Stop guessing and start growing.
In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the mentor-mentee relationship. Artists Fi Marks and Paula Telizyn discuss how an art mentor provides more than just technical critiques, they offer a roadmap through the industry, help you avoid common pitfalls, and provide the professional accountability every artist needs to level up.
Whether you’re just starting out or stuck in a mid-career plateau, learn why finding your “person” is the best investment you can make in your practice.
00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Art Crush with artist Fi Marks and Paula Telizyn, where we talk about the art world, making art, artists choosing ourselves and more. In twenty twenty six
00:00:24 Speaker 1: hi fi, it’s episode two.
00:00:27 Speaker 2: Episode two time. Lovely to see you, Paula.
00:00:30 Speaker 1: So it is season three, and, uh, we’ve covered a lot. So we want to thank everybody again in episode two for thank you for joining us for the third season. We were just looking at our stats before we hit record. and we really appreciate all the listens, the follows, and more. So we do encourage engagement and comments and everything else. You are welcome to comment and engage, in a way that is thought provoking or creates connection or uplifting. We obviously don’t take anything negative, but so far we’ve had some pretty positive comments. Today we we want to talk about working with a mentor because it is something that can be a game changer for artists to have that guide to have a little bit of help. And full disclosure, I’ve been an artist mentor for years now. I hate to think about how long it’s been since I started. It was late twenty eighteen. I went full force in twenty nineteen when I really.
00:01:22 Speaker 2: Which is.
00:01:23 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
00:01:24 Speaker 2: And then I met you in twenty beginning of twenty twenty.
00:01:28 Speaker 1: Yeah. Which is absolutely wild.
00:01:30 Speaker 2: Yeah. So that’s so actually it’s it’s a big part of our story together. I mean obviously we’re very close now and we’re friends and we do a lot of stuff together. But initially I signed up for Paula’s free five day challenge. an artist in Spain, actually didn’t know her, but she messaged me on messenger and said, fee, I think you ought to get out there. Try it. I’ve worked with these people. Pop on. They’re doing a free five day challenge. And then we’ve never looked back. Yeah, but but the interesting thing is, is and I know people work with you for different lengths of time, Paula, but when I tell people that I have had an art mentor for the past six years for my art business nobody says, oh, me too. They just look at me and go, oh, really? And I always say, I would not be selling as I did. I would not have the career that I did without one. because I when I started out, I didn’t have a clue. So I think it should be far more common for those people who want to make a success of their art business. As we’ve talked about the bus on various times, it’s not for everybody. It’s not, you know, people some people don’t want to do big shows and, sell their work for a lot of money and be all the and be all over the world. Can’t think why not? But but for some people, that’s not their choice. That’s not their preferred. But if you are like that, I’d just like to say, why? What is it that’s holding you back? Do you not have anything to say? Do you not want to hear people, to hear your voice? Just. Just saying that. Yeah. and yeah, it’s just been an invaluable experience for me having Paula in my life as my mentor and my friend. So I’m just wondering, Paula, maybe some people listening, even though they’re artists, might not know what a mentor does and how it supports you.
00:03:38 Speaker 1: I just want to mention for anybody who hasn’t listened to previous episodes, because now we have a collection of episodes, the bus theory that fee has is everybody gets on a bus and you get off at different stops, whatever is right for you. And this is true of artists as well. You get on and you decide where you’re taking your career and you get off at that stop and everybody gets off at different stops because that makes sense for them. So that’s the bus theory.
00:04:01 Speaker 2: And also you can get back on the bus and go a bit further down the line at a different point in your life.
