiness. “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”

So count your blessing(s) every night before you go to sleep.

And start digging your way out and moving towards your desires one step at a time.

Take an art class and start having fun with it. Don’t worry about it being “good enough” right now. Whatever that means.

It won’t matter if it is “good enough” or not if you don’t love making it.

You need to hone your skill then you have to learn about building a business.

There’s no quick answer that I can deliver within this little rectangle.

My recommendation is to apply enroll in The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester.

It might seem like a shameless plug but I really wish that I had access to this specialized knowledge, resources, and community when I was in a similar spot and that is why I created it.

You can learn much more than making art and making money. You can also learn about yourself and your true creative purpose, which may or may not involve art.

But if making art makes you feel good. Do it for yourself first.

Kindly,

Ann

Who can you ask about how to become a successful Artist?

Ironically, you generally can’t ask your fine art professors without being dismissed or even shamed for asking.

Even if you’re attending one of the top 42 art and design schools in North America and paying their current average annual tuition of $51,364.

Why? Because when fine art students ask how they’re going to make a living, here’s what they generally hear:

• “You can try to get a job as a teacher.”
• “You could wait tables or tend bar.”
• “It’s a good thing you have a trust fund.”
• “Don’t worry about money, man. Just make art. It will all work out.” That from a tenured professor at U.C. Berkeley. Easy for him to say.
• “Maybe you could get a job in an office?”
• “You should marry someone with money.” The hardest way to make money.
• Can you add to this list? Please do below.

My mentor was Wayne Theibaud. He’s not just an extraordinarily successful and significant artist, he’s an American art icon.

During the time I was meeting with Theibaud, he was experiencing the heights of success.

He had a retrospective of his life’s work on exhibit at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and this show was touring the nation.

Theibaud’s paintings were beginning to sell for over $1 million on the secondary market.

One day after a critique at his studio in Davis, California, he encouraged me to pursue my talent full-time.

When I asked him how I could make a living as a full-time artist, he told me:

I don’t know, I’m not a business man.

To be fair, for most of his life, Theibaud earned his living from teaching. However,

• I did not want to be an art teacher.
•  I did not want to wait that long, and work that hard, with just a faint hope that the art establishment would recognize me, so that I’d finally get paid for my art.

The point of this post is this.

If you can’t ask your fine art professors how you are going to make a living once you have graduated, and if I couldn’t get a straight answer from an artist who had clearly met with ultimate success, who can you ask?

One day I was meeting with my other mentor, Gregory Kondos, a friend and colleague of Wayne Theibaud’s.

I thanked him for his generosity and encouragement. His words to me where this.

“No need to thank me. Just promise me that one day you’ll take some time to help another artist.”

How do you become a successful Artist? Who can you ask?

Well. You can ask me.

When? You can ask me live next week.

Mark your calendar now for Tuesday, July 7, at 1:00 PST and join me for live Q&A with me, generously hosted by Bplans, a widely read resource that provides business guidance, tactics, tips and industry insight from key tastemakers.

Bring your questions and be ready to learn!

Space is limited, and I’m not just saying that. 😉

So sign up today!

 

 

 

As an Artist, what are you most afraid of?

Do you know what you’re afraid of? Not sure what you’re afraid of? Just feel a generalized anxiety?

Just naming your fear can help arrest it.

To help name your fear, I highly recommend that every artist read “Art and Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Art Making”, by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

This classic thin volume clearly and concisely dissects all that kills an artist’s muse. It’s fear. Creativity and productivity killers come in several flavors.

Not only does fear kill making art, it kills opportunities to make money with our art.

Perfectionism is a particularly tricky flavor of fear because it’s disguised behind the virtues of diligence and care.

But perfectionism is an unforgiving lie. Why? Because achieving it is impossible and ultimately it can crush our soul.

Voltaire warned us, Perfect is the enemy of good.

Perfectionism is just simply inefficient. Increasing your efforts to achieve impossible standards inevitably results in diminishing returns.

Bottom line. Perfectionism is stifling, unrealistic, and wasteful. Nothing gets done under it’s influence.

“Art and Fear” names many fears that plague the creative. In over a decade of my work with artists, perfectionism is the most pervasive and insidious.

How do I know about perfectionism? Because it still creeps into my psyche if I don’t keep it bay.

It can not only kill my art, it can kill my business.

