ARTISTS, IS PANIC MODE YOUR MO?

Detail of work by Kristin Petrillo on view for Artists on Fire 2025.

ARE YOU CONSTANTLY STRESSED AS AN ARTIST?

Need some chill time?

Do you feel frustrated, uninspired and depressed about the pressure to produce great work, market your work and make sales?

(Not to mention the tenor of the world right now that does a job on most artists anyway.)

It is difficult to find your groove and you’re not alone. We hear this a lot.

Reset, recharge and rethink your approach.👇

5 STEPS TO CREATE MORE SUCCESS

❶ PAUSE THE PANIC MODE 
• Panic leads to stress that kills your creativity. Your audience needs a constant flow, not a big push a couple times a year.
• Create opportunities for spontaneity in your work and community. Reconnect with your imagination and invest in your community.

• Get out in nature. Take a walk in the woods or by the ocean. Stop, look at the trees and the bugs and the textures.

• Let all your senses feel the present moment and step away from your screen, often.

• Planning your days, even if you are spontaneous, can bring discipline and help with blocks.

• Schedule a 1/2 hour for experimentation and imagination every day at the tough hour, with coffee or with wine. ; )

❷ THINK LIKE YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER
• Creating opportunities for sales without pushing and an analysis of your sales process.
• Consider how your buyer finds and looks for your work.
• Demonstrate with visuals how the art would look in someone’s home, or the kind of home you want it in, ie, vacation home.
• Look at the quality of your photos, content and pricing or ask for feedback from peers or others who you admire.
• Are your images showing the special features of your work and would you want to buy from your site?

❸ FOCUS ON GOALS and SIMPLIFY PROCESS
• Make lists of goals and give yourself due dates.
• Work in series, which helps focus and creates a cohesive body of work. Try 30 day cycles.
• Introduce your series, after completion or nearly there with cohesive marketing images and fonts.
• Be consistent and pay attention to details.

❹ USE SOCIAL WITH GOALS IN MIND

• Post once with a clear CTA (call to action), ENGAGE with your responders.
• Use Reels to tell stories about you and your work, even your mistakes.
• Use carousels to show your process, don’t give away too many secrets.
• Add “DM me…for, X,Y, Z” to encourage real convos.
• Pin only your very best work to your art business profile, which should be separate from your personal profile.

Do not spam your followers with newsletters. Once a month is great. Once a week is too much.

Curators are busy, look for curated pages and pay attention to your details.

❺ ALWAYS CIRCLE BACK TO YOUR MISSION STATEMENT 
• Success is a long game. 
• Always share what is unique about your work and remember to connect your viewer with your work.
• Deadlines are great, but panic mode stifles.
• Imagine your success and create a roadmap to get there. Do the work.
• Create at least 3 big scary goals for the year every year and take steps to attain them.

• Network, join art associations, participate in group shows, go to openings, meet as many people as possible.

Have fun. Enjoy your gift of creativity. Not everyone has this ability. Artists create community and connect the world and save visual narratives for future generations.

💾 Save this list from Juniper Rag and revisit it. Tape it to the bathroom mirror.
💌 Share with your artists friends who could use a little clarity.

Detail, Kristin Petrillo

Bonus…

5 Things Professional Artists Do To Create Success:

1. Create Connections: : Artists have to find the balance between creating art that they love and art that reaches their target market. Create your signature style and building your brand. Understand what YOUR potential customers may be attracted to and test market ideas. Identifying that sweet spot of work that excites you and work people will want to pay for.

2. Build a Strong Portfolio: Artists and creative entrepreneurs need a comprehensive portfolio visible online of art that showcases their very best work, their unique background and skillset and their mastery of the media. Before defining your revenue stream plan, demonstrate that you have a solid foundation of past work that stands the test of time and an bespoke artistic vision.

3. Develop a Strategy: Clear business strategies are essential. Plan your marketing and sales processes. Build a business model that works for you, and helps you identify ways to reach your target audience.

4. Intentional Pathways: Constant hustle isn’t the best way to reach success and often confuses the people you are trying to attract. Focus on one revenue stream, ensuring that it is well-established before attempting to move on to the next.

5. Learn and Adapt: All success comes from growth, making mistake and learning. Pay attention to what what is working and what fails, and be open to adapting your plan while staying true to yourself and your art.

Continually improving and finding new solutions to challenges is vital, especially in the art industry.

While these are just high-level steps, it is still very difficult to execute them consistently and with discipline. Any artist with an art brand should often circle back to these core tenets, especially as they scale.

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