Guest author/artist advisor: Aletta de Wal
Anyone can consider himself or herself a professional artist, but that doesn’t make it so. I ran a juried contest in which I asked artists to define, “When are you ready to call yourself a professional artist?“
Here are the definitions offered by the winners:
“Anybody can order business cards, obtain a business license and call themselves a professional. To be a true professional requires a commitment of time and resources, a commitment to detail. A true professional never settles for less than giving 100% to anything and everything they do.”
“Passion, commitment and determination are the attributes I focus on in my professional career as a fine artist. Passion to do the kind of work I can be proud of, commitment to many years of work to continue to grow as an artist, and the determination to get the finished work out to the public.”
“What I have that makes me feel professional right now is a well organized studio, business cards with my artwork images on them, memberships in arts professional organizations, acceptance into juried shows, postcards mailed to a growing mailing list, subscriptions to arts magazines, a growing body of work, and people who purchase my artwork.”
There is more to professionalism than simply claiming it.
1. First, You Must Think Like a Professional Artist 100% of the Time.
Everything starts in your mind. You must think like a professional artist all of the time. Become aware of all your attitudes and beliefs about having a professional art career.
You must root out any ideas or thoughts that that will keep you from assuming full responsibility for your career decisions. You must commit to eliminate any negative self-talk that prevents you from taking all the actions needed to build relationships and to live up to your art career responsibilities.
You no longer subscribe to any stereotypes or myths about artists. You slough off negative attitudes, like “You can’t make a living as an artist.” or, “Get a real job skill to ‘fall back on’.” These common sayings were probably intended to keep us from harm, but are deadly if you allow them to persist and to control your behavior.
2. You Accept the Multiple Responsibilities of Being a Professional Artist.
Being a professional artist means juggling multiple responsibilities. You are ready to engage professionally when you can say that the following statements are true of you and your business:
Your work is consistent—not all over the place. Your work is unique, identifiable, and well developed. Even your experiments fit into your signature work. Both your audience and your sales representatives can easily and instantly recognize artwork as yours.
- You have an inventory of properly finished work. You have plenty of completed work, already in final show form to be able to exhibit at any time. If a gallery owner or collector were to come to your studio, they would find an impressive body of work to view and select from.
- You have gotten feedback that your art has an audience—not just friends and family. You have a history of shows and sales. Your work attracts media attention, interest and excitement.
- You develop business relationships. You are able to commit time and attention to building and nurturing relationships. You know how important it is to relate professionally and engage with those in the art world, and you are both ready and willing to do so.
- You have the money to exhibit and market your work. You present your work professionally and meticulously. You have professional marketing materials, and a first class web site.
- You understand how the art market works. This is a constantly changing environment, but you have taken the time and trouble to research and understand what you need to know about how to access your audience and market.
- You have good photographs of your art, a one to two page resume, and an artist statement. You’ve put in the time, effort and money to create professional materials to present your work and your credentials.
- You have consistent pricing and a pricing policy. You know how to price your work so that you are competitive in the market. There’s logic to your pricing and that logic is obvious to prospective buyers. The consistent development of your signature contributes to the consistently rising value of your work.
It’s not always so easy to identify exactly what makes artists professionals. What else do you have in place that lets the world know that you are a professional artist – and proud of it? We’d love to hear from you…
*****
Aletta de Wal is a popular guest blogger here at FineArtTips as well as an Artist Advisor and Artist Career Trainer - this post is an Excerpt from Aletta’s forthcoming book, “My Real Job is Being An Artist: What You Should Know Before You Quit Your Day Job (Or Get One).”
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Private Consultation with Lori (for art critiques and social media advice for the artist)
About Lori McNee
I’d break it down to something pretty simple: you regularly get paid for creating art.
A professional basketball player isn’t someone who plays well, always makes the shot, markets themselves well, etc. It’s not even someone who has an agent, is on basketball cards and so on. Those might be good indicators that someone is a professional basketball player, but what really counts is that they get paid to play basketball regularly (i.e. not just in some random contest they won).
