It is time to think about changing your passion hobby into a full time or part time gig.
When this happens:

When your friends have asked you if they could purchase some of your paintings.

When you try to squeeze painting time into any time slot possible, i.e. before work, after work, before meals, after meals, weekends or just anytime possible.

When your paintings can earn you extra income for vacation or emergency funds.

When you apply for art shows, your artwork get accepted, not just one piece of artwork got chosen but multiple pieces.

When you know your skills are more than adequate. 

When your full time job is starting to kill your spirit.  

When painting is the only thing you think about constantly, it is like you were spell bound by a Love Arrow except it is the Art Arrow!

If you agree with most of the above statements, I believe it is time to transform your passion into a part time or full time gig. 
I remember when I started painting, it was the best feeling I have ever had and to this day I still can't describe the euphoria that I get when I am painting. It gives me a sense of purpose, a challenge and it also provides me with a self reliant happiness. Painting in general just makes me feel like I am doing the right thing, my life purpose, my calling.

So here is the question: Do you want to make your Painting hobby into a business or even a side hustle?
And if the answer is YES then the best thing to do is to start asking yourself a few important questions, this way you can ensure that you are on the right track on making your dream into a reality.

Can you afford to be a painter right now and make a living from it?

Do you have to keep your full time job at the moment and build a side hustle with your passion?

What are you planning to sell? Original paintings? Cards? Prints? Art Gifts?

At what price range would you like to sell your product?

Which platform would you like to build your website on? 

Which Social Media platform would you like to drum attention up for your art?

Would you like to open an art gallery?

Apply for gallery representation?

Showcase your work in Co-op?

or solely sell your work Online?

Perhaps you would like to do some Wholesale shows and sell your prints and art through gift shops?

As you can see there is a lot of things to think about before taking the plunge. But there is also a lot of ways to sell your art. And I do encourage you to think about your passion and if you want to make it into a business, answer those questions that I have set up for you and see if you can come up with a strategic plan to make it all happen.

This is the path I took.
I have been in your shoes, 18 years ago my painting career started out as a side hustle, I was selling my art through galleries and shows. 6 years later, in 2007 my husband, Paul and I opened our own gallery and I became a full time artist.

All I know is that, after 12 years of being a full time artist, I have never regretted taking the plunge I have no regrets even if it is challenging at times. I think if it is in your bones, it will stand the truth of time and you will ripped the benefits, the highs and lows of being a full time artist.

And most of all you have the courage to do something that is unconventional and solely for your passion and that says a lot about you as a person and also for the importance of art and what it represents in this world.

I wish you all the best in your endeavors, if you have any questions in regards to starting a side hustle or a full time gig with your art, please feel free to ask. I will be writing more on this topic in the next few weeks and I can answer those questions for you on my blog. Take care my friends and I wish you a productive and creative day!

With Honor, in Mind and in Spirit,
Ting xoxo

"If you are serious about changing your life, you'll find a way. If you are not, you'll find an excuse." Jane Sincero.

Hello Friends,  I painted The Parade IV when my husband and I found ourselves in an unfavorable situation where we needed to pivot our course. You see Paul and I love adventures and since we own a business together we bring our business along to wherever our hearts desire.

We have moved our business 7 times
For the 20 years that we have been in business, Paul and I have moved the business 7 times, all the way from the Caymans to Golden, B,.C. Canada. The feat was never small, although when we were a very small business it was definitely much easier. But as we grow as a business our move has become a lot more complicated. Most of the times when we make a move it is usually because we want to better our lives and the sustainability of our business. 

The Sustainability of our Art gallery
We are fortunate enough that each place that we have moved to, we were able to make a living and more but since we focused on small towns, the business' life line can be very sensitive and when bad economy hits a small town, it is no funny business, you need to act fast or sit around and be doomed. So with one of our many moves, we found ourselves in a town with so much social problems that our minds were boggled with worries and disappointments. BTW we did do our due diligence but by experience I have to say no matter how much research you do on a town, you won't know the underlining problems until you moved there.

The grief was such a shock 
I remember it like it was yesterday, the grief I felt when Paul and I opened our brand new gallery in our new town on our first day, we had never dealt with a situation that was so unpleasant and disparaged. So back to the painting above as you can see on this painting, the elephant is pulling my husband, Paul and I and our imaginary pets out of the storm.

