if you could bottle success, what would it smell like?

my apologies for not posting this sooner. this time of year wreeks havoc on my sinuses and i have been sick for over two weeks. i'm still a little foggy...but i think i might finally make sense.

i always thought that being a successful artist meant that you showed in museums in big cities. these gods of art actually make money from their work and travel the world! they are in magazines like Art in America and ArtNews. they have elaborate websites and if are too busy to show up to their own openings. galleries come crawling to them hoping to show even the smallest morsel of their work...all for the name, all because they are so great! but are they really that great? or did they tell us they were?

now i realize....it's all self-made. it's the image you project and it takes a lot of work. YOU make your own website. YOU seek out your own galleries. YOU pay for advertising in magazines. YOU figure out what will be popular and marketable and how you will fill a void in the art world. it's all about marketing and being a good business person. yes, some people do it the 'natural' way and are 'discovered'...but they are usually discovered by someone who is a good marketer or business person. georgio o'keefe being a great example. would she have been THE georgia o'keefe had alfred stieglitz not pimped her out. (i believe 'pimpin' is now a verb)

in short, being a successful artist takes work. you have to make yourself be seen, advertise your own work, enter into competitions, research where you have the best chance to be accepted and considered. i look at the other successful artists my age and am jealous, they started early and they made smart decisions. but after talking to a majority of the artists in santa fe, it takes time, patience and determination.

~sara