Starting an Art Business in my Fifties

I promise I will be talking about starting an art business in my fifties but first I’d like a little space to process aging. I turned fifty in September. Fifty…as in five-zero! Can somebody explain to me the mechanics of time, because I remember being a child like it was yesterday; I can conjure up how I felt at my first child’s birth as if it happened only half an hour ago; the fear I felt when diagnosed with cancer 13 years ago hovers in the background of my consciousness daily…yet ask me what the day, month, year is or quiz me about anything I’ve done in the past week and I struggle to recollect anything of great moment!

Tick Tock…

Time does not make sense. Why is it that a day in my life now feels like it has only a few hours in it and yet when I was a child, a whole afternoon felt interminably long, especially if something exciting was happening the next day. It is a paradox to me. How am I heading towards old age when I barely feel mature enough to have recently got out of my teens?

Of course, it’s not all bad. In fact, I rather like the aging that happens mentally and emotionally. I like that I am equally as sure now about what is really important in life as I was when I was younger, except now I really understand what is not important in life and not to give these things any of the precious time I have left on this earth. It is growth, and this, this part of aging feels good.

The physical side of things not so much. As my body ages, it changes, and I think not in a good way. For example, my eyesight, which up to five years ago was great, is now declining so fast my glasses confuse me…long sightedness? short sightedness? Almost complete blindness in the dark making driving at night impossible? Yes, my declining eyes bother me a great deal. My declining hearing, not so much. As it turns out, I enjoy the quieter life of not being able to hear every sound with great clarity. Now it feels a little muffled and background noise tends to fade… well into the background.

Right, having got all that out of the way, I shall now chat a bit more about starting an art business in my fifties.

Starting an Art Business in my Fifties

As an aside, given that I only turned fifty in September, I’ve not strictly started Angelicscalliwags Art in my fifties…I was in fact 49…but I have short term memory issues so am calling it a round fifty 😊

I’ve not vlogged or blogged in a while due to some fairly serious health issues with a member of our family, along with finishing the second year of my master’s and having three assignments to hand in at the beginning of September. So I kind of feel like I need to reintroduce myself again! Hello 👋

Next week, I want to share all the really interesting monetary stuff which occurred during my first year. I intend to show you all of my Etsy stats. This was the information I was so interested in when I first started. I think knowing that the first three years were likely to be slow as I built up a customer base was really helpful in me not giving up. I had watched YouTube videos of small business which had only brought in £12 in their first year, or had less than ten customers in their first year. These facts were reassuring to me as I set my expectations for starting an art business realistically low!

Angelicscalliwags Art Channel

Anyway, I made a quick You Tube video chatting about my first year:

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing my facts and figures, tips and tricks and also all my incredible presents I received for my fiftieth which allows me to really expand what I can offer in my shop! I’m excited for the future of this business and hope you’ll join me for the ride.

For a peek into my life as a small art business owner, please feel free to take a peruse around my Art Studio page.