Advice on making it

[Mike McCarty]

How does a person who has worked her entire life to become a good portrait artist, but who has no advantages of connection, location or money, get noticed and/or get into agencies who can bring her more clients?

You can mark this response under the "not so cheery" category.

It's been said that there are only 5 people in the world who truly understand global finance, and 7 of them are dead.

I feel the same can be said of the ingredients needed to become a successful portrait artist. It takes 9 critical ingredients, and you better have all 11 of them.

Consider that there are about 125 artists represented on the SOG site, of that number; and I'm guessing of course, maybe half could support themselves and their families on their income. I think I'm being generous. Of those half, take away the past support of a spouse and you might cut that number by half again.

Compare all this to the number of professional baseball players, coaches, and other related jobs in pro baseball. How many of them are making a living for their families, thousands I would think. And, I would bet that the other many thousands that were washed out of this profession had excellent skills.

Would you encourage someone to drop all other pursuits and concentrate on their baseball skills in hopes of joining the prosperous thousands?

Have you heard this joke? What do a medium pizza and a professional portrait artist have in common?

Neither can feed a family of four.

As I said, this is not the usual ra-ra, but it is a rational perspective.