Drowning in schoolwork and entering art shows.

Hello everyone! I've missed blogging so much but school and work have taken up the majority of time I have. The rest, I try to give to friends and family but that's pretty limited. Sorry guys!

This has been the most exciting semester so far which is one reason I haven't been nearly as worried about my art or business. Timing is everything. Right now I am getting my education and that is enough.

One class I ended up in, service marketing, has turned out to be one of the best classes I could ever have taken to be in the art business. I have all kinds of crazy ideas running through my head. Not so much, ' How can I promote?' or what crazy scheme can I come up with now but thinking about "how I can meet the needs and wants of customers and still make a profit". And how can I do that as an artist?

Basically, what kind of art do people want? Do they want prints? Do they want large or small? What colors do they like?

This is the quandry I find myself in a lot because I love the subject of business. I am majoring in finance and doing really well in those classes. And yet I love to paint. I love fashion. I love all of these things that are actually big businesses and creative at the same time.

So...as an experiment, I have entered one of the largest shows in my area. It's a longshot. People from all over the country apply for this show.

So there is a scary and wonderful part to this: the jury process is open to the public. They project the pictures of the entrants onto a huge screen and the jury openly discusses them. Hopefully I will be there when they discuss my art (and put it on the short list!). I want to hear what they say about my art and I want to hear what they say about the others. I want to know what makes them choose one artist over another. They may say some things that don't feel great but that's okay. I want to know.

That's whats up with me for right now. I'll keep you posted on the jury process experience.

Liz