Episode 149: 22 Years As An Artist: What I'll Never Do Again

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Honest Art Workshops Introduction

1:00Hi there. Are you an artist who's been painting for five years or less and you're wondering how you can get your art to that fine art status? Or maybe you're an artist who is looking for your voice and your signature style. And I'm here to tell you that's exactly why I created the Honest Art Workshops and we have them in gorgeous destinations all over the world. And in them we tap into you and to your voice. I only host a handful of them a year, three to five. So if you're interested in that, head to the link in the show notes to learn more.

Jodi King Introduction

1:33Welcome back to the Honest Art Podcast, everyone. I'm so glad you're here and I am your host, Jodi King. I'm super excited about this week's podcast because one of the things that I am most proud of for my art career is just how long I have been able to hang in there. Uh, I've been doing this over 22 years. Frankly, I'm, I hope I do it 22 more. I absolutely love what I do.

2:04But the thing is, is that, uh, even though maybe some influencers might say otherwise, there is no get rich quick, um, thing happening in the art business. It's like every other business. It takes time. It takes energy. It takes work. It takes practice, right? It takes a lot of hours, um, either at the canvas or if you're pottery or whatever your medium is. Um, and it just reminds me of like what looks like an overnight success to a lot of people.

2:40And that might be why they are promoting, like it can be done so quickly, but what works looks like an overnight success. There's always so much time and effort and work that has gone on, um, behind the scenes to make it, uh, to make it look like it was just super easy. But, um, in this week's podcast, I was thinking about, you know, what are some of the things that, um, that I did over these 22 years that I would no longer do? Like really, when I look back on it, doing, um, these 11 things, and I'm going to tell you about that, doing these 11 things really held me back from my success sooner.

11 Things to Stop Doing

3:20So without further ado, let's get into it and let's get messy. Uh, so starting with number one, uh, I will no longer wait for permission. So it just feels like, especially in the visual arts world, that we're always waiting for somebody to give us permission to show our art. So whether it's, um, a gallery that we're just waiting to be chosen, or, um, maybe it's a designer that, that I've been wanting to work with, or, you know, we just, I just feel like so often artists are just sitting here like, but, you know, pick me, choose me, choose me.

4:05And I used to be a pick me person. And now I'm like, fuck it. I, I am going to create, um, the artist's life that I want. And one of the things that, uh, I recognize in, uh, like honest art society and studio elite is the artists that are successful. There's not one way to do it. They're all doing it in their own way. And, and part of doing it in their own way is they have to, or we have to, we have to believe that, that our way is the way that works best for us.

4:40Because if we, um, once we realize that the only person that we should be waiting on, uh, to give us permission is us, we have to be like, okay, you know what? I'm not waiting on the world to tell me I'm good enough. Um, I'm not waiting on, um, you know, that gallery or that exhibition or whatever to tell me a good, I know I have a belief that I am good enough and I'm going to act from that place. Okay. The next thing, um, is that I will no longer confuse, uh, perfection with professionalism because there were, honestly, I think there were probably years where I didn't put my work out there.

5:23Because I didn't think it was like, not perfect, but like good enough. And, and I thought that if I did that, that was probably a more professional way to do it. That I just have to, had to wait till it was just exactly like I wanted it. And that's, that's not true. That's honestly, that's just fear. And, um, and so I, I'm not going to do that anymore. I am happy to, uh, to start something, show it, um, explain my process.

5:54I'm honestly, I think what it comes to is, um, I just have become so much more comfortable knowing that my work is honest. And if my work is honest to me and I can explain it, that to me is the perfectionism or that, that to me is what, what perfect looks like. It's like, it was honest. It was honest while I was creating it. So yeah, no longer waiting, um, uh, for things to be perfect in order to put it out there. Okay. Now within that, that kind of brings me to number three and that is like, I, I no longer feel like I have to hide the messy middle, you know?

6:34Um, and that is not the way it used to be. I used to feel like in order for me to like, look like a legitimate artist, uh, I had to really show like the final piece. I had to, to let people know that I knew what I was doing when in fact, you know, I had so many insecurities. I was afraid that if people saw that messy middle that I, you know, they, I would lose some credibility. But the truth is, it's just like people.

7:06I don't want to be friends with someone who is not willing to show me their vulnerabilities because that means that I can't feel safe showing my vulnerabilities. And it's in that same way. I now know that being able to show people the messy middle or the fugglies as I call them and, uh, actually talking about them and embracing the fugglies as a part of the creative process that doing that not only gives me permission, but it gives other people permission.

