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Recently, I’ve had a few sweet, well-meaning people express how envious they are that I get to make art for a living. “What a dream!” they said.
I smiled and nodded because that is what you do. But my soul shriveled up a little bit behind my eyes, because lately being a working artist has felt anything but dreamy.
Instead of writing a long post on how hard it actually is to make a living as an artist (maybe that is a future essay), I’m just sharing my to-do list from one day last week.
I was frantically preparing for a three-day in-person sale located four hours from where I live. I had only had about three weeks to weave a new batch of inventory for this event, which was not enough time. I was already creatively exhausted from designing and weaving over 15 detailed tapestries for a gallery show earlier this spring, and found myself very scattered and stressed as I pushed to make as many items as I could for this event.
Honestly, I don’t adore doing in-person events for my art. They can be fun, and have sweet moments of connection and levity (which will be my essay next week), but they are always unpredictable, stressful, and a huge risk of time and financial investment. Often the events are outdoors, which adds another layer of stress battling wind, rain, heat, and cold. Once I spent an entire art festival gripping my booth tent to keep it from blowing away in the strong wind gusts.
But for my business now, showing up in person is a necessary part of “the dream.” Traveling a bit to get my work in front of new people feels important as I hope to create new connections and find new collectors for my work.
So, here is an example of what my brain looked like a few days before this event:
An Artist’s To-Do List
Clean the Airbnb (Like many artists, I juggle multiple income streams to make ends meet.)
Do laundry
Print and hole punch price tags
Price finished weavings
Weave one last small weaving (Didn’t happen.)
Do finishing work on last four weavings (Didn’t happen that day, and they didn’t get finished in time for the event.)
Assemble new display items (One of the up-front investments in doing in-person events that visitors probably don’t notice: artist’s displays! Tables, hanging implements, greeting card and jewelry displays, table cloths, signs, shelves, etc. really add up. We have a running balance sheet in our brains at events, thinking about how each sale (or lack there of) will pay for these investments.)
Pick up table from Nan (Sometimes making displays work in the meantime when we can’t invest more means depending on other artist friends to borrow us their tables. Repeatedly.)
Go to storage unit for my table, chair, and other display items.
Pack inventory and display items in bins and pack into car.
Pack bag for me
Print signs for my table and put in frames (This turned into a frustrating fiasco with frames falling apart and the printer not working.)
Newsletter signup list
Artist Bio (Didn’t happen.)
Portfolio of past custom work and sign about being open for commissions. (Didn’t happen.)
Price list for cards, stickers, and coasters.
Sew woven patches on hats (Didn’t happen.)
Weave more earrings (Lol, definitely didn’t happen.)
Pack yarn and little loom for weaving more earrings if it’s slow during event
Grocery store for road snacks and bubbly water
Shower
Text KJ about visiting Aurora (My cat, who I always feel guilty and anxious about leaving.)
Social media post with event info
Write overdue Substack essay (Didn’t happen—I missed last week and am late this week. Thank you for hanging in there with me as I get back into my routine.)
Eat
Breathe
Multiply that list by about 20, and you have a few weeks in the life of an artist. Sometimes, it is a dream. But always, it’s a dream that involves a lot of hard work.
Thank you for reading! Next week will have a little more levity as I share some of the beautiful moments I’ve experienced sharing my art at in-person events.
this is soooo real!
And none of that work is paid. I hear you, I’m an artist too.