From the Virtual Desk of Kristen Joy Laidig
RE: Do you wish you could make a living from your art?
Let me start by telling you a story...
"A long time ago in a region not that far away..." (OK that was cheesy... bear with me though, I promise it'll be worth it!) ...I was an art student at a university.
After changing my major four (yep, 4!) times I graduated 4 1/2 years after starting... with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
My final major? GLASSBLOWING. That's right, not something super popular like watercolor painting or photography... not even something I thought at the time I could monetize... much less expand into a full-time income.
Painting and photography are awesome and fairly easy to multiply profits... but GLASS?!? I mean, what was I thinking?!?!?
In my final year of college and thinking I knew everything there was to know about business (boy was I in for a wake-up call...) I started Visions Stained Glass, my first IRS-reportable company.
I had clients. I had income. I had a nice side-hustle going. And I LOVED it!
But what I did NOT have was full-time income. I did not have sustainability. And I definitely didn't know then what I know now about multiplying my profits!
So I turned my sights toward publishing... and as you may know, the rest is history.
UNTIL NOW...
See, my husband Tony and I frequent art shows. We LOVE art. We collect art. We buy a sh*t-ton of art. And... we both still actively practice art. (Here's a section of one of my mixed media pieces...)