00:04:07 Speaker 1: Exactly, exactly. It’s kind of how I see, you know, having relationships with people, friendships and, and other kinds of relationships where you walk with somebody for a while, and then when it’s time you go your own separate ways. Right. It just is what it is. So when it comes to having a mentor, having a mentor means having somebody who is not invested in your business. This is really key. There’s no emotional investment in your business. so your success or failure is not something that they are. tied up in. So if something doesn’t go right, they don’t immediately fall to pieces. They’re a mentor. They’re kind of like your guide. If you think about, in sports now, I don’t do a lot of sports, but I used to coach soccer, um, football for anybody who’s not in North America. and and it’s a way of seeing the bigger picture. It’s a way of taking your skills and experience and helping somebody make better decisions about their career, understanding what’s going on without having that emotional involvement. Right. If he does a show that she doesn’t do well on, I don’t sit there and cry into my beer and go, oh my God, life is over. We have a discussion. I know, I’m sorry, I just don’t. We have a discussion about where things might have fallen short, what she could do better, and what she learned from that event. Right. So what? What? Maybe the show wasn’t the right place. Maybe it was the wrong audience. Maybe something else was going on. Um, but we look at that, an artist who. And I’ve been there, who is emotionally and financially invested into an event that maybe doesn’t do well, will then immediately turn on themselves, eat themselves alive, blame themselves for not being good enough. They don’t have that whole bigger picture. So a mentor can help you with that. But a mentor a good one also has a solid understanding of the industry that they’re mentoring in. So I have a solid understanding of the art industry and and can give you options that maybe you didn’t think about. So I talked with an artist who may or may not work with me, but I had a meeting with her last week and she had no idea, none that she could actually set up a show for herself. She didn’t have to wait for a gallery to approve her. She didn’t have to wait for a jury to decide she was worthy, and she was holding herself back because she wasn’t sure she was good enough. Um, her art was fantastic. If she’s listening to this, your art is fantastic. but she had no idea. And it blew her mind when I said, I used to work with galleries, and now I just do my own pop up shows. I do my own gallery shows. I do my own group exhibitions by booking a space, by running the marketing, by gathering the artists and just doing that. I’m not waiting for somebody to go, oh, Paula, come and work with us so a mentor can actually blow your mind with with what your possibilities are, because maybe you’re surrounded by people who are waiting to be discovered, or who think small and who say, well, you know, it’s nice to be an artist, but I can only sell my work for fifty pounds a painting, even though they’re as big as a house and everything else, and I barely make any money. A mentor lifts you out of that mush and muck and and small thinking, and allows you to actually plan things out appropriately. And because I’m not emotionally involved in somebody else’s business, it makes it easier for me to say, actually, this is what this means. Think about these options. Make your decision right. I’m not telling people what to do, but I am putting options out there and giving that feedback with experience. So I’ve been an entrepreneur for twenty six years now, which is wild to think about. Never wanted to be self-employed at all. but when my oldest was born, I didn’t want to put her in daycare. And so I had to figure out, because in Canada, at that point, our maternity leave was six months. I had to figure out how I could make money and not do the commuting to Toronto, because I lived in that area at that point and only see her for an hour a day. I was like, I didn’t have a child just to see her for an hour a day. So I tried to figure out what to do, and that’s how I started becoming self-employed. So I have a background in business, in marketing, in design and all of that. and a background in arts. I went to school for art. and then I ran my own art career. So that makes a huge difference. I’ve I’ve been represented by galleries, I’ve been in shows, I’ve been in local art fairs, I’ve been in big shows and small shows and international shows. I’ve worked with mentors, had them for myself. I’ve been there and done that. It makes a big, big difference for somebody to have that, experience boots on the ground, if you will, that perspective, and that understanding of how business is and how it works. Even if the local laws are different. So Canada has some different laws in the UK, but we’re pretty similar. Business itself is pretty much the same around the world. It’s about presenting a product or service clearly, pricing it appropriately and getting somebody to buy it. And then beyond that, it’s about the details of the business.
