Erickka

Patmore

Today I’m writing about some brainstorming I have been doing and what I’d like to offer if I could idealize my art practice. These are some goals I’d like to work towards in the next few years or so, and although I’m sure they’ll change a bit over time, I wanted a place to write them down so that I can look back as I progress and my career changes.

My main source of income, other than my long-term goal of becoming a tattoo artist, will be commissions and contracted work. In a perfect world, I would get a steady amount of commissions, murals, and other contract work- enough to call it supplementary income. Custom work is a great way for me to do what I like while helping other people as well, and I’d like this to remain a large part of my income going forward.

I have a lot of trouble with organization/system heavy tasks, so this one might be a little far off yet, but I’d love to open an e-commerce store so that I can sell original work, a selection of prints, and then see where it goes from there. For now, I’ve been researching what it would take for me to be ready for that, and deciding on the best platform for me to use in this endeavour.

This is certainly the furthest out, as I am still actively exploring my intuitive painting practice, but once I have reached a point where I feel experienced and comfortable enough to show others the way I do things, I would love to teach others about the way I use my intuition to paint. Ideally, I see this working out as a class or a course that challenges the participant to weave their intuition into their own practice, however that looks for them. For some, that might look like minimizing sketches and planning before diving into a work and listening to the gut feelings that come up when they’re painting, but to someone else it might look completely different, and the aim of the course would be to figure out the best method for the individual, even if it pushes them out of their comfort zone. Of course, this is still just the very beginning of an idea, and I will focus on this more once I’ve gained more experience in my career and practice.

Like I mentioned, I know that some of these are, realistically, pretty far out, but it helps to set goals so that you can achieve them, right? I’ve always known that I’m going to be an artist for life, and that means that I can make that happen in whichever way I please. I hope everyone has a great day!