My thanks to Carolyn Edlund of Artsy Shark for the opportunity to contribute to her wonderful Magazine for and about Emerging Artists

http://www.artsyshark.com/2011/12/09/perseverance-and-results/

Guest blogger Jacqui Hawk shares how she visualized and created success this year. Through giving and sharing, she received a bounty in return.

By Jacqui Hawk

My blog is full of posts about charities I have supported this year; The Painted Bra Art Project, which went viral on Facebook, Trees for Life in Edinburgh which I also attended and joyfully brought me together with my father whom I recently found after 42 years! Another very special post was “Paying it Forward,” a post about Jack Burke and Joey Middlemiss – two little boys each challenged in different ways, but connected with their courageous hearts and spirit and the paintings I did for each of them.

Many artists feel that charity events are ultimately not a win/win … I appreciate that you have to be selective! The ones I have given to have personally given back to me threefold. Artists could perhaps negotiate a 50/50 split of the silent auction profits if they find themselves doing a lot of fundraisers. The goal is to give quality art and raise a lot of money to achieve these goals. I believe it has to be a fair arrangement.

In January of 2011, I had a clear vision of my success and tried to visualize what that looked like and work towards it. I have been dedicated to painting every day. I get up early and paint for an hour before work and then paint for 2-3 hours in the evening, juggling a full time job at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. Managing my time – life as a Corporate Project Manager has helped me keep on task, stay structured and achieve goals.

I took part in 21 events this year (gallery exhibits, solo shows, and fundraisers) This clearly helped raise awareness for my art. When I google my name now, there are about 30,000,000 more than last year.

I invested in a new website. This is very important I believe. Being one in a sea of thousands on a third party website was not for me. My goal in 2012 is to build my own “shop” on my own site.

I embraced Facebook, and created a Facebook business page where I organized all my paintings for sale, sold, etc.  I network with a lot with artists all over the world on Facebook and Twitter, many of whom are becoming great friends. I make sure that I’m very visible in the art world on Facebook, and I am totally inspired by the amazing work I see being created. I make a point to share the work of artists I love; they also do the same for me and so the energy and momentum builds.

I network and collaborate extensively with other artists, especially those whose styles are very different to mine; great things can happen! Because of this, I receive many invitations to join other artists in new gallery opportunities.

An example of this is “Art Reach,” a collaboration between St. Joseph Hospital and six artists to “harness the healing power of art.” I painted a huge 6 x 6 ft canvas in the dark during the terrible October East Coast snow storm by candlelight.

I am a member of several art associations, and this year I became a regular artist member of 263 Art Gallery in Nashua. This gave me a lot more exposure. I intend to widen this net next year. I went through a huge attitude change this year. Every time I felt like giving up because I came away from a show where I sold nothing, it made me dig deeper and deeper and become so much more resilient – and I enjoyed 33 sales this year! You recognize those moments as a ‘turning point’ in your artistic journey. It’s not a race, and success is different for everyone.  I intend to pay my art dues, showing up at my easel every day because I love what happens in those magic moments.