Walk us through your average day as an artist:
I truly wish I had an average day, but after coming up with 18709797 different variations of scheduling out my week (and rarely getting through half a day of staying on track), I think I'm finally (sort of, kind of, maybe) coming to terms with the fact that though it'd be awesome to have each day broken down into regular and consistent time slots for every task, that's just not practical for me. I'm a pretty hardcore perfectionist and a bit of a control freak, so when I try to stick to a rigid plan, it actually only leads to frustration and procrastination when there are interruptions (and I get a lot of those) or things take longer than I think they should (as almost everything does). And it doesn't help that I tend to expect myself to do 4 hours work in one hour.
So "average day" is a loose and ever changing concept for me, but what I've found that does work for me is to keep a running list of the things that must be done (with any deadlines) and just get up and get to work, tackling those to dos, one by one. That keeps me productive and on some sort of track. Inevitably, there are 8970978987987 (approximately) things I want to get done that go undone...but what's necessary always gets done.
A couple of constants I do have is striving to answer all my e-mails and Etsy conversations first thing every morning and to keep my shipping dates to twice a week (as I live out in the country, a bit of a distance from the post office).
Right now, I find it's more business than art, and I don't get to create as much as I'd like. It's tough to find a balance, but I know eventually I'll get to the point where I can tip the scales in the opposite direction, at least.
What's your best business tip for those who are just starting out?
Listen to your gut. There will be a ton of voices, all telling you you should do this and you shouldn't do that. And I'm not by any means saying ignore any and all advice you're ever given, but I am saying that in the end, only you know what's right for you. So if it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't.
And keep going. There will be days you'll want to give up. There will be days when it seems impossible. There will be days when it seems to hard; days when it seems like everyone else is running at superhuman speed and you're crawling along with a bag of rocks tied to each foot. You will have to make sacrifices. But if it's something you want more than anything in the world -- just keep going. Decide where you want to be and refuse to stop until you get there.
What inspires you and how do you maintain your creative flow? How do you handle not feeling inspired?
I'm inspired by books and magazines, blogs, music, television, quote, art, of course, my niece -- inspiration is everywhere! I don't think there's actually ever a time when I'm uninspired -- there are days when it seems like my paintbrush hates me and days when I feel unmotivated to do anything, but that drive to create is almost always there. My problem is usually having TOO many ideas and getting overwhelmed because I know I'll never be able to get to them all and trying to decide what to paint first.
Thanks so much for sharing Kathy!
I wholeheartedly encourage you to visit The Dreamy Giraffe at the shop, the blog or the Twitter. She's delightfully sweet and also pretty funny!
