Diversify or Specialize: Finding Your Path as a Creative

Hi my joys

One thing I’m often asked about is whether someone should diversify or specialise, and I’ve been thinking about that recently, too. As you know, I love to write, paint, take photographs, and do so many other things.

My passions are endless. 

It comes down to why you are making your art—the money or your life, or both!  I hope you find my musings helpful to you in your decision-making process.

Who cares if you’re popular if it doesn’t make you any money?

I remember a really popular podcaster saying once: ‘Who cares if you’re popular if it doesn’t make you any money?’

So I guess it depends, are you making your art to create money, and therefore are you making your art so it sells, and therefore creating to a specific audience or market?

Or are you fortunate not to have the pressure of making money from your art? Perhaps you consider art-making a happy hobby or something else.

What is the purpose of making your art?

What is your ‘why?’ What is the purpose of making your art? The purpose of making your content, and what kind of content do you want to make.

If you are undecided about whether or not to specialise, sometimes it’s quite good to look at what other artists are doing and how they’re making their joy and living from their creativity. British artist Damien Hirst comes immediately to mind; gosh, he’s just in a zenith of productivity, diversity, and abundance in terms of the income he’s generating from his paintings. Unlike many other artists, he diversifies his style and subject matter.

Recently, he’s been doing these huge paintings in a studio that looks like an aircraft hangar. These huge splatter paintings have lots of color and lots of mass production. He may line up it could be like 30 or 40 paintings, each one’s unique and individual but each one has the same sort of color template, the same vibe, and he mass produces his art.

Now, I don’t know what the population of London is, but he does sell his paintings all over the world; it’s certainly not a population of five million, which is New Zealand (where I am based), of which only a few people would be art purchasers.

where is your target market?

Get to know your market. Where is your target market? Are they overseas?

I’ve sold my paintings to overseas collectors in the UK, America, Dubai, and Australia. Sometimes it’s been because they’ve been visiting New Zealand and have come to the home-based gallery I run from my ideallyic property in the Bay of Islands.

Other times, it’s been because they’ve seen something that I posted online, like a lady in Texas who fell in love with one of my paintings I posted in a Facebook group. She loved the color blue, and she just fell in love with my blue painting when she saw me share it.

So again, coming back to the subject of whether we should diversify or stick to one thing. Some artists, like Van Gogh, stuck to one thing—his painting. He didn’t aspire to become a writer; he wrote lots of letters, but he didn’t become an author.

mission and purpose

Perhaps one could say that it wasn’t possible for him to make a living from his writing during the time he lived. But Vincent van Gogh wanted to create art and his mission and purpose was to share his art and uplift humanity, so he went down one singular track.

But arguably during his lifetime, he never made any money from his painting. He was lucky that his brother sponsored his art and his creativity, paid for materials, gave him a living allowance, and encouraged him. So Vincent had someone other than himself believing in him.

But it really did take a toll.

other creatives who come to mind

Now there are other creatives who come to mind and who inspire me. You might draw your own checklist of people who do multiple things.

Author Danielle Steel, for example, is a prolific romance novelist who writes in many genres; she’s written a non-fiction book about the death of her son, and she has written children’s books.She’s written short stories, and I believe she’s even written songs for musicals.

Her creative output is channeled into one stream, and her energy is all around using words and being a writer who uplifts humanity. She has many other interests but she doesn’t make those part of her career. Perhaps they are secret hobbies. I believe once she was an art gallery owner and shut that down after a period of time.

Perhaps she figured out that she could make more money from her writing, and more of a life from her writing than she could from being a gallery owner selling individual artworks. I think she also studied fashion so a lot of these themes creep into her stories.

weaving eclectic interests

I’ve been thinking about weaving my eclectic interests as Danielle does as I’m writing some stories at the moment.

If you haven’t read my love stories, check out the catalogue at molliematthews.com; many of my romances have artistic themes. The book ‘Claimed by the Sheikh‘ is inspired by pioneering Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer, Zaha Mohammad Hadid.

I’m writing a story inspired by a lipstick designer at the moment, and then I’ve got one inspired by a jewellery designer and all sorts of other art-related themes which are interesting to me. I’ve got an art therapist in the Italian Billionaire’s Christmas Bride.