I’d say that the same is true of artists. You don’t have to have all of the trappings of a business. You don’t really have to have professionalism. You just have to have people paying you for the work you create.
I agree that the things you talk about are good and usually necessary to be successful, but they are not definitional.
Hi Will, thanks for adding the all important ‘you regularly get paid’ to the definition of a professional artist. I totally agree with you…
This point might have been overlooked because it seems so obvious! But, I am glad you shared your comment here, just in case a reader doesn’t understand the importance of getting paid. Yes, a professional artist consistently receives payment for a service rendered. I like your basketball analogy.
I hope to see you again-
Lori
From someone who juggles a full time job along with an art career this can be rather difficult. But regardless i believe that if a person has the passion to see it through then it will happen. I think it’s important to understand that professionals are not all on the same level. Each of us has room to grow and develop so there are certainly areas as noted above in which I need drastic improvement.
However once identified, we understand the importance of them and work hard to fill the gaps as needed and aspire to be all that we can. I think professionalism is really centered around attitude and determination. Like you said, artist need to be serious, and if they don’t take their career seriously no matter what level it is at, no one else ever will.
Hi Vanessa, thanks for bringing your important perspective to this post. Yes, our attitudes determine our altitudes!
Thanks for taking time to comment here again. Happy creating-
Lori
Thanks Lori for this awesome post…being a self taught artist, I often felt that having a degree/certification in the specific field is a must to be called as a professional ….however over the years I have realized it is not mandatory , since continuing education is necessary even for a certified artist….. So all the things you and Will have mentioned are what counts…I also agree with Vanessa attitude is a must…
Hi Sandhya, I read somewhere that there are other countries that will not consider a professional artist, ‘professional’, unless he or she has a degree in art. I will have to do some research on that…but, I do remember reading it. Anyway, to become a professional artist it takes talent, determination and business aptitude. Artists must always be students and grow and evolve. It is not easy being an artist, and a degree really doesn’t help that much!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us,
Lori
I guess the thing I instantly reacted negatively to, in this article, is the notion that you must be wealthy enough to get your art out there.
“•You have the money to exhibit and market your work. You present your work professionally and meticulously. You have professional marketing materials, and a first class web site.”
Frankly that indicates wealth. And there is no greater burden to so many of us from the middle and lower classes of our respective countries than being told the only way to make money is to have money in the first place.
I call myself an Artist, not a professional artist, even though I make some money at it, because the term “Professional Artist” just goes against my grain, and in reading this I can see why. Exclusivity, as opposed to excellence, is just plain infuriating in an arena where it’s enough of a struggle to get seen. The Art should be the most important thing anyway. Our culture’s overemphasis on money and some abstract notion of “success” is detrimental to pursuing art as a career OR as an artist, because the fact is and always will be, so many great and genuine artists slip through the cracks and are never recognized. I’m all for tips on how to succeed, or at least do better, but “Be Rich” is not useful.
Hi Lili,
Thanks for your interesting perspective and feedback on this article. Yes, it does take money to run any small business and being an artist is no different. It does not take ‘wealth’, but that old saying, ‘It takes money to make money’ is uncomfortably true for artists.
It is so competitive ‘out there’ nowadays that artists need to put their best foot forward to stand out. Good art should be enough, but it usually isn’t.
There are plenty of free website templates available and lots of free ways to learn how to blog, etc. I started out on a free site and have taught myself how to manage and update my two blogs. A portfolio is much more affordable these days with the ease of a digital camera. I use to pay a professional photographer to take slides of my art, now I photograph my paintings myself – that has saved me a bundle.
Artists are frugal and creative. There are many money saving ways to keep your art business a float. Framing is a big cost overhead for me. I have gotten on the phone and shopped for the best deals, and saved some money that way.
You are an ‘art purist’…I like that! Thanks again for sharing your thoughts here. I enjoyed it.
