A Plein Air Painter’s Top 3 Mantras of Success

It is almost midnight and my brain is foggy as I try to write this post.  I feel  like one of the zombies I just watched with my son and his friend in the movie “Zombie Land“.   It was a hilariously disturbed movie.

I should have been working on my grad school homework, but felt guilty from being gone so much lately, that I buckled and took my son and his friend to the movies.

I came back last week from the paint out in San Luis and went into Artrials this weekend.  Artrails is an “Open Studio” event where artists open up their studios to the public for two weekends. All my spare moments this week were spent preparing.

Today was opening day and though I had decent foot traffic, sales were still a reflection of our ailing economy.

I feel very calm about this.  Last weeks great sales did help me, but also I am looking at this year as a “waiting period”.  I am seeing these events as ways to continue putting my name out there and not expecting huge sales.

Artrails is a juried event.  It took me four years of applying to get in.  There are three steps I have learned about success.

1.  Failure is the first step towards success

2.  Never give up

3.  The only way to guarantee failure is to never try

I remind myself about step three every time I have fear of going forward.

Wendy

(Wendy’s dream is still to become a influential international artist, but she left 8 Women Dream in March of 2010 to complete grad school.  She is still a strong supporter of 8 Women Dream and you will see her in the comments on the blog.)

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