How to Make a Good Living From Your Art Without a Gallery

Poverty isn't always a money problem. Sometimes it's an opportunity problem. Sometimes it's a skill problem, and sometimes it's a consistency problem. Once I became aware that artistic skill is valuable and is sellable and can be sold, and you can package your skill into a value and sell it, I said it's time to stand up. It's time to be responsible. It's on me, and there's no more blaming the third party. I'm not sitting here and waiting to be discovered. I'm not waiting for no gallery. I'm not waiting for no gatekeeper to discover me. I'm going to go out there and do it myself. And that was it. That was the journey that I took, and I stayed on that path, and I've been on that journey for 10 years now. Now, short story. A friend of mine, Eric, who actually inspires me heavy. Eric has been selling his art in SoHo in New York, shit, for like over 15 years now. Eric is doing very well for himself. He's always made art and sell it downtown in SoHo in the street. Now he travels around. I just spoke with him today. He's in Philly. He actually partially moved to Philly, living there because there's a lot of festivals, a lot of art market is pretty decent in Philly. So he actually partially living in Philly, especially when it's summer like this. He out there just banging, banging, banging, banging. Eric is so laser focused that he doesn't do social media, he doesn't have a website, he doesn't care for gallery and all these other stuff. Eric just— he's just a pure artist. He just creates art and go out there and meet the people and sell, and that's what he does. And I've been hanging out with Eric while I was in school. He was selling his art in SoHo. I'll get out of school and I would go hang with him and just watch him sell and create. And I've been asking him a question, asking him— now mind you, he's a self-taught artist. And he learned to sell, he learned to communicate, he learned to do all these things by himself. No social media, no website. Eric doesn't even do merch. He just creates art. He used to, he used to do large format canvases, and when that wasn't going well for him, he switched to loose canvases. So now you could just fold it, or you could just roll it and just bring it with you. That was much easier. Now he learned this while he was out in SoHo New York selling his work over and over and over. Like, over time, he has mastered how this thing works, and Eric has been doing very well for himself. So that was one thing that I took from Eric. Oh, Eric is not out here waiting for anyone, because if you come from— if you listen to the traditional advice, it's like you have to do this, do this, do this, do this, and then you will be discovered, and then they'll respond to you. And it's always about day, day, day, day, day, day. You always Waiting for that favor to come from them. Eric was completely different. So that was the knowledge that I learned from the streets from Eric. I saw this guy just— he doesn't talk about nothing. If there's any street festival artistically, you bet Eric is going to be there. And he would go over there and bang out, and he'd be like, yo, from Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I did over $10K. He's been telling me this way, way back then. Way, way, way, way back then. So he's been doing so well for himself, and I watch him does this. So once I got in the game after school and I refused, I said, you know what, I, I, I'm not going to be broke because I'm seeing— I've seen Eric is doing what he's doing. He's so good at it. I need to learn these things step by step. And he gave me a couple of steps. He gave me things to do, what not to do, and then I just started focusing. So waiting to be discovered has not been my thing. And thank, thank God, and thanks to Eric, because I saw him doing it. That is not on my— that is not a checklist for me. I'm not waiting to be discovered. However, I got discovered by Pepsi, I got discovered by HBO, MasterCard, and all this other stuff. Yes, because I was doing the work. So number one is just stop waiting to be discovered. Be responsible. Take full responsibility of yourself, your artistic career, and say, I'm not going to be broke. Like, I refuse to be broke as long as I know that I am an artist. And once I learned that there's value in the art, there's value in what I create, as long as I take an empty or blank sheet like this and, and do something, right? And create something that someone sees it as value, because this is just a blank, a blank piece of paper. And I took it and I added something on it, that automatically became valuable. Now I've just added value on this piece of paper, and someone sees it and they appreciate it, and they have no problem exchanging this for money with me. Once I realized that is possible, that thing work, that was it. I'm not sitting here waiting for anyone. So It's all about creating the art, showing up, and having this exchange over and over and over. So no more waiting to be discovered. Stop depending on anyone to discover you. Stop depending on a traditional way. It has never been so— it has never went so well for artists. If you go way back in history, like my favorite artist, Paul Cézanne, he has, he has struggled his entire life for this. They'll wait for you to— I mean, I don't want to go, I don't want to— don't let me go there. But anyway, it has never been so good. You can, you can— the list goes on, the list goes on. All these masters, all these legends, they will watch you struggle, suffer, stay broke, and die, and then you become. So stop waiting to be discovered. That's Number one, that's the journey I am on. I'm not waiting for anyone to discover me. I refuse to be broke. I refuse to struggle. I refuse to put my destiny in the hands of them. I don't even know who they are, but that's what you hear. They, they, they, they. Who are those people? So we're gonna go out there. Thank God for meeting Eric and seeing him doing it his way, and I took that path, and it's been great for me. For ten years now, and number two, be useful. As long as you have a skill, you an artist, you have a skill. Be useful. Be useful. If you create something, if you create art, that might not be super useful for you because it's your piece. Now, I remember. One day I created just a fun piece on a canvas, and, uh, I had this lady friend, and, uh, I stopped by her crib. When I was coming, I said, let me just bring this. I was, I was in the studio in school. I said, let me just bring this as a gift and just see. When I dropped that piece I saw that happiness