How a Hard Look at Business Changed an Artists Life

by Carolyn Edlund

Painter Carroll Swayze has a long and accomplished history as a successful artist and leader in the arts community. As an experiment, she studied the realities of running her small business. We spoke about her experience and the amazing results.

AS: What inspired you to take a hard look at your business?

CS: There comes a time in everyone’s life where a person has to be realistic about their choices. I have always been a printmaker and a painter, creating original art in my studio every day. I have always been easily supported by individuals who buy original art because they feel that handmade art and the artists who create it are important to everyday life. I could travel anywhere and always find my patrons and I thought that concept would last forever. But I was wrong.

Unfortunately for art show artists, the American economy is changing and so is the art show venue that we have counted on our entire lives. Demographics are changing, life is expensive, the clientele we have always depended on is getting older and buying less, and the young art lover wants to go to “art parties” and make their own paintings. Add to that the inexpensive machines to make instant posters of original art (color copies, offset reproductions, giclees) and our incomes have been virtually crushed by it all. It was time for me to take a good hard look at what I was doing and try to figure out how to survive in this unstable economy.

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