00:08:58 Speaker 2: So and also it is so common in lots of other fields. I mean, I, I know when you, when you train to be a teacher, you have a mentor in the university, you have a mentor in the school placement. When you graduate, you have a mentor. Now, I think for three years in the UK to support you with those early years of teaching. Ideally, I don’t think three years and then, oh, you don’t need one anymore because I will always need one. Just having that person to push you out of your comfort zone. Not in a bad way, but, Paul would be the first to say, you know, there are aspects of running a business that I am not super confident about. And, in the past. Oh, Paulie, you do it. But it’s like she makes me have a go try learn a new skill, which a lot of people will never do. If they feel uncomfortable doing something, they just stop and go, oh, I’m not very good at that. Oh, I can’t do that. So you’re not going to progress as a business person as well as an artist if you don’t have some sort of guidance. And I think we talked about this on the last episode. You know, artists do not have to be working in isolation. It’s it’s a myth. And it’s interesting because I read a book recently. It was actually about writing, not not about art or painting, but I think it’s it’s still the same. It was talking about women writers and basically saying that how we see writing, if we think of a writer now, we think of them a bit like an artist in a garret, writing by themselves, not talking to anybody, having to be an extremely quiet or in the middle of the Scottish Hebrides. and it’s the same with reading. People think that reading is a solitary activity, that you take a book and you cuddle up in a chair and you can do it that way. But historically, that did not exist. People did them as group activities, which I think is really, really interesting. So even and it wasn’t just that there were a lot of people who were illiterate, even people who could read and could write. They chose to do it as part of a community activity. And I think it’s the same with art. it doesn’t have to be done in isolation, probably because I always blame the Victorians for everything. It comes from that, that that’s how artists started working the Victorian era, working by themselves in their studios up to that point they were in because it’s all, what were they called? The house of, you know, when, when artists had apprentices and people, or they were a busy hive of activity with commissions, the artist would never do it totally by themselves. They would have other people. So they might do the outline, and then they’d have apprentices doing all the rest of it, but it was attributed to them or the old school of whatever. So how we look at these creative activities historically is very, very interesting. And I very much er I’m a very much a like to have that communication. I learn best by talking and working with people rather than doing it in isolation.
00:12:42 Speaker 1: I think that’s true for a lot of people. what I find interesting, because I’ve done the whole gamut, because your self-taught artist, but and a lot of people are I’ve done the whole gamut of the art school and everything else. It’s it’s that we are not taught how to run a business. You know, two months before I graduated, a teacher came up and was like, hey, by the way, you should have a contract and you should join this, this guild and blah, blah, blah, blah. which was so unrealistic for students, charging full experienced, prices of artists who’d been working for ten or twenty years. You couldn’t do that. You’d be laughed out of out of any contract. one of the things I come across consistently with artists is that they would rather not invest in themselves and in their businesses. They would rather continue the story that artists starve. Artists struggle. It takes ten to fifteen years to start making money as an artist, which is a load of crap. if we were running a business on, let’s say, making orange canoes, for example, we would have to obviously know how to make orange canoes, right? That’s part of it. But we’d also have to know how to market our business, have an accountant, have a website, have all that set up, and it would be considered very normal. or you take a different business. Maybe you are a lawyer. Same thing. You would still have some level of business skills to be able to land clients. But for artists, they don’t want to. And I’m not saying a generalization is applicable to everybody, but it is applicable to the majority of artists I’ve interacted with and over the last seven years, that is tens of thousands of artists, because I am very thorough in going through and looking at profiles and reaching out and talking. Artists do rigorous.
00:14:26 Speaker 2: You’re rigorous.
00:14:28 Speaker 1: Rigorous? Yes. artists typically do not even think that they should have to have business skills or have to invest in themselves. They’ll do some free offers, like the free five day challenges I used to run. they’ll grab a free PDF here and there, but they don’t want to pay even a small amount to learn something thoroughly that that investment is wasted when in reality, that investment, that initial amount of money that you spent with me way back, and obviously you’ve continued to buy things from me, but that money you spent with me, you earned that back tenfold over by skipping through the stages that artists go through, which is thinking small, not knowing how to sell or where to sell. How to have.
00:15:10 Speaker 2: Almost like business is a seen as the antithesis to creativity. Yeah, which is crazy. And so business. A lot of artists won’t even say that they’re running a business. They will just say, I’m an artist. That’s it, you know? Full stop. And so they haven’t even got to the point where they understand that they’re running a business.
00:15:35 Speaker 1: Yeah. And because we’re taught, right, that art and money don’t mix. And for some people, and there’s a valid argument in there that money changes the art you make. If you’re making things that sell, then you’re not making the things you want to make, right. But we live in a capitalist society. If you want to work as a full time artist and actually be able to afford your bills and your food and whatever else, you have to adjust course a little bit. And it’s not a bad thing. It’s not like, money is the M word or whatever. but for those people who don’t want to mix it, go off, have your day job and be an artist at night and don’t sell your pieces. That’s fine. I worked with an artist once who never sold, because the group that she was in said that selling your art is, like, gauche or vulgar or I know I’m using, antiquated words, but it is that that that was the attitude. If you sold your work, you were you were just not doing it right. And how dare you?