7:40And that's what we do as artists, right? Is we validate the human experience for other people, whether it's a breakup song or it's capturing a beautiful landscape. We, we validate the human experience. So if we leave out the messy middle and we don't share that, uh, or we really like, we hide that, then we're not being fully ourselves. And that's the key is that we want to show up fully, um, and let people see that so that we validate other people's experience.

8:14And it helps us like when we know, when we get into those fugglies, we know it's just part of the process and that we can get out of it. But, but embracing that and be like, okay, yep. Now I'm in the middle. I'm in the fugglies. I know how to get out of it. Okay. This next one, uh, this one, it might be a little tricky, but, um, I will no longer shrink my ambition in order to make other people feel comfortable. Uh, let me just say that again for the folks in the back.

8:44I will no longer shrink my ambition in order to make other people feel more comfortable. So what I have found is that sometimes when we have success as artists, we tend to shy away from expressing that. So if you've ever been someone who sold a painting, but didn't want to post it because you didn't want to boast, um, I completely understand that we have been taught from a very young age that we don't brag, that we stay humble.

9:23And I'm, I'm all about that. I am all about staying humble, but there is a really fine line between, uh, between staying humble and celebrating. Your wins and celebrating your goals. And, um, gosh, I wish I could remember her name, but you, do you guys remember, uh, in the Olympics, the, the, uh, figure skater, the woman, she had, uh, uh, like, like her hair was different colors and she was, she just nailed, nailed the ice skating.

9:57I think she went gold actually. But my point is that she was out there on the ice and she was skating so freely. And when she finished her routine, she was so exuberant and she came off the, off the, uh, ice and she was like, that's what I'm fucking talking about. Like she didn't, she didn't downplay her excitement for what she knew she just accomplished. And in that moment, I felt like she gave all of us permission to celebrate who we are and celebrate our big, crazy dreams and our big, crazy goals.

10:36So I, I, I'm no longer doing that. And I have to tell you, uh, even like from, uh, my social life slash dating life, I have found that, um, my ambition and my success has been extremely intimidating, uh, for people. And, uh, literally like, I guess there's been, uh, guys that are just like, they can't handle it, but I'm not shrinking. Um, and I just want you to know that artists are allowed to live big lives.

11:12Okay. And if you have big dreams and you have big goals, I think that's amazing because what if you had tiny, tiny little goals and tiny little dreams? And that's what you're, uh, reaching for, um, that's what you're going to get. Now we have to have tiny little goals on our way to our big goals, but yeah, no longer, uh, shrinking my ambition or hiding my ambition in order to make other people feel comfortable. Nope. I'm done with that. Also probably menopause has something to do with that, but at any, at any rate, not going to do that anymore.

11:46Hey, real quick while I've got you, I just want to tell you, I know that being an artist can be a lonely job. And filled with self-doubt. So artists need other artists and we need painting techniques and the skills to sell our art along with it. So that's why I created the best membership group of artists on the planet called the Honest Art Society. And in it, you receive several coaching calls a month with me so that you can get your questions answered on business and on your art.

12:17You get monthly trainings from art techniques to marketing and business. You get exclusive art critiques as well as exclusive discounts on workshops and courses. And all of this is for only $47 a month and you can cancel at any time. So if you're ready to make your best art ever, along with a great community of amazing artists, I hope you'll join me in the Honest Art Society and you can find out more at the link in the show notes. Okay, next one.

12:48And this is really important, by the way, especially if you're an artist who really feels like you'd like to make this a career. I see this a lot with the artists that I work with, and that is I will no longer treat my art like a hobby if, in fact, I do want to sell my work and I do want to expand my reach and I do want to have, you know, sell my art globally or at least, you know, pass my front door. I will no longer treat it like a hobby because when we do that, what we're doing is we are usually waiting for some time to show up for ourselves in order to paint, meaning everything else that we do really becomes a priority.

13:36And I, you may have even heard me call this procrastinating, like I don't like to clean, but boy, I can procrastinate and I can procrastinate clean like a motherfucker. I can put something off and oftentimes it's scary to show up to paint, right? It's scary to show up for that because we know that inevitably we're probably going to get into the fugglies and there's going to be all of this self-doubt that shows up for us. Or sometimes it's like, well, we don't even know what to paint anyway, so we put it off and we put it off and we put it off.

14:15That is treating our art career like a hobby. If it is truly something that you want to do, like really you want to go hard, you've got to treat it like a career. Even if it's only painting on nights and weekends, you've got to honor that time and you have to consider it like this sacred time. Like nobody gets to have that time because that is your creative sacred time to do that.

