Is it a mistake to be too narrowly focused on one niche in my art?

Yes, being 100% married to one subject matter is actually a mistake. You should give yourself permission to experiment and try different subject materials. This is about treating your business like archery—it’s not about firing one perfect arrow and hitting the bullseye on the first shot. It’s about firing many arrows and iterating based on results. When Pablo Picasso died, he had 45,000 pieces of unsold work—he kept creating and experimenting. If your current subject matter isn’t mapping to the sales expectations you have for your business, that’s completely okay and part of the journey. The key is to keep experimenting with new subjects, new styles, and different approaches. Successful artists understand that finding what sells is a discovery process, not something you necessarily know from day one.

---

Asked by general teaching point · Answered by Patrick Shanahan and Nick Friend · art-marketing-podcast · 2022-03-04