Can I build a successful art business by just creating what inspires me without doing marketing or sales?

No, the belief that you can just shoot whatever inspires you, do no marketing or sales, and be successful is a complete fairy tale. It has never existed and never will. Success as an artist or photographer requires the same hard work as any other job. Even famous success stories like Beeple, who made millions on NFTs, involved years of grinding—he committed to creating one original piece every day for 5,000 days straight (13 years), and he marketed it consistently for years when nobody cared. Most people aren’t willing to do that level of work. The lie that’s been told is that successful artists throughout history didn’t have to do marketing or sales themselves. The truth is they did. The artists who weren’t discovered until after they died? They didn’t get discovered because they weren’t doing marketing or sales. You cannot separate the artistic work from the business work if you want to make a living from your art.

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