30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Eight

"Melvin" - acrylic on cradled wood, 6" x 12" x 1.5".  Ready to hang.  Click here to purchase this piece on Artfinder.

Still obsessed with cows after the lovely herds in Ireland.  Melvin was one of the bulls who posed for me at Ballybunion, gazing at me intensely for 30 minutes, the sounds of his chewing and the sounds of my pencil scratching on paper filling the silence.  I think we made a heart connection.  He may have been thinking "why doesn't she give me some food?", but either way it was a quirky and wonderful moment.

Yesterday was glorious.  I never left the house.  Spent the entire day in my paint pajamas (yes, I have those) and got things done.  There was painting (of course!) and then there was the business of art.

There is a lot of behind the scenes activity in being an artist.  I wish I could say it was 100% creating and painting, but it's more like 60/40.  Even though (most) artists are reclusive introverts, we must swashbuckle out in the world and make sure our art is visible.  When it sells, we can eat and buy more art supplies!   So after the painting is done, it must be photographed, inventoried, listed online, sent out to juried competitions, displayed in shows and (hopefully) packaged and shipped to a sweet collector who connected with the piece.  The process of applying to a season of shows alone takes days.  Right now, I am applying for events all the way up to February, and the calendar is getting full!  Hooray!

For some artists, the business of art is a frustrating piece which is dreaded and avoided.  I am one of the super lucky ones.  Since much of my background is business, finance and entrepreneurship, I find this part of art invigorating and fun.  Yep, fun!  It is the best of two worlds - creating art and running a micro-business.  I am also a very good employee, and the bossy part of me appreciates that. :)

So why would I blog about this part of art?  Just to say this: we often romanticize art and artists, imagining lazy, blissful days of painting and daydreaming and nothing else.  It isn't really like that at all.  There is a whole other side to art which requires the skills of a CEO - marketing, finance, management, human resources, production, inventory and even janitorial services!  Like the wizard behind the curtain, artists create a world so that you see the art and the emotion behind it, without the messy parts.

And speaking of messy parts, I think Melvin just left a cow patty in the studio...now where is that bucket and mop?