September 30th, 2014

‘Another book?!’ my boyfriend exclaimed when I stopped by at the ABC, the bookstore where
he works, and I bought Art Inc. - The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist by
Lisa Congdon. ‘You should be drawing instead of reading!’

And he’s right, I should be drawing more than I am now but this book was a really good read!

Lisa Congdon is known for her art, illustrations and hand lettering. She exhibits. She has
multiple big clients, a popular blog called Today is Going to be Awesome and written 3 books
including this one. So I thought she might have something useful to say about the matter.

Congdon covers lots of things artists may struggle with. The first chapter is called
You Are an Artist, where she tells you to embrace being an artist. Then follow things like
building your vision and goals, branding your business, organizing time, all the different ways
to promote your work, making digital prints, how and where to sell your art, having
exhibitions, how to deal with galleries etc. All this is illustrated by her own experience and 14
interviews with people who are working in the art business, either as artists or differently.

What it comes down to, making it in this business, is really hard work and investing lots
of time and energy and not to forget the occasional money. Some issues like law-related
things you should check with the country you live in but apart from that I think that if you’re
not quite where you want to be as an artist this book could be of great help.

Read this book!