What if I fail?
What if I do nothing?
What if I succeed?
My friend Jonathan Fields, author of Career Renegade, poses these questions in this TEDx presentation. These are the questions I had to ask myself when I decided to embrace a life and a business as an artist.
What would you do if you could not fail? Would this opportunity make you come alive? Say it out loud, right now. Really. Say it out loud.
Once you’ve said it out loud and you may still be feeling fearful. So what! It’s natural. See how others converted that fear into a business that expresses their passion by reading Career Renegade.
Now I admit that I’m giving a bias recommendation, because I’m profiled in Career Renegade. But I found the other profiles very inspiring. I particularly loved the story about the guy who found a way to make a living playing video games all day. Almost anything is possible if you really find a way to create value for a targeted market.
A couple weeks ago I had a typical business meeting with a director of the new San Francisco Intercontinental Hotel. I wore a simple black dress, classic black pumps, retro turquoise and crystal earrings from Paris, with an off-white trench. I was properly attired for a business meeting.
Later that day I met my man at his fitness studio located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. I waited for him to finish working with one of his clients. Like many of his clients, she’s a smart cookie with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from MIT and a MBA from Stanford who recruits top tier CEOs for Silicon Valley corporations.
The following week she asked who I was, “you know, that women in the black dress.” “That’s Ann.” “But I thought she was an artist. She doesn’t look like an artist.” “She just came from a business meeting.” “What do you mean? Why was she dressed up?”
Apparently her confusion lasted. “An artist plus business?” These two words just do not compute in this computer scientist’s head. And this happens to me allllll the time. I’ve been in the middle of an important business introduction and I’ve been referred to as “my friend Ann Rea, the little artist.” How do I respond? I’m in a business environment. I’m networking! It’s exasperating. I replied: “I’m actually 5’9”.
Here’s the thing. In this age of heightened understanding of the value of innovation, more entrepreneurial creatives are emerging while the left-brain dominant careers continue to float offshore. Take note, in this current conceptual economy the right brainers will rule the world* and they may, on occasion, dress the part.
I’m always curious about collectors who’ve purchase my original oil paintings online at annrea.com. I feel like they’re getting a very personal piece of me yet I often never even have an opportunity to meet them or even speak with them. That’s because I have a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe via annrea.com. But when I do have an opportunity to meet my collectors, we often become friends. And I think it’s because we already share a personal connection through my art.
To my delight I received a message from one such collector interested in commissioning an original oil painting for her husband’s Christmas present. Although she had already acquired two original oil paintings, “Joined by the Vines” is one, at annrea.com we have never spoken.
Collectors will often commission an original oil painting to celebrate or mark a milestone in their, or a loved one’s, life, such as a birthday, an anniversary, a new home or remodel, or the discovery of their new favorite wine. Original art is the perfect way to express appreciation and capture life’s important yet fleeting memories.
Now this collector thought that she would just be commissioning a painting. No, I said, “You’ll actually be having a completely unique experience of art and wine. I can assure you. I’m not just going to create a large scale original oil painting for you, I’m going to create a unique and meaningful memory. And you’re part of my creative process.”
The first chapter of our journey begins next week, in the vineyards belonging to Benovia Winery. Here we’ll all meet for the first time and we’ll experience the landscape together, my collector and her husband, their young daughter, and the general manager of Benovia.
My collector and her husband have a connection to Benovia. They both love their wine and they know the owners. What a wonderful place to start a Christmas gift, a place where this couple shares a pleasure and passion for wine.
We’ll be meeting in the afternoon. Two reasons, I quipped, “I’m just not a morning person and that’s when the shadows are longer and the colors are richer and more saturated. You’ll see.”
There’s nothing at all practical about making a career choice to become a full time painter. But if expressing yourself is what you’re meant to do, then any other choice is absolutely stifling. I know because I didn’t paint or draw anything for over seven years.
I majored in industrial design in art school, not painting. Painting just wasn’t practical.
