The Lilla Rogers Studio Ladies at a recent meeting in my backyard
Patty Kantlehner, Julia Parker, Me, Susan McCabe, and Kim Fleming
Lilla here. I have some big news to share.
Make Art That Sells is my passion: I adore teaching and I love concocting courses to help you thrive in your creative career.
Equally, thirty years of running my own agency has been an amazing adventure. What greater feeling is there for an agent than to email a brilliantly talented artist with a dream job or to mentor them on a project close to their heart to then have it accepted by their hoped-for client?
Some of the thousands of products my art agency has licensed illustration for.
We’ve agented commissions for some of the best artists in the world on, for example, a watertower in Albuquerque, painterly pillows and mugs for Anthropologie, huge murals for a Seattle hospital interior, many hundreds of picture books, miles of fabric, witty socks, charming tote bags, striking novel covers, and adorable toys. Agenting is dreamy.
However, during that time, my passion for teaching has only grown, and with my 70th birthday now approaching, I have made the decision to close my art agency in September. I know. It’s shocking to me, too. But it’s time. I want more time to teach.
You see, I love tuning into what my community needs and then creating courses to help them along their artistic path so that their journey is lucrative, or at minimum, joyful. It’s the agent in me. You can take me out of the agency but you can’t take the agency out of me. I just want to help artists realize their full potential.
Upper left, my egg chair in my garden, where I go to figure things out, like this phase
Closing the agency has not been an easy decision because I love mentoring my artists and working with my beautiful team, but, just as I always tell you to follow your passions and let that be a guide, I am following my passions: teaching art here to my Make Art That Sells community and in Europe, and writing and making art.
I adore you, I adore the MATS community, and I am committed to helping you with your artistic growth and to monetize your art in all the abundant opportunities that await you. Just wait until you get my new color course in February. Oh, crap, did I just accidentally spill the beans?
And you know what? I can now give you a peek behind the curtain, even more insider knowledge about what agents look for, and help you get your work to be the best it can be.
Let me help you get illustration gigs like I got my artists, above.
I’m comforted by two things: knowing that my artists will thrive in their next steps, because they are extraordinary talents, and the dreamy plans I’ve cooked up for Make Art That Sells – watch this space.
I’m excited for what the future brings when we clear the decks and make space for the next surprise. Can I say something? I feel like there’s another interesting opportunity around the corner that the universe wants me to make room for. And of course I’ll bring you along!
Here’s looking forward to all the goodness that awaits!
With affection,
