This post is by Luann Udell, regular contributing author for FineArtViews.  You should submit an article and share your views as a guest author by clicking here.

Although I’m not a painter, one of my weekly treats is reading Robert Genn’s twice-weekly letters “The Painter’s Keys” on making art.

Recently I read “A Place of No Regrets” .   An art school graduate debated whether to strive for a career in making art, or go for the security of teaching art. Both paths have their perks and drawbacks, Genn replied. The most important thing is to find the path that leaves you with no regrets.

I’m lucky. I didn’t train to be an artist. I did train to be a teacher. I found I was very good at it. Fortunately, I learned early I didn’t want to teach full-time. I’m happier in those get-in/get-out scenarios. When I rediscovered my artist self, I was never tempted to teach art.

I’ve seen the heartbreak of those artists who did not choose well. Living in a place of regret is damaging not only to them, but for everyone around them—even their students.

Teaching has its own energy. Hats off to those who teach with their whole hearts! A creative person who truly loves helping others learn is a beautiful thing.  Their work may not hang on walls or win awards, but it lives on in the hearts of their students.

A lot of artists, however, fear they can’t make a living on their art alone. They figure the next best thing is teaching their art. And that can lead to trouble.

They don't realize how much time and energy teaching takes.  Teaching is a job like any other day job—maybe it's about art, but it's not about YOUR art.  It’s not about you, it’s about “them”. That can be a hard place for a creative person to be in for years on end.

Even those who teach part-time run into snags.  They think they will make art in all their “spare time".  But once the curriculum is developed, the lesson plans are made, the materials gathered; once the beds are made and the dishes are done; once the dog is walked, the kids are fed and bathed, and the family sneaks in a movie together, there can be precious little time left over to make art.

Some teachers comfort themselves by postponing their dreams. They assure themselves they’ll have time to paint over the long school holidays, or during summer break. Some put off even longer: “When I retire, then I’ll paint/draw/throw/sing/perform!” But life has a nasty habit of happening while you’re making plans to make art. Soon the time is gone, and Monday—or September--looms again.

Is there any hope??

YES!!! 

KNOW YOUR PROCESS...

Ask yourself:  Under what conditions do you get art made?

Then make sure you create those conditions in your life. This strategy can keep you moving forward as an artist.

One friend, a talented painter, actually loved his day job. He didn’t want to give it up or cut back on his hours. But he just didn't paint on his own initiative—too many other fun things to do on the weekends, like playing Guitar Hero or going out with friends.  (Hey, we all have our priorities!) :^)

I asked him under what conditions do you get art made? He mentioned he liked taking painting workshops.  And when he did, he found he could produce a lot of paintings in one class. 

His solution was to commit to a weekend painting workshop a month. He lived in a large urban area where there were tons of workshop opportunities. This gave him the opportunity to create on a regular basis.

Another friend, a fiber artist, was overwhelmed by her new life as a young mother of two. I put the question to her. 

She had tiny snatches of time, not enough to keep producing at her former level. She had to let go of being a prolific artist for awhile. She found she could keep her hand in by working on just one major piece a year. It was enough to remind herself she was still an artist, even when she had precious little time to devote herself to her art. It gave her a piece she could submit to exhibitions and keep her name out there, even if she couldn’t make enough to put in galleries.

As a writer and an artist, I have a double whammy. I can pick up and put down my art projects, but writing is another story. I need a great idea and time to work it through. One of my strategies to expand my writing opportunities is to take a comment I've written in a forum or on a blog, an article that's caught my interest.  Then I develop that into my own essay.

In fact, that’s what I did for this article.