Everything gets in the way of painting!

The title says it all!  Life, social media, money, online shops - these things get in the way of making art!  Let's Start with social media.  I am sure you have heard of  Facewook, Twitter, Google+,  Pinterest, Blogger and that is just the core group, I am sure.  How in the heck am I suppposed to keep up with all of this?    My Google+ account has been ignored since March and my blog (that I am going to revive starting now) has been  too long as well.  I tweet a couple times a week and Pin when I finish something new.  I do visit Facebook daily though.  I am so in awe of the artists that tweet daily all day long and still manage to get someting accomplished!    Facebook sucks too much of my time as it is :)!  If anyone has any suggestions to this dilema, I would love to hear it!  How do you balance social media and doing art??

My latest completed painting~  titled Gilli's.  Yummy window I photographed in Florence.  Prints available on Fine Art America.
               
Money is another thing that gets in the way of creating art.  Canvas, classes, memberships, entry fees, paint and other supplies all cost mucho dinero!!   What is a girl to do?  When I retired to pursue my art I really wanted to be able to fund myself.  I started garage and estate sale shopping, scouring for collectibles to sell on Ebay.  This has worked quite well, but I lost all control of the clutter in my house and can no longer take it!  One bedroom was completely dedicated to all my finds and packing material.  This quickly spilled out into other rooms to the point that if we had any guests, I had to find a place to stash so much stuff so they had a place to sleep.  I finally had to stop the madness and cut way back on my Ebay selling and be so much more selective.  This hopefullly will allow me some more time for art and my on-line shops!

 

That brings up the on-line shops!  I have a shop on Etsy, Cafepress, Zazzle, Fine Art America and other places I can no longer keep track of.   My plan was to cut back on Ebay and spend more time on my shops.  This is supposed to replace the Ebay income if I can get my shops making more money.  I know this will take a lot of work and I need to start focusing on this goal!


But none of this matters if I don't have new paintings to show, put on new products, sell.  I would love to hear how other artists, atisans, crafters balance all this with creating! 


Thanks for reading!