I Quit My Day Job! with Guest Writer, Artist Kyra Wilson

It Is With Great Pleasure To Welcome This Week's

'I Quit My Day Job'

Guest Writer Kyra Wilson

Kyra Wilson

No one ever told me not to quit my day job. Instead, they said things like "It's better to have someone wonder why you didn't speak, than to wonder why you did." Art is a form of speaking, and I think a lot of people are uncomfortable with the idea that others have something to say. For myself, I have always had plenty to say (on many levels) which may be why I was told repeatedly to shut up. 

My mother likes to tell a story of when I was about three years old, and I asked her to draw me a person. She drew a stick figure, and apparently I became frustrated by that and said "No, mommy, like this!" and drew one far better than she could. I don't remember that, of course, but I don't ever remember a time when art was not a part of my life (even if it was just making pictures in my head.) The only problem with that was that while there are some artists back in my family tree, my parents didn't have an artistic cell in their bodies. My father was a programmer and my mother was a nurse, and the expectations were that one goes out into the world and supports themselves as a useful member of society.

I think all of us have come across the rather peculiar societal opinion that while there is an appreciation for the arts, artists themselves are rather undesirable. It's not a "respectable" occupation. For some reason, I took this censure to heart more than I should have. When I went to college, I waffled a bit on what I wanted to major in. When I reached the point of an Associates degree, I actually had enough classes to declare in multiple fields. I did choose Fine Art, but it was a close call. I thought about continuing on to get my B.A., but instead I felt that unless I was going to be a teacher, it wasn't worth the cost. Worse, I felt I needed to do my part, and start working like I was expected to.

I did the corporate run for a while, administrative types of things, and completely set my art aside. While I was good at it, I was unhappy. My husband and I started a family, and I took that opportunity to leave the workforce, but it wasn't until years later that I started working creatively once again. 

I started painting again when my son was just a year old (and my daughter was in preschool), and later that year I walked into a gallery to ask questions and walked back out again with a spot for my work. I'd like to tell you that this was all it took, but it wasn't. I painted, I raised my young children, but I fought against the strong feelings that I was not a productive member of society and eventually I went back to school. In 2008 I graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration (with an emphasis in marketing.) I went right into the workforce.

I had a horrible office, and for that I am grateful. Four walls, a door with a tiny slot for looking out, windowless, flickering fluorescent lights, drab carpet, and a desk with a wobbly rolling chair. I tried bringing things into the office, even some prints of my work, but the more color I brought in, the more I realized that I wanted out. I needed out. When layoffs started around the company, I took a deep breath, and with a sick stomach I asked to be laid off from my job. I told them it was so other people wouldn't lose their jobs, but really it was about me escaping before I drowned.

Through all those years, I had been half-heartedly painting and keeping my website up. Sales were spotty, but I didn't care. If I didn't fully commit, why would I care? I told myself that art was the one thing in my life that people could criticize, and it didn't bother me. It wasn't true, as it turns out, but I thought it was at the time. I had also started taking pictures, and one thing lead to another and suddenly I had a photography business! 

I realized my art was becoming more important and I needed to do more with it, but being a photographer... well, wasn't that being in art but being in a respectable position at the same time? There was also the money issue, and photography paid fast and well with far more consistency that selling a painting. It also dovetailed nicely with my art, because I could finally make really nice prints with a professional file for the Giclee printers. I worked at both for a while, and both pursuits grew until I was forced to realize that one was going to have to give. I didn't know what to do, and in my mind it was a fight between respectability and paint.

Then a client fell through on a portrait session. I found out later that a local photographer had told a lot of persuasive lies about my work and my studio in order to get the client to switch. While I was gratified to have the client say later that she wished that she had gone with me instead, I realized something incredibly important: I didn't want to fight for my photography. If I wanted to keep my photography company, I should have been outraged to find out about this competitor's tactics, and fought back (on a professional level.) Instead? I realized I didn't want to fight for it. Had someone attacked my art in the same way, I know without question I would have jumped right into the fray.

Suddenly, it was clear to me that the only things I had been fighting all along were my own insecurities. I had something I was willing to fight for, so why was I clinging to all the things I wasn't? For the respect of some faceless society, or being in an occupation that my friends and family could understand? Were those things worth sacrificing who I really was?

I started taking steps in January 2012 to shut down my photography business, and finally shut the doors in May. I was nervous, because who knows if a fine art business can stand on its own after being propped up by another? It's December now, and I can truthfully report that it did. I won't be buying a mansion in Italy, but I'm amazed at how well I did for having less than a year of being fully committed to my work. I've been selling art professionally since 2001, but this is the first time I have been 110% committed to this being my path, and nothing else.

There are some good things that came from fighting my artistic path, like my business experience and degree. If you are in the business sector, and you want to have an art business, you need to know that this is first and foremost a business too. I have mentored a few artists, and I would say that the biggest mistake they make is in underestimating the importance of understanding how a business works. 

Making art work for you as a career is about 40% creating and 60% business: 

You need to understand the true costs of your work, so you know how much to sell it for. This is not just about the cost of materials. Say a canvas costs you $10, and the paint costs you $3. The painting is not just $13 + whatever you think you deserve for your time. Remember that your tools degrade, so there is a cost in there for brushes, easel/table/etc. There is the cost of your computer, as well as other overhead costs. Gas to get the piece to the shipping office, packing materials, business cards, invoices, website costs, payment fees, and more. The biggest mistake you can make is to look at a piece and think "Well... it's worth this, I think someone would pay $**."  Yes, you need to factor that in too, but as artists we walk a fine line between covering our costs, the market for our work, and accidentally paying someone to take your art when you realize you spent more than you earned on a sale. Know your numbers, it's vital if you want to truly follow this path.

You need to understand how to reach out to customers (both new and old.) This is tricky, because while knowing your numbers when you finally have them all figured out gets easier to update, reaching out to your market is a fast-paced and ever changing world. Find out where people are, whether in person or online, and have a presence there. Keep up with new technology, and find what you feel comfortable with that best facilitates keeping your fans not only up to date, but interested! I admit that this is hard for me too. Juggling all these sites online, trying to figure out which ones to pour my energy in is draining. However, when you get positive feedback on it, it's worth it! 

You need to understand market fluctuations, and the industry circles. Are you best suited to selling online? Shows? In person at fairs? Galleries? Are you headed in a direction where that changes from time to time? There are so many more things I could go on about, but I imagine some of you have nodded off by now!

It's a huge undertaking, to fully commit to your art as a career. There are a lot of plates to keep spinning, and in most of our cases we are an office of one. We have to be the accountant, the business manager, the marketing manager, and, oh yeah, production. Someone has to make those fabulous pieces of art!

Every artist is different in their sales approach, but I sell primarily through my main website that I have had up for over a decade at KWilsonStudio.com, I have partnered with FAA for my prints at my Fine Art Print Shop, and I have been experimenting with my Etsy store just this year (I'm not sure what I think of it yet.) I have a facebook art page, my art blog, and I write a few other places as well (stop by and say hello at any of these!) I'm also an artistic contributor to THRICE Fiction Magazine, which has allowed me to bring back my surreal and abstract painting styles (what I first started with in galleries) in addition to my more mainstream works. I even have a YouTube Channel where I am experimenting with video blogging and some time-lapse photography of paintings from start to finish (I'm planning on doing a lot more with this in 2013.)

This has been a good year for me, and I anticipate that it's just going to be even better next year. Nothing feels as good as being on the right path, and I know without a doubt that I finally am.

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**If you know / or are someone who left their day job to pursue a full time creative business, and would like to be featured on my blog, please contact me: alisasteadyart@gmail.com***