Discover Your Passion as an Artist
+ Find the Confidence to Show It in Your Art and Share It with The World
The Exploring Artist has been replaced by a new coaching program is called Artistic Vision! >> Click here!
The Exploring Artist is a 12-week group coaching program for artists. Explore who you are as an artist, where you will head next, and start sharing your art so that people will get it!
This coaching is for you who wants to get clear about your artistic passion and become more open about your art, for example, share your art in social media, blog about art, sell originals and prints, teach classes, etc.
Your Coach: Paivi Eerola
I am a full-time visual artist from Finland who has made a career change from technology to art. I started making art to express myself and re-connect with the passion from the childhood and teenage years.
But the more I created, the more I also wanted to share what I had made. First, I was just throwing some odd images to the world. I felt like I had no focus and I also didn’t have any idea what to say when sharing my art. I didn’t know if my art was good or bad, and I was often confused about people’s reactions. Sometimes my “bad” pieces got a lot more reactions than the “good” ones and it was confusing.
Then, when many years later I had progressed in my skills but still felt like I was not an artist at all, I realized that my point of view was too narrow. Focusing on technical skills, and making “better” art, didn’t help with my artistic identity. I needed to find what thrives me and ask why – Why do I create art? What kind of impact do I want to make? Why isn’t this piece “good enough” and why that one is?
While working with my identity I started seeing that other artists struggled too. The Exploring Artist is based on what I have experienced, seen, and changed in myself and in the artists that I have coached. It is about moving from the dark side of self-criticism to the bright side of self-exploration.
This class gave me direction and focus. I had no idea how or what I was going to do, but your coaching helped me realize how much I do enjoy painting and where my strengths and weaknesses are. Who would have thought of me as an abstract expressionist type painter…I certainly hadn’t! You saw this in me and when I examined it I saw it was so! I found my passion for art again and am confident now to call myself an artist. That is like giving me the golden key. Taking this class was the best thing I have done for myself in a long while.
Carla Heisten, USA
Build Your Identity as an Artist!
The Exploring Artist is a class that helps you to build an identity so that you feel like an artist and other people see you as an artist. It’s not an ordinary business class or an art class. Here’s why:
Business classes focus on how you can sell your art. They teach you how to make a marketing strategy, review your business model, build your website, etc. But if you don’t know what kind of advocate of art you are, the investment is rarely worth the money.
Art classes teach you techniques that grow your technical skills, but they don’t help when you want to dive deeper, use the full potential of your imagination, and create from your personal standpoint.
Here’s how Claudia Kern describes the benefits of The Exploring Artist:
– I can articulate the purpose of my art to myself and others.
Claudia Kern, USA
– I have clear goals for myself and a timeline for achieving them.
– I have defined for myself “my people”, those I am painting for and with whom I want to communicate.
– I am motivated to build a community of these people.
– I am zeroing in on the “sweet spot” between my attractions to color, texture, and precise details.
I am much more motivated to keep building a tool box of skills because I have a much clearer purpose for doing so.
This is a rare opportunity to work with your art, and give it the attention it has needed for years already.
The Exploring Artist – 12 Weeks – 6 Transformational Steps
In this coaching program, you will work by writing and creating so that it will strengthen you as an artist.
You will get:
– A workbook divided into six parts that will help you to put your artistic identity into words.
– 6 video lessons that will guide you through each part of the workbook.
– 6 creative challenges where you will visualize your insights.
– A private Facebook group for connecting, sharing and discussions.
– 3 online group coaching sessions with the coach and the participants
Step 1: Passion
– Discovering your artistic dreams and becoming conscious of why you are so passionate about art.
– Defining your next level as an artist to establish what’s your main goal for the next 10 weeks.
– Creative Challenge: Overcoming The Fears
– Group Coaching Session
Step 2: Potential
– Building the bridge between your dreams and actions so that you have a foundation that energizes you rather than limits you.
– Defining the people that you want to serve and the roles you need to take so that you have a direction for self-development.
– Creative Challenge: The Many Sides of You
Step 3: Ideas
– Using exploration, experimenting and play to get unique ideas and to avoid repeating yourself.
– Integrating multiple ideas into one so that your work is more inspiring to your people.
