Why not having a 'JOB' doesn't equal being in the studio 40 hours a week.

Some of my artist friends are surprised with how little studio time I get.  I'm lucky at the moment and my bills are low. The ones I have, I pay with by selling my paintings. If changes in life scare you, the life of an artist isn't for you.  Because - this will change one day.  Either folks won't buy my paintings or I'll need to pay more bills, and I'll be working full time again.  I always assumed I'd spend all my time in the studio if I had the chance. Studio time does vary.  One week, I might get three hours in.  Another week I might be in every morning, noon and night and get 60 to 70 hours of studio time.  But this is rare and usually only comes up when I'm faced with a deadline. Why? Why can't I do the thing I love, that I want to do all the time?

• They didn't tell you when you were going to art school that being an artist is running your own business. Book keeping. Taxes. Tracking down where your paintings are and who owes you what.
• Social media. Like this blog.  It's more than a distraction - it's a necessity. 
• Life. You can't make art if you don't live it.
• Life, cont'd. Shit happens. 
• To be crass, networking is very important.  Or one can just say 'maintaining friendships.' 
• Gallery openings and parties.  Again, it's not so much for fun. How many introvert artists do you know who actually enjoy these things?
• Current affairs.  People expect artists, or maybe other artists expect artists to have an opinion about what is going on in the world.  A lot of artists get away with a statement like 'Meh, I'm in my studio so I don't know what is going on in the world.'
• Research. What shows will you apply to? Which galleries do you 'court?' Sending cold emails is a waste of time. 
• Applying to shows.  This could go under the general running of the business, but it's more then book keeping.
• Courting collectors... or more like, reminding them you are here.  I try to send thank-you notes and holiday cards.  This also goes under networking.  But collectors get excited about other artists. If you are lucky you'll find the rare 'Lifer' who seems to love what you do and is eager to support you.  Most collectors are looking for something for the wall, or get excited about you for a few months or years and then find a shiny new artist to love.  Which is fine.  But reminding them that you have new ideas is a good thing to do. Also, collectors are what makes being an artist possible.  I'll dope slap you if you aren't grateful when someone loves your work enough to spend money on it.
• Promotion of all shows. As much as possible, all of the time, to the annoyance of your friends. Designing and buying cards, distributing them, emails and anything else you can think of.

Those of you thinking that maybe this doesn't reflect your life - it is very probable that it doesn't.  There is no plan, no map that says: 1. go to art school 2. get a gallery.... etc.  Each path is different for each artist.

Those of you thinking that your art is good enough that a gallery will come down and take care of all the business for you are, sadly, misled - most likely by Hollywood and the rumor mill. Dealing with a gallery is work. Running a gallery is work.  The gallery owners have enough of their own work to do. Maybe, in VERY rare cases, something like this could happen.

One might bring in enough money to have an agent or hire someone to do office work.  But this isn't what I see at my level. I consider myself a medium fish in a medium pond. I'm probably smallish as far as medium goes in Philly.  I'm not great at all the networking stuff. I don't go to enough events. I hang with people I find interesting, not ones that move my career anywhere.  Well, that's not true, it's just not the reason I hang out with them if they do have a good impact.

You'll see me repost people's announcements on facebook and 'like' as much art as I can. When I do like it.  Even though there is the little voice in my head that says "What if I'm the only one that 'likes' this and everyone will see I'm a fake" each time I repost or 'like' some art. It only takes me a second to do these things.  It helps the artists out tremendously and I have had many people help me in ways I won't be able to repay.

I'm missing some things here.  I'd also like to hear what other artists think about this.  What things do you do that you didn't realize you would be doing as an artist?