Advice for networking for introverts in the Art world

[JennieJo]

Hi,

Firstly want to say this is my first post, so hopefully this topic has not been done to death. As the title says, I have been trying to break into the artworld for the last few years. Naively i thought I could just produce the work and thats it . But i have come to learn the hard way that networking is just as important.

I am now 47 and live in London. After not drawing for 12 years and doing the 9-5 grind i decided to become a full time artist after I left my last job 11 years ago. I currently make a bare minimum living doing commision portraits and pets art for clients.

But my main passion is my Artwork, which you can see on my website here https://www.rajsinghtattal.com/

So i would appreciate any advice, as although I can be an extrovert at times, I am mainly an introvert. And the scariest thing for me is socialising especially small talk, which i used to ease by drinking alcohol. But i stopped drinking 10 years ago and do not plan on starting again.

I should point out that my issues with socialising might be down to having 'Aspergers Syndrome' a form of autism. Which i was diagnosed very late in life at 37 10 years ago. And although I can be confident when talking about subjects that interest me like politics, world events etc i always seem to put my foot in my mouth when it comes to small talk.

I am planning on going to exhibition openings soon. But I have almost zero contacts in the artworld and not many friends (which i prefer) so will have to go alone. I am not scared of many things and I have been told I can be quite a formidable person but the thought of this is terrifying and is already causing me stress.

Any advice would be great, and below are a few my artworks which are in Graphite and Charcoal at A0, but i have also started colour to recently on a smaller A2 size.

Thanks Raj

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Wonderful. Discussion. Thanks for starting it Raj. My 14 year old granddaughter will be negotiating many of the things you've mentioned.

 

[Artyczar]

It might be the same rabi lol. She was very young and trendy, i was shocked when she said she was the rabi. I have sent you an email as i did not want to discuss certain things here.

I agree religio and politics should be left out this forum. But Artwork sometimes crosses over into it so it might come up.

Raj,

I got your email, but have not answered yet because I have been extremely busy trying to finish some artwork, but am going to try to answer today.

As far as art and politics, we can't get into that here, even if it comes up because the of forum rules, which are posted here, so we would have to private message about those things.

Thank you for your email!