8 minute read
Keep Austin Colorful
from Keep Austin Colorful
by LASA Ezine
Crafting a Career
by Angela Bryan
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Austin artists' journeys though their art career
Starting out as an artist can be a challenging, confusing, and uncertain experience, but through a steady process, a hobby can blossom into a living. Paper artist Amanda Witucki, who has been living in Austin since 2011, described her experience through her art career in a similar way.
“I’ve been trying to do it (building a career around art) pretty much since I’ve lived here in Austin,” Witucki said. “I always kind of had that as a
calling, I always wanted to do that, I’ve always been creative.”
Witucki started out with a business in wedding decor along with her friend about a year after she moved. When her wedding business ended in 2015, she knew she wanted her next job to be something creative. With suggestions from her friend, she started selling artwork online.
“I just sold through Instagram, and kind of figured out what I need to do, contacting galleries, and then it took off in 2020,” Witucki said.
Witucki currently sells paper ornaments, accessories, and other
decor. She has also done work with large-scale installations.
Austin Painter Laree Evelyn had a somewhat different experience. With an interest in art as a kid, she started painting about three years ago. Though she enjoyed art classes when she was young, she didn’t expect for it to become her career. Her current painting style mainly
Amanda Witucki
Paper artist Amanda Witucki working on a paper ornament for a project. Paper is Witucki’s primary art medium. Photo courtesy of Clark Underwood.
features compositions of solid shapes on canvases, paper, prints, and occasionally murals. She has a background in law, but she got into painting towards the beginning of the pandemic.
“I started dealing with a bunch of emotional stuff that I had been putting on the backburner and didn’t want to deal with,” Evelyn said.
During isolation, she realized this was something to address.
“I had a hard time with it, and it was really traumatic for me. And so I started painting as a way to cope with it,” Evelyn said.
She essentially started selling her art as a way to pay for therapy. Two years later, she decided to go full-time with her painting. Her painting style really developed when faced with her emotional situation, painting these giant shapes helped her to feel calm and centered. She got into the art world primarily through Instagram and other social media platforms, and was able to start selling some of her art through a friend who worked at art markets.
Painter Danika Ostrowski had also had an interest in art since she was very young, and had always wanted it to be a part of her career somehow.
She primarily paints landscapes and other forms of nature.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to pursue a career as an independent artist until I was in college. I initially wanted to study animation and design. The artistic side of those jobs appealed to me. I don’t think it ever occurred to me that I could have a whole career based around making my own art until I was in school and had several professors who had done just that,” Ostrowski said.
After graduating, she rented an art studio and began to look for opportunities. She started selling art and appearing in shows, and had built a website. During the pandemic, Ostrowski started teaching online workshops, and enjoyed teaching about color theory and painting.
“It’s really been sort of a snowball effect. Slowly over time, the more people who saw or bought my work the more opportunities came my way.” Ostrowski said.
Artist Joel Ganucheau (@joelganucheau on Instagram) likewise always had a interest in arts and knew it would be his primary pursuit. Ganucheau is a co-owner of the Austin Art Garage, (www.ArtGarage.com)
“I played in lots of bands in highschool and in my 20s. I always loved designing all of the artwork for my bands,” Ganucheau said.
“I always sort of assumed I would have some kind of computer based graphic design job or my own screen printing shop, but it sort of morphed into my art career as a painter, and I like it.”
Ganucheau was 30 years old when he sold his first painting for 60 dollars at an art show in 2007. He switched to becoming a full time artist in 2009. His friend came up with an idea for the both of them to sell local art online that was both tasteful and affordable. This became the Austin Art Garage.
“I found a cheap little space for rent on S. Lamar Blvd and rolled the dice and signed a one year lease and never looked back,” Ganucheau said.
Starting and building a business does have its difficulties, however.
“I would say the biggest obstacle is, I didn’t go to school for it,” Witucki said. “So I’m trying to teach myself how to do it. I’m just following galleries to get
what artists they like, finding all these different artists in Austin, watching their path and who they apply to, and then learning about the different calls for art. So I’m constantly trying to educate myself.”
Even with said obstacles, Witucki feels that she is extremely lucky.
“All my friends are artists, and I mean, we all struggle. But I’ve gotten a lot of handouts, I feel like I’ve been very blessed,” Witucki said. “It’s hard because I’m working all the time, but I enjoy it. I enjoy the business aspect of it, the marketing aspect of it, and I know
I’ve gotten lucky and I always honor that.”
Evelyn experienced a similar issue, but more so because she was relatively new to the art world.
“For a long time, I felt very out of place in the art world, and I think that was probably a big part of the challenge, was figuring out the right words, and the right tools and techniques, and who to speak to. It was a lot all at once.” Evelyn said.
Although for Evelyn, her emotional state was the main difficulty to overcome.
Laree Evelyn holdingher piece, Building Blocks. Courtesy of Laree Evelyn.
“For me, the hard part was, I was going through so much emotional stuff that- now that I’m three years into it, looking back, I wish I had set things up a bit differently.” Evelyn said. “Like with a bit more structure originally.”
After stepping into the art world and beginning to make money, she had some difficulty with finding confidence in her work as well, especially since she didn’t have much background in art.
“I didn’t feel very confident in what I could offer people, and it seemed so casual and easy to me.” Evelyn said. “it was hard for me to feel confident enough to charge higher prices, or to bring it to new people.”
Self doubt seems to be an apparent factor when starting anew with a business.
“Self doubt is definitely a thing. The key is to not let it occupy too much real estate in your head,” Ganucheau said. “Just keep making art and don’t stop. I’m a firm believer that if you work hard and stick with something long enough, it’ll work out.”
Ostrowski found figuring out and deciding where to start to be not so much of a difficulty, but a learning curve. However, she did not find starting out as an artist in particular to be generally difficult.
“I don’t think I would say that. At its core, an artist makes art. Turning that into a business is where things can start to be difficult, but I started really small with achievable goals and just went from there.” Ostrowski said.
Once a career is built, more and more ideas and opportunities may pop up. Witucki has been thinking about expanding her career.
“I’m trying to get more into galleries, and learning the process of that.” Witucki said. “I’d like to be a career artist, I’d like to have more gallery shows and go more than just in Austin.”
Evelyn has similar plans, especially with pursuing art as a more long-term career.
“What I want to start doing is more gallery stuff, I want to start putting my work in galleries and charging higher prices for it. So now that I understand a bit more of how it works, that’s the goal, to continue with this long term,” Evelyn said. “You just got to ride it out, you just gotta go ready to go, you got to make the mistakes you’re gonna make and see where life takes you.”