Those are some ways I channel my love of art into one thing. As I write, the one area I’m concentrating on is writing. It is winter here in New Zealand, and soon to be spring, but it’s cold in the studio and warm in the house.

Likewise, when you look at my paintings, I’m telling stories with my paintings. This one’s about the beautiful emergence of a butterfly, coming into the full kaleidoscope of colour.

Butterfly Lovers

48 inch x 48 inch

1210 mm x 1210 mm x 35mm

Acrylic, oil, crayon on canvas

TO PURCHASE>>

If you look around the studio, it’s messy at the moment, but you can see other paintings inspired by butterflies, and other paintings inspired by stories or feelings. There’s the painting in the corner called ‘Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken’, which tells a story about resilience and empowerment, and how sharing your love and light is so healing and freeing

View or Purchase>>https://shop.thejoyfulartist.co.nz/product/wild-hearts-cant-be-broken/

So that’s some ways that you can channel multiple enthusiasms into one thing. Now, beside me, I’ve got the book ‘The Art of Success: How Extraordinary Artists Can Help You Succeed in Business and Life, and I’ll turn to a page and see what guidance she has for us:

But she was an extraordinary multi-faceted woman; she designed perfume, she designed beautiful clothes, and she poured her heart and her energy into multiple enthusiasms, so I love her story. Coco once said:

‘Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.’

Now, for me, born in the land of Libra, one could say, well, I’m Venus is my ruler, it’s also my career planet, and making beauty is my one thing, that’s the thing that I love to do. When people have brought The Art of Success, they’ve said,” It’s a beautiful book that wraps itself around art and business”, and I love that. Creating more beauty in the world is important to me.

“The artist must not think of the critical rewards of money she will get for painting pictures. She must think of beauty here in the brush ready to flow if she will release it.”

Ray, Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing.

You may enjoy this article which explores how to compartmentalize your skillset around your audience >>

make a passion action plan

Some people think that fate will take care of their future. The winners in life know that failing to make plans is committing to a plan of failure. Success in life is a mixture of good luck and skillful planning. Written goals with action points and time frames are essential if you really want to achieve a more passionate life.

I can think of how this applies to me, my multiple facets, and whether I should diversify or specialise. I know at the moment that my action plan is, ‘I want to finish a love story I’m currently writing called ‘Love in Montana’, I want to finish it by the end of the month (August 2024). My passion action plan includes writing first thing in the morning before anything else, in 15-minute bursts.

I share more productivity tips for writers in my book, The Prosperous Author: Productivity Hacks: Do Less & Make More.

My passion action plan also include affirmations, visualisation, and even a bribe—a reward when I’ve submitted ‘Love in Montana’ to my team of advanced readers. Perhaps it will be a lovely reward like a beautiful facial or something I can look forward to. I love tricking myself by dangling something in front of me so that I’ll finish my things.

Now, some people say that you should let things unfold and go with the flow, so it’s a balancing act. Only you know what helps you and what holds you back, and very often, the task at hand will determine just how detached you can be. It’s hard to imagine Coco Chanel preparing for a collection of her clothes without a finely executed delivery plan.

quit beating on the no planning wall

If you are a go with the flow type and aren’t getting the results you desire quit beating on the no planning wall and find the door to your success. This also reminds me of something someone once said:” Coco Chanel once said, “I don’t do fashion; I am fashion”

So, play around with affirmations to increase your belief in your success.

Only you will know if it’s best to specialise in one area or diversify.

Think about what it is that’s really important to you. Is it because you’re just enjoying playing with lots of different things, or don’t have the pressure to make money from your creativity, or something else.

If you diversify then you have multiple income streams like many big brands do, so if one market is slow then the other market can carry you through the leaner times.

In this post, I’ve shared how to find inspiration to help your decision-making, looking at your muses, and finally the importance of creating a passion action plan.

Think about what you should keep doing, what you should stop doing, what you could do more of, and what you should do less of.

Take care, everyone!

Cassandra, The Joyful Creator!.

xxx

Posted in: Blog