I just returned from a 3 day conference that focused on entrepreneurs and people starting small business. While there I had several realizations that are proving to be major game changers for my art practice, and now I’d like to share them with you.
Watch the video to see what I learned, and let me know what you think. What realizations or revelations have you had about your art practice?
Best, Nicholas
21 Comments
Hi! I’m
Nicholas Wilton
the founder of Art2Life.
With over 20 years experience as a working artist and educator, I’ve developed a systematic approach that brings authenticity, spontaneity and joy back into the creative process.
Join me and artists from all over the world in our Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group or learn more here about Art2Life.
Just got back from my trip to California. Great to meet you and Ferris and some of the people from CVP. I have not yet started painting again and I know connecting with my fellow students and believing in myself are going to make all the difference in moving forward. Thanks for the reminder Nicholas and thanks for your amazing class and continued support!
Very inspiring!! I’m looking to make changes in my little gallery… and you have planted a seed in my mind today. I’ve been toying with the idea of a collective of sorts … but with a purpose outside of just showing and selling art. Stronger together, being the idea to greater purpose. Maybe to contribute to a need… like housing for homeless. Rotating shows of great artwork that some proceeds would contribute to a cause. Tired of doing it all myself and painting too. As rents rise in SF, one has to set intentions on survival of what is loved… like my basement studio! So many artists…. we could make a dent in a social need and enjoy a community of artists. THANK YOU for these Sunday talks… so helpful!
Interesting observation, Nicholas, and thank you for sharing it. I agree that a positive mindset and being surrounded by like-minded people who are moving up are important. I’m wishing it was a little easier right now. The amount of time I spend on marketing my art is tiresome, and like other artists, I’d prefer to be in the studio working on my art. But it beats having a corporate day job, so I really can’t complain!
Hi Nick, I really agree with this mindset idea!! Community and sharing.
Also, so enjoy these MIND BLAST tidbits that you share each Sunday, so enlightening and inspiring.
Keep them coming, we all need this. 🙂
THANKS
MARTI
Thank you for this Nick! I love the simplicity with which you explained this.I believe this, but you speak of it with such conviction and heart, it makes it easier to digest. You are like the Tim Ferris of Art, you take complex notions, and make them simple to understand and implement! You have changed the way I live my creative life and paint and I haven’t even gotten to take a class with you yet! Thank you I love your videos and written blogs each week, I get so much out of them. One of the few emails I get that I look forward to opening!
Thanks so much for this reminder Nicholas. I totally agree. We can do anything!
I agree, making sure the people you are in contact with are powerful anfd successfull! Get rid of the downers and complainers…Thanks!
…I liked the part where you started laughing a bit and said it seemed like the ONLY thing the survivors, the successful had was the belief that they could do it…more than the talent, etc. true I think…”if you think you can or if you think you can’t, you’re right”?
The part of marketing my own art that I have problems with is finding something to say about it that makes
it meaningful. There is so much going on in this world — refugees, famine, wars, sickness, etc., that I have problems going to my art studio to paint nice, even wonderful, pictures and asking people to buy these pictures.
In the midst of the refugees, famine, wars and sickness, your art might celebrate the beauty of life that also surrounds us. A piece of art you create may bring healing to someone. Keep on painting…I think that the marketing as something to endure. That said, I do not do will with marketing AT all.
Absolutely agree!!
Thank you, I love the community mindset you have in encouraging artists. So I’m thinking, if you can do it, so can I! Looking forward to making it to one of your workshops.
Hi Nicholas, thats very true. Mindset has to right, character has to be right and habits have to be right 🙂
THANKS, as always, for sharing so generously. I agree with you that it’s important to reach out to those further along the path, and then also to reach out to those aspiring to a path similar to yours. We are all stronger when we share. THANKS SO MUCH!!
Yes! Yes! Yes!!!! You are so right – being a part of the A2L Academy and watching all my peers growing by leaps and bounds is so inspiring and invigorating. I have really come a long way in just one short year in my thinking about what is possible and much of this comes from you Nicholas and the others who I have been surrounded by. I have now begun to ask myself in all areas of life whether or not I am holding a limited belief. Thank you so much for continually demonstrating and reminding me to be aware of how my own beliefs can often hold me back!
I love how generous you are with your knowledge. I’ve always found that whatever I share, comes back to me tenfold. Share my time, I receive plenty of time, share my talents, I seem to grow, share my money, and I have enough. Thank you!
I agree! Mindset is important in many areas of life–in art and beyond! A good mindset can take an ugly day and help me find the beauty that is still within reach. Thanks for your generosity, Nicholas!
Connecting with people on a similar path always seems to give hope and positive thinking. Success can come in all forms- maybe just accomplishing only one thing in one day that moves me forward is the type of success I need to focus on.
Absolutely! I have experienced that over and over in my career as an artist as well as in my relationships. It’s almost like “build it and they will come.” Without that faith and hard work all bets are off. The Universe is always watching and listening.
The more I make art, the more I want to, and the more I realize how much more I have to learn and explore in my search for making and knowing what my most authentic art is. (It keeps changing in different ways.) Engaging with the CVP family has been so rewarding these past months, and is a perfect example of the value of kindred spirits. Thanks everyone! I’m also looking forward to the Academy and to meeting the alumni!!
Totally agree. Totally. Mindset is the toughest part of anything creative… biz, life, fam.. All of it. I’m creating some really sub-par, bad art and writing right now.. and loving every minute of it because I know the bad art will improve and the writing will be polished and it’s all part of the process. I don’t love it everyday but I’m growing the mindset in the middle of it. That’s what’s important.