Originally posted on 11/9/2019

Do you want to turn some aspect of your art into a business but you can’t decide which one? If you are like me, you have multiple creative interests. It’s hard to know where to focus. Luckily, I’ve been to business school, which means I learned about some cool decision making tools. I want to share these with you.

The Decision Flower is one tool I like to use when I’m confused. (In the business world, they call it a Venn diagram, but who cares. )

The Decision Flower invites me to ponder some essential questions:

• What is your art?
• Who wants your art?
• Who can afford your art?
• Are you willing to adapt your art to meet your audiences’ desires?

What is your art?

I can’t answer the last three questions if I can’t answer the first. It might seem like a simple question with an easy answer, but it’s not for me. I have been known to paint, draw, illustrate, sculpt, and collage, to name a few ways I’ve dabbled, daubed, and dribbled as a way to express my creativity. I write. I design things (e.g., clothing, furniture, books). If I’m thinking of trying to turn one of these interests into a money-making venture, where do I start? How do I choose?

I’ve designed a course for people like me. I am in the process of taking it as I design it. How meta is that!

Who wants your art?

As I said, I can’t answer this question until I figure out the answer to the first question. Once I know I’m, let’s say, designing books, then I can guess who my audience could be, depending on where I want to focus. Am I marketing book design to dissertators who want to publish their dissertations?

Maybe I’m ready to dust off my painting skills and start producing two-dimensional art someone might like to hang on their wall. Who wants art to hang on their walls? Practically anyone with a blank wall! However, I like to paint things some audiences might consider a bit edgy—I’m not painting fairies and butterflies. Not that there is anything wrong with painting fairies and butterflies. In fact, I probably would have been “successful” as an artist if I had. That’s just not me, to my mother’s lingering disappointment.

Thinking, then, about the answer to question 2 helps me realize that not everyone will be in my target market.

Who can afford your art?

Over the years, I have had lots of artist friends who would have liked to have owned something I’ve made. Unfortunately, most of my friends have been like me: broke (but not broken, never broken). I’ve given away a lot of art, but few of my friends have purchased my work.

The implication of this question is that marketing to my poor artist friends is not a direct path to earning income from my art. I need to expand my audiences to include people who not only want my art but can also afford to buy my art.

Are you willing to adapt your art to meet your audiences’ desires?

Here is where I come up against my mental brick wall. Remember I said I thought I could have been successful if I had painted fairies and butterflies? I believe I’m skilled enough to paint fairies and butterflies. However, I wasn’t willing to compromise, and I’m still not willing to compromise, at least not to that extent. (Again, I have nothing against fairies and butterflies.)

I have made forays into the swamp of compromise multiple times over forty-plus years. I painted on clothes, I painted on furniture. I tried to turn my paintings and drawings into t-shirts and greeting cards. I tried to illustrate other people’s children’s books. I painted a hideous impasto landscape to fit over someone’s couch. I made money sewing other people’s designs because I couldn’t seem to make money sewing my own (super sculptural but impossible to sit in) “art-fashion” costume designs.

Some people I know have had great success doing similar things to adapt their art toward meeting buyers’ desires. Every time I have tried, the universe has not lined up with my weak intention to compromise. That pesky universe reads me like an open book, darn it.

Using the Decision Flower has helped me understand and respect my artistic vision. I feel a little twitchy admitting that helping others achieve their artistic goals might be the form of creativity that suits me best. This is an ongoing theme for me. In the Art & Business classes I’ve been teaching, the conundrums of choosing and compromising seem to resonate with at least a few others. I don’t think I’m alone.

Let me know what you think about this Decision Flower tool. I have some more decision making tools to share, if you are interested.