Yesterday, when I posted this, I don’t think I was in my right mind. I mean, I woke up in a lot of pain and I was pretty depressed. When I get like that, I feel defeated and insecure. But after rereading that post and giving it more thought, I started feeling some of my confidence coming back. I think I wouldn’t make such a bad artist mentor after all. It feels very odd to toot my own horn and promote myself at something I’d be good at. It’s uncomfortable, but that’s probably because I’m just not used to it yet. But I can get used to it, because I would be good at it!

I felt very confident a few years back when I posted a series of exercises for artists who were just starting out. It wasn’t exactly written like an organized curriculum, but it certainly can be. That’s not so hard for me to do. I’m really good at being organized…usually. Now I plan to streamline those lessons into a true map that an artist can follow. If anyone is interested in seeing that 13-part exercise, they begin here on my blog.

Yes, I said it. I do plan to start mentoring artists. I have done it before. I just never charged any money for it. It feels weird to, but I’m going to do it.

So, considering all this, and it might seem like I put this together pretty quickly (because I did), I decided to build a page on my website where people can sign up to have me as their mentor. That is, if it’s a good fit. A good fit is important. We have to get on well, of course, right?

While the page is semi-live right now, I’ll be putting a direct link to it in my top navigation on the site. That way, it will be a little more obvious that I’m offering this. For now, it’s just free consultations, to test it all out, really. Promoting it outside of my blog and my site is another animal altogether. That is the part I’m insecure about. You know, Instagram and all that. However, I imagine it’s not going to feel very natural to promote myself as an artist’s mentor all of a sudden. People who know me know that I do love to help artists. But now I will have to kind of “advertise” myself where I can, be it my site, my newsletters, or Instagram and Facebook. How daunting!

It’s a scary decision to give this a go. And I’m still going to get a degree in Sociology. I haven’t given up on that, but maybe, just maybe, if I can make a part-time business with the mentoring thing, I can take my time getting through school. That way, I don’t have to sacrifice my art career or stop making art. At this rate, with 9-12 units a semester, it’s going to be extraordinarily difficult, so I think I foresee myself cutting back on that a bit. I guess I’ll take it one step at a time and keep ya’ll posted.