[Woodcarver] I need your help

Thu Aug 12 11:35:41 EDT 2004

Wow!  What a Question to throw out, Joe!

Our studio has a very simple business theory that we, Mike and I,
follow. 
1. A goal is a dream that has been put in to action. 
2. Actions are taken one very small step at a time.
3. Many small steps soon become a life time of exciting travel.

This theory is started each morning with a simple question: What small
steps can I put into action today?

As I read your question I had the thought that success is also created
in very small steps.  Early successes are found in very small
achievements.  As the number of achievements grow so does the complexity
of those achievements.  A complex achievement or complex success simply
has more small steps! I think that success as an artist is perhaps
defined differently than success as an art business ... I think I will
go with my very early successes in the art business, the ones that I
both remember as the most important and those that created the
foundation of our art business today.

Success 1. Create enough income to support my addiction to art and be
able to pay for all of my art supplies from the income I created.

I started my art business at the time I became a Stay-at-Home Mom with a
new born son (who is now a 6' 4" college student).  We as many new
parents were just making ends meet and the cost of art supplies simple
could not be fit into the budget between Baby Doctor appointments and
Gas and Electric.  Not creating, not painting, not doing some type of
art was just not an option for me ( or for Mike as he insists that I
become emotional constipated if I am not puttering around with
something). So my first goal was to create enough money to buy art
supplies ... Which meant I was in business!  It was a classic kitchen
table art business where the latest project/consignment had to be moved
to the floor so we could eat dinner. 

Wanting to do something different, something unique in our area I began
painting chimney flues ... Those big clay rectangular pipes that are
used to direct the smoke up the chimney.  I was painting scenes on them
with either a customer's name or house number, then they set them at the
front of the driveway as yard markers.  They could then stick a small
bathroom sized trash can in the open top as a planter. (OK ... Everyone
can quit snickering now at how ridiculous this sounds!) I bought the
flues at $8 and sold them finished at $50.

I 'borrowed' money from the family to buy enough flues to create an
inventory for show. I can remember the first time I made a sale and was
able to put first some money towards paying the family back, buy one
more chimney flue to replace the one I had sold plus a few paints and
still had enough left over to take the family out to McDonalds!  Now
that was success.  Not only had I made my goal of financially supporting
my art I had made enough to treat the family to something extra. At that
moment I was self-supporting in my art.  I was not supporting the
family, I was not even near contributing to the family income, but I HAD
covered my costs and made a 'Big Mack' profit.  My idea was unique
enough that the local newspaper did a full page article, with pictures,
on me, my art, and my chimney flues!

Success 2. To create my art well enough that I can create repeat
customers.

My second success came unexpectedly when a previous customer came back
with a fist full of photographs and ideas and a long Christmas list of
gifts.  She sat at my kitchen table and we went through each of her
children and what she wanted on their chimney flue.  I had during this
time entered my first Fine Arts competition and (surprise) won first
place in the professional category.  That had inflated my ego but it was
nothing near the feeling of success I had when I realized that this lady
was doing her entire Holiday shopping with ME!  

The art competition was artist against artist something that I
understood and had been involved with during college and my early
working-for-someone-else years.  But this was just Mrs. Jane Doe saying
I had done good!!!!!  

Success 3. To have my art and my art career something that is beneficial
to my loved ones.

I do believe that success #3 is much more important than #2 but for me
it came afterwards.  As an early artist I was quite willing to take on
just about any art job I could get.  This included not only the chimney
flues but also truck lettering, sign painting, pet portraits, and even a
comic strip that ran in our local newspaper for about four years.  At
one time I was very proud to known locally as "That lady that does trick
truck painting".  So anyway my parents at the time were concerned about
how we were making ends meet and maybe I should go get a Real Job.  That
attitude by them lasted only for a little while, up until the time that
the comic strip started making the newspaper. Low and behold, my Dad had
suddenly decided that my being a working artist was not that bad ...
Because he was getting all sorts of nice comments from his neighbors
about each days comic and his daughter the artist.  He even began to
keep a scrap book of the strip, cutting each one out and carefully
pasting it into place.

Winning the support and approval of my family as an artist has been
extremely important to me.  Only with their support, especially my
Michael's, could I ever had been blessed to have the art career that I
have had!

It's clear to me that all of these early successes are small and
incremental, they are from sources outside myself, and today they are
still the most important to me.  I, personally, have a great deal of
trouble defining what a reasonable or rational level of success is for
me and my art.  I very much tend to be a 'it's never enough, never good
enough, never hard enough, never quite right person.  So by using the
people around me, who have a much more reasonable level of expectations,
I am able to more accurately gauge my level of success.  I tend to judge
my success by what I might be able to do better tomorrow.  Those that I
love judge it by what I have done today.