If you are unhappy with your life, do something about it
Hence the reason why this quote by Sincero resonates with me. So listen my friends if you have ever get yourself in a situation that is not serving you well, you need to come up with a solution that is going to get yourself out of harm's way and get yourself into a place where you can continue to grow and be happy.
We are responsible for our destiny and we need to be mindful about our lives. For me it is quite obvious, I either make the changes that are necessary no matter how difficult it is or else I need to shut up about it.
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No Guts! No Glory!
Seriously, it is similar to that "No guts, No Glory!" saying. So my friends, whatever it is that is not serving you well anymore, do something about it. Don't just sit around and complain because it will get you no where. Plus all that negative energy is just going to brew into a much bigger problem in the long run.
When was the last time you found yourself in a bad situation and how did you get yourself out of harm's way. I would love to hear about it. <3 Please leave me a comment or email me, I am here as your sounding board. 

With Honor, in mind and in spirit,
Ting  xoxo

Hello Everyone, the last few blogs I have been talking about humanity which is a topic that I am very passionate about. The other passion that I have a great interest in is ART, since you are on my website I am sure you are aware of that.

My other calling is to encourage creatives, like you to produce work and to help you along on your journey. Here, I  have created a video to teach you how to produce a large body of work. It is not as difficult as you think, it just needs a little strategic planning.

One of the easiest way to create a substantial portfolio is create work in Series. For example I have six series that I work with: Artist Dairy, Romance, Sisterhood, Seasons, Landscape and Animals. And just recently I have also started the Iconic Women Series.

The best thing for you to do is to find where your interest lies, if you love landscape then start with that topic and build from there. You will be amazed how quickly your portfolio will grow just by working in batches. With a large portfolio of work, you will be set to approach galleries and shows. Or if you have an entrepreneurial spirit like me, you can open your own gallery.

Enjoy the video if you have any questions please feel free to leave me a comment, I would love to hear from you. 

With honor in mind and in spirit,
​Ting xoxo

Hello my friends, Last week my blog post on Culture Power is about the mass shooting in New Zealand's Mosques on March 15th 2019, the terrifying ordeal happened when one gunman went into the Al Noor Mosque and performed a mass killing and continued his attack to the Linwood Islamic Centre. The reason behind his massacre is because of the differences in culture and religion.

Life bless us with the Yin and Yang, the duality of the good and evil, pain and joy and past and present. The duality shows us the double sided coin, in this incident, the other side of the coin was this human angel that stopped the armed killer from continuing his rampage of destruction. Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah was praying with his four children at the Linwood Islamic Center on Friday when the gunfire started. Abdul instead of cowering and save guarding his children, he went after the gunman and confronted the shooter in order to protect not just his children but also the rest of the prayers in the mosque. When he was praised for what he has done in the mosque he said:"I got to be honest with you, it wasn't me, it was God that saved everybody. God saved everyone," he said.

Since we are made to the likeness of God, I believe that he was God at that moment. When Abdul was faced with a dire situation, he stood up and took charge. His selfless act was inspiring and it reminded us that the world is made of duality, there may be pain in this world but there is also joy, there may be darkness but it is counter balanced by light. I hoped that when I am faced with a dire situation like that I would have the courage to act upon it as selflessly as he did.

The painting above is called Guardian, it was my intention to paint this painting as a reminder to everyone of us that we have to be somewhat magnanimous. We need to keep each other out of harm's way and stand up for one another against injustice. We need to be united, love one another and be each other's Guardian Angel. It does not matter if the person that we stand up for is a stranger or a loved one because we are responsible for each other's well being. If we continue on the path of enlightenment, the world will eventually heal itself and one day we will live together in a more harmonized path.

If you resonate with this post, please leave me a comment. I would love to hear from you on the duality of life. 

With Honor in spirit and in mind,
Ting Yuen xoxo

"Hello Friends, Just a little "Artist Knowledge" that I would like to share with you. I believe to be an artist you need to have your own unique style. It is true that if you follow trends, your work may be more popular for a short period of time but trend will soon fade and you will be faced with another blank canvas with nothing to say. So if you wished to be an artist, find your own voice and hone in on your own uniqueness because after all art is about self expression and individuality."

This was a post that I have shared on my Ting Yuen Art FB Page and I received a very interesting comment that asked "How can I Learn to let go and be free from my own judgement and accept the praise of others?"  Since this is such a great question I thought I shall devote this blog to it. I will answer this question with two different solutions: one is how to overcome judgment from others and the other one is how to overcome judgment from yourself. 

How do we Overcome Judgments of Others?
Now when it comes to judgment of others, I think being an artist, you got to be tenacious, you can't let other peoples' opinions about your work slow you down or even worse make you give up. I have always being self reliant, when it comes to my art work. I am a self taught artist, so I learn through trial and error. for that reason my style is distinctive but I also know that my work is very different and it is not in the main stream. My art has had many criticisms before especially when I was new to the game. I took other peoples' judgments with a grain of salt, if the criticisms are not constructive then it is really just their opinions and I refuse to take those hurtful attitudes to heart. One of the things that we need to learn in life is to believe in ourselves and our goals with such confidence that we do not let other peoples' attitudes contaminate our ideas and our self worth. 

