We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sophie Green a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sophie, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
Having a good work ethic didn’t come naturally to me. In fact, it has probably come from doing jobs in the past that I didn’t enjoy and thinking ‘well, I never want to do that again!’ It’s true what they say, that when you do something that you love, you never have to work a day in your life. I work more hours than most people and I never switch off from the job, but it doesn’t feel like work. It’s fun and I love it. I’m also pretty sure that I could never work for somebody else now, I’ve gone rogue! So, there’s that too…
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m an artist, but I focus on wildlife and the natural world – particularly protecting it. Through my art, I raise awareness for issues surrounding animal welfare and the environment and raise money for conservation causes and charities.
Contemporary art tends to focus on concepts around a globally influenced, culturally diverse and technologically advanced world. It’s rare that art focused on the natural world and animals is taken too seriously in the modern art world and it has always been my mission to change that. I want to carve a path for wildlife and animal art to be respected and sold on the blue chip market, particularly given the current state of the planet. I want being interested in the environment to be ‘cool’. This is what inspires and excites me.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I started out as an artist quite ‘late’ in life. I wasn’t fresh out of school and I didn’t study art. In fact, after working in the film and television industries for a number of years, I became a primary (elementary) school teacher, before trying to make it as a full-time artist.
I often reflect on whether or not I would be a successful, full-time artist if I hadn’t taken this longer, more convoluted route. I think that living and working in the ‘real world’; doing a job I didn’t enjoy and struggling financially even with a full-time, ‘respectable’ career, gave me certain qualities. I learnt to be resilient, determined and hard-working. These qualities have always pulled me through lulls.
I also learnt pretty quickly that in any creative industry, your work has to have a wider purpose, other than just paying your bills. By focusing on wildlife & conservation and donating time and money to charity projects, I rarely run out of inspiration or excitement for what I’m doing. I’m also able to stay grounded and not worry too much about the usual stresses of being self-employed; money, social media engagement, procrastination etc.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
Of course, it’s important to go all in on your strengths and use what skills you already have, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t also try to grow and improve.
As an artist, my skill is painting – I’ve done my 10,000 hours and I’m getting pretty good at that. I therefore invest most of my time in this area. But there are some aspects of being an artist that I’m not great at, such as organising exhibitions, sponsorship acquisition, PR, responding to emails about print sales. It’s not my bag, so I tend to delegate these jobs to people who are good at them. Time is money afterall!
That said, I still try to grow and improve in the areas I am not as confident in. I always try to push myself out of my comfort zone, network, send the scary emails, do the television interviews and try not to spend too much time in my cave painting. For me, it’s all about balance.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sophiegreenfineart.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/sophiegreenfineart
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/sophiegreenfineart/
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/sophiegreenart
