Do you love to draw and paint? Is it your passion? That’s awesome! You’re awesome! You may one day become a full time professional artist. Keeping creating!

Who’s here to help you? 

• Your parents.
• Your grandparents.
• Your teachers.

Who will bend over backwards to help you? 

• People you know very well whom you’ve done a lot of things for. 
• People you’ve built a great relationship with by being amazing all the time and thinking of them and their needs, not your needs. 

Who’s NOT here to help you? 

• People you’ve never met. 
• People you don’t know.

Where do you get to exhibit? 

• In your art classes.
• Your art teachers will probably put on some quarterly or yearly art shows.
• Potentially at a coffee shop if you’re putting lots in of effort in and getting great results. 
  

Where do you NOT get to exhibit? 

• Most coffee shops. 
• All wine bars. 
• All art galleries.
• Fine art galleries. 
• Award-winning fine art galleries. 
• The Smithsonian 

Things You Can Do To Move Your Art Career To The Next Stage 

• Be nice to everyone. 
• Eat some vegetables. 
• Draw and paint as much as you can. 
• Take as many art classes as you can at school. 
• Work hard to get good grades in these classes. 
  
• Work hard to get good grades in other classes, too, especially communication classes. Artists need to know how to communicate clearly in writing and in conversation to succeed.
• Take an art class outside of school. 
• Start researching art. There’s lots of great stuff on the web. 
• Watch some cool movies about art and artists. 
• Choose a favorite artist and learn more about them. 
• Get out of the house. 
• You should be attending all First Fridays. It’s a great way to get to know the scene: the spaces, the artists, etc. 
• Get your parents to buy you a piece of art in a local gallery – if it’s a First Friday then you can also ask the artist questions. All artists looove to answer questions from people who actually purchase their work.
• Exercise regularly. 
• Be super nice to everyone. 
• Start checking into what Spokane Arts is up to. They often have opportunities for younger art producers.
• Have fun, but also realize that this is a career choice that requires a lot of hard work as well as time spent developing your “people skills”.