in her face, how happy and how appreciative and how excited she was. That changed everything for me because until that point, I didn't have that much confidence in me yet. I, I wasn't sure. I wasn't even confident in showing somebody like, hey, What do you think? And when I brought that that night, and when I got that reaction, that week I brought two more pieces and gave it to her. I mean, hopefully one day if it become one of those things, she can come out and say, "Yes, I have three pieces from him." But that changed everything. I gave her one piece. Her reaction, her engagement with the pieces. led me to bring him 2 different variations of that piece and gave it to her. And she mounted them, she hanged them in the bath— one in the bathroom, one in the living room, one in the bedroom. And she was so happy. And I was like, whoa, okay. But I was just coming up and just learning. I wasn't sure how people would react to art. So that taught me something. That taught me something. And oh, so you can be useful. Like, creating these things make you useful. Like, look, she's so happy because I created this thing and now she got it and it's so useful for her. These colors, when she walk in, whether she walk into her bathroom, her living room, or bedroom, she sees it, it does something to her psychologically. It does something emotionally. So now it is— someone is using it to help them calm or to help them reset or reflect. So I said, oh, okay, I can be useful. My art can be useful. My art can be used in that sense, in so many senses, depending on what that person is feeling. So I need to add that onto my checklist. I need to look into being useful. If you don't put something out there for someone to use, then there's some— some, they have no use for you. But if you put yourself out there, if you put something out there that can be used, then you become useful. So I learned that while I was coming up, like, oh, I need to be useful. So as an artist, we need to be useful. When we create something that someone sees value in it, someone can use, we become useful. So become useful by just creating something, because you might not see the value in it, But they do. Someone out there see the value, and they don't mind taking the money out of their pocket and put it into your pocket because they see the use. They see they see the use of it. So be useful. Number three, this is most important. Learn to sell. Learn to sell. I didn't know that. selling is a skill. I didn't know that selling is something that I have to learn. I did not know. So I just thought you just— you're an artist, you just create art and then everything would just happen automatically. No. So until I created art and I went, I started doing what Eric said. Eric said, just go outside. You have to bring it outside. And I was this shy guy. I'm not good at communicating. I'm not— I don't smile enough. I'm not— I don't— it's just something about it, just going out there and just people passing by and just looking at you. It just wasn't my thing. But Eric is— Eric is so good at it. He's just so flexible. Now I am. Now I am master at it. So Eric was like, just go out there, just go out there, and it will come slowly. So when I went out there In the first couple of months, it was struggle. I would just, I just sit, I just sit there or stand there and someone will come by and I'm just waiting for them to just make all the decisions. Sometimes people just want to engage. They just want to be, they just want to be appreciated. They just want to be recognized. They just want some compliment. Somebody just showed up. Whether you're doing an art fair or flea market or street corner or festival, somebody showed up, they've seen your work. And they showed up, whether you're selling, uh, art on merchandise or you're just selling canvases, uh, framed canvases, loose canvases, screen prints, whatever it is that you created that you're selling. Somebody showed up, they appreciate it enough, you come over, just first thing you do, maybe you look at it, maybe they got their hair looking nice. If she's a lady, her hair is looking so nice, just first thing, compliment her hair, shoes, compliment. They got nails done, I love your nails, it's looking so great. Like, compliment, because they're here, they're appreciating your stuff. So it's, uh, that, that, that, that exchange of that energy. If they showed up, compliment something, because they giving you their eyeballs, like they're giving you their attention. So give them something in return and then start the conversation from there. And this is learning to sell. This is an art of selling. I didn't know all this stuff But over time it came. So learn to sell, learn to communicate, learn to be persuasive, learn to be loose, learn to be friendly, learn to be flexible. That is selling. Selling is not tricking them into buying, into just telling them that— say, let's say if I'm selling t-shirts, I put it up on t-shirt and I'm selling and I only have Medium, and the person say they wear large, and then force it on them. Oh, oh, these here, they cut, they cut big. Yeah, it will fit you, just take it there. And then force it on them. They take it home and it doesn't fit. Now you lost a customer for life. Today I would say, you know what, what is your true size? You wear large? Don't worry about it. If you want, you can give me a partial payment, or you can pay in full if you trust me. And I will make it and I will ship it to you next week. You will receive it by next week. Give me your address. Where are you from? Are you— are— do you reside here in the US or are you from overseas? Wherever you from, I will make it happen. I will create it and I will ship it to you. And I've been doing that my entire career as a, as a business, as a brand, as an artist who's out there selling. So That is art of selling, learning how to sell. Do those things. Be honest. Be good at your customers. Let them say, he's so honest, he actually shipped it to me. Like I said, you understand? So that's that. Those, those type of stuff, those are things that I didn't know, and you learn as you go. So learn how to sell because selling is serving, right? It's just like all these things is pretty much you're just serving the people. You're serving people, serving people. And once, once you focus on serving people, they come back because people love attention. People love attention and they appreciate. So selling it is pretty much you have created value with your art and people will pay for it, but you also have to serve them. In order for them to pay for it, you, you have to do some