I’m an artist and illustrator working at a university in the Midwest. I often get asked what my job is like, so I decided to start a blog about it. I’ll talk about all sorts of things: my students, my art, the art world and more!

I’ve got one big goal for this blog: to get you excited about creating art at any stage in your life.

The greatest artists are those who keep creating throughout their lives, not just those who create early on and then quit. This is a great time to be an artist, and I hope my posts will help you love your own creative life! —Joan Cornella, October 2010**

This blog is about the business of being an artist, and how to create, share, and sell your art in any medium. It is intended for artists in any medium at any stage of their careers. I hope there will be something here that is valuable to everyone.

You may know me as a studio potter (and a blogger — see my About page). I am also a writer, an editor, a teacher, and a designer, but those parts of my life have their own blogs. This one is about the business of being an artist.

I have been making things seriously since 1970, teaching since 1974, and selling my work since 1977. I have been running this blog since 2009 as a way to share what I have learned with artists who are just starting out or who are looking for new ways to grow their practice.

All the posts on this blog are written by me except where otherwise noted: they are not commissioned or derived from secondary sources such as books or magazine articles. If you would like to reprint something here please contact me for permission. I’m happy to give permission if it helps someone else!

Being an artist means you’re a business owner and an ideas person. It means you’re making something and selling it. If you love to create but don’t like to sell, then it’s time to get over it. You’re in the business of making art.

At the same time, the old model that artists use to make money — galleries, grants, etc. — is not working for most people who are trying to make a living as an artist. So how do you make money? The answer is in this blog.

The general idea behind the blog is to share what’s happening in the studio, and in my life as an artist. It’s really hard to get started in art. If you can’t afford a class, it costs time and money to find good resources and figure out how to do things on your own. There are some good websites out there, but it takes a lot of time to track down everything that might be relevant to your situation. Many people give up after just a few weeks or months. I wanted to create something that could help people find their way, and give them a place where they could ask questions, discuss issues, and get feedback from people who have been through what they’re going through now.

I learned how to make art in school, but I’ve been teaching part-time for almost 10 years now. I love teaching. But I also want there to be another way for artists to learn about making art and building an art practice. This blog is my attempt at creating that resource.

The blog is not intended for artists already working professionally or making money from their work. It’s intended for people who want to become professional artists someday, or who just want to make more art than they do now.”

I’m not sure where we’re going. It’s kind of scary, but I think it’s a good thing. I’m committed to keeping the blog up and running, so it will continue to be a reliable source of information on all things art. I love working on it, and I hope you do too.

Welcome to Studio Art! If you’re a beginning artist, welcome to your first studio art class. Many of you have probably never been in a studio art class before and are wondering what to expect. You may even be asking yourself why anyone would take such a course. If you have taken classes in the past, you are probably curious to know how this one will differ.

See, college is full of requirements, and as much as we’d like to, we can’t get out of them. This course fulfills the requirement for an art credit for many of you. Yet at the same time, it’s not just another “Intro to Art” class where you paint still lifes or landscapes from photographs or learn how to draw from a model.

This course will focus on drawing from observation, which means that your skills will improve quickly if you put forth a little effort each day. The better your observational skills get, the more artistic freedom you’ll have while drawing or painting anything from life (or your imagination). It might sound strange to say that improving your drawing skills will lead to greater artistic freedom, but I think that’s true.

Not only do we get an opportunity to draw from life in this class, but we also get an opportunity to see things