00:16:34 Speaker 2: Which was probably started by somebody who was really, really scared about putting themselves out there, which we’ve talked about in the past. And so they wouldn’t. And this was a great get out by saying, oh, actually getting others to believe the same that it’s come. I’ve come across people in the UK as well who like I think all art should be free. I think this and it’s like no creativity having the Opportunities to be creative yourself is different from selling your art, because what you’re doing is is so is multifold. You have got a skill that a lot of people don’t have, and we’ve talked as well in the past, Paula, about getting people to look at art in different ways, and we’re going to be exploring that when we talk a bit more and share with our our listeners about our show. Because I was talking to somebody today, my hairdresser, and she was like, I have no idea. I was talking about the questionnaires and that, when kids go to museums or art galleries, there’s often activities for them to do to help them with looking at the pieces and finding out about the artworks. And, I said, but adults, a lot of adults need that as well. It’s not in a completely non patronizing way because educationally it’s been neglected from the curriculum, for various reasons. But understanding what art is about and how to look at art and how to appreciate it and look at it in different ways, it’s not just about putting a pretty picture on your wall.
00:18:17 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, exactly. So working with somebody like me and I’m not the only art mentor out there, but I think I’m the best. Uh, yeah. Um, so. So working with somebody like me will push you outside of that small thinking, outside of doing the little shows in the church, community centers and whatever, and make you think differently about how you educate people about how you price your art, how you position yourself, how clearly you’re communicating about your business. And even although I don’t tell artists to change what they’re doing because I never do that, I don’t believe in that. But I may push you to do something more, maybe that you’ve been a little bit afraid of. So a lot of artists are really afraid. They’re afraid that they’re not good enough, because there’s a lot of judgment that goes on in the art world. Artists judge each other and and badmouth each other all the time. That’s normal. normal. But awful. they’re afraid about showing up and maybe being too big for their britches and whatever, whatever saying you want.
00:19:11 Speaker 2: There are all these myths. These are modern urban myths, right? And I think, one of the things, light bulb moments that we had where we were saying, about how if once you start seeing your art as a story or a message, that is what is being judged, not your skills. If all you’re being showing are your skills and you want to be a photorealist artist and that’s, look at my skills. To me, that doesn’t do anything for me. I can admire the skills, but it’s a very to me, it’s creativity on a one dimension because it’s just purely skill based. But once you are getting a message across with whatever field of creativity you’re exploring music, writing, drama, art that is what you want to be judged on in what you’ve got to say. And having initiating that debate. And suddenly you’re not so frightened about putting your art out there because you’re you’re not feeling judged by your skills, but by what you’ve got to say.
00:20:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So your your visual art that you make is a vehicle for what you’re actually communicating. And that’s one of the things that I do with, with, with my clients. We sit down and talk about the big why. And there’s a whole PDF questionnaire to fill in, which is a pain in the ass. I know, because I’ve done it myself. but when you come out the other end, you’re very clear on your message. So fee for the entire time we’ve worked together, you haven’t wavered in your confidence because you know exactly what you have to say as an artist.
00:20:52 Speaker 2: Yeah. And it’s not in. It’s not about my skills as an artist. It’s about I’m passionate about what I’ve got to say, what stories I want to get out there. And I feel it’s important that I do that rather than, oh, I just need to show my work in an exhibition. It’s not about me in that way. It’s not about my ego, because it’s about what I’ve got to say. And I think that is that once you start understanding that, that self doubt gets erased because you’re not doubting what you’ve got to say. You’re confident and passionate about what you’ve got to say. And that is how all artists should feel about their work, not about, oh, does it look like the picture? Well, that’s that’s not creativity. If that’s what you’re aiming for, if you’re saying something about a landscape, you’re actually adding in emotion and mood and how it’s making you feel and how it might make other people feel, that’s completely different. Yeah. You’re communicating those emotions of a storm of, you know, the weather. It’s a lot of things in the picture. But if you’re just going to do a flat landscape with no, no weather, no, you know, you’re not you’re not saying anything. And then all people can look at it when they say, is that, well, that boat’s not very good.
00:22:12 Speaker 1: with understanding a deeper level in your art. it makes it easier also to not worry about what other artists are doing. Right. You can go to shows and I do go to shows, and I see a lot of the same stuff over and over and over again. But when you have that message you’re not worried about, okay, six booths over. It’s the same style of art. Will they like my style better or not? Right. There’s there’s that that that sense or that ability to differentiate yourself in a deeper way that your audience will pick up on. So that’s another benefit of working with somebody like me. It’s just getting that clarity to about.
