Not sure how exactly 
I came to have this epiphany while playing paintball but – I realized that selling art is simply another type of business.
It’s no different than dry cleaning, selling advertising services or Belgian chocolate. It’s 90% business and 10% art. I think because I saw so many successful couples tag team the art business, I always figured it was 50% art and 50% business. But it’s not.
This realization started to creep up on me over the previous few weeks. First there was a post by an artist who’s wife manages his career stating that the two of them spent 90% focus on business and 10% on the art. I was really surprised by this – given his full time crack marketing and sales team/ aka his wife. And while I did agree with that – and think “oh good, I have been feeling bad that I’m not at my easel 50% of the time, maybe I’m on par with everyone else.” I didn’t really get the deeper meaning of this.
I could basically be selling widgets. Yes, high end, niche widgets, but widgets just the same. This fact didn’t fully sink in until ANOTHER artist said he was spending 90% of his time at his desk and only 10% of his time out in the field behind his camera. I was like – “yeah, I spend my entire day doing business. It’s like I’m back in the corporate world, doing what I did then, only now I work for myself,” and he agreed.
So here I am two years into being an artist full time and I finally get it. I am selling widgets. Art is a just another business. I know that takes some of the fun out of it. But it also, all of a sudden, makes it fit nicely into everyone’s business processes and models.
Where before I had been going along with the “conventional” artist wisdom that says art is not a square peg in a square hole. Well, I hate to break it to you, but it is. We are not the exception. And this is a GOOD thing. It means life is much easier for us when we look at selling art from this viewpoint.
Yes it’s still precious. Yes, unlike a traditional widget, it’s personal. And yes, it costs more than a paperclip widget. But probably costs less than a real expensive watch widget. So when we start to think about it in sheer business/ product terms – Wow – possibility opens up like never before. And all of a sudden the hard become simple.
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