be a successful artist

like all things in life sometimes your biggest dreams get put on hold….well i am tired of the muzac….so i have started to design…i am working with fiber at this time….but who knows what tomorrow will bring

Well, I’m only 14, but I’m actually doing pretty well with this goal. This has always been my goal for a very long time, and it started with comics I made up in 5th grade. Now I do realism, sketching, landscape painting, and 2-D and 3-D animation. I’ve never taken an art class, yet the art teachers find it hard to believe I haven’t… which means I’m doing good so far! =D
It’s been a bit hard to find ways to use artwork to help my community, but I’ve done a few, like drawing visuals for my church main service (i.e. the Tower of Babel).
I’m still deciding what career I want, but being a video-game artist or freelance illustrator is at the top of my list. Even if I become something else, I’ll still love art and keep drawing.

Being an artist is a hard road especially in this economy. How do you survive as an artist? I have two degrees in art and no jobs. I feel jilted and hardened by the lack of success. How do you break into the art world or the illustration world? I can’t seem to get my foot in the door.

i love art, i love making art, people love my art, i love people. if i could do only one thing everyday, it would be making art.

i want to sell a painting for more than $25.

Or, expanded on it, depending on your point-of-view (or mine.)

Firstly, I narrowed down exactly which sort of art I’m most driven to do, am best at, am most likely to make an impact in, and (not incidentally) get paid reasonably well for.

After listening to Daniel Pink’s PBS presentation about right-brainers’ emerging value in the world marketplace (http://www.danielpink.com), and coincidentally reading about Michael Chabon, a famous graduate of the MFA program at nearby UC Irvine (and speaking soon at the LA Library), one thought linked to another, and I settled on going for an MFA in creative writing.

It might seem sudden to someone watching me, but it’s an option I’ve quietly ruminated about for a couple of years now.

And the more I thought about it, the more it fit.

I felt I’d outgrown my undergraduate education, like a pair of too-short skis. In my mind over the past few years, I tried on one option after another: continuing my training in this or that, how I hoped to contribute to world culture, massaging my ego, whether I wanted to relocate, how to keep my bills paid (or even flourish financially), and how to look after my ailing Mom.

Accomplishing a local or online MFA still seems to fit the bill. I have the chops, I have the discipline, I’m willing to be practical about where I can attend fiancially; and I have more than a single, affordable option. (Thank you, Los Angeles!)

So I did a bit of research, which I list here now, for my records:

http://tinyurl.com/2mdpnn
(That’s the Creative Writing MFA Handbook)

UC Irvine
http://www.humanities.uci.edu/english/creativewriting/mfa.html

Warren Wilson College
http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~mfa/mfa_finaid.shtml

Includes Financial aid info

Antioch – another recognized option, pratially online.

Take online courses in British and English lit to bolster BA
CSU LA has decent MA creative writing program

SMC classes? Online?
Including GRE prep classes (1-day) $90

Their general online catalog:
http://www.smconline.org/index.real?action=Catalog

AND – I signed up to take a weekend writing technique bootcamp with Lynda Barry, who I met a few years ago at an art conference, and who is a certifiable genius (to the extent that sort of thing is even certifiable…)

Soooooooooooo…...

Woo hooo—I’m off to the races!

Yeow!

To devote more time to developing this skill and to become confident in letting others see my work…. if even just around the house!

... to enter a piece in a Valentine’s themed show. So, it has to be at least tangentially about love.

I’m thinking about doing a really huge, huge collage in the syle of Nick Lowe, and title it, “I love Nick Lowe.”

That way, I can have fun with his style, and make something really cool looking that might sell (if they price it right.)

Let’s see – how much time do I have…?

Ok. I have almost finished my friend’s paintings. I know, I know it has taken a looong time, but c’mon! Get the paintings done, fer crissake!
I need to work harder. Stop procrastinating. I can sit there for hours just wasting time. Or, I can take my brush in my hand and make something wonderful.
I already know that I want to have a different job, and everything I want to do involves art. I need an updated portfolio. and that’s that.

I love to paint and have sold many of my paintings….. my main aim is to travel the world now (i am in my 40’s by the way, grown up kiddies and Im a step granny!), i wish to expand my life in every way, travel and paint my experiences. I paint abstract & contemporary art which come from deep within mainly from my feelings about nature and how it makes me feel. my website with all my art is linkname http://www.jeangdayton.com