Taking the Leap | Making Art Your Full-time Profession

by Xanadu Gallery Owner Jason Horejs

Making a living as an artist is hard. Getting to a point where art sales are sufficient to sustain life can take years of sacrifice and hard work. Many of you know I grew up in the home of an artist. My father, John Horejs, has been a full-time, professional artist for over thirty years, so I've witnessed the challenges an artist (and the artist's family) face. I remember periods of extreme financial hardship growing up while my dad worked to establish his career. There would be periods of months where nothing would sell. These difficult times challenged my father and mother's resolve to pursue my father's dream of making a living as an artist.

This experience is nearly universal for artists. The words "starving" and "artist" seem to f it naturally together. Many artists feel compelled to pursue other work in order to make ends meet and have to relegate their artistic endeavors to the side. In my extensive interactions with artists from around the country, I've met many who've worked very hard to carve out time to create art around a busy work/family/life schedule.

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Responding to Negative Feedback About Your Art

by Xanadu Gallery Owner Jason Horejs

I recently had an email conversation with an artist who had just been through battle on her blog. After years of extensive blogging, she received her first negative comment, an inflammatory comment about a post she had written with some derogatory comments about her art thrown in for good measure. The level of vitriol in the comment was a bit dumbfounding, especially since it didn't seem to be coming from a dissatisfied customer, rather from a random visitor to the site who wouldn't seem to have any good reason to be so . . . blunt.

After the shock and pain wore off, they were replaced by outrage. The artist dashed off a heartfelt response, countering point by point each of the charges in the comment. And thus began an epic battle in the comments section of her blog, with fiery comments flying back and forth over several days. I'm not going to post the comments here - I don't wish to draw any more attention to them, but I'm sure that many of you who blog, have a website with a guest book, or participate in social media can sympathize with this situation. There's nothing more disheartening than a brutal criticism of you or your work.

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How do You Ask For the Close When Selling Art? Collective Wisdom

by Xanadu Gallery Owner Jason Horejs

As much as I love art in and of itself, I love selling art and the business of art just as much. In my conversations with artists, I frequently hear how difficult they feel it is to sell their own work. Artists will often tell me that they don't like to talk about themselves or their work, and, most of all, they don't want to appear pushy. I'm convinced that this fear of seeming over-bearing is a major drag on art sales for artists selling directly to collectors. This fear has a scientific name: fearofaskingforthecloseaphobia.

You may suffer this malady yourself. You're talking to someone about a piece you recently created, and you feel like you've got them in the palm of your hand. They love the piece, they love you, they've got the perfect spot for it, they seem to have the funds to buy it and then . . . nothing. They walk away.

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A Love Letter to Art, Or What it All Means to Me

by Xanadu Gallery Owner Jason Horejs

I am writing a different kind of post today. I generally try to write practical and helpful posts around the business of art. I love to give tips that might help artists and galleries be just a little more successful. Today though, I want to step back from the business and write a short love note to art itself. I know that sounds a bit cheesy, but I've had occasion recently to think a little bit about my relationship to art, and I feel it is important to share a few of my thoughts. Being in the business, I sometimes find myself taking the art itself for granted, thinking of it all in terms of dollars and cents. It's good to pause now and again to remind myself what it's all about.

I love art. I could probably equally say, "I live art." I spend every day of my life thinking about art, working with art, and communicating with artists and art lovers. Other than a brief stint moving furniture as a teenager, I've spent every working day of my life in the art industry.

Growing up with an artist father, my earliest memory is not a site or a sound, it's a smell - the smell of oil paint.

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	Recording Available: Don't Steal My Art! \| Copyright & Intellectual Property for Artists
	Debate: Do Galleries Deserve Perpetual Commissions for Sales to Clients They Discovered?
	Debate: Should Art Galleries Split Commissions?
	My Love/Hate Relationship With Email \| How to Conquer your Inbox
	Listen to This \| Alec Baldwin Interviews Artist Eric Fischl
	Recording Available \| How to Network to Find Qualified Art Buyers
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	Book Club Broadcast Recording Available \| Van Gogh - the Life
	Ask A Gallery Owner \| Should I Sign my Photographic Prints on the Front?
	A Sampling of Art Sold During our 2012-2013 Season
	Showing Your Art in Cafés, Restaurants, Banks and Other Venues
	How to Hire a Personal Assistant for Your Art Business
	The Art Gallery is Dead . . . Long Live the Art Gallery
	Xanadu Gallery Welcomes Mj DeArmitt as Creative Director