00:22:49 Speaker 2: Exactly. And also all the work you do Paula and I again, this changed my life when I first did this with you, is the work on mindset because I’ve talked about, taking time to work on yourself and all this, most of the work I’ve done on myself, there is other stuff, but it went through working on my art business and working with a mentor. Because if my if your mindset isn’t right, you’ve stumbled at the first point, and I know that that is a big, big part of working. So it’s like as as I said, I’ve said, when people say, oh, what do you do if you’ve got artist’s block or you have self-doubt and all that? It’s like, well, if you’ve done all this groundwork, that isn’t an issue. It’s only that if you’ve been on your own and you’re trying to do stuff and you’re not sure how you’re doing it?
00:23:44 Speaker 1: Now, I’ve been through the gamut myself. So mindset is the basis of everything. It’s the basis of how you show up. It’s the basis of how you communicate with confidence. It’s the basis of how you price your work and haggle or not with people. it’s the basis of how big you reach. I think a lot of people who don’t want to who in air quotes don’t want to go big, are actually suffering from mindset that they actually really secretly do. But they get off that bus we talked about earlier early because they feel that that’s just all they deserve. So mindset is the foundation of everything that I teach to the people who take my courses and to the people who work with me. in coaching, it is the foundation of everything when it comes to art. And I know this because when I worked with my first mentor, we didn’t address mindset at all. And I really struggled with that because I got big fast. I was very, very focused. Very, like, I put the blinders on, like horse blinders and just went. And I produced three hundred and fifty paintings in the first year. And I went from Nobody knows me to my work was selling internationally from March when I started to December. When that year finished, I was I had done shows. I had an artist rep who I ended up having to fire because she was no good. I, I was creating success, and it did create a bit of a stir because a lot of the artists around me when I was at shows were like, who the hell is she? And blah blah, blah, blah. I could tell that, like that was going on. I could hear the what they were saying, but, I didn’t feel worthy of the success I’d created. And I got onto the international stage and my art was in the hands of celebrities and everything else, and I did not feel worthy. In fact, I don’t have some of the images that I should rightfully have of my work with celebrities because I didn’t feel worthy of that. So when I teach mindset, it’s because I’ve been there. I’ve been at the lowest point where I was producing work that was really high, high quality, and I was marketing and everything else. And then when I created the success, I was like, oh my God, what do I do? Right. My pricing was all over the place until I got it together and I figured out what to do. my mindset was in the toilet when I had my accident in twenty nineteen, which launched me as an art, mentor, a business mentor. it ended up being a bit of a blessing in a lot of ways, because it took me out of struggling with that last little bit of mindset, and it was through teaching other artists and seeing how common that was. I didn’t realize how common the mindset issues were that I pulled my shit together. I worked with a mentor actually just last year for my mindset who changed my life, right? I still work with people who come to me with, the outside perspective saying, this is actually what’s going on. This is what you need to think about. You’re not stretching yourself far enough. What are you doing? Right? We all need that outside perspective and we should value it. But the wrong person will pardon my French fuck you up because they won’t address the things that are going on underneath. So I’ve learned also how not to pick a mentor when the mentor makes it about themselves and has an ego and everything else. They’re not worth working with. And unfortunately, I stayed with my mentor for a little bit too long. everybody has an ego, but I don’t make your success about me. I don’t make everything about me. My goal is, in this topsy turvy, scary and uncertain world, my goal is to get as many artists out there as successfully as possible, because it’s artists who will remind us what really matters in life. It’s artists who interpret, record, and inspire us and keep us going as a species. We know this through all the levels of humanity, because I follow a lot of archaeology as well. We know that humans in various forms, from Neanderthals to, Denisovans to whatever created art, we have the evidence for it. So we know that that is a part of our story of our species. So my goal in twenty twenty six, but it has been my goal for a long time, but especially now, I feel very strongly I’m on a mission to make sure that artists are lifted up so that they can create those thriving businesses, make people notice them, and change the world through as much art being out there as possible. And and that’s really important to me. So my ego doesn’t get in the way, in the way that I’ve experienced with having a piss poor mentor, in the past. Right. The mentor who changed my life last year. I wish everything good on her because she is absolutely amazing. But we all need that person who can come and listen and focus on us and then say, this is how you stretch yourself. This is what you need to be aware of that maybe you weren’t aware of before. This is how things actually are. Or I’ve actually been at the stage that you want to be at. These are the things to watch out for. I wish I had that, but I’ve done it now myself and I pass that along. So. So with, the last group of people I worked with and for was among them, I had them all level up, position their art differently. Instead of going through, oh, we’ve got to just be at this level. I pushed everybody to the next level. and they willingly went along. Right. It involved a lot of mindset work, which is critical, but it has made such a huge difference in terms of how they price their work, how they show up, what their websites look like, how they present themselves and they’re going to rock the world, in their own way in twenty twenty six. And I’m hoping it’s in a big way. Right? but I’ve positioned themselves to the best of my ability, and they ran with it because we addressed mindset.
