Success for Artists

When I started to work as an artist, it seemed that there was only one kind of career to have and that was to be one of the art-world stars whose names we all knew and whose work could be seen in galleries and museums in New York.

After College, I worked as a kindergarten teacher by day and spent evenings painting and thinking up ways to have my work seen and to be part of the larger conversation. But the distance between my work and being an artist known to the world seemed like a canyon too difficult to traverse. The idea that I could attain that kind of success or that there were other ways of having a successful career as an artist both seemed an impossibility.

I tried unsuccessfully to quit being an artist which only made me miserable, but eventually discovered that teaching what I learned from my Bennington art teachers made me incredibly happy. Sharing this experience as a teacher myself in conjunction with my studio work has become my life’s work.

Most of my teaching now takes the form of talking with artists about their work, and through this experience I have come to understand that the spectrum of what constitutes an artistic practice is very broad. What previously seemed impossible to me now seems infinitely expansive. There are as many ways of being successful as an artist as there are artists themselves.

In the communities I work with this can mean that artists, in addition to their studio work, are teaching, mentoring, volunteering, curating, showing in community-based arts organizations, and participating on non-profit boards. In other words, they are creating their own opportunities, visibility,  and success. 

I now realize that the question was flawed. Asking how can I be a successful artist if being a successful artist looks impossibly unattainable, instead of asking what else can success look like.