About Artists and Money, Pt. 2

If you haven't yet read pt. 1, please do so ( see Recent Posts) before you read pt. 2, that has more of my story continuing here.

So after 7 years of newspaper experience in management the company downsized and my department was eliminated. So was I. However I found work not long after in the same general field of printing and publishing, again in management. But I made a decision to start painting again, slowly I got my creative juices flowing again and painted in the evenings and weekends after work. It really felt so good and therapeutic. I was working in acrylic and focused on the genre of landscape. Nature scenes I have always enjoyed and loved spending time in nature. It was naturally a subject I was very comfortable and familiar with.

Eventually I created enough inventory to have my first art show, it went well and other shows followed, although with my detailed style I didn't quickly rebuild my inventory so shows were at best once a year...but I made some sales !!! This excited and inspired me. So I learned I could make some money, accomplish a collection of work, have fun and joy in the process and still work my day job. But I became eager to get to a time in my life where I could do my art full time.

As the years went along I continued working in management at various companies such as advertising agencies, magazine publishers and related fields. I found a measure of enjoyment and decent income in working in these companies but the thought of my own art business never left me and continued to haunt me. This desire to be independent and have my own art business keep increasing and was forming, building in my mind. So much I had learned in management and working with designers and creative people could be well and properly used in my own business.

After further downsizing work situations, personality conflicts with some superiors etc. I felt I couldn't take it anymore. I was fed up with having no control of my own fate. At the juncture of this “ I can't take it anymore” feeling, I was in my second marriage and decided to have a serious talk with my wife about taking the leap to independently gained income. I knew it would be hard on both of us, especially the first 3 years or so and I had little of any capital to put into the startup. But we took the plunge and fortunately she had a good full time job to sustain us.

Having a partner, a wife who was fully on board with the business venture is very important. We struggled for some years economically but I was finally happy doing what I love, my passion was being at last satisfied. They say “ Do what you love and the money will follow.” It did fairly well, yet was quite difficult. While the business was growing, income was honestly not enough to pay off the credit cards. I had financed a lot of my business purchases with multiple credit cards. Expectations were not met to cover my debt as I had wished. So I did go back to part time work to help with the pressure of the business bills. Importantly I kept on with the business, remained very satisfied with my art projects and assignments and still had enough clients for murals, some gallery art sales and wall finish treatments for residential clients.

Around this stage of life we decided to visit some artist friends in New Mexico. We stayed with them for some days and explored incredible New Mexico. I went delightfully crazy with the state and the beauty, culture and powerful mountains, high desert, seeing artists everywhere and I was on fire suddenly with the idea of relocating to New Mexico.

My Albuquerque friends encouraged us to do the big move....or tried to. I was ready to relocate after another visit or two to New Mexico. Sadly my wife was not. Oh, now a very hard life decision. Go it alone? Move to New Mexico and try to make it work on my own?. Marriage likely would not survive the change. Sadly it didn't. But the quest relentlessly burned inside me. So I moved forward, departed Wisconsin alone and started, rather restarted my life and the solo adventure. Passions can be a very powerful thing. My big passion, my art, was my very essence and hunger in life, like nothing else, for me. Much more than I earlier thought.

In such a big step I learned so much about myself, how strong I was, what I could endure and tolerate for the sake of my art quest. So I continue to this day to paint, create, teach and share my art talents. Sometimes you wonder, is it worth the loss of another key person in your life, to live alone, battle alone, have successes and experiences not shared with her? In life everything has a price...and it was divorce. So I paid the price and don't regret so much what was lost but value, enjoy greatly what was gained. I am using my God given talents and growing, prospering and feeling fulfilled.

By the way, after almost 2 years in New Mexico I got diverted to Ukraine for 7 years. Another story, another time perhaps. Now I live in Colombia. Love the climate, culture and amazing nature and botanical surroundings. I am happy here and life here will be very conducive and elevating to my painting energy and spirit.

But now I must paint once again, after a long and dry period. Life diverted me for a few recent years from painting. Now I have returned, with more zest and zeal then before and an even stronger faith in the future. New directions and concepts in painting and marketing and much more. Exciting new times have arrived. Stay tuned. Check my blog and website to see how the art adventure in Colombia is going. Thank you!

One last saying for my readers. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”. Have no fear, believe in yourself and go for it. If you have a dream, follow it, make it happen. “Life is short”. Oops, I added one more expression. Also a passion, I like to write, thus the art blog. Good luck to all of you. Be creative, be happy, never stop believing in yourself !!!