Orangewillow

Most artists I know including myself have wrestled with the idea of is creating "art that sells" the same as "selling out"? Occasionally there's the artist who loves to create exactly what the public wants. What I have found to be true more often than not with my friends and myself is that what we are inspired to create is not often what there's a market for. I can feel out the market and discover what they want and create what they want so is that "selling out". In my opinion that depends on your ultimate goal. If creating what the market wants allows me to eventually pursue my art full-time freelance than I have much more time to paint or create art I love. In addition even though I am creating a product that the market desires that does not mean I do not still enjoy creating, it just may mean it’s not my preferred project. I have had some artists tell me however that doing this would be like selling their soul. I plain disagree but I would like to know what everyone else thinks.

Just to give an example in my life I have a series of little girls I paint and I love painting them but there's not a huge market for them since they are not realistic and a little on the odd side. I can also sketch and paint realistic portraits and that seems to bring in the bigger payoffs for me at the moment. I still sell my little girls on Etsy so even though I am doing the portraiture as well I am still trying to create a market for my girlies. I would love to hear my reader’s thoughts on creating art for the need of the market place.