When Was Your Aha Moment

No real aha moments. Just wanted to find a way to fuel an ongoing road trip or at least some of it. People loved the photos so started uploading. I just shoot, edit a little and upload. Enter a few non-faa contests and that's about it. It seems like the sales always come when I'm not really paying attention to selling or even thinking about it.

Any marketing or promotion is strictly in free time and that isn't much. When the time comes to try to make it sell there should be 10,000+ good to amazing shots in inventory and that should make it possible to offer more of what people may actually want than twisting arms to get them to buy something they may not really want.

A couple of months ago I was going through a serious period of self-doubt. Nothing anyone said really helped. Then my husband emailed me this quote: Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art. - Andy Warhol. That was all it took to get me back on track and it has been my mantra ever since.

I was so young when started painting with professionals that I had no awareness of 'ah ha'. Just didn't occur to me art had a value after it fell off the refrigerator. So guess it was the adults around me that had the 'moments'.

That said, everyone doubts themselves at time. Truth is life isn't always (even maybe rarely) fair. So do what you love, your art, and what's meant to be will become clear to you.
--mary ellen anderson

Agree wholeheartedly with Nadalyn! Create the best things you can create and the market will sort out what is good and what isn't in sales and in photo contests. Even if it is a crappy day outside but you went somewhere to shoot, just do it. It can be surprising what may sell (and doesn't sell) and less than 50% of the time sales are of things I would most expect to sell. They just turn out to be someone else's favorites or bring back fond memories that create a desire to have a certain photo hanging on the wall.

My first aha moment was when a script I wrote was purchased by an entertainment company.

My second was after I joined FAA, when I gradually realized that I've probably been wasting my time doing art and should have become a realtor or something.

I've had several, but the most significant one was when I realized that it is only paper that I'm painting on. It can be redone or painted over the top. It is actually a reoccurring aha moment because I tend to forget that it is just paper.

I had it happen to me again not too long ago when I started working on canvas. I became fearful of ruining the pristine blank canvas, but then I reassured myself, "Wait a minute, it's only canvas and it is far more forgiving than paper. It can be redone or painted over the top."

One painting that was painted over the top became an award winning painting and is now in a watercolor book called, Splash 15, Creative Solutions. It is also my best seller here at FAA as prints and cards. It was my most recent aha moment that made me finally embrace my drippy style as well as fully realize that it is indeed only paper and can be redone or painted over the top. What was underneath? An urban street scene from a bird-eye view. You can still see remnants of the underpainting - the four way stop and the crosswalks.

This is the painting:



So, don't throw it away, paint over it. It may be your next masterpiece.

JL, your work is fabulous. You have an illustrative style that would be great for books and magazines. If you haven't tried the illustration market, you should. You would do well. The more you talk down about yourself as an artist the less art you'll do and the less you will do to get your art seen by the world. That would be a real shame to see you give up and go be a realtor or something else. You are blessed with an amazing talent. Don't give it up. Make something happen with it.

Check out this book and send stuff to the art directors that suit what you do:
http://www.amazon.com/2015-Childrens-Writers-Illustrators-Market/dp/1599638460

It's a lot of work, but everything worthwhile takes work.

I don't think I was ever shy about showing and selling my work. An artist or photographer, however, must be discriminating enough to not show only work that's worthy. I put a lot of paper in the trash even after I was showing and selling my work - it just wasn't 'good' enough - and watercolor can be tricky. On the other hand - being afraid to show your early work and have it critiqued by buyers might surprise you - I had a collector who over a period of 4 years bought over 25 of my watercolors - mostly in quarter sheet size. When I moved from that area - I had an 'open house' sale - and I offered to trade one of my newest large, full sheet, works for those, what I considered then, not so great works - she liked the 'fresh' quality of the early work and said no deal - and paid for a couple more of my small watercolors.

there are two solid ways:

1. someone wants to buy it
2. someone or many steal that artwork because they like it.

and a third is when a con/agent calls you and says they want to represent you.

any other time probably not so much.

i don't have a particular aha moment, or at least not one i recorded.