Mike and I have achieved success for ourselves as loved ones, artists,
and business people - We work together in our own small business.  This
has been the most important goal that we set for ourselves many years
ago at that local Kitchen Table art business and it was Wood Carving
that made it possible for us!  For Mike and I to be able to share our
lives together while doing something we both love to do is the Number 1
success possible.

Susan Irish

PS ... And being able to put our son through College ain't so bad
either!

Carving Patterns Online
Designs Online Since 1997!
Classic Carving Patterns By L.S.Irish
http://www.CarvingPatterns.com
http://www.WoodCarvingPatterns.com

Fine Art Dog Prints
Dog Art At It's Finest!
http://www.MuttArt.com
http://www.FineDogArt.com

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-----Original Message-----
From: woodcarver-bounces at six.pairlist.net
[mailto:woodcarver-bounces at six.pairlist.net] On Behalf Of Joe Dillett
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 9:01 AM
To: ! Joe Dillett (List)
Subject: [Woodcarver] I need your help

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 How do you define success?
Fellow Carvers,

I need your help. I'm on the board of the SEA Conference
(Self-Employment in
the Arts) and I'm working on ideas to help organize another series of
practical talks to help artists get started and stay in business. The
idea
I'm working on is that sometimes we need to peal away all the layers of
the
necessary day to day activities, that surround our art, and define or
redefine what we call success.

I feel it is important, especially in our art, to have a clear idea of
how
we define our success. If we don't have a clear definition of our
success we
'll never know if we are successful. I'm not talking about the
achievement
of all your goals but rather some target you aim for as a level you
would be
happy to achieve. I feel it is important to define what we feel would
make
us successful. If we don't have a clear idea we have no idea were we are
going and we can't develop a map on how to get there. I also feel it
important to our self-esteem to celebrate our success when we have
achieved
it. As our art matures so does our definition of success. That is why we
need to periodically redefine success and recognize when we have
achieved
success.

For most of us, success is one or a combination of the following goals.
1)
make money, 2) find your artistic voice, 3) being able to do what you
like
as often as you like, 4) to be proud of your work and have the courage
to
share it with others, 5) being able to show your work in exhibits, 6) to
fill your world with things that you love to do or people that you love
to
be with, 7) to leave a legacy that hopefully touches people in some way,
8)
to promote the advancement of your art through teaching, 9) to break
into
and have an influence in the "accepted" world of art, 10) to become
famous,
11) to use your art to spread a message 12) to just be able to carve
that
one object, and many more goals you may want.

****** What I would like to know from you is how did you defined success
when you began carving and how do you define success today. ****** This
would be helpful for me to develop ideas for the SEA Conferences. Most
of
the attendees are college seniors or recent art graduates hoping to
learn
about business. The next largest group is the professors and art
teachers.
Then there is a smaller group of struggling artists wanting to improve
their
business. These kids have a Mega portion of talent, filled with dreams,
ambitions, high energy, a burning desire to make their mark on the art
world
and a hope of not having to get a regular job to pay off their student
loans.

When I began carving as a kid my only goal was to be able to whittle
that
toy gun or that toy sword. They were very short-term goals with no
thought
of art in mind. As I grew so did my goals. I found I liked carving so
much
that wanted to sell a few carvings so I could buy more tools. That
worked
out so well that I thought I would like to be able to carve full time
without having the family suffer. In the last 6 to 8 years my goals have
gotten more into improving my art skills as well as promoting the art of
woodcarving. I found as I set new goals, revising my definition of
success,
that it was important to celebrate achieving the old goal before I
embarked
on the journey to the new goal. These celebrations of success, I feel
was
important to build my self-esteem, which is so important to fueling my
enthusiasm and energy.

I would love to hear your ideas on how you defined success in the past
and
how you define your success today. I would like to hear your ideas if
you
just started carving or if you've been carving a long time. We all have
ideas of success. This would be very helpful for me to come up with a
core
idea to build our seminars for the upcoming year.

Thanks for your help.

Joe Dillett
The Carving Shop
645 E. LaSalle St. Suite 3
Somonauk, IL. 60552
(815) 498-9290 phone
(815) 498-9249 fax
http://www.thecarvingshop.com
jdillett at thecarvingshop.com
http://www.carvingmagazine.com Carving Magazine web site and Readers
Forum
http://community.webshots.com/user/joe_dillett
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