Living The Dream?

I'm more or less just starting out, so it's hard to say.

David, ideally what would you want to have happen?

David, you are a very good impressionist style painter. Do you see continuing in that style or do you think it will evolve into something else? If you do not make a living solely from your art is that something you are hoping for? Museums, publications ,knighthood? Emperor of the world?

I think the best I can hope for is to make a decent supplemental income during retirement. I have a hard time seeing art ever being my sole income source, it might be possible someday I won't count it out, but my art income doesn't even come remotely close to covering my costs at this point so I don't even think about it. I'm sure my style will evolve, but I think it will always be impressionistic and representational, I don't see the subject matter changing much if at all. I guess my ideal life would be to have the freedom to grab the motorhome and go wherever I want whenever I want and explore, sketch and paint, but still have a home base. And to be honest, I don't want to work the 80+ hours that most full time professional artists claim they have to do which is one reason I don't see me ever becoming a full time pro, looks like 40 hours is actually part time for an artist.

Interesting question Ron, I am happier with the work, but not with my lack of sales.

Still I dont mind the lack of sales and remain very optimistic. Sickenly optimistic.

Dave

Sharing one of my work to answer your thread :D!

I'm new at the game, and thankfully don't rely on it to make a living, so I can't provide a viable answer.

Questions 2 and 3 sound like they should be asked to people at end of life....do you know something we don't know, Ronald?????

Good one Marlene! LOL! LOL!

Marlene, Marlene is that you? Everything is fading to darkness! Naw I'm fine!

Fat and happy perhaps? Sad, despondent and gaunt? Things going as you expected? Better? Worse?

No complaints. Everything is building up step by step. I don't have any delusions of grandeur or crazy exceptions. Keep your exceptions reasonable and you'll be fine.

The dream is just that, a dream. Rarely is it what folks think. Not so romantic as dreams often are. It's hard work, the most demanding thing know how to do. It's also the most rewording.

I grew up in it, a family of artists surrounded me. My upbringing was different for that. My father, grandfather and uncle were full time commercial artists primarily. My dad painted on the weekends some but stopped that after many years. He died rather young. My mother has done portraits and did many over the years but never made a livable income from it. She's 97 now. When I was very young I briefly tried to go in other than the art direction. That didn't last long at all. So I have lived the life more or less all my life.
I have painted always it seems. After over 45 years I'm still working to be a full time fine artist. I do custom picture framing as a day job. So art is still all around me. I have avoided the commercial route for multiple reasons. In some ways one might say I am living the dream but the economy won't cooperate so sometimes it's a nightmare. I had to adjust my expectations some. I refused to close up when others might have. Life is pretty good. I never expected it to be easy and now it's a bit late to change course. I really wouldn't change much. If it were easy I would not do it. I will never accomplish all I set out to do. It's a process, there is no end to it. No one is ever finished. Success is a personal thing different for each. Selling while important to me is a bonus. Artists never retire. It keeps me alive. I hope to die with brush in hand.

Ronald W.,

The day I stopped living by long-term set goals is the day I really started living.

Things have gone okay after that. I pretty much did exactly what I wanted to do, without grand hopes or great goals, which are often just set ups for stress, when they do not materialize.

I tried to achieve greatness in rather obscure mundane things. This has been perfect practice for bigger things, if the opportunity ever came along.

I have seen so many people who seem to be just waiting for the right time, the right place, the right circumstances, before they ever are willing to try to do things with great integrity. These people spend most of their lives waiting, never PRACTICING living well, only complaining that their situations are not right to inspire them to start taking themselves seriously yet. People are waiting for better pay, a better house or car, a better job, before they say they are willing to start doing a better job or keeping a better house, and the day never comes, and they have NEVER practiced integrity, because they claim that they never had the right situation to warrant doing so.

