Normal Doesn't Mean Anything - Let's Focus on What's Next

The Past Time!

Normal - adjective

1. 1.

   conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.

   "it's quite normal for puppies to bolt their food"

Next - adverb

adverb: next

1. 1.

   on the first or soonest occasion after the present; immediately afterward.

I know that many people are waiting for their lives to get back to normal. I know that they are worried about how long the current disruption is going to last.

There is a thing we need to address as artists. 

Going back to normal may not be a reasonable thing. 

We aren't going back to whatever was happening before. That time is now a past time. What we need to do is think about how we keep going forward from where we are.

Have you thought about different ways to market your art?

Have you thought about different ways to share your art?

Have you considered how you might make a living as an artist who works with live audiences?

What are you doing now for what comes next?

Now, I am not saying that you need to rush into something, or change what you do, or completely restructure your life. What I am suggesting is that you start thinking about some next steps and possibly different ways to share your art.

I work in schools. If they don't reopen in the Fall, I will have to have another plan in place.

The time to make that plan is not on September 18th. It is now. 

I like plans.

Plans give shape to the darkness.

Plans give hope to the void.

Plans are the first step in the longest journey.

Your plan doesn't need to be elaborate or even fully-fledged. 

The point of it is to start making your thoughts run down a particular path. It prepares you to try something you might not have considered trying.

It encourages you to explore an idea that you hadn't thought to explore.

It might make you try a thing that leads you somewhere else. 

Either way, come up with a plan.

1 - What are some optional ways of presenting your art form?

2 - How can you monetize that thing?

3 - Who would be interested in that product?

4 - How would I market it?

5 - How would I sell/distribute it?

Luckily, there are all sorts of systems out there! Finding them will be the key.

Research, consider, talk to other artists or people who make content like what you are offering.

Look for tutorials on Youtube. 

Call your friends.

You are not alone.

You are surrounded by resources. 

A friend of mine recently asked about how I was recording videos. He wanted to know what kind of studio situation I had. So, I showed him. 

This is my recording studio

Here is the corner studio where I do my work. 

So. High. Tech.

I am thankful for the friends who have given me guidance on recording, sound quality, setting the scene and potential ways to perform to a camera. 

Thank you, Simon Brooks, Jim Brule, and Sue O'Halloran!

We are all surrounded by resources. Living, breathing, resources.

Tap them.

We are all trying to get our brains around this new way of being.

Here is my other studio space.

I am not a technophobe, but I am not a wiz either. My learning curve is steep and treacherous but I am in there.

We can do this. We just need to start making plans.  

Happy Going Forward!