When I got married and moved to the dull suburbs of Sacramento, there were no design jobs. So I got a job at a large computer corporation to learn new practical skills to help support the mortgage on a cookie cutter home of the American dream. And soon after, I divorced.
I stayed on the practical path and left my creativity behind. Then I spiraled into deepening depression and anxiety that no treatment could budge.
So I picked up my paintbrush again, in private. All out of therapeutic options, I thought that painting could be a practical tool to focus my ever-anxious mind. And it became a useful treatment.
Then I met a woman while I was working away in one of the dimmest corporate cubicles I had ever occupied. Angela was her name and we were the same age. We often spoke of what it is that we would do if we didn’t feel chained to our practical jobs. Angela would be an interior designer and I would become a painter.
Angela was recovering from stage four-breast cancer. She was given a second chance to live her dream, yet she remained in the cubicle. I thought it was absurd that Angela did not pursue her dream. She was married and had no children. She had support. I thought that her dream was more practical than mine.
Angela helped me realize that I couldn’t put my dream on hold any longer waiting for practical circumstances. It was now absurd to stay in a miserable job.
I had no support, financially or otherwise, when I moved to San Francisco to paint full time. And no business advice from my brother, the Dean of a business school. His opinion: this venture was not practical. He was right.
But then, in 2007, Fortune magazine wrote an article about me and my work and entitled it “The Practical Painter”. The last line of the article quotes my very practical advice, “If there’s something you really want to do, do it now.”
Is it time to open the first Ann Rea Gallery? Going down this new road is what I’m pondering as of late. On Tuesday, I met, for the very first time, an artist with the same entrepreneurial drive as me: Gorden Huether. I visited his $3M dollar Napa studio and I was inspired creatively and entrepreneurially.
Although I love Gorden Huether’s work, artistically we are nothing alike. But in matters of vision, how we each want to live our creative and entrepreneurial lives- we had a lot to talk about.
I’ve been toying with the idea of opening a gallery for a while. And now retail space is much more accessible and there is room for negotiation. I was contemplating the pop up store option. That’s where you temporarily take over vacant retail spaces and create a temporary retail installation and buzz. And then you move to the next local. But is that what I want?
Schlepping from event to event is tiring and it doesn’t allow me to cast the best light on my work, no pun intended. The up side is that I’m a featured guest at events and it doesn’t cost anything. But it’s temporary. And I can’t be “open” for very long.
I’m very fortunate to have a collector, and friend, who just happens to be a very experienced retail real estate consultant who is willing to help me chart a course towards my decision. I have to say, my collectors are wonderful people who often become good friends.
So as my mother would often say, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” It may be time to take the show “off” the road and time to establish a permanent presence it Wine Country.
The demands of building a creative business can often leave me feeling pulled in two very different directions. I must attend to the need to continue to build my business and to attract new collectors while I yearn to spend more time painting. These two pursuits can’t be completed at the same time and each deserves and requires my undivided attention. And it’s a complete understatement to say that each require a different gear in my head, the left brain to the right brain.
It’s no secret to those who know me that I devote a lot of time to the marketing end of my enterprise. Why? So that my business can thrive and so that I can spend more and more uninterrupted time painting.
And I genuinely enjoy the marketing side of things. That’s why I started ArtistsWhoTHRIVE, where I conduct marketing seminars to artists and I offer individual coaching and consulting to artists across the globe two Mondays each month. In fact, UC Berkeley phoned today to invite me to teach my artist marketing workshops. And today the head of the Small Businesses Development Center in Oakland informed me that he’s seeking funding for an ongoing series and that a reporter wants to interview me about the record breaking workshop I conducted last month.
I’m excited and happy that I can now announce a number of strategic partnerships with Meadowood Resort, and Beautiful Places Luxury Villa Rentals and Epicurean Adventures. And the good news is that more alliances are in the works. As I align more strategic partnerships I’ll have my wish to spend much more time painting.
By leveraging these relationships with strategic partners I can give their clients a completely unique and memorable experience with my new program “Savor the Colors of the Moment”, more to details to follow. And I can reach my goal of being booked solid one to two years in advance with commissions and corporate and private sponsorships to fund new series and creative directions. Then I’ll be spending more time on the right side.
Why someone collects art is very personal motivation. Just as personal as their musical or fashion preferences, for example.
And art is generally the focal point of an interior environment. It’s the primary focus of a room and it therefore expresses a lot about the owner. That’s one reason to collect art.
But most people simply collect art because the work of art has a moving aesthetic appeal and it has an emotional impact and meaning. The piece resonates with them in ways they often cannot fully explain.
Art is about emotion and the same piece of art can ignite a different emotional response in each person. Your response is the only one that matters.
The fact is that a painting is just paint stuck on canvas but the artist’s emotional energy and skill behind the medium has the power to transport the viewer, to shift their consciousness, and to offer continuous inspiration. Many of my collectors will say that they see something new in the painting every time they study it, day after day, year after year.
Some collect art to buy and trade for a profit but most art collectors buy art for the pure pleasure of it and because they enjoy the relationship with the artist.
Humans have been collecting and commissioning artists throughout our history. Art expresses our culture’s deeply held values, beliefs, and current point of view, often reflecting our history.
Whatever the reason you collect art, I can say that I have yet to have a collector who regretted buying one of my paintings. But I have met several people who deeply regret not buying one of my original oil paintings when they had the chance. I know, because they are still mentioning it years later.
A luxury-marketing consultant recently asked, “Why don’t you paint luxury sports cars? It’s the same darn thing as a vineyard!?” “Are you kidding?” I laughed. But, he wasn’t.
I’m not sure how a vineyard and a car are related in this gentleman’s mind. But he insisted that they are the “same thing” and that his recommendation would give me the opportunity to appeal to a luxury market with a predisposition for collecting. It may be the same thing for a commercial illustrator, but from an artistic point of view, it’s just not.
He was on the right track. It’s no secret that I’m targeting prospects with well above average discretionary income and collecting personalities, but I’m not a commercial illustrator. I’m an artist. And as an artist, I have to pursue subjects that I feel passionate about and that resonate with me, or, I can assure you, they won’t resonate with collectors. I also don’t want to confuse my market with an unrelated direction. It’s best for businesses, and artists, to first firmly establish a niche before they venture too far a field.
I receive a similar “suggestion” about painting golf courses. I mean no disrespect to car or golf enthusiasts, but neither fancy sports cars nor are golf courses are of any interest to me. And I’m quite clear on my art direction, thank you.
I once lunched with Stephanie Gallo, and she asked me “Why do your paintings have so much feeling and depth compared to the artists that we have worked with? Their work doesn’t even compare.” My answer, “Because you’re not telling me what to do. I’m expressing my emotions. I can’t possibly do that if I’m thinking about satisfying your expectations.”
I’m not sure if she liked, or really understood, my answer but my response is the simple truth.
In the words of Tim Mondavi, art, just like wine, “has to come from the heart.”
I don’t know who to credit with this obvious wisdom with but this has been a guiding principle of my life for the past five and a half years. Developing as an artist, while building a business, and a respectable brand, has required constant learning and ongoing examination, all of which I wasn’t really prepared for with my fine art degree.
Before this, I tried to fit into the predictable pace of a conventional job because I thought that this would offer more economic stability and therefore happiness. But frankly I was often bored with my work and frustrated with the inevitable office politics.
My work in various cubicles in no way involved my passions or interests and it actually wasn’t really all that predictable. When I was an employee the employment environment was becoming less and less stable; I can’t even imagine what it must be like for so many now. I was like many employees: subject to layoffs, shifting priorities and projects. I had a really hard time faking being a “team player” when I believed that the “team leader’s” eyes where not on the ball. I was never a cheerleader and when I was nominated for homecoming queen in high school, I respectfully declined.
So I’m happy to say that almost every week I’m doing something that I’ve never done. On some levels its made my life much more challenging but it’s certainly more rewarding. And I because I took more risks I have more than I could have imagined five and half years ago and I know that there is more to come.
Is it time to open the first 