– Creative Challenge: Out of the Comfort Zone
– Group Coaching Session
Step 4: Skills
– Becoming more confident in self-evaluating your art regarding originality, expression, playfulness, consistency, diversity, and finishing quality.
– Setting higher standards so that they strengthen the artist in you.
– Creative Challenge: Curated Collection
Step 5: Courage
– Opening up and sharing your art so that your people can find and trust you.
– Choosing the best ways and channels to connect with your people.
– Creative Challenge: Open Heart
– Group Coaching Session
Part 6: Impact
– Building relationships through art: friends, followers, customers, other artists, and businesses.
– Making the most out of rejections so that they energize rather than discourage you.
– Creative Challenge: Journey Together
Päivi, you are a fantastic teacher. Your videos are so high quality and your way to paint and see things is unique. It´s very easy to communicate with you. During this program you saw such things in our way to paint that it surprised us totally.
Leena Meinilä, Finland
Use Any Visual Media for the Creative Challenges
The creative challenges of The Exploring Artist are set so that you can adjust them to serve your goal. You can create many single projects or incorporate all the challenges into one big project. Your project can be a piece of art, a series of paintings, a blog post or even a class that you want to teach or event that you want to organize, anything that you want to implement during the 12 weeks. There are no limitations to the techniques that you use. You can create art journal pages, illustrations, paintings, mixed media art, digital art, textile art, art photography, sculptures, etc. The only expectation for the project is that it contains visual elements and that you master the basics of what you are doing. You can ask help and request feedback for your project personally from the coach by email, via the Facebook group, or via group coaching sessions.
You were fantastic as a coach for a diverse group of artists. I appreciate all the time you spent thinking about each one of us, creating possible solutions with photoshop and helping us develop our style with technique but also in writing. I really loved hearing you say our names with your Finnish accent during the live and recorded videos.
Wendy Holmgren, USA
Get a New Perspective in the Group Coaching Sessions!
You will connect with the coach and the participants in real time. The 1-hour group coaching sessions take place each month. The coaching sessions will be recorded. If you can’t make the session, you can watch the recording later.
Questions and Answers about The Exploring Artist
What if I am not ready to share my art just yet?
The Exploring artist is a “soul-searching class,” so it is suitable for all who want to build their artistic identity and find a purpose for their art making. However, thinking about sharing your art brings in a wider perspective, a bigger vision, and more ways to use the imagination. Your project in The Exploring Artist doesn’t have to be related to sharing your art. Despite that, you can still work with the themes like opening up, finding words that boost your art-making process, and imagining the people you want to connect with through your art. However, sharing your art within the group is an important part of the class, so I hope you are ready to do that so that we can all help you.
What technology do I need to have to enjoy the program fully?
All the material and services provided at The Exploring Artist are in electronic format. You will need Internet access and an email account. You will also need basic programs to view (and download) MP4 videos and PDF files. Usually, these are already on your computer. If you want to participate in the Facebook group, you will need a Facebook account. To upload your artwork to the group or email your artwork to the teacher, you will need a camera or a scanner, at least a phone camera. To participate in the live coaching sessions, you will need a compatible browser (Google Chrome or Firefox, or a free mobile app) and a free account to a live streaming service. You will get more instructions on setting up your account once the program begins.
I will be traveling sometime during September-November. Can I still participate?
Because the program lasts 12 weeks, there’s some time to catch up. The group coaching sessions are not mandatory. During the program, you can ask questions about previous steps if there’s something that you missed or that require a longer time to immerse yourself. After the program is finished, you can get back to the material delivered during the program. The material is downloadable to your computer until the end of 2018. If you save the files to your computer, you can access them from your computer as long as you want. However, because The Exploring Artist is about supporting you personally, you will get the biggest benefit when you work actively within the group.
Is there a limited number of participants?
Yes, the maximum number is 12 participants to make sure that you will get the support you need. So make sure you will sign up sooner than later!
“This was an amazingly perceptive, informative, insightful, life-changing program. I made a turn in the direction my painting had been taking me, and with Paivi’s incredibly thoughtful encouragement I am feeling brave enough to continue with this.”
Mackie d’Arge, USA
The Exploring Artist has been replaced by a new coaching program is called Artistic Vision! >> Click here!