Lori
HI MS. FUGIT,
I AGREE WHOLE-HEARTEDLY WITH YOUR STATEMENTS!!!!!! I HAVE BEEN AN ARTIST FOR A LONG TIME AND I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT MY WORK AND HAVE TRULY ENJOYED THE PEACE OF MIND AND CONFIDENCE THAT COMES WITH CREATING MY BEST WORKS AT ALL TIME . I AM A MEMBER OF THE MIDDLE CLASS AS WELL, I AM A HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL OF 17 YRS AND I DON’T MAKE ALOT OF MONEY AT ALL…..AND I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE FACT THAT MY ARTISTIC ABILITIES OR MY WORK ARE ANY LESS THAN THE “WEALTHY ARTIST”!!!!! I WORK VERY HARD AND I AM SUPER PROUD OF THE GIFTS AND TALENT’S THAT GOD HAS GIVEN ME!!!!!! I DO KNOW , AS LORI SAYS, IT TAKES MONEY TO MAKE MONEY , SO I WILL CONTINUE TO USE MY “LITTLE BITS” TO MAKE A LOT!!!!! THANK YOU ALL!!!!!
PEACE AND BLESSINGS…..
Hello again Jo Ann and thanks for your remarks. I too believe it is important to use our gifts! Congrats on your ‘little bits’ and may they help make a lot for you.
Happy creating,
Lori
To me a professional artist is someone who is earning 100% of their living by creating / selling art and they are fully committed to it.
Just like one of your previous commenters – a professional athlete is not someone who dabbles in sports in their spare time. If that were the case, I could consider myself a professional surfer!
However, the word “professional” does not mean “better” or “good” or “great”. It’s just a designation that you would give someone who earns their living doing something professionally.
Some of the most talented artists I know are not professional artists – they create part time while they work an unrelated job full time.
what Maria said
ABSOLUTELY!!!!!! I AGREE WITH THAT DEFINITION OF “PROFESSIONAL”. ….WHERE YOU MAKE A LIVING ….SOME PEOPLE GET TOOOOO CAUGHT UP IN TITLES!!!!!! I AM AN ARTIST!!!! AND MY WORK , MY PASSION, AND CREATIVITY SHOWS THIS!!!!!!!!!
I can feel your PASSION in this comment! Thanks for sharing your thoughts here.
Cheers,
Lori
Great post Lori…as the post says, “…someone who is earning 100% of their living by creating art” Well, that’s not me, but I feel more like a professional then ever before…so maybe I am!
David
Hi David-
Thanks for reading and commenting on this post. This article is meant to be a guideline, and not a hitching post. The comments have been as interesting as the article itself!
Thanks for stopping by-
Lori
Thought provoking. I’ve always attached the term “professional” to “money”, and that was certainly the objective in my art college days, long before the bends in the road.
The gifts I have include a talent for drawing. Not included are business and entrepreneurial skills, and I don’t know that I will ever be a professional artist by any definition. I find the word “professional” can carry a connotation of predictability that isn’t always desirable, and perhaps it’s the label that I resist. However, as long as the creative inspiration flows, professional or not, I hope to always know that compelling and perhaps unprofessional sense of surprise and satisfaction in each idea realized.
Certainly there is no magic wand to wave through the air and, ‘voila!’ one becomes a professional artist. I see it more as an evolution rather than a revolution. Somewhere between ‘artist’ and ‘professional artist’ are a number of steps (or layers). Your list of indicators is one of the best that I have seen as a measure of ‘where am I in my metamorphosis?’ toward professional artist. It is possible to be a successful artist without becoming a professional artist…being successful, much like being ‘professional’, still involves maturity and (often) time and probably several steps.
Thanks for a though-provoking post!
Hello Paul, thanks for adding to the conversation. I agree with you about the idea of being successful without being a professional. There are many talented/successful artists who choose not to be ‘professional’.
I appreciate your comment,
Lori