Building a business is a continuous act of creativity. That’s why some of the most successful entrepreneurs are creative, a la Steve Jobs or Sir Richard Branson.

So what’s the antidote to fear?

You can’t kill fear. You feel what you feel. And we need to feel fear to warn against true danger.

What you can do is focus on courage. You can feel fear and anxiety and move forward towards your desires anyway.

Feel your fears. They won’t kill you.

As soon as you become aware of your fear, your perfection, employ your imagination to shift your attention on your courage, confidence, and ease. Eventually these emotions will eclipse your fear.

You are an artist. So your imagination is your strongest secret weapon.

What do I know about fear? I suffered from severe anxiety and depression for over three decades. Finally, I was told that I would most likely never be free of it.

Instead of accepting a diagnosis that seemed to me like a death sentence, I thankfully, got righteously pissed.

My anger fueled my recovery and I’m now grateful to be free of it.

What are you afraid of? Name your two biggest fears below.

Robert De Niro delivered an ironically inspiring commencement speech by opening with, “You made it. You’ve graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts and you’re fucked.”

Sadly, De Niro is generally right. These art students are fucked and the audience is roaring because they all know it.

Why are art school graduates fucked? For starters, Tisch School of the Arts students are currently paying an annual tuition of over $50,000, not to mention the expense of living in New York City.

When we trade a future filled with inescapable student loan debt for the very dim hope of a bright future as an artist, we screw ourselves.

What destroys artists is their banking on hope rather than taking planned and focused action.

The sad thing is, it doesn’t have to be this way. The Internet gives us a fighting chance to build and own our platforms and connect directly to our fans and collectors.

But art schools are skipping this subject and heaping some of the highest amounts of inescapable student loan debt on their students while teaching them skills that will render them ill equipped to repay their debts.

According to the Wall Street Journal, arts-focused schools are shown to rack up THE most student loan debt. The default rates are so high that US Department of Education has arts focused schools under much needed scrutiny.

What’s also really sad is that in a few short years from their commencement, these enthusiastic art school graduates will stop making art all together.

Why?

The demands of repaying of student loan bills, then car payments, and increasing rent, and children, you get the picture, will eventually twist them away from their passion and point them towards a sensible job. If these art school graduates are lucky enough to get a sensible job based on their unmarketable skill set.

Now hold up. I’m not talking about graphic and industrial design majors. If they’re talented, experienced, and connected, their prospects are much brighter.

Art students may have learned how to make art in art school but they haven’t learned how to make money from their art.

De Niro asserts, although these art students are fucked, The good news is that’s not a bad place to start because, “you’re path is not easy but it’s clear.”

I disagree.

Our path is not clear. One trip to the Career Office at your local art school will confirm this.

The Career Office does not have the answers and it’s not their fault.

Why? Art schools teach how us how to make “art.” They won’t and they just can’t teach “sales and marketing schools for solo-preneurs.”

In fact, business schools don’t even teach sales and marketing for solo-preneurs.

Even if art schools could teach you the necessary skills vital to running a small business, art school academics are the very last group I would turn to.

Why? Academics are not a reliable and current resource to learn about how to build a business. You need to learn from someone who has been there and done that.

Academics are just not entrepreneurs; they are academics, employees, with an employee mindset.

Entrepreneurs learn about how to build a business from other entrepreneurs. Always have.

Let’s keep this real. Some artists have absolutely no interest in business.

Guess what? It’s these artists who are really fucked.

So what’s the answer? We need to start with an honest conversation before students limit their futures by shackling themselves with debt.

De Niro goes on to explain that these art students didn’t have a choice, that they succumbed to this choice because of the nature of being an artist.

An artist’s “common sense” is trumped by their passion.

Bullshit.

De Niro is implying that passion and common sense are opposing and incompatible forces.

Please don’t swallow this destructive assumption.

Succumbing to one’s artistic passion does not equal succumbing to bad sense.

We are all responsible for our own well being, regardless of what we do for a living.

The fact is, passion, creativity, and strategic thinking, the highest form of common sense, are the very best combination for entrepreneurship. And this is exactly what we artists are wired for.

Could we please just stop with this false, limiting, and very tired assertion that artists just don’t possess good sense? It’s condescending and disrespectful.

It’s not true of me and it’s not true of so many artists who I have had the pleasure and privilege to work with.

What do you think? Are you “fucked?” If so, tell us why.