Questions to Ponder, As You Look Back on Your Career As An Artist

I was reading  How to reflect on the progress of your blog on Problogger.com and realized that the advice given on reflecting on your blog could also be used on reflecting on an artist career. How does an artist begin this process? Below are a list of questions to help you as an artist to reflect. It is recommended that you take a few hours to do this exercise(a hour long over a few days). This sounds like alot of time, but it can be extremely beneficial to the success of your artist career.

Background Questions

1. What goals  did you have for your artist career? 
2. What goals did you meet?
3. What successes did you met that was not on your goals list?
4. Which goals did you not met for last year?
5. What mistakes did you make as an artist?
6. Would YOU buy your own artwork?

Exposure

1. Where were the places your work was shown?
2. What was the biggest source of income? Why was it big?
3. What shows did not generate income ? Why?
4. Where and when did you promote your art?
5. Did the promotion pay off?

Artwork

1. How many pieces of artwork did you create in 2008?
2. Which months did you create the most work?  
3. Which posts had the most traffic in 2009? Why do you think that was?
4. What pieces of your artwork eenergized you in 2008?
5. Which artwork drained you most?
6. What type of artwork have you been producing?
7. How much time did you put into working on your artwork?
8. What ‘need’ does your artwork create for clients ?

Client Interactions

1. What recurring questions did your clients or gallery owners ask in 2008?
2. Are request from commissioned or artwork increased or decreased?
3. How much personal interaction did you have with clients in 2008? 

Your Art Style

1. Is your style of art growing or shrinking?
2. What artists within or around your art style are growing and gaining momentum?
3. Are they growing or shrinking in terms of exposure on the web, magazines and galleries?
4. What are other artists in your art style ignoring or doing badly?
5. How were your interactions with other artists this year?
6. What social media sites, forums or other types of sites are ‘hot’ in your art style?
7. Does your art style energize you?

Self Promotion

1. How does your website, logo, business card or marketing packets look compared to other artist?
2. Are they outdated, confusing , does not relate to your current art style?
3. Is there clutter anywhere on your blog, website, portfolio, business card?
4. Does your website or blog load fast?
5. When a first time viewer of your website, blog , portfolio, ,marketing packet, logo, business card , what impression would they get?
6. Would a first time viewer immediately know what type of artwork you do by looking at your self-promotion items?  
7. What complaints have you heard most about your design from viewers this year?

Making Money 

1. How much did you earn from your artwork in 2008?
2. Are your earnings up or down from previous years?
3. What lessons did you learn about what methods of making money works best from your artwork?
4. What didn’t work in 2008 when it comes to making money from your artwork?
5. What are other artist  in your art style using to make money ?

Maintenance

1. Is your portfolio , website, or blog up to date?
2. What technical software are other artist using to enhance their artwork or art business?
3. What technical software are other artist not using and you are still using?  
4. When was the last time you took pictures of your artwork ?
5. Is your hosting sufficient for your website/blog? 

OK - I think that is enough for now. Try to answer these questions honestly and direct. I have to say this is a great way to reflect on your life as an artist.

Next week, after you’ve had a little time to do some of this reflecting, I want to follow up with this by  outlining a process that I learned from Problogger.com for planning and coming up with strategies.