I always want to ask such people, "When do you ever practice being good at something NOW? How do you think that you will just magically be able to be good at something someday in a future that you hope for if you have never practiced in the past? It's like an athlete waiting for the big race, before starting to practice seriously. It annoys me to no end. You have to make things work in the situation you are in. Find beauty in the mundane. Exert meticulousness in your daily habits, WHEREVER you are. This is all good training that keeps your body in shape to handle any bigger breaks that might come along.

I believe in make-believe......


http://skinnyartist.com/the-delusional-freedom-of-an-artist/

Life is what happens when you were busy making plans.

Yes, Ronald, it is me...no fading to black just yet.

Whew!

Living reality is much better than any dream I could dream of.


How are you doing? I'm doing Good, Thanks for asking Ronald!

Have you accomplished all you hoped to? No, but that's what makes life worth living.

Has being an artist met or exceeded your expectations? Don't really have expectations about art, it's just one of the many things I do.

If not do you feel you are on the right track? My photograph below answers that question.

Break out the violins folks.

Until I was 18 I was reared in poverty, on a working farm that did not support a family of Mom, Dad, and 5 kids. Multiple labor jobs (starting at age 14), school, and farm work were my life, without much of a future ahead. Then I got into a good college, married my wife, graduated, and began work as an artist, which I have done since 1975. The only labor is the labor I assign myself work on my home or helping others. I have lived a dream for 40 years. Sales of my art is not my primary concern, particularly here on FAA. But my growth as an artist, and being father to my boys who are artists themselves, make me very happy. That and a 42 year marriage to a woman who supports my art like a Medici.

Ok you can dry your eyes now.

Q 1: How are you doing? Quite well thanks!
Q 2: Have you accomplished all you hoped to? To early to tell - just started with FAA four weeks ago.
Q 3: Has being an artist met or exceeded your expectations? Yes, I love it however, like some above, I hope it will supplement my retirement income.
Q 4: If not do you feel you are on the right track? Time will tell. I have sold 3 pictures so far so that's a good start.

“There is nothing like a dream to create the future.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

I definitely feel like I am in a dream right now .....and living one........Recently received my second Art Magazine invite. Was a Featured Artist this past January in a Magazine and am now going to be in another....getting a 4 page spread!

I most definitely have TONS of work left to do and unfinished business I haven't come close to doing all that I DREAM of .......and when I first started a DREAM was all it was and now its becoming reality.

When I got back into drawing I would have never even fathomed that I would be where I am right now in then short amount of time that I have been working at it.....but I still have much more I want to do and will continue to work towards my many many goals.

I am pretty much on cloud 9 right now.
It has most definitely exceeded my expectations........
But I am just getting started so we will see.........

Its great to read other's real life experiences! :-)

Its great to explore. Freely. Without the insistence of instigators! i mean i cook as i choose to, too. Food is the stuff of life. Then we are eaten, with mustard or onions. The worms will always love us, tasty tasty morsels ;-)

Thanks for asking Mario, I have been far more successful on some levels that I ever expected. I find that the biggest level of success I have had is being able to do something I enjoy and make a decent living at it.

How am I doing? Crappy. As usual.

Have I accomplished all I hope to? Hell no.

Has being an artist etc. - If I had to do it over again, I'd never have started in this field. Not remotely worth the effort. Waste of time.

On the right track? No.

just curious, how many successful artist have a partner who has supported them in their lean times or who consider themselves successful but remove thier partner from the equation and they would have failed?

No complaints here... I make a few extra bucks off my photography which is more than I was expecting when I started selling my prints. I feel like I'm just at the beginning of this though. So in that way I would say it's exceeded my expectations.

I haven't accomplished anywhere near what I want to (which is a good thing) and I do feel like I'm on the right track.

Another question I would like to see is what people want to get out of this endeavor? A few extra bucks? The ability to quit their day job?

Drew, in my case it's everything. I always say without my wife I would still be in my small town, shoveling corn at the elevator.

JL, like Shakespeare's Queen in Macbeth, "me thinks the Lady doth protest, too much."

All that I lack is peace of mind.

JL, with my extreme ability to view into others psyche I sense you are not as happy with art as you wished to be. What do you wish was different? If not art what could you see yourself doing?

