The Thriving Christian Artist
The Thriving Christian Artist
432 - Struggling To Sell Your Prophetic Art? Here’s Why
The first and most important thing when it comes to prophetic art - that is, art that God inspires you to create to advance His Kingdom - is to do God’s will. Paint that painting. Sculpt that sculpture. Create what God would have you create.
Sometimes, though, prophetic artists do all that, but their art doesn’t actually sell. So why does that happen? Are you not supposed to sell prophetic art? Are there ways to improve your sales while staying true to your calling?
In this episode, I discuss the realities of selling art, whether it’s prophetic or not. I believe there can be a connection between prophetic art and thriving in the professional art world. In fact, I’ve written books about this, done hundreds of podcasts, coached countless artists… it’s kinda my thing. 😀
Take a listen to this episode and see what you can do to bring your prophetic art and your sales goals together in a way that’s true to yourself and true to the Kingdom.
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When you’re ready to stop striving and start thriving, here are 4 other ways I can help:
1️⃣ Get my newest book, God’s Plan for Living: A Simple Roadmap to Your IDEAL Kingdom Life. Most Christians want to live the abundant life Jesus promised - they just don’t know how (and it’s not for lack of trying!). In this new book, I share a simple framework for living based on God’s Word that will enable you to live fulfilled and thriving as a Christian, no matter how you’re designed or assigned in God’s Kingdom. Purchase here ➡️ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZ34CNFY
2️⃣ Learn a New Framework for Living: Watch this free 60-minute, on-demand workshop I created called “How to Start Thriving as the Artist God Created You to Be,” where I share a simple, Kingdom-based framework for living that anyone can use starting today. Click here for details and to enroll! ➡️ https://matttommeymentoring.mykajabi.com/ew-optin-how-to-start-thriving
3️⃣ Connect with God: Discover how to connect with the Lord and discover His intention for you and your art in His Kingdom in my course, How to Connect with God to Create & Sell Your Art. Get more details here ➡️ https://thrive.matttommeymentoring.com/how-to-connect
4️⃣ Ready to truly thrive? Join the Created to Thrive Artist Mentoring Program to discover how to build your art business and live the abundant life Jesus promised you as an artist in His Kingdom! Click here for details and to enroll! ➡️ https://www.matttommeymentoring.com/artmentor.html
Thanks for listening! You can also watch this podcast on YouTube at youtube.com/matttommeymentoring. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!
Connect with Matt online: https://thrive.matttommeymentoring.com/stay-connected
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Do you consider yourself a prophetic artist but you're having trouble selling your work? I'm going to tell you why here today on 5-Minute Mentoring. Hey there, I'm Matt Tommy, and over the last 10 years, I've helped thousands of Christian artists all over the world start thriving spiritually, artistically, and in the marketplace, while at the same time building my own super successful art business. If you're ready to bust through the roadblocks that have held you back for years, create the work you love, and really live the life you know God created you to live in His kingdom, then you're in the right place, my friend. Now with over a million downloads, you're listening to the Thriving Christian Artist Podcast. Hey, my friends, so glad that you're with me today here on 5-Minute Mentoring. You know, because I'm in the art and faith space and I'm really always trying to help artists make this connection with God and with our creativity and releasing the kingdom and the things that we're called to, I end up working with a lot of prophetic artists. I mean, I've written a book called Prophetic Art. I talk a lot, been talking a lot about this prophetic creative flow that I believe is central to how the kingdom works, but also central to how we work as artists. artists who are believers. And I get a lot of questions from artists, both in our mentoring program and just around about, Matt, you know, I'm a good artist, but I do prophetic art. I'm doing things that I think are messages from the Lord or things that I feel are from dreams or visions that God gives me. But I rarely am having the commercial success that I see others having in my work. What's going on? Is God mad at me? You know, should I not be selling my work? What's going on? And, you know, there can be a myriad of different reasons why somebody's work's not selling. That's one of the things I love, you know, in our mentoring program, I get to walk with people and kind of uncover with them why their work may be selling or why it may not be selling and how to change that. But I think for prophetic artists in particular, what happens a lot of times is that you're creating art that may be