From Sofa to Celebrity How to Set Goals and Get There
Most of us desire to make a living from our creativity and skills. Or that best seller to buy a winery with a studio. The classic pinnacle for artists, such as musicians, actors, writers and fine artists, is stardom.
To many people, stardom seems a solar distance away, but don’t get anxious. It is achievable. You don’t have to be beautiful or rich to be a star. Setting small clear objectives and maneuvering into position brings us to our desired destinations. Plus weed out weeds.
Self confidence comes with small successes. Proof that we are making progress. Experiencing and learning each level of progress to prepare for the next level. Small successes enable us to mentally handle the big successes when we get there. Our final goals, an award, or a gig at a famous venue or gallery, or A List Ranking. Those levels take training. But when we get there, we pull our shoulders back, relax our necks and say to our private selves "I did it! I really, really did it!”
I was a performance artist and cabaret dancer and lighting crew in Australia. A few paid gigs and nice life half the time. The other half the time on unemployment benefits and sleeping on friends’ sofas. I didn’t want to marry for money and love confused me. In 9 to 5 jobs, I lost count of how many times I got fired, asked for sex, or molested.
I’ve hit a brick wall. It is time to turn left. The artist quip cannot be helped. I have other skills. I can draw like Hell. I’d copy Renoir perfectly with all the colors in crayon at 12 years old. With some research on how to make a career as a fine artist I set myself a goal. My goal was more to exhibit in a historical gallery than for money. But it came with great career credentials.
The first stuff to research is what is the top. In fine art a top gallery is the top, so next is to find where they get their artists from. My research of who-what-when-where-why-next found the step by step. Connecting the dots and knock on effects. Then I went to work doing whatever needed to get the credentials.
Funding is working odd jobs day and night for a year to get to my first small-ish goal of London, England, and school fees. In London I'd work nights and weekends. I multitasked as a personal assistant, private chef, nanny and companion. I learned some interesting and useful things working for wealthy people. Etiquette and people skills for how to deal with the big time.
It’s not that I didn’t have marriage offers from wealthy gentlemen in Australia and London. Men confused me. Maybe it was a weird kind of PTSD from my 9 to 5 job experiences. There is only so much a koala can bear. I had my step by step plan, and it didn’t include marriage at that time. Let me reach my goals first, so I can stand on my own feet by my esteemed gentlemen suitors.
The dot to dot and knock on effects of taking fine art from fine art to stardom and an empire are something different to my goal. In most careers it is to work from the bottom and up to build a top career. In the arts there is a shortcut to go straight from school to the top. I reached the top, but didn’t go the rest of the way to create and empire. Why is another story.
As career fine artists, your art, your designs, are your product. Think of yourself as a product designer, which you are, technically speaking. People skills, such as etiquette and conversation for networking with A Listers, are like learning new software. They enable you to do your job better and faster.
The step by step goal list to the top of the fine art market, and going on to build an empire, goes something like this…
Research, research, research.
The school and the gallery their graduates exhibit in.
Your graduating exhibit and networking like Hell.
The gallery’s connections kick in.
The gallery sells to specialist dealers and other galleries.
You get orders for art and all wanting it fast, you need a studio.
Dealers and other galleries work with collectors and museums
Brokers, consultants, art directors and interior and exterior designers.
Agents and product placement in a movie or TV show.
Coffee table book, phone covers and gifts or third party licensing.
Get an old fashioned pen and paper book journal and make notes on your thoughts and ideas as they happen. Hand written journaling is the best way to sort your thoughts and dreams. Keep a hand written schedule, to-do list and contact list. Research and prioritize your career contacts. Scheduling what you do, before you do it, gets more done faster than winging it.
Steps 1 to 3 should take about 2 years with the right school.
The moral of this tale is that I I went from semi homeless to exhibiting my art at the Royal Academy in London.