I find most people that sit around and judge are the non doers, They are the ones that are afraid to put themselves out there because they are afraid to get the kind of treatment that they dish out to others. Therefore do not let them have the power over you.

And How Do we Overcome Self Judgment?
But if you are the judge of yourself then you are the culprit that jeopardizes your own creativity. This might be the worst kind of judgment. Please stop the self deprecation, go deep within yourself and find the reason and the root of your problem. This is not an exercise for you to confront the perpetrator, it is just a practice to find out the root of your problem so that you can begin to heal yourself from this bad habit. Do a ritual to cleanse yourself from your own judgment.

By the way, that inner judgmental voice is your mind playing games with your soul and it is effecting your heart. So silence your mind and trust your soul and heart. They will not disappoint you. 

The other thing is accepting yourself and love yourself. Give yourself grace knowing that your creativity depends on your well being. You can either create through pain or joy. Or if you were like me, I created through pain because painting was my refuge and eventually as I worked through my challenges I started creating through joy and wisdom. 

Know yourself well and create with your own voice 
Creating with your own distinctive style comes from knowing yourself well, knowing that whatever you put out there is from your own voice and you have created it for yourself and nobody else.  And if your audience love it then that is great but that is just a vanity measurement. The important thing is if you have enjoyed the process and if you like it. And if you don't, ask yourself why and what lesson did you learn from creating this piece of work.

Fear and Self Deprecation is your worst enemies
My dear friends, please don't fear and don't let self criticisms stop you from creating because those are your real enemies. Once the voice of judgement is gone, you will feel like a freed caged bird, you would fly high and you would experiment with your talents , you will do things out of trial and error and your life as an artist would be so much more rewarding. Love yourself so much that it doesn't matter if your inner voice is busy putting yourself down or other people are criticizing you because you have the confidence to continue your journey and work through each challenges that come your way because you are strong and independent. Value yourself truly and don't let negativity be part of your routine.

If you have enjoyed this post please leave me a comment, I would love to hear from you. If you have another way to combat self doubt please do share your knowledge with me.

With honor in mind and in spirit,
yours truly,
Ting Yuen xoxo

 

 Hello my friends, Last few blogs I was talking about goal settings. I am very fortunate with the help of my husband Paul, I have been doing my dream business for the past 12 years.

The truth about owning your dream business
The other thing about living your dream is that you need to be very aware of what your economic environment and your sales are dictating, listen to your business intuition and slowly modify it to your satisfaction. I do find as we age and get wiser, our goals change, what seemed to be the perfect set up before may not be anymore as we grow. 

Growth and Changes
For instance, I started out with a part time Brick and Mortar Gallery and seasonal shows throughout spring and winter. That posed a problem once my husband and I got tired of doing shows, at one point we were doing 22 shows a year and that was too much traveling. So we did a huge change on our business and became a full time Brick and Mortar Gallery, which entailed us to move to a bigger center.

After 9 years of being a full time gallery, there is another shift in the economy and our business is in need of a pivot again. I find that business is an entity that has a life of it's own, you got to listen to your inner wisdom and make changes as you grow. And that is one of the beautiful thing about owning your own business, you can test things out to your satisfaction or discard it. Don't be shy about testing things and trying new things out because that is the only way we can learn and improve. 

The Truth
If you wished to be an artist, please believe me that it is possible. If you really want it, you will find a way to do it. You might have to start small and scale up from there. But by all means start now and don't wait.

What make Artists unique is our ability and our need to create but unfortunately if you want to make your art into a business having a talent is definitely not enough. There is so much more when it comes to making a business out of your passion. You need the right mind set, dedication and some business knowledge.
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Mindset and Knowledge
There are three factors that may stop you from achieving your goal and I believe these are your internal enemies: Fear, Discipline and Faith. If you could conquer these three factors then you have the right mindset  to start your dream business.

And in regards to business knowledge, it is all learn-able. You just have to dedicate some time into being a student of marketing and book keeping. Give yourself grace when you are learning, things do not come together all at once, it takes time to learn, implement, test, rinse and repeat.

​Please check out my video below that explains what being a full time artist is all about. If you have any questions please feel free to ask, I will be happy to help you out.

With honor in mind and in spirit, 
​Ting xoxo

Guidance painting by Ting Yuen