super, uh, connected with your relationship with the Lord. It may have these deep spiritual meanings. It may be full of imagery, uh, biblical metaphor and dreams and visions and things God has shown you and that sort of thing. And all that's awesome, but it may not necessarily be commercially viable. What do I mean by that? Well, it may be incredible to see it at church. It may be incredible to see it at a conference. It may be incredible for people to comment on it or see it at a show or exhibition at a church or wherever it may be or on your social media. But there's a big, big consideration that a lot of prophetic artists don't think about when they're making art. And I know this is going to make some people upset, but I'm just going to say it anyway. You have to think about the commercial viability of your work when you are making art, if you want to sell it. If you want to sell it, not only are you making art that you're passionate about, that you think is the thing that God's called you to and all that kind of stuff, but at the same time, you've got to be thinking, Does this have a commercial viability so much that people could envision this in their house? People would choose to use this as home decor. Are they going to want to put this over the fireplace or over the sofa? And that, listen, I can hear so many of you purists out there right now saying, Matt, that's not what art is about. Art is about sharing what God's put on your heart and the overflow of what he's called you to do. And you should just make it. And yes, all of that's true. All of that's true. But if it's not selling. If it's not selling, then either you got to be good with that and you got to be willing to make the art that you feel like that you're doing just in a pure form and release it and let it do what it's going to do. Or you got to do what I encourage artists to do, which is do that. But at the same time, consider how that work works. is presented in the marketplace. Can people envision this in their homes, in their offices, in their commercial spaces, and that sort of things? One of the things I think that becomes exciting in that process is that artists who consider themselves prophetic artists are forced to begin to think about their work differently. What do I mean by that? Instead of using overt Christian metaphor, instead of using, you know, let's just say your typical, what you would see as prophetic art, you know, doves and crosses and angels and all this kind of stuff that is wonderful, but it's not necessarily something that people would want to have in their house as the focal point of a room, you know, from a home to court situation. It causes the artist, when they start to think about commercial viability and connecting with a client, it causes them to start to think, hmm, how can I take what God's showing me? How can I take the burden? How can I take the inspiration and create it, listen, in a way that is more commercially palatable? That does not mean in any way that that you are watering down what the inspiration that God's given you. It means though, that you're interpreting it in a way that more people can understand and interact with and potentially embrace into their home. I have a number of pieces in our collection at our house that I would consider prophetic art, but they are not in any way your typical kind of, uh, run-of-the-mill prophetic art with a lot of overt biblical metaphor and that sort of thing. They're done in a way that they're beautiful pieces of art that stand on their own regardless of the inspiration. And then when you find out that there's this whole download of the Holy Spirit that goes with this piece, that makes it even all the better. And so for those of you that are in that prophetic art space and you're like, man, I really want to get my work out there. I believe that God's put something on me as an artist, but I've got to make a living from it. I want to make a living from it. I want to see it touching more people. I would suggest that you've got to begin to think about not only the purity of your art process, but also where does that connect with and meld with commercial viability. And listen, The same God that has inspired you, the same God that has led you this far is the same God and Holy Spirit that will lead you in this process of learning how to bring what you do into the marketplace in a way that's going to be not only palatable, but desirable to people that are believers and people that are not believers and, you know, in any place in in the market, all right? I know that may be a little bit of a hard pill to swallow, but I hope you'll take that to the Lord and begin to just wrestle with that question a little bit. Lord, how can I take what you've given me, but begin to create in a way that's going to open doors for me in the marketplace and widen my creative ideas, widen my artistic style, and give me more opportunity to do the thing that you call me to do, all right? I love you, my friend, and I hope until next time. time you'll remember you were created to thrive. Bye.