What's the cautionary tale about waiting too long to start marketing my art?

Over thousands of webinars and interactions with artists, a heartbreaking pattern emerges: artists in their 70s, 80s, 90s, even over 100 years old showing up saying ‘I have all this artwork, how do I get it out there? I barely know how to turn on a cell phone.’ Here’s the profound truth: artists don’t retire. For all the time you have left on this planet, you’ll keep creating, and you’ll want the satisfaction of people seeing and buying those creations. The tragedy is when people have had decades to get the basics right but never did. They hopped from one thing to another—tried something for a short period, quit, moved to another marketplace, tried a gallery, switched websites—but never stuck with the fundamentals long enough. When you zoom out and realize you potentially have 20, 30, 40, 50+ years to build this, it argues strongly for doing the work now, even the parts you don’t enjoy. Don’t wait until it’s too late to start building the foundation.

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Asked by synthesized from teaching · Answered by Patrick · Art Business Webinar · 2026-07-08