For gallery owners (and other people who sell things), a steady supply is essential. Empty gallery walls are as inconceivable as empty shelves in a supermarket.

So it stands to reason that gallery owners love artists who consistently produce.

Figuring out how to jumpstart sluggish production schedules is an important career-boosting move for emerging and established artists alike. Start by noticing what you’re doing when you’re not making art.

Some activities are essential: sleeping, eating, playing, loving, and occasionally cleaning out the back seat of the car, come to mind.
But when you look at some of the non-essential activities-yikes.

At this moment, you’re looking right at one of the biggest time sinks—your computer. Do you know how long it actually takes to write a thoughtful email?

And the line between career-boosting computer time and a big black hole is a single click wide. Posting pictures of new art on Facebook is one thing; looking at 73 pictures of your niece’s sorority sisters is entirely different.

Three tips to tame this technological time sink (unless you are working digitally, of course):

1. Consider putting your desktop computer away from your studio space. If you have a laptop, don’t take it into your studio, unless you are actually using it for art or productive downtime away from making art. If you have a smartphone, ditto (or turn off the web functions). Use your studio time for art.

2. Create a weekly schedule for everything that needs your attention on the computer, and then pay attention to how well you are sticking to it. If you are not, then you need to align your schedule with your natural workflow—not the other way around.

3. Put a timer by your computer. Decide in advance what you’re going to accomplish and how long it will take. If the project is longer than 20 min, break it up. Forty minutes is the most that brains will stay on a left-brain task, so set the timer and when it dings, log off. Then go fulfill the dreams of your collectors.

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How do you handle goal setting?

I’d love to hear about it….

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If you liked this blog post, find out what Jonathan Talbot (he’s produced 35,000 pieces of artwork!) had to say about passion and your art business at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Check it out.

In 1870 Jules Verne published a fictional novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which told the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus.

Eighty-eight years later, in 1958, the real Nautilus made the first voyage under the polar ice pack, traveling more than 1800 miles in just six days and passing directly under the north pole.

But Verne was only traveling in the footsteps of another artist. Nearly four hundred years before Verne wrote his book, artist Leonardo DaVinci had sketched out plans for a submarine.

Around 1563 flemish artist Peter Breugel (he had dropped the “h” from his name in 1559) painted this imaginary picture of the Tower of Babel.

Four hundred years later artist/architect Frank Lloyd Wright turned Breugel’s imaginary concept upside down and made it real when, in 1959, the Guggenheim Museum opened in New York.

How far is the iPhone from the “wrist radio” that artist/cartoonist Chester Gould first drew for Dick Tracy in 1946 and which was updated to a “wrist TV” in 1964 and a “wrist computer” in 1986? Not far!

I know we are not all DaVincis, Breugels, Frank Lloyd Wrights, or Chester Goulds. but I do know that the paintings of Georgia O’Keefe have helped us to comprehend our intimate relationship with plants, that the works of Cindy Sherman have shown us how we each can realize our dreams, and that the etchings of Kathe Kollwitz have helped us to better understand the horrors of war, thus providing motivation for avoiding it.

Each one of us, every time we make a mark, assemble a collage, or carve an image, has the opportunity to model some portion of a better future for humankind. How we use that opportunity is, of course, up to us – but it helps to know that we are part of a larger process and it helps to understand how the creativity of those who have preceded us can guide and inspire our own artistic intentions.

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If you want to hear more from Jonathan Talbot, he will be presenting “Making Passion Your Business” on January 29th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.

Catherine Foster and Sheryl Allen are two artists who co-host a lively Internet radio show called “Art and Soul.”

Last week, they interviewed two of the smARTist® 2010 keynote speakers:  publicity expert Joan Stewart, and art-marketing guru Jonathan Talbot.  (You’ll hear me on there too, doing the introductions!)

I was blown away by the amount of information that was packed into the one-hour program. Joan is always high-energy and full of ideas – and Jon is an inspirational speaker who had lots to say about how you – yes, even you right-brained artists! – can create passion for the business side of your art career.

You’ll want paper and pencil in hand before you click the audio player and listen!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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If you liked that, you’ll get even more from Joan, Jon, and 9 other art-career experts at the smARTist® Telesummit 2010, January 21 – 29.  It’s the only professional development art-career conference anywhere, online or off.  Give your career the attention it deserves!  All the details are here.