On Art and Balance

I've started designing an ad that will appear in the September issue of Vogue. The stakes are high but I'm really excited to create something that will have such a huge audience!  I'm also a little scared...

Speaking of Vogue, I've been really into The Fashion Fund lately.  I find it incredibly inspiring to watch these designers with so much fire in their bellies work toward achieving their dream.  Their world is one that is constantly balancing art and business, art and personal life, art and compromise, art and expectation.  I really recommend checking out the series if you're interested in fashion, but also if you're an artist who is trying to bring your craft to the next level. 

As a child, I fell in love with storytelling.  At first, I thought that meant that I wanted to be a writer.  After graduating from college with a literature degree, I thought writing was my only skill and resigned myself to the idea that I'd have to compromise my creativity and get a job writing things that I wasn't interested in to pay the bills.  It was a great day when I realized I could take my skills (of which I actually have many, silly me) and tell stories to strengthen brands.  One morning I remember driving by a billboard and realizing someone wrote the silly slogan on the sign and thought to myself, everything you read is written, and for the first time ever I felt like I could take over the world.

I still have a lot of growing, hard work, and balancing to do before the world is at my feet but I don't feel helpless as I once did so long ago*.  Like the designers in The Fashion Fund, I'm willing to take a leap of faith even though I don't always have every detail figured out and I'm excited to be building my career as a Brand Consultant even though I have yet to nail down my elevator pitch, my marketing materials, and my exact service packages.  I have enthusiasm and a fire in my belly and I know I'll figure it out as I go along.

No matter what your trade, one of my favorite weekly reads for artists who want to live by their craft is the blog Life as an Artistpreneur.  Becka Robinson isn't the final word on how to do it (who is?) but she is hard-working, genuine, and talks about a number of issues that arise when you're an artistpreneur and I really enjoy reading her blog.  Plus her infant son is super cute and you know it must be true because I don't even like kids... XOXO

*Not that long ago, really.  Unless you think a year and seven months is long.