It’s very early on a cold weekend morning in January and I’m sitting in front of a crackling log fire with my dogs scattered around the living room, drinking hot coffee and balancing my computer on my lap. We got back late last night after an 8 hour drive from an art show and Steve, my artist husband, is still asleep. There is no rush to be awake this morning. We don’t have a long commute to work in a city or anywhere we need to be this morning, except our own art studio, which is only 15 feet from the house.

Welcome to a day in the life of a working artist!

It is not always so calm and relaxed. We’ve been doing this for a long time and even when we have kids, school schedules, illnesses, art show events, older parenting needs, and real life, we have the ability to take time off at any time.

How do we do it?

My husband and I have been full-time artists for 30 years. Separately and together. Perhaps autonomous would be a better term. What that means is that everything we have, own, do, or want to do as a couple or individually is funded, entirely, by the proceeds from the sales of our art. There is no additional external income. Romantic urban legends of artists’ lives aside, in reality, all working artists have similar lifestyles. Creating a balance between creativity and reality is the beauty and challenge of a life as an artist. We have the ability to do nothing, or work all day on an inspiring piece of art, or drop what we’re doing for any real-life emergency that arises. We are not afraid of lost vacation days, angry bosses, snarled traffic, office drama, or losing our jobs. Of course, we don’t have a regular or even guaranteed paycheck either.

There are no secrets or magic formulas for this lifestyle. I can summarize with three key elements: Discipline, perseverance, lifestyle choices.

DISCIPLINE:

Even as I write this newsletter, I am making a list on the side of what I need to do today to continue my lifestyle. I make a one page, two column “to do” list. One side has each day of the week and balancing, according to priority, what must be fulfilled daily from Monday to Sunday. (weekends are rarely “off”). The other column has an urgency of “this week” vs. “today”. There is a difference. One allows the infamous human procrastination (within reason). not the other

There’s the business side of the art that includes going to the bank, going to the post office, starting the paperwork the accountant will need. Organize, order, regroup, summarize the results of the art areas within the business. In other words, everything you need to run a business. I have paintings to start and complete, people to contact, a calendar to update, events to plan, tickets to submit, blogs and websites to keep up to date, newsletters to send out. All of these tasks are included in a specific day to tackle and complete.

On the “this week” side, I know I need to fix a section of fence in the horse pasture. I know I need to get the leaves out of the herb garden and we both have to finish painting and lay the hardwood floor over a new subfloor, the results of a water heater leak that forced us to tear out part of the kitchen. floor. Add to that the annual “after Christmas” cleanup of our art studio, and you can see where the list goes.

I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment of “checking things off the list.” We all do. And I confess that I have indeed added, then crossed out, tasks that I completed but did not add to the original list. Discipline is what fuels your artist lifestyle. There is no such thing as “waiting for motivation”. You are, in fact, expecting discipline.

PERSEVERANCE:

There is a direct correlation between perseverance, discipline and necessity. Discipline is seeing what needs to be done and doing it. Perseverance is sticking with it. Perseverance is solving those art problems, art shows, new ideas, experimenting, and sticking with it when the going gets tough. The life of an artist has the same daily challenges as the life of a non-artist. But it has the advantage of adding creativity to his work. Artists stop creating even when they are out of the studio. Perseverance is continually doing what needs to be done to create and market your art day after day after day. Money starts and ends with you and it’s up to you to achieve your own goals. Every challenge has an exit, and that’s where you can find out if you have what it takes, both in your skills and your temperament, to face the adversity, challenges, and surprises that life throws your way. The “right things” don’t just apply to astronauts.

LIFESTYLE OPTIONS:

Life is about choices. If you intend to live a life as an artist, the pressures of self-employment will be greatly reduced when you make the decision that “keeping up with the Joneses” isn’t what life is about.

We live in a modest, 1600 sq. ft. 3 bedroom ranch home on 3 acres in the country. My two daughters shared one bedroom, my two sons shared another bedroom. Now we use one of the rooms as an office.

We do not rent studio space. We built our 800-square-foot studio out of the remains of a 1910 house that we helped dismantle. We use family and friends to put up the roof, build the 10 foot roof. walls, brick the foundation and lay the old pine floor. There is ample space to work, hold classes or retreats, and store the myriad of supplies we often need. We reuse what we can and buy often from Habitat for Humanity and Craigslist sellers. There are bargains if you look.

For additional workspace and storage, we added a 2-story shop behind the home and studio and multiple storage buildings. We fenced off the property to allow our four legged friends to run loose. We have gardens, old roses, brick walkways and lots of shade trees, fruit trees, water feature and bird growth. Our modest home offers us privacy, enjoyment and an oasis from the competitive world of earning a living.

We are virtually debt free. Our 3 vehicles are paid for. We have a 2006 Ford show truck that we bought used in 2007 and an old Honda CRV for racing. We made the decision in 2008 to ditch our needy, expense-laden BMWs and bought a new Honda FIT just before gas prices skyrocketed. Our 5 year calculations show that we have saved many thousands in gas and car repairs with such a move.

We paid cash for a used motor home that we use for long distance shows. There is very little credit card debt. We pay additional equity each month on our house and it will be paid off in 3 years. (Saving almost 20 years on a 30-year mortgage!) It took us about two years to fully complete our study, paying as we go and using no store credit cards. We do not hesitate to periodically visit the Goodwill store, rarely eat out and do not purposely “shop”. (You will always find something to buy if you walk around the mall) Our TVs are over 10 years old but work fine. Our laptops are old but useful. Our Android Galaxy ll phones arrived “free” (with a new subscription) just like last year’s models were. We save over $150.00 a month by getting rid of our home phone and using the wiring for a dry loop DSL Internet connection instead. We increased our health insurance deductible to lower monthly premiums (don’t even get me started on the new health “care” bill). The list goes on and on, but you get the point.

In today’s “I want” society, parents especially need to implement the three elements: self-discipline, perseverance, and lifestyle choices to resist their children’s whims. I couldn’t offer them a better role model than giving them the confidence to NOT keep up with their peers.

Lifestyle is a big reason many artists will never be able to live off their earnings. They want many other things that they feel will make them happy. In the months that we earn more than we need, we put it in the bank for the months that pass the other way around. As an artist, you must “make hay while the sun shines.”

There you have the three main reasons why we can live the life of an artist.. Discipline, perseverance, and lifestyle choices are what give us the freedom to have this life.

We love being able to drive through the countryside on a beautiful weekend afternoon or take the kayaks down the river on a Wednesday morning, work in the yard, explore abandoned structures, or sit and relax in front of the fire while everyone else is at work. another place.

But focus and discipline is always present. Even as I write this article, my to-do list is drawing me back, and I know I’ve relaxed enough this morning. My coffee is out, the dogs are waiting to be fed, and yes, I can’t wait to get started and check things off my list.

We have found that the idea of ​​our lives as full-time working artists and its implied freedoms appeals to everyone we meet. The real one doing what is needed, often doesn’t. But for those whose goals include living like us, it simply doesn’t get much better than this life as a working artist!