12.28.2010

Resolutions - Year's End or New Year's?




With a few days of unexpected vacation on my hands, I've been giving a lot of thought to my artwork and sales (or lack thereof!!!) Although I am all over the web - Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, ImageKind, Behance, CafePress, and my site, there seems to be a black hole surrounding it all. Although I do get some feedback on Facebook from other artists, the paying customers are non-existent! So this feels like some kind of "crossroads moment" in life.

In September I began giving art lessons to a friend's little girl, who is home-schooled. Then I got 3 new students from a nearby neighbor, who liked the work the first child was doing. And last night I met a young man whose aunt bought him 5 lessons for Christmas. So, suddenly I'm an art teacher! The worrisome thing is that I keep remembering that old saying "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." So, do I have it in me to be an artist with at least some cash flow - or not?

Well, here's the resolution - I'm going to give it everything I can, which includes keeping up with the blog, updating my website and fixing the links, being as active as possible on Facebook and LinkedIn, and actually reading some of the materials I save for later.
While glancing through the December issue of Entrepreneur magazine I found a short article titled "Meet Your Mentor." The gist of the story is that there are volunteer mentors out there willing to help small businesses (people like me, I hope!) and there is no charge. FREE HELP!!! The website is http://www.micromentor.org/. and I signed up, so we'll see what happens.

Well, that's it for now... check back and see if I live up to my resolution. Visit some of my links and say hello... and Happy New Year to you all!