OK. My take on this was what I was thinking as a young 20-something who was in art school in the 1980s. I can see know, after much more experiene, that working as an artist isn't the life of prostitution that I had imagined as a 20-something.
> I absolutely suck at sales. I have a rather grating personality and an
> impossible time feigning interest when people start telling dull stories
> about themselves.
My offline personality is quite different than my online personality. My personality is not grating and people have said that I'm very personable. I've probably gotten a bit more suspicious around strangers in recent years, which reinforces my shyness. Once I know somebody, I'm pretty outgoing.
> Nothing puts people off like a lack of interest in them.
> I have actually been offered jobs simply because I mentioned in
> conversation I was anti-copyright, at least as far as visual arts are
> concerned.
This sounds interesting.
> There is plenty of insipid art created by artists whose main talents lie
> in sales but you probably wouldn't want to one of them anyway.
I have been thinking about putting more time into developing the artistic and design side of my repertoire. The world of website development these days has split into a more technical side and a more web design side. I get interviews for jobs that require a little bit of both, but I've figured out that most of these employers are looking for IT geeks, not designers. While I'm studying up on my CSS, PHP and other technologies, I've been wanting to expand my design side, so I've been learning Flash, brushing up on Photoshop and doing life drawing.
> Hustling clients isn't required for art work. I almost never actively
> seek work. More work than I can do in a lifetime seems to have a way of
> making it to my front door. I am not too discriminating in the jobs I
> take however. I am not a portrait painter, photographer or lamp maker. I
> am just as happy casting a replacement intake for a 1930 BSA Sloper as I
> am doing a pen and ink drawing of someones home.
> My feeling has always been that if I can do this it can't be that difficult.
Yep. I really would prefer to make a living from doing freelance, but I have problems finding new clients. Perhaps K. could tell us what percentage of dud prospective clients you have to go through to land one solid one.
> Why not seriously consider becoming an art instructor? There is probably
> a community college near you that would let you teach an art class to
> see if this was potentially a career you could live with.
I've seriously considered this and have looked for positions at local colleges. I should probably do this searching more consistently, but I did some searching this past summer and sent off a few applications. I'd love to work as an art instructor--I think I would be excellent. I've also thought about getting an MFA, but then I don't want to relocate so that seems like a waste of time when you teach at the community college level without an MFA.
Chuck -------------------------- Bread and Roses Web Design serving small businesses, non-profits, artists and activists http://www.breadandrosesweb.com/