Growing up, I was the kid that tried everything art-related. Drawing, painting, ceramics, mixed media, resin, collage, jewelry, welding, the list goes on. It wasn’t until college that I discovered printmaking and began spending my free time in the print studio. While discovering my love of printmaking, I was also going to school for advertising and design. In all my advertising and marketing classes, I was taught that in order to build a brand, a business had to pick a single niche or type of product to sell in order to maintain brand consistency. Even after graduation when I was starting my art business, I was told to choose one medium and stick to it in order to grow and establish myself as an artist. So, I did.
What an absolutely huge mistake.
You see, that multi passionate girl inside of me had never died. She’d only been buried in the name of “niching down,” or picking one specific path in order to build trust with an audience and be more “professional.” This is all well and good if you are an artist that loves one medium or subject matter over all others, but for a lot of artists it means stifling our own creativity in order to be “successful” as an artist. This self-limiting can also lead to frustration and burnout as enthusiasm for the chosen medium wanes or an artist gets bored with what they’re creating.
The problem with treating art like a brand is that art and creativity come from the soul. That’s not to say artists shouldn’t take their businesses seriously, but it requires a different mindset than what’s being preached by small business coaches and marketing influencers. It also requires a bit of common sense as to what your audience will respond to; for example, posting about model trains on your landscape oil painting social media accounts would probably be a little bit too out of left field for most people.
If you’re currently standing at a crossroads with your art wondering whether you should follow where your creativity is telling you to go or stick to what you’ve known, go where your creativity leads. We have just this one life and this one unique flavor of creativity to nurture, and it deserves to be let out in full force. I’ll meet you on the path.