---Mike Savad

I had a couple I think or let's say that my aha moment had a few stages, the first was a shot I took in Bruges (not on here yet) everything was just right with the shot and the feedback I got on it was unlike anything I had ever got before and gave me the confidence to continue to try and improve my photography, that was in Dec '11, after that I continued trying to develop my own style, mainly landscape and nature shots trying to use only natural light but of areas not usually visited by many people, public footpaths through farms, public woodland that you can only access via a tiny (unsafe usually) parking area at the side of the road, that type of place, I then took the shot below and all of a sudden I started thinking that perhaps I had a little bit of an artist in me, still doubt my ability every day and perhaps compare my work too much to others (being naturally self deprecating means I really shouldn't do that) but the fun I have with shooting and editing balances that out

@ Rhonda: Your work is beautiful and reminds me of my high-school art teacher's work.
"Between social networking, websites, trying to come up with a product it seems my painting is suffering."
What works for me is to minimize the time on social media and spend more time on artwork.
Linkedin is a very good professional site that eliminates a lot of the pitfalls other social sites have. it is really a professional site for professionals. the contacts you make are more interested in your profession than what you have with your afternoon tea;)

My aha moment is at the other end. My favorite topic is street images of people. So my aha moment came when I realized (thru research) that candid street images of people have very little customer appeal. Aha, no one will buy this type of work.

My moment happened while exploring subjects through painting. I showed them to friends and acquaintances and they asked the price.

It gave me enough confidence to do a group show in an art festival. I invested a little money in cards and prints. I ended up selling the most from our both.

More confidence.

I have doubted my own artistic talent often.
I pay attention to my burnouts and step back when I recognize the need to recharge.

@ Nadalyn Larsen ... tell your husband thanks from me ... and my thanks to you, too. Excellent quote.

Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art. - Andy Warhol.

That's very good advice.

I think it's good advice too.

From to be whatever kind of artist we want to be.
Let others decide if it's good.

I have a couple of aha moments for my photography. The first was when I was selling my jewellery at craft fairs but one day decided to print up a bunch of cards with my photography and try to sell those as well. I literally put my cards on the table at a local jazz festival (Pender Harbour Jazz Festival) and I sold a lot of them...I even had lineups sometimes and two stores asked if they could carry my cards.

My second aha moment was when Getty Images wanted to represent me and I started licensing my images. I felt legitimate after that.

Maybe a third aha moment was when my mom stopped bugging me to get a "real" job!

I guess mine came when I finally was able to distinguish a good photograph from a so-so or blah photograph. I think I've gotten rid of most of the blah and so-so stuff, although there may still be some lingering somewhere in my gallery. I also realized I was critiquing photos in professional photography magazines as being "overcooked" or too out of focus or photos that would only please the person who took them (in other words, an attempt at being "artsy" that in my opinion, backfired).

I think I'm now able to distinguish the "wheat from the chaff" so to speak. Some of the stuff I've deleted in the four years I've been here is kind of "what was I thinking?" stuff. I still have a way to go, but I now leave out anything I feel "iffy" about. If it's "iffy" to me, I don't think I want it up here to represent my work.

When I sold photographs in an Artist Coop gallery several years ago....then I got out of doing much photography and art because of "life." Now I am able to present it here at FAA ..even if nothing sells here its nice to have people see it.

To add to what Jani and H Drew said, there's a group on LinkedIn called The Art of Licensing that I think would benefit some of the artists here.

I had to stop in mid-thread here and comment to JL...first, your post made me laugh. I find self-deprecating humor very funny...especially by someone who is so obviously incredibly talented. You were one of the first artists I saw here on FAA, and I adore your work. "Spur Your Imagination" was one of the very first pieces I favorited. When I was an art director at an ad agency I would have created ads JUST to use your work!

I believe my first A-Ha moment was 1984 or 85 when I saw their "Take On me" video. Seriously, I believe it may have been when I did my first freelance writing for the local newspaper (with a photograph) and the editor 1,) did not change anything in the writing and 2.) asked what journalism school I went to. My second aha moment came when an editor for a magazine contacted me and asked if I could send a copy of a photograph he had seen of mine on Railpictures.net to him to use in the next edition of his magazine. Both were my first times being paid for mywork and give me a little boost of confidence.

And I have never been to journalism school.

Love the Warhol quote. And I hope I never am in the situation where I have to make money from my artwork.

Back in the early 70's , as my friends heaped all sorts of praise on the first serious group of vulture sculptures I was creating, (as a form of "therapy"),.

I just wanted to know what the average folk thought of them....So, I stuck a few in a friends furniture shop,(Marblehead, Mass.) and hid behind some potted plant, to listen to their reactions.

They bought the damn things.

And off I went, to this very day, creating, peddling and selling these damn things.

JL I agree with Jani, your work is remarkable and very marketable! Don't know how long you've been at this but most businesses of any sort will take 4-5 years of steady effort to show any returns, so keep at it. As for my AHA moment, there wasn't one. I just felt a need to create whether it was redecorating the house, cooking, painting, writing, drawing, sculpting, or now with digital art and photography.

Wow! A lot of good information in the discussion. I feel like I had a therapy session without the high price of therapy. Thanks everybody for sharing your AHA moment. I have read the responses more than once. I don't think we should post and go just for the practice or effect of it. I really learned at lot in this discussion.