14 Tuesday Jul 2020
Posted in Gift Ideas, Spirituality
Tags
inner strength, inspiration, inspirational, inspirational art, inspirational quotes, motivational words, strength, strong, strong women
Hindsight is always 20/20. You do not not how strong you are until you look back and see how far you’ve come…
19 Friday Jun 2020
Posted in Art, Gift Ideas, Love, Spirituality
Tags
inner child, inner peace, inner strength, inspiration, inspirational art, inspirational quotes, strength, strong, strong women
You are stronger than you think you are. It may take a little deep digging, but your power is within.
08 Monday Jun 2020
Posted in Gift Ideas, Love, Spirituality, Uncategorized
Tags
blessings, gift ideas, healing, healing energy, native american art, prayer, strength, symbolism, world peace
We could all use some strength right now. May my art help heal our World.
26 Wednesday Feb 2020
Posted in Gift Ideas, Spirituality, Uncategorized
Tags
12 step, 12 step program, alcoholism, courage, inspiration, power, prayer, recovery, religion, serenity, serenity prayer, strength, substance abuse recovery, women
An encouraging mantra to get you over the hump. Serenity Prayer art is for everyone.
20 Wednesday Sep 2017
Posted in Art
Tags
ancient, egypt, egyptian, eye, eye of horus, god, health, hieroglyphics, horus, pharaoh, prosperity, royalty, strength, symbol
27 Tuesday May 2014
Posted in Art, Uncategorized
Tags
abstract art, abstract art for sale, abstract prints, art for sale, artists, buy art, buy modern art, buying prints, canvas prints, career, goals, hard work, making it as an artist, making money, modern art, modern art for sale, money, perseverance, print sales, prints, prints for sale, selling prints, sharon cummings, strength, success, successful artists
I am back this morning from a 3 day getaway with my daughter. We had a blast in Orlando enjoying the Gaylord, noshing and shopping! While I was away, I sold 15 prints between Etsy, Society 6 and Fine Art America. I still have to smile big when I realize how amazing it is to “make money while I sleep” or in this case vacation. For years I resisted selling prints of any kind. I thought they would reduce the value of my originals. But the opposite has been the case. I’ve been able to raise the prices on my originals and commissions and enjoy a steady income from my prints. I no longer have to paint 6 hours a day plus promote myself for another 6.
Of course it wasn’t easy to get to this point with my prints. Many countless hours have been spent over the last 2 years using intensive social media promotion to get my prints “out there”. I have blogged, Tweeted, Facebooked, Buffered, Houzzed, Waneloed, Pinned, Tumbled, Link’d, Stumbled and Googled my way to sales 7 days a week (except for small bits of time off here and there). And for the past year, I have had a group of 12 other artists and photographers that I cross promoted with daily. On average, I’d say I spent 4 hours a day promoting myself and cross promoting others. Whew! That’s a lot! Especially when all I really want to do is create. However, it has finally paid off and I can now make sales even when I am on vacation and doing nothing to promote myself. Since May 1st, I have not done any cross promoting and very little self promotion. About 30 minutes a day 5 days a week. And I get weekends free again!
Hard work…….it can pay off!
If you have goals for your life, do not give up! And for goodness’ sake, do not listen to those who tell you that it can’t be done. 🙂
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21 Friday Feb 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
abstract, art, burn, burning, burnt orange, candle, canvas, contemporary, copper, dark brown, eclectic, electric, energy, fire, fires, flame, flames, gold, heat, heating, hot, inner fire, modern, ocher, ochre, orange, painting, print, reddish brown, sharon cummings, strength, strong, warm, warming, warmth
Burning spirit
Coals within
Glowing hot
Never dim
Yellow flame
Golden eye
Inner heat
Desires cry
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07 Friday Feb 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
abstract, abstract butterfly, affirmations, bugs, butterflies, butterfly, chakra, chi, christian, colorful, dream, earth, empowered, energy, feminine, feminine art, grow, growth, guidance, guide, heal, healing, healing energy, health, icon, insects, joy, joyful, ki, light, meditation, original, path, poet, poetry, positive, power, powerful, prana, pretty, qi, religious, sharon cummings, spirit, spiritual, spiritual art, strength, strong, strong women, totem, uplifting, vibration, vibrational, vitality, watercolor, whimsical, wicca, wing, woman, women
Her Heart Has Wings
Her heart has wings,
for more than flight.
They give her strength.
They give her sight.
Her heart has wings,
battered by the wind.
They do not break.
