Questions, Quarries, Quelines and ?

This week has been a mix of organisation, research and painting. I have been reading "How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist" by Caroll Michels to decide whether to pursue more work in a professional capacity, or just keep doing commissions and sales. There are also questions as to doing more commercial pieces or fine art contemporary...maybe both. Michels states that webpages for professional artists should be set up as either a fine art portfolio for curators and business managers to observe, or they should be marketing pieces for sales of work.
I have no formal training, besides four years of Mrs. Sharon Eck's high school art classes, just a love and passion for art. Where do I want to go with this passion? Am I satisfied with local exhibitions, portrait commissions and experimenting with different mediums? Since career prospects were mentioned in high school life, the counsellors have steered me away from the art field stating that it is not a career. The old starving artist can't make a living, which I am finding is more a conceptual ideal of bohemian artists than reality. The older I get my mind is set only on the figurative ideas of pieces for portrayal, but I find that life's necessity of full-time work keeps me holding that possibility under.

Besides the mind of queries, I did finish a drawing of Dad and Debbie that she asked me for. It is A2 size done in Derwent graphite and watercolour pencils. Now to get it safely to Florida when I go visit and find a place there to frame it.

This is another ongoing experiment in the works. I had a dream of this done all in sepia ink tones with dripping ink. The dream was regarding history becoming faded and forgotten. I did a workup sketch, but wasn't satisfied that it was conveying my idea. After doing some collage work in class, I thought the quilt background in clippings and paint the sewing figure in the foreground. I am now also thinking of adding ribbon stitching between the quilt pieces to mix my love of quilting and painting together. I am not sure how the canvas will react to being punctured with needles though, so still thinking it through. I just started painting the figure today, but have to quit to go to work. Hopefully will get back to it this week, planning on doing it