For many artists, Elizabeth Will comes to mind as an amazing Renaissance woman: she’s a successful fine artist, a respected art teacher, and founder of the art community/marketplace Lionart.com.

While in college, Elizabeth was inspired by late night art history classes and went on to study at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. After graduation she worked as a designer and illustrator with various agencies before deciding to follow her passion for painting full-time.

Will’s work is often compared to that of Victorian masters such as Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt and William Morris. She’s also been called “the next Picasso,” which I think is a bit overstated. Her paintings have a warm glow and classical composition that is instantly recognizable and appealing to the eye, so I can see how people are drawn to these comparisons.

This interview is about her experience as an artist, her advice for marketing your work, and Lionart.com’s new membership program for artists. Many thanks to Elizabeth for sharing her story with us!

Elizabeth will is a successful textile artist, who has exhibited her work in museums and galleries throughout the U.S. She is also the author of Artist Inc: The Essential Guide for Building a Successful Art Career, which she self published in 2007.

Elizabeth Will’s comments on this interview: “I’m not sure if I have anything particularly new to add to what you’ve heard from other artists here . . . however, I do think that it is important to remember that there really IS a difference between being an artist and being a business person. You can be both, but you need to keep those things separate in your mind.”

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It was at the suggestion of her husband, an artist and poet named Robert William Service, that Elizabeth Will left a successful career as a book publisher to pursue art. She has created numerous fine art pieces, one of which is shown here.

Her background in publishing has proven enormously helpful in making connections with galleries across North America. She began working on her first art show only four months after studying with noted California painter, Bob Thomas. The first show was held at the prestigious O’Connor Gallery in Santa Monica, CA. This led to shows at such local venues as The Huntington Library and Gardens and the Pasadena Museum of History and Art. Her portfolio also includes a number of regional shows from Hawaii to Texas.

In addition to her full-time work as an artist and teacher, Elizabeth is a frequent speaker on marketing and the arts for various organizations including the Pasadena Museum of History & Art, the Pasadena Art Alliance, and the Arts Council for Long Beach. In 2008 she was awarded the International Artist Award for Outstanding Achievement by the International Society of Acrylic Painters.

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Elizabeth Will’s Website: http://www.elizabethwillart.com/

Artists love to make stuff. That’s the easy part. We’re all-natural creators. But making a living from your art is a whole different story. I’m Elizabeth Will, the founder of The Lion in the Living Room, a blog about creativity and entrepreneurship for artists and creative professionals, and I have some advice on how to market yourself as an artist while you’re creating your art.

“When I started out,” she says, “I knew the importance of getting my name out there, and I was willing to do just about anything.”

Will says that if you are serious about being an artist, you have to think of yourself as a business. Building your portfolio is like putting together a résumé or cover letter for a job. The key is to always be on the lookout for new opportunities.

Treat your art practice as a business and think about what kind of business it is. What are your goals? What are you selling? How are you going to attract buyers and get more people interested in what you’re doing?

“You always have to be thinking beyond your immediate audience,” Will says. “If you want to make a career out of art, then rather than concentrating on individual pieces, you need to start thinking about developing an audience.”

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and Elizabeth Will is on her way to a holiday party in Los Angeles. “It’s going to be at the home of a dear friend,” she says, “and there will be about 12 people around the table.”

Will has two books of poetry out from Copper Canyon Press: The Last Shot and What Is Known. She also has a third book, The Heart is Like a Leaking Boat, forthcoming from Salt Publishing in 2011.

Will recently became Poetry Editor at Oxford American magazine, which has been described as “the Southern Partisan of literature.” She is stepping into the role formerly held by such luminaries as Robert Penn Warren, John Crowe Ransom, and Willie Morris.

Will’s writing has appeared in numerous journals including Poetry and The Georgia Review. She earned her MFA at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Will teaches at Florida International University where she holds an annual retreat for poets. Her 2007 retreat was entitled “The Poet as Prophet.” In this interview with Elizabeth Will, we discuss poetry and publishing.

“We only want to be part of the conversation, not the conversation,” says Will. “The more you’re talking, the less you’re listening.”

Will speaks to attendees at The Creative Class Group’s Art Marketing Boot Camp in New York City. About 50 artists are in attendance, and each is eager to share with Will their concerns about marketing and selling art.

She advises them to develop a website that includes work samples and images of the artist’s previous pieces. She tells them to make a list of galleries that would be a good fit for their style of art so they can better target their pitch. She discusses common mistakes artists make, such as waiting until the last minute to submit work for contests or residencies, and forgetting that emails should be brief and concise.

“Be direct,” she tells them. “If you’re not being invited to these things, it’s because you need to talk to someone directly.”

Will also talks about balancing your time between making art and marketing your work, advising that people spend 40 percent of their time on the former and 60 percent on the latter. The reason? “You can’t just let it happen.”