Still have not mastered walking on water

Monsieur Danl, not hard to do, wait for it to freeze.

LOL!

Danl,

I listen to Catholic radio for the light rock music etc...Sinatra.....

The priest was on the other evening with a joke.

God was asked by a man how do I cross this river?
God was listening and the man's two other friends were listening.
The man asked god to be smart.

The man proceeded to cross the river. Then suddenly was over his head and disappeared in the waters.

The second man then asked god to be smart and fast?

He then began to cross the river. He went over his head and down the river.

The third man asked god to be good, smart and fast?

Suddenly he was a woman. She took out a map and found a place upstream to cross the river where the river
was shallow.

Bota bing.

JL,

Some create to find conflict.

Some create to find peace.

I hope you find peace.

Or as one of my buddies at the diner used to say to me, "you don't get headaches, you give them". LOL

Dave

Living the dream implies that someone has become comfortable in thier situation.
I don't know. it's my nature to always push myself in something of a complex nature.
if I'm living the dream, I wouldn't even know it cuz I'm either trying to finish something I have started or starting something that takes commitment.

Why can't growing and pushing yourself be part of "living the dream"?

David, have you every read The Alchemist?

I think, "The Dream" to most people means a life without struggle.

Not familiar with that book Drew.

the book haz a great message regarding "The Living the Dream " theme.

I'm living the dream, thanks for asking, but I'm not comfortable at all!

We had never even dreamed this dream, having worked so hard all of our lives at 2 businesses for over 30 years! (a big plant nursery and large florist shop). But after selling both businesses and 'retiring' at the ripe old ages of 49 and 50 several years ago, we attended a week-long photography 'camp', called FotoFushion in West Palm Beach, with short classes, seminars, portfolio reviews, etc. and enjoyed it immensely. We had both just purchased much nicer cameras, having done a lot of travel shots and cycling race shots throughout the past 30 years, purchased Lightroom and Photoshop, and started reading up and taking on-line seminars to learn the software. We were invited by JC Findley (we were friends from another photo-sharing site) to join Fine Art America, so we started uploading images, purchased a premium account right away, and started a Facebook page to promote our work. We designed nice rack cards to give out at art shows and fairs and our art started to have a nice surge upwards.
We feel that we are certainly now living a dream and feel so very blessed! FAA is the best, giving designers access to the best art in the world and we have been discovered here!! Often we just look at each other and grin and have to remark at how blessed we feel. We are featured by 2 big licensing companies and have made many licensing deals because of our images being found in our gallery here. We have a small brick and mortar gallery run by our art guild and sell well at the half dozen art fairs that we do yearly now.
Life is very good and we just never even thought that we could make a living with our photography art!
Always celebrating life, Debra and Dave

oh Man! Debra and Dave that is AWESOME. So Inspiring! Bravo to you both!

I have much.

I wish I was better at slowing down and appreciating it all.
I find that I am exactly where I've always wanted to be, yet my mind is always focused on the next chapter, to the point that I grow impatient with it.
I want results now!
And yet results are right there in front of me, in the form of everything I've ever worked toward.

It's a fool's irony to have so much and want something more.

...and yet, I suppose it's also how a fool becomes something more...

AAhhh... Living the Dream...

Whose Dream Dreams the Dreamer's Dream...

No longer punching a clock at a job (since 2012). Works for me.

Dream don't come true over night but they do if you don't give up. Smiles.

@Ronald asked: How are you doing? Have you accomplished all you hoped to? Has being an artist met or exceeded your expectations? If not do you feel you are on the right track?

I'm doing fine health-wise at 83: no problems, no meds, no aches and pains. Glad to be alive.

I have not accomplished everything, which is good, for it keeps me strong, persistent, determined.

I am just getting started as an "artist," so my expectations are far from being met, much less exceeded.

Yes, I am on the right track. I like working alone and not having to please others. Selfish, I know, but a hell of a lot of fun!