getting back in to my art practice / a 2025 goal to sell one piece of art

Hi coaches,
I have just watched and worked through the “cast your vision” call.
What came up for me, as a goal and in the visualisation, was getting back in to my art practice this year, with a goal of selling one piece of art.
All I’ve ever studied is art; went to a specific art college, did Fine Art at Uni. I love it, reading about it, researching it, seeing it in real life in galleries. Back in 2018 when I was 28, I was tired of waiting for some opportunities to occur in my home town. So I turned my home studio (which is our living room, we moved our living room in to an upstairs bedroom) into a pop up gallery and that year hosted over 60 artists in exhibitions, in my own home. I did this every few months until the pandemic, my last pop up gallery was in March 2020. I haven’t hosted one since and I’m now approaching 35.

What has been apparent since then is how my life has changed and the utter, quite frankly, shit things that have occurred since April 2020 to now – two relatives dying, two close friends dying, pets dying and some running away, dad being ill over many months in and out of hospital in 2020 and years since and my work life. All that seemed to just hinder any want to create. My want to live and be outside however has not dwindled, if anything I feel more gratitude and aliveness.
I used to work two days a week as that was all the hours I could get at the time – allowing me space to do my galleries. The cost of seemingly everything went sky high and the opportunity arose to go full time at work, which I did in 2020 after furlough. And it really eased it up at home covering the cost of things. I never made a penny profit from doing the pop up galleries, I did sell other peoples art, just not my own. My full time job is retail which is a gallery/furniture/interior store, selling original and limited edition prints. I have only ever, as yet, sold other peoples paintings/art and not my own.

My goal for 2025 is to sell one piece of art. Getting back in to an art practice is where I am struggling. I have a space in my house to do this, just it is like a dumping ground at the moment and not at all the right environment – getting that environment back is something I am going to work toward. What is also coming up for me is a sense of scarcity – when I do create, in the back of my brain it is not to use a lot of materials incase I can’t get anymore, this sense that all I have now is all I can use. I think it stems from being so skint many years ago. I can afford to do it now because of my full time hours, just getting over that thought and the thought of it is a motivation and time issue. Once I get started, I love it, the hurdle is …just getting started.

I have an instagram account for my art practice/when I did my galleries, and when I read it back, I struggle to recognise that version of myself, from a place of who I am now. I mean, I am proud of opening up my home and just going for it, I just cannot imagine doing that now. My goal isn’t to do that again anyway, maybe in another space in town in the future, I am happy to leave that where it is.

It feels like a self esteem issue too, I don’t want to let the grief of the past affect my future, and as we are now almost 5 years on, it feels like a good amount of time to really get going again. Struggle and strife will happen, its figuring out how to keep things up like creativity.
I felt very fired up after watching the call

thanks coaches

 

Answer:

 

I wonder if I’m picking up some overwhelm. Looking at a room that has become a dumping ground can feel that way for sure – there’s too much to do, I don’t have enough time/supplies/cash. But I wonder if that’s true? Is there too much to do? Is there not enough? Examine those thoughts. In what ways are they true? In what ways are they not true? Notice what arises for you when you give yourself time to question the stories your brain has on repeat.

If you could take one small step – make a 2º shift from where you are today in the direction of your goal – what would that look like?

Let’s keep the fire lit!