After 12 long years of giving up on her art, Ann Rea finally returned to her passion.

However, she wasn’t selling her work consistently or making enough money. 

Ann wanted to increase her fine art sales but didn’t know where to focus. 

She longed for a sense of purpose and validation as an artist.

The harder she worked the more overwhelmed she felt.     

Even her famous mentor, Wayne Thiebaud, an art icon, couldn’t give her a reliable roadmap to success.

One day, Ann and her friend Angela started their daily negative bonding routine by complaining about their dull corporate jobs.

Because Angela was recovering from Stage-4 breast cancer treatments, Ann redirected their conversation by asking Angela, “If you had a magic wand that guaranteed your success, what would you do?”

Angela said, “I’d be an interior designer. I love design.”

“What’s stopping you?”

After a long pause, Angela said, “I’m too afraid.”

Ann asked, “What scares you more? Pursuing your love of design or dying of cancer?”

Angela sat in stark silence.

Ann and Angela were about the same age, a month apart.

Suddenly Ann became more afraid of not living than she was of dying.

In Angela’s silence, Ann decided that she would not allow her self-limiting fears to destroy her future.  

So Ann became unwilling to live under the tyranny of hope imposed upon fine artists by the scarcity and permission-based art establishment.

Step by step Ann found the courage to turn her dream into a plan.

In January 2005, Ann moved to San Francisco to become a full-time artist determined to sell over $100,000 of her fine art.

The first thing she did was shock her representatives by firing them.

Despite having no contacts, family support, or trust fund, Ann Rea sold $103,246 of her art during her first year as a full-time artist.

Then in December 2007 the United States experienced the longest economic downturn since World War II.

Ann’s art sales stalled. 

Fortunately, Ann was commissioned to complete an oil painting for Bob Proctor’s 70th birthday; a personal development expert and host of the movie “The Secret.”

While Ann was at Bob’s home in Toronto, he was on the phone with Ellen DeGeneres, coaching her to beat Oprah Winfrey’s daytime T.V. show ratings, which Ellen did. 

Bob taught Ann how to manifest her goals by seeing and feeling them as if they already existed. 

Bob Proctor assured Ann that if she kept taking consistent action toward her goal and managing her attitude, her next best step would be revealed. 

She wanted to understand why very few fine artists became famous while most failed despite sharing similar levels of artistic talent.

Then something told Ann to review her old art history books. She had a sense that she could find clues to her future success by looking to the famous artists of the past. 

She noticed a pattern and she cracked a “4-Part Code” proving how successful fine artists determine their niche so that they know:

• who wants to buy their art
• why they want to buy their art
• where to find more people to buy their art
• how to find more people to buy their art

Ann found even more clues to success by studying luxury marketing and she quickly increased her average sale price by 400% from $2,000 to $10,000 without:

• feeling pushy
• paying sales commissions
• writing cringy artist’s statements

She focused on one proven luxury marketing strategy that generates 80% more sales, on average, and she keeps 100% of her money.

One time-tested strategy helped Ann start attracting affluent collectors, who are 82% more likely to buy her fine art and spend more money.

One day Ann’s intern, Kathryn, announced her graduation from the Academy of Art University of San Francisco. During this same time, Kathryn’s father lost his job and her mother died suddenly from pancreatic cancer.

Kathryn’s B.F.A left her with a shocking amount of inescapable student loan and credit card debts totaling $250,000.

While Ann sat stuck in traffic on Van Ness Boulevard in San Francisco, she began contemplating the tremendous cost of Kathryn’s education and the unlikely return on her time and money. 

Then, something caught Ann’s attention. The Academy of Art University was proudly displaying their antique car collection inside their former Cadillac dealership; one that you can see for a $15 for admission fee and that features a few cars valued at over a million dollars.

Ann realized that Kathryn’s crippling debt was not only funding the Academy of Art University’s antique car collection but also their real estate portfolio, the largest in San Francisco.

Yet Kathryn didn’t learn any marketable skills.

Ann was pissed.

She harnessed her anger into the inspiration to create Making Art Making Money™.

Ann decided that her students would graduate by selling enough of their art to cover their tuition, at a minimum. *

*As featured by Inc. Magazine as an innovation in advanced education.

If some reason students don’t earn their tuition within a year, we work with them for free until they do, as long as they do the work.

If you don’t give up, we don’t give up.