14:48So when you shift that, turn that dial a little bit and you're like, nope, nope, I've been treating this like it's optional. That's what hobbyists do. But when you're ready to treat it like a career, you've got to show up consistently even if you don't know what you're going to paint. Even when you feel uninspired, we show up anyway. So that was one thing that I learned a long time ago. I will no longer treat it like a hobby. I'm going to honor myself and I'm going to honor my creativity and my creative spark and I'm going to show up like it's a career.

15:25Okay, here's the next one. Number seven. I will no longer believe the myth that as an artist, it's a solo thing and we have to do it alone. That is such bullshit. In fact, if you look historically at the artists who have had the most success, just name a name. Frida Kahlo, she had community. Basquiat community. Picasso community. Name all the things.

15:58The thing that all great artists had was community. And the thing is, is that that's actually why I created the Honest Arts Society because I knew, I know that like truly when artists get together in community and we can collaborate and we can have mentors and we can have people suggesting, you know, seeing things in our blind spots that we don't see. Or, you know, maybe, you know, with that, I know specifically with the Honest Arts Society, there could be some people that like say live in the Pacific Northwest and there's other people in the group that are.

16:34And then they announce that there's this show that's coming up and here's what they did. And, you know, like doing our art alone, yes, we will create alone. But in terms of believing that we have to do it alone to succeed, it's just not historically the way it's worked. So don't do it alone. I also, you guys have heard me talk about, I have the most beautiful support in my team. I have somebody that helps me with emails and tech and stuff.

17:07I'm so bad at it. So if you're an artist and you're like, but I don't know how, I don't know how to start an email list and, you know, I don't know really how to do social media and I don't know how, you know, name the how, right? Well, you're not supposed to necessarily know how to do all that. And reach out for support. There's so many different ways you can get support. You can get support from if you have a university nearby, you can get support from maybe marketing students there.

17:40You can go onto websites like Fiverr or Upwork. You could just, there's so many different opportunities and so many different people available to work. And if you try to go it alone, it's going to be hard. I mean, I did it alone for a long time, but then it just got to be like too big for me to handle. It's going to be hard. And also it's going to lead to burnout. And, you know, we need your art. We need you creating your art. If you have been called to create, my guess is it wasn't to create one thing.

18:15It was to express yourself creatively because somebody out there needs what you have. So don't try to do it all alone. It's much easier if you have a group or if you have a community. And frankly, it's just much more fun. Okay, next one. All right. I will no longer apologize for my prices. Now, there's a caveat to this, okay? That doesn't mean that we just get to price our art however we want.

18:51You know, what we believe it should be worth. There is a formula for pricing art that we really do need to consider because people are going to be comparing your art, your style of art, your quality of art to other artists. And I did a whole podcast on how to price your art. And it's really, really important. We'll put it in the show notes, the link to that episode. But I feel confident that my pricing is fair and especially fair for the value that people

19:27get. Now, how do I know this? Because it sells. The art sells at that price point. So that's how I feel confident that it's worth that. That doesn't mean that I don't have people that say, oh, I can't afford that. I thought it was going to be less. And for those people, then I've created prints, not of all of my work, but of some of my work.

19:57But so that if someone does appreciate my art, and I'm so grateful when they do, at least there's an option at a more approachable price point for them. But that doesn't mean I apologize for my pricing. And here's the other thing. What I will no longer do is when someone says, I would like to buy that piece of art, I no longer say, oh, I'll just give you a 20% discount. They didn't even ask. They knew what the price was, right?

20:29I will no longer, you know, really diminish my own work because I don't believe in the pricing. I won't do that anymore. The price is the price. And sure, I mean, of course there are times when I give discounts. Absolutely. But it's usually for certain circumstances, right? Maybe they bought two pieces. Maybe they are a return collector, whatever that might be. But in general, I'm not going to apologize for my pricing. I had this new friend, this was about like eight months ago.

21:01And they're like, oh my gosh, I love your art. You know, I really want to get a piece. And then I saw them the next time. It was an acquaintance, actually. I saw them the next time. And they're like, I went on your website. Wow, your art's expensive. And I didn't apologize for that. I just went, well, yeah. I mean, I guess this depends on who you talk to. Because if you guys heard me tell this story, this is a bit of a tangent. Have you all heard me tell this story about going to the Hamptons Fine Art Fair?

21:33This was years ago. And I was doing my research on what kind of art, you know, sells best there and price point and things like that. And on the website, it said that the price point that sells best is art that's $40,000 and up. Okay? And this is one of the largest art fairs out there, $40,000 and up. Well, you know, my art is generally in that kind of $3,000 to $6,000 range, sometimes more, sometimes a little less, that $3,000 to $6,000.

22:08So my point is, like, for those people that are the collectors that are collecting art at the Hamptons Art Fair, my art is like pennies. It's cheap, right? Super accessible. So we don't adjust our prices based on what other people can afford. We base our prices based on the quality of the work and how long we've been painting and similar styles. Like, again, go to the pricing podcast.