service. You just have to, you know, when they show up and, and, and those places that you also show up to sell, give them some attention. Let them know that, you know, you're here with them and, and it's not just one-way streets. They're not going to be the only one that's coming by, coming by your spot or your booth or your rack or your table And giving you all the attention, giving you all the eyeballs, and you just standing there and not giving them anything back. You have to compliment them. You have to have a conversation. If they say they got a family member, a kid, a niece, a nephew who's into art, show interest and spark a conversation and see if they if they can even make a phone call and and and give that that kid a piece of advice. Like stuff like that. I do video calls. I ask people to make a video call. Let me speak with the person. I do all of that, and it goes a long way. These are things that when you do, you are serving your community. You are actually serving, and that serving will come back as currency, will come back as money being being thrown at you because of what you did. So it's not always like right away, right away, right away. You can, you can sell now, or you can serve now and sell later. So that, keep that in mind. Number 4 is that build an asset. Build an asset. Build an asset. So one of the, one of the, uh, the best way to build an asset is turn your art into a product. Turn your art into a product. You create these art on loose canvas, on stretched canvas. It's your piece, it's your art, it's your IP. So you earn the right to scan it, photograph it, whatever. It's yours in your archive. You can always wrap it around a coffee mug and sell it as a product. You can always put it on the merch, on the t-shirts, on a hoodie, or anything, and sell it as a product. The art itself, to me, of course, it's a masterpiece, legacy. But it's kind of like a, it's also a commodity. You can stretch it out. You can expand it and turn it into, because if somebody buys it once and you cannot, and then that's it and it's done. But if you own the actual IP, now you can always flip it, bring it back, do so many different things with it, right? Do different things with it. That is the asset. That is the asset that goes down the line, that goes a long way. That is the asset that you can leave behind for, for the next generation, for your kids, for wife, for your significant other, whatever, and they can eat off that. So build an asset when you're creating this art, whether you're struggling or you're making a living out of it. Also think asset as we go. You create your pieces before you just ship it out there completely, make sure you have your copies and make sure you start learning how to turn your art into an asset, into a brand where people can recognize it, whether it's a, a label or a name that people can over time remember. When they see you, they can associate you with that. And that brand that can outlive you. Like, you can be gone, but that brand will stay on and continue to help your family or your generation, your next generation, make a living because of something that you created. So think that within the package, long term, as you go, and not just creating the art and selling, trying to make a quick buck Yeah. But also over time down the line. And number 5 is stay in the game. Stay in the game. I remember I have— luckily for me, I have my friend Eric who's been in the game over 10 years before I got in the game, or maybe close to 10 years before I got in the game. And I used to always Give him a call and and maybe cry out or ask questions if things are not going well, and he will give me some advice. So he was that guy that was in my corner because I need to stay in the game. And you keep saying, you know what? It's time. You just started. Just just just keep showing up. Just be consistent. Keep showing up. Don't stop. They will learn to know you. People will start seeing you. They start recognize you. And as now, when I show up, people say, "Yo, yo, yo, artist." People who don't know my name, they were like, "Yo, artist. Yo, artist, artist." And they were like just call me like that. And over time, it has become that thing. So if you stay in the game long enough, people will throw stuff at you. People will throw opportunities at you. People will come look for you. People would like to do things with you. So just stay in the game. If you stay in the game, all those time that you put in will compound. It's going to compound and it become money, or it become value, become currency, become something that's more beneficial to you. So you just have to stay in the game. It's not going to be easy, but you know that you have to just stop expecting, stop waiting to be discovered. You know that you have to be useful. Create something that people find value, people find it, uh, something that they can, they can use. So now you are useful to them, or the work, the art that you create is useful to them. And learn to sell as an artist. It is your duty, it's your responsibility to learn to sell. You have to learn how to sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. That's how you get out of the struggle. That's how you get out of poverty. And build an asset as you're creating art. As you're going, know that you have to build a brand around your art. Build a brand around your art. Build a brand. If, if it's going to be your just your name, then that's what it is. If you're going to come up with a separate name as the brand and slowly push it as you go, and that is the brand because that's going to outlive you. It might, it might look like it's nothing now, but over time it becomes Something. And stay in the game. If you quit too early, it's not going to compound. If you just get out of the game, you're not going to sweat. You're in the game now, you need to warm up, you need to warm up, and then slowly you're going to sweat. And that, that's, that's when, that's when it starts to work. So it's going to compound as you stay in the game long enough. That's how you refuse to be broke. That's how you get out of this rat race. That's how you get out of this struggling artist thing, by not depending or waiting for someone over there to come and save you. I hope you find some value in this. Uh, connect with me, subscribe, share, like. Share this with someone who's an artist who's trying to make it happen. Let them watch it. Let them connect with the channel. Other than that, click the link below, check out my website. I'll see you on the next one. Salute. One. Peace. Go create, go sell, go make it happen. One.