They help her bend.
Her heart has wings,
that can’t be tied.
And hopes and dreams.
That won’t be denied.
Her heart has wings,
for so much more.
Her body has limits.
But her spirit will soar…
30 Monday Dec 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
art, art career, art selling, Artist, artwork, career, creativity, facebook, google +, google plus, hard work, how to promote your art, how to sell art, how to sell prints, learning, original art, patience, perseverance, photographers, photography, pinterest, practice, print selling, prints, promoting, self promotion, self representing artist, selling art, sharon cummings, skills, social media, strength, stumbleupon, twitter
If you are an artist or photographer who has a dream of making a career out of your craft, you will need three things: practice, promotion and patience. And you will need them exactly in that order.
Practice means that you will be painting a lot of paintings. Many will be thrown right in the trash because they just didn’t work out. Photographers will be taking many photos in a single shoot only to find that none of them work or if you are lucky one is good enough to list for sale. You will try new things that will either be total flops or lead you to something really cool and interesting. You will invest money that seemingly never pays off. These days I sell about 5 prints a day on average from the various POD sites I am on and about 2 originals per week. The majority of what I am selling now is work I have created in the last year. Since I have been selling my art professionally for over 10 years this means that I am a much better artist today than I was back then. I have removed 100’s of images from my portfolios because as I practice and improve, I realize they aren’t my best work anymore. If you have just started creating photography or any kind of artwork within the last 2 years, I guarantee you that you need a lot more practice before your work will sell really well. If you look at the famous creatives most of them never sold early work while they were producing it and many never made a dime from it at all…money was only made after they were dead. In the Internet age we have so many opportunities that they never had. So keep creating regularly. The more you produce the better you will become and eventually sales will start rolling in. Babies do not come out walking and neither do artists. We crawl first.
While you are busy perfecting your art, there is a key ingredient to success that cannot be overlooked. Much like creatives of yesteryear we have to have someone believe in us and “get us out there” in order for our work to sell. For them it was luck and chance by being discovered by the right person at the right time. These days that someone is ourselves. You must believe in your work and be willing to share it with the World. Social Media provides us with instant access to millions of people from the comfort of our own studio computer, laptop or phone. We can connect to a mind boggling amount of followers with a few clicks. As an artist or photographer who lists on online galleries, if you are not using ALL of the FREE social media sites available to us, you are completely missing the boat. This post would be way too long for me to delve into all of the ins and outs of Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, etc. but there are tons of free resources online to get you started. Check out the link to my social media in my blog and see what I am doing.
Once you have the discipline to create new work on a regular basis and you are willing to put in some hard work promoting yourself what you are left with is time. It takes time to become successful. Patience will be your best friend for awhile. A year ago today I was only selling about 1 print a week and 2 years ago only 1 a month! Now it is 5 a day! But that did not happen overnight. It took about 2 years to get moved up in searches and it took about 6 more months of creating new and better art than I was used to producing and HEAVY social media promoting to see the magic start. And I am still learning and improving myself.
Not everyone is cut out for the kind of hard work and perseverance that an art career requires. But if you can commit to at least 3 years of constant creativity and as much promotion as time will allow, you can definitely find your market and succeed!
20 Friday Dec 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
abstract art, art, art marketing, Artist, artists, artwork, career, challenges, contemporary, contemporary art, creativity, hope, inner strength, life, marketing, modern, modern art, painter, perseverancec, sharon cummings, strength
You hear it said often that success “looks” a lot like hard work. I disagree. The most successful people I know make it look easy. It doesn’t look like work at all. It would be more accurate to say that success “feels” like hard work. To make it as an artist you have to have a lot of “inner strength”. Yes, you will be praised but you will also be severely criticized. You will make sales, but you will also spend countless hours emailing/talking on the phone with people who never buy. You will create amazing pieces but sometimes sit back in disbelief each day as the days turn into months or years without that work selling. You will make artistic friends and creative enemies. You will have days when you are so motivated to create that you feel as if your soul and brain will burst out of you into the Universe and you will have days where it feels an effort to sign your name. Mostly you will have to market yourself like crazy. You will eat, sleep and live marketing. Social media marketing. Business card marketing. Brochure marketing. Art show marketing. Cost per click/pay marketing. It has gotten to the point that when people ask me what I do for a living, I pause because I am a “marketer” more than anything else. But dig down deep during these times and find that core fortitude…you are an artist. Never lose sight of that….keep creating and tell them “I am an artist.”……
Find “Inner Strength” here:
