There’s no doubt about it: selling art can sometimes feel a lot like gambling.
You never know where the money is going to come from, who is going to buy something, or how much you’re going to make. You can spend weeks preparing for an art show and lose money. You can break even. You can make a modest profit. And every once in a while, you hit the jackpot.
Art is personal and subjective. What one person loves, another person may walk right past. For an artist like myself, that means trying different things and experimenting to discover what works and what doesn’t. I don’t want to simply repeat myself because something sold once. I want to continue exploring my own creativity and expression.
On that note, I try to do something creative every day.
But being an artist can be expensive and time-consuming. There are materials to buy, artwork to produce, books to print, shows to enter, displays to prepare and countless other expenses. Eventually, there is an immediate demand to make some money simply so you can afford to keep doing it.
If you are going to call art your job or your business, you have to approach at least part of it professionally. You need to sell your work. That might happen through galleries, museums, art festivals, outdoor events, bookstores, conventions or the internet. Every place offers another roll of the dice.
But there is an important difference between gambling in a casino and gambling on yourself.
A casino is designed so that the house has the advantage. The odds are intentionally stacked against the gambler. Being an artist or entrepreneur doesn’t necessarily work that way. If you are dedicated, practice regularly, study techniques, learn art history, experiment with new ideas and keep putting your work in front of people, you can improve your chances.
And sometimes something remarkable happens.
You put a new painting, book or series of works out into the world, and suddenly the sales are unbelievable.
How does that happen?
I call it waking the sleeping giant.
There are people who have been silently following your work. They may see your posts, visit your website, come across your work at shows or hear about what you are doing through someone else. They don’t necessarily comment. They don’t always buy. Sometimes you don’t even know they are there.
Then you create something they really want, offer it at the right price, or put together a deal that catches their attention.
The sleeping giant wakes up.
Suddenly people start buying. One sale turns into another. Orders can continue throughout the day and sometimes late into the evening. After all the quiet periods, disappointing shows and times when you wondered whether anybody was paying attention, everything seems to come alive at once.
That’s when the gambling artist hits the jackpot.
Of course, it doesn’t happen every time. Sometimes you lose money. Sometimes you make money. Sometimes you simply break even. Those experiences are part of learning what works, where your audience is and what people respond to.
But occasionally, all that practice, experimentation and persistence really pays off.
Maybe that is one of the great risks of being an artist. You invest your money, time, imagination and a little piece of yourself without knowing exactly what will come back.
And unlike sitting at a casino table, you aren't simply betting on a number.
You’re betting on yourself.
So the question becomes: What chance are you willing to take, and how much are you willing to bet on your own creativity?
By Dan and Bonkers
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