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Gestural abstract painting with various shades of blue and green, with darkest elements in lower left.

This monthly review keeps your art business honest (279)

When sales slow down, it’s tempting to look for a quick fix. Post more. Email more. But you can’t fix what you haven’t measured.

Learn why facing your numbers feels so scary and how a simple monthly review, built around a handful of high-level numbers, shows you what’s working in your art business and what isn’t. Then your next step is based on data instead of the next idea you see online.

This monthly review keeps your art business honest (279) Read

Bulletin board with an illustration of artist Agnes Martin, quote about the importance of art, and ladybug magnets.

Even when life is heavy, your art business still needs you (276)

Artists are built to feel the world sharply. That sensitivity fuels the work, and it also means everything lands harder — headlines, illness, loss, the weddings and births and moves that pull you away from the studio. The instinct is to shut everything down.

But a business that stops moving is much harder to restart than one running on bare minimum. Here’s how to keep yours afloat when you can’t give it much.

Even when life is heavy, your art business still needs you (276) Read

Colorful landscape with purple trees, a red path, orange mountain, and pink sky.

Stop complicating your art marketing plan (275)

The traditional view of a marketing plan is a detailed spreadsheet full of tasks and self-imposed deadlines. It doesn’t have to be that hard.

On this episode of The Art Biz, I make the case for routines over spreadsheets, share the three distinct ways I see artists approach their marketing, and explain why marketing is bigger than self-promotion. If you’ve ever built a plan and abandoned it by week two, this one is for you.

Stop complicating your art marketing plan (275) Read

Monochromatic wall sculpture made of found wood, a feather, and held together with spiral-shaped metal pieces. A ceramic egg shape is nestled in the center.

The third path for artists that we aren’t talking about (274)

There are at least three paths a serious artist takes. One of them never gets talked about because we haven’t had the vocabulary for it. I introduce a new group called The Third Path for artists staying with the work on their own terms — recalibrating pace to fit the life they’re in now.

I also share what’s changing at Art Biz Success after more than 20 years of teaching online courses.

The third path for artists that we aren’t talking about (274) Read

Black and white photo of woman woman burying her face in her hands.

Only for ambitious artists (272)

Waiting has very little relationship to ambition. It feels like it because you want more, you’re hoping for more, you can picture the version of your career where it all breaks open.

But wanting isn’t the same as moving. Ambition without movement is just longing. Real ambition is smaller and steadier than waiting or hustling. It looks like your next move, and the move after that. Here’s how to find it.

Only for ambitious artists (272) Read

Oil painting of a pregnant woman holding her belly as she stands by a window, looking out onto a winter landscape of a spindly tree with no leaves, a spiritual metaphor for Mary awaiting a new dawn, waiting to bloom like the tree will in spring.

Why nobody came to your art show (271)

You did the work. You finished the art, delivered it on time, and hung the show. So why did only a handful of people show up to your opening?

In this episode, I walk through the most common reasons artists lose attendance at exhibitions, open studios, and art festivals, and what you can do differently next time. It has less to do with the event or how many times you post to social media and everything to do with relationships.

Why nobody came to your art show (271) Read

Textural contemporary abstract painting in shades of yellow, gold, and silver.

How curiosity and research deepen your studio practice (268)

Research isn’t only an academic exercise — it’s a commitment to following your curiosity, and it’s inseparable from making strong work.

In this episode of The Art Biz, I make the case that the artists who build enduring careers are the ones who keep asking questions: about their subjects, their materials, and anything else that attracts them. Here’s what that looks like in practice, and why it matters even beyond the studio.

How curiosity and research deepen your studio practice (268) Read

Collage-style painting of a tan and red dilapidated brick building with weathered green shutters and a palm-like plant growing from the roof.

How much time will your art career take? (267)

The artists who ask me “how much time?” are usually the ones still deciding whether they’re in. How much time should you spend on business versus making art, and how long before any of it pays off?

In this episode of The Art Biz I answer both truthfully — including a number you might not want to hear — and offer a better question to ask yourself instead, one that has less to do with hours and everything to do with commitment.

How much time will your art career take? (267) Read

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