SURVEY RESULTS!!!

Thanks again to all of you who participated in my Art Practices Survey! Here are the results. Not every detail, but the general picture. Please e-mail me if you have specific questions about any of the results. I left out a few of the questions in this summary, as I didn't think they'd be that interesting to anyone but me.

The vast majority of you have been practicing art for over five years. And many in that majority have been creative since childhood. I am impressed with the number of you who started in the needle arts or fiber arts, learning sewing or knitting from a mother or grandmother.

Your mediums of choice are: Collage, Artist’s Books or Art Journals, Mixed Media, Fiber Arts, Painting, Drawing, and Other, in that order. This is how it looks in the graph representing the responses. But in your comments it is clear that many of you love fabric and fibers, and maybe that’s been your entry point to mixed media and collage. Loads of you report trying a lot of different mediums. YAY!

You spend an average of eight hours a week on your art, and many of you report wanting to spend more.

Only a small percentage of survey respondents have taken workshops with me. Many report not having had the opportunity, or having just found me on the web. THANK YOU for taking the survey, even though you have not met me or taken any workshops! And thanks to my faithful workshop attendees too!

Most of you take a few workshops a year, and you take more online workshops than in-person ones because of the convenience. Most report preferring in-person to online, though many report preferring both.

The average respondent bought seven or eight art instruction books in the past year. YAY! We need you to keep buying books, even though so much content is available online. Thank you!

Which areas do you need more instruction in? Of course, many of you checked multiple areas, but the results show: techniques, drawing, and composition, as the top three, with Maintaining a Consistent Art Practice, Understanding Art Materials, Painting, Color, and Other, in that order.

What are your goals in making art? The vast majority of you want to find your own artistic voice, and many of you would like to sell your art. Almost all of you do it primarily to enhance your own life. Very few of you report having FOUND your voice.

Your main challenge in making art is Time. For almost everybody, though for a few there were other things: frustration at having too many ideas or techniques available so that it is challenging to focus. A number of you reported feeling like you have trouble being original, that you resort to copying and would like to learn how to develop your own style. Lack of confidence showed up, due to that ever-present Inner Critic. Discipline was on the list in some cases.

Thanks again to all of you who participated in the Art Practices Survey. I will close that one for now, but post a new one soon. Please let me know if there are particular questions you would like me to ask. Any feedback is welcome. Sorry for the lack of eye-candy in this post.