Artists generating opportunities with Flis Mitchell ( Pt 5 of 12 )

Flis is an artist but she practices mostly  in drawing and her starting advice was to decide what you want to do and then generate your own opportunities for doing it. She made a point of how frightening it can be for artists to think about how much they should charge for their work, how to ask for it and how to value their own practice. She used an example of what many people have thought about their own work, such as if I do!! -  it must be very easy, I enjoy what I enjoy do so I don't expect to get paid for it. She then put it into a scenario for us, which was quite amusing when you have a plumber to your  house you wouldn't then say to him " you really like plumbing so why should I pay you".

• Create the way you want work
• Be the author of your own practice
• Think about your strengths and weaknesses
• How you want to make work.
• Be time management aware (especially working on your own projects)
• Be honest
• when working on your own projects embrace your failures
• Do your own homework be reflective and critical of yourself
• Be comfortable in knowing what you want and want to achieve

How it works to generate your own opportunities


The main areas are -


               Think about your project before you start


      Intent 

•  why do I want to do this? What does it mean? What is the outcomes and aims? How would you know that it was a success? How would you know if it had failed? Keep asking yourself questions along the way.

       
      Need

• Is there an easier project? Is fact or fiction? Is the need for the project to happen? What are the benefits and who are the beneficiaries? Exploit every part of your life, acknowledge it and use it in your practice. Always be ready to talk at your networks, social media.  
She talked a little about what it's like to work in other people's projects and workshops, Sometimes you get to choose the people you work with and sometimes not. How to get access to funding and where to go to.There was a  question-and-answer session with the audience giving information about their own projects.So  much was packed into this lecture, but a few things were  just an overview of areas.

 Interest - 4/10 

 It was interesting as a insight into the industry. 

 Content - 5/10  

   It was very informative and knowledgeable.

  

   Delivery -  2/10   

     The lecture was spoken in a too fast manner about the topic to try and fit everything in and the repetition of   the word "like" was used  too often nearly in every sentence. Within 10 min of the lecture I was already switching on and off because of her delivery. 

Some content quoted from the lecture:

Image of freelance taken from the internet, for illustration purposes only.