ART CAREER EXPERTS How to sell your art

 
You can make a living by being an artist - even in today's economy.

Absolutely! Where there is a will, there's a way. And yes, we have the way! You need the will!

We are M Theresa Brown and Stephen Filarsky, and we have been creating our art as our livelihood for over 20 years.

When we first met at an informal life drawing class, we were both self employed artists pursuing our artistic careers in different directions and under very different circumstances. Single Steve was a talented watercolorist who earned his living as a painter specializing in lettering, gilding and gold leaf application. Single mom, Theresa, on the other hand, was supporting herself and four children as a portrait artist!

Our weekly get togethers with our other artist friends always ended with a gathering at a local pub where we joked over our drinks and compared our artist notes. No matter what the topic of discussion, it always came back to all of the artists wanting to earn money with their art. We were different from our artist friends in that we WERE earning a living. But none of it had come easy.

Why?

There was NO information out there in any book, DVD or university that consisted of a coherent plan on HOW to take that talent or training and earn a living! The information that was available was written by non-artists who simple repeated non-verifiable advice from books written by other non-artist authors. Anyone can tell an artist how to make a living but unless you ARE an artist, you just haven't been there! Only artists running successful businesses, know the challenges of meshing BOTH sides of the brain! The intuitive and the practical!

In the earlier days we were still on our own journeys, still inventing the wheel, still needing or wanting to earn more with our Art businesses. Our artist friends who wanted to make money with their crafts simply did not know where to even start. So we gladly shared what we knew with them.

And that was the beginning!

Over the years, hundreds of artists have come to us. We meet them when we are at parks, art shows, over the Internet....anywhere they might see us creating our art in public or hear about us from another artist. They are hungry for real facts and advice from real artists.

We realized that the only way to share our stories, successes, challenges, advice and ideas with them all was through the Internet.

And so Art Career Experts was created so we can reach out to more artists than ever!

We have created several timely ebooks for the artists who want to create their art AND bring home a paycheck with it!

Our desire is to help you eliminate that learning curve that we experienced and help you reach your financial goals sooner than we did!

• Do you need to quit your day job to be successful?
  No.
  
• Do you need to have talent? Not necessarily!
  
• Do you need an art degree? No.
  
• Do you need to belong to a lot of Art organizations? Only if you want to!
  
• DO you need a lot of money? No.
  
• Do you need Gallery representation to be successful? No.

What you DO need is the Will! We'll show you the way!

No matter WHAT art product you create-paintings, portraits, sculpture, leatherworks, glass, jewelry, carved pencils, the marketing methods and ways that we share with you will work with them all!

It is an ongoing journey for all artists! The times change regularly and we change right along with them. Our goal is to keep you motivated, share the ideas that work and let you know the methods that don't work.

We are living proof that you CAN make a living with your art and live in the "real" world of day to day challenges!

We are excited to help you start your artistic journey to enriching your life financially!

About Art Career Experts and this website

First let me tell you how this website came about. We were as excited as everyone when we discovered the art community on the web. Email groups, newsgroups and forums enabled artists to communicate to other artists like never before.

However, all was not roses on the internet art community

Not everyone agreed that it was Ok for an artist to make money from their art. Even on forums specifically about the business of art, comments were made about "selling out" and "all you talk about is marketing." Artists interested in learning had to put up with virtual hecklers to try and learn from each other.

Theresa decided to create a group to change that pattern! It was to be dedicated to artists working to make a living at their art. So the ArtistPaycheck email group on Yahoo was created. Members can post questions, ask advice,benefit from the many links and photos and receive help from other artists on this journey free from any flaming or put downs. No bullies allowed on the Artist Paycheck forum!

Now, through Art Career Experts website, we are giving you a number of tools to help you jumpstart your art career. 

Be sure and sign up for our weekly newsletters. We want to be able to keep you up to date on all that we do and share our stories with you! We want you to be the first to have access to areas that are important to you as an artist!

Check out our blog on creating, marketing and selling your art, stories of other artists who have made the leap and even an occassional look into reasons for the prejudices we face from other artists.

Free Articles are being added regularly to the website. Ideas to help you save time and keep more of your money.

E Books and Audio Books written to help you jump start your artistic career.

• Art Marketing Success Secrets  a downloadable E-Book
• The Single Mom's Guide to Making Money as an Artist a downloadable E-Book

And just out--

• Art For SaleArt Marketing Success E-Book and Audio CDs 

We especially want to hear from YOU and listen to your stories of where you are in your career and where you would like to be!

So whether your dream is to be a full time artist supporting your family or you simply want to make enough to have extra spending money, We are here to help!

Theresa and Steve