22:39But I'm confident. My prices are my prices. All right, next one. I will no longer let fear masquerade as timing. So what I mean is that artists will often say, well, I haven't posted yet because I'm waiting for my art to get better. Or I haven't applied to that show because I just, I'm not ready. And listen, these things might be true for sure.

23:10But basically, it's all fear. And another thing that I've heard people say is, you know, I'm just not confident yet. And when I feel more confident, then I'll do it. But the thing is, is that confidence doesn't show up before you start. Confidence shows up when you start. So if you're just waiting and you're just saying, oh, you know, it's just not time yet. It's just not time yet. That is just fear, you guys.

23:40And spoiler, the fear is never going away. Well, it hasn't gone away for 22 years. I can tell you that. The fear doesn't go away because it's always going to be a new show. And it's always going to be a new juror. Or it's always going to be a new something. And that's great. That means we're expanding. And that means we're growing. But the fear isn't going to go away. So if you just continue to let fear run the show, you're never going to get anywhere.

24:12So that's one of the things that I had to acknowledge for myself. And that is, is that I was saying, oh, it's just not the right time or something like that. And I had to acknowledge that's just fear. So I'm no longer doing that. Now I know I'm going to be scared. And I'm going to do it anyway. All right, next one is, I will no longer use comparison to determine the value and importance of my work.

24:42This is a big one. And it's one that I think so many of us as artists really have to consider. Because when we, usually when we are, we are painting, you know, we love looking at other artists' work. We, who appreciates art more than artists, right? We love it. But the thing is, is that when we are comparing our art to other people, and then we maybe start to change some of our art so that it may be, at least in our, in our minds, we think

25:14that it'll be better if it looked more like, like someone else's. The thing is that we are robbing, we are robbing ourselves of the thing that makes our art our own, and that is us, right? It's our voice. And the thing is, is the, the, oh shit, one more time. Okay. The thing is, is the, the art world doesn't need another copy of something or something that's so, so similar. It doesn't need that. Honestly, it kind of needs our weird. It needs that unique thing that we bring to it.

25:47And when I always think about, this is why one of my very favorite artists is Basquiat. It's because can you imagine what it was like for Basquiat in that time? His style was so incredibly different than anyone else's. And if he was comparing himself to the other art that was out there and he decided to stop because what he was doing was not like what other people were doing, oh my gosh, it would

26:18have robbed the world. First of all, it would have robbed him of his own self-expression and it would have robbed the world for us to, to so many of these issues that he brought to life with, with his art. So even if the only reason you do this is for yourself, for your own voice, for your own self-expression, um, and to elevate your voice, to say the things that you maybe wouldn't be able to say anywhere else, even if that's the only reason you do that, do that, but do not, um, place any value or importance of your work based on comparing it to someone

26:54else's. Okay, finally, the last one is I will not forget that play is the whole point. You guys, this is supposed to feel good painting and creating and whatever it is you might do as a creative act. Don't forget to play like that is, that's where the highest vibration comes in. And so what does that mean? What does it mean play? That means that like, if you want to grab this color instead of that, just because your

27:27intuition is calling you there, do that. Um, play is remembering what it was like when we were a child and we were so curious about everything. We were so curious of what if we put this here and what if we colored that there and what if we put some glitter there? Like that's all play. So don't forget that in all of this like business talk that we're talking about and prints and pricing and all that, don't forget that we get to be artists.

28:01We get to be creatives and don't make it so like highbrow that you forget that the whole point was that this is supposed to feel really good. Don't forget. Um, the whole point is play. All right. So just wrapping this up, I just want to tell you, you know, like my goal, I, like I said earlier, I've been doing this 22 years. My goal is to do this another 22 years. I mean, I always think about, I want to die with a paintbrush in my hand. I want to keep having fun.

28:31I want to keep enjoying this. So all of these things that I talked about that I'm going to give up, those are the things that I have to give up to stay in this game.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

28:41And I can just tell you, it is so worth it to keep going. Does it require courage? Yes. Because, you know, rejection is just part of this and, um, um, you know, just self doubt is part of it. It takes courage, but I'm telling you, if you just keep going, it's going to be so worth it. Okay. I hope that those, uh, those items were helpful to you. And, um, listen, if you're watching this on YouTube, I so appreciate it.

29:13We're really trying to grow the YouTube channel. So if you can like, and subscribe, uh, that would be amazing. And then if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast platform, if you would just give us, you know, like a thumbs up and maybe a five-star review, that would be amazing. All right. Until next time, take good care of yourselves and each other. Peace out.