00:29:25 Speaker 2: it’s having people who are prepared to put in the work and dedicate and have such a strong belief in what they’re doing and what they’re saying. as I said, it’s not it’s finding the right time for you as an artist and understanding why you want to be a success. Because we’ve redefined as well about being successful is because it was very much about selling art, selling art, selling art. Of course, we all want to sell our art. Of course we all want to make money and not be moaning about, I can’t pay this bill. I can’t pay that. That should be, as said. But success as an artist is more complex, I think, than that.
00:30:13 Speaker 1: It is. It absolutely is. So. So working with somebody like me. I think is critical. Now, maybe maybe I don’t know if you’re listening to this and going, gosh, I can’t stand Paula. Okay, well, I’m not the only mentor around. Or if you’re listening to this and be like, I really want to work with Paula.
00:30:28 Speaker 2: I can’t stand you, Paula. They will they will have checked out ages ago.
00:30:32 Speaker 1: I know, I know, but just in case. Just in case. Right? I’m not the only person around, but there are good ones and bad ones, and you need to figure out which ones work for you. So it’s really important that when you look for a mentor, you’re looking for somebody who’s still actively in the art world. So I’m still actively in the art world, not to the same level. I was, seven years ago because I’ve been focusing on mentoring, but I still produce art, I still have commissions, I still do shows. I did a show in Scotland in twenty twenty three, doing a show in England, in twenty twenty six, potentially a second one later on this year as well. and I’ve got plans for shows in Canada too. So, so there’s, you have to look for somebody who’s still actively in the art world because information gets stale. Yes, business is business, but what’s going on is affected by technology. I’m very also technologically savvy because my other, business was in programming. I did web application programming for e-learning and not for profits. So I’m very aware of what’s going on with AI, how the algorithm works to the best of my knowledge as a programmer, and things like that, where I can help people. So when you look for a mentor, you’re looking for somebody who’s actively still selling art. They’re not your competition, but they’ve got to at least part of their foot in the game. Still there. They’re empowering artists. They’re not saying, well, you have to buy this course from me. And now that you’re done, well, we didn’t teach you everything, so you got to buy the next course and so on. I find that disgusting. When, you don’t give your, your clients everything they can they need in order to create success, right? If you are, if you’re trying to string them along and make them buy a bunch of courses or coaching packages or whatever. That’s not great either. and you want to look for somebody who resonates with you, like, you feel like you can talk to them, that they’ll hold your confidences. we’re not bound. Obviously, mentors are not bound by confidentiality, but I don’t go around talking about my clients to other clients. I think that’s just awful. you want to feel like you can trust them with your business, and an art business is full of heart, so there’s a lot of emotion involved. You want to feel like you can trust them. with you being vulnerable and admitting you don’t know something or that you need help somewhere. Because a lot of people don’t like to admit that. Right? That’s a sense of failure. But we need to admit we don’t.
00:32:45 Speaker 2: Crazy.
00:32:46 Speaker 1: It is crazy, but we need to admit we don’t know.
00:32:48 Speaker 2: We need help and advice every day of our lives. Right? Otherwise, you’re not going to get very far, are you?
00:32:54 Speaker 1: Exactly, exactly.
00:32:56 Speaker 2: So you wouldn’t try and fix your car by yourself unless you are a mechanic or an engineer. But you go and get advice from a garage. it’s obvious.
00:33:08 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. We we I have I’ve always had an accountant. From the minute I started my business up. I’ve always had an accountant. I’ve had different accountants over the years because some worked well with me and some didn’t. but I’ve always known that even though I can do math, I know my brain leaves my head. The minute you say tax, I just. That’s it. It’s gone. Right? So? So I’ve always leaned on that help. I don’t walk around saying, well, I’m an artist. I don’t need to have that help. No, I turn to somebody who’s better at something than me. Right. I stretched my canvases until Pre-stretched canvases were affordable. And then I switched and never looked back. Because I hate stretching canvases. It’s tiring and physical. And if you don’t do it right, you end up with lumps. And, uh. So I didn’t want to do that, so I, I looked for somebody or a service that can do it like a store providing stretched canvases. Right? We we need to understand we don’t have to do everything. And in fact, we shouldn’t. We have zones of incompetence, competence, and genius. And so our art making is a zone of genius. Get help with the other bits. You can’t do right. The competence and incompetence. I’m incompetent in accounting, I admit that, but I get help with it, right? it’s the same for everybody else. It is critical. If you want to run an art business that you invest in your art business, you’re investing in your tools. You’re investing in your art education like PHE did. She learned how to make art. She figured out what worked and what didn’t. She spent a lot of time, being self-taught, having to figure out her style and refining it and all of that. But you also have to invest in your business when it comes to having somebody give you that advice. and if you think you can do it alone, nobody’s ever done it alone. They’ve all had some.
00:34:58 Speaker 2: In any field. In any field?
00:35:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
00:35:02 Speaker 2: So what did they say about, it takes a community to to grow a child or whatever.
00:35:09 Speaker 1: It takes a village. Yeah, it takes a village. Yeah, it does, it does.
00:35:14 Speaker 2: You go the same with anything. You can’t evolve on your own.
00:35:19 Speaker 1: Can you imagine if, um, let’s pick a sport, whatever sport that that they didn’t have a coach who’s standing there and watching the game understands the plays and psychology and whatever. You don’t have a coach. It’s just the players on the field or the ice or the pitch or whatever the sports, you’re thinking of trying to figure out how to get to win. You need that person to be that.
00:35:47 Speaker 2: Yeah. The person who has the overview, who has a different perspective, who isn’t so entrenched in the game that they can’t see past the people who are next to you. They can see what needs to be done one hundred percent.
00:36:05 Speaker 1: Exactly.
00:36:06 Speaker 2: Well, I hope we sold that. Sold that to everybody now.
00:36:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, hopefully. But, if anybody has comments or questions or whatever, you’re welcome to comment on these episodes because we do appreciate audience engagement. You can also reach out to me or fee on our respective websites. and the URLs are in the show notes. So you’re welcome to join us there and send emails in. nice ones please. But you can, you can, uh, ask questions and all of that. and also just take a look and do a Google without AI, do a search and see who’s available in your area, who specializes in what you do. in order to get the best support that you can get for your business, maybe you just need a mentor for three or four months. Maybe you need one to stand by your side as you grow your career. But what I do know is that the right person will make you reach farther than you would have done otherwise, and get there faster, because you’ll skip the mistakes everybody else makes. And that’s that’s really important. but yeah, really consider that if you haven’t thought about that before, having a mentor makes all the difference for your your art business and your growth as an artist. And if you decide that you are not ambitious, ask yourself, are you not ambitious because you’re just not? Or you’re not ambitious because you don’t believe you’re worthy of the success that every artist should have. And that wraps up this episode. Unless there’s anything else you want to add.
00:37:37 Speaker 2: No. And I say if anybody has any questions about actually working with a mentor as an artist as well. reach out to me and I can tell you, but I do tell people all the time that my business would not be where it is without having a mentor. And I’m very fortunate that mine is Miss Paula Collegiate.
00:38:01 Speaker 1: Thank you very much. So thank you for listening to this episode of Art crush. we hope you enjoy it. You can listen to other episodes on Spotify and other podcast apps. And of course, join us in the next episode where we’ll talk about other things in the art world, art making, and so on. And this season, we are actually going to have two very special guests come on in a future episode. I can’t tell you which one because we are only recording episode two right now. where we talk with, other members of our art collective, the fifty one percent, which we will get into in a future episode. So thank you for joining us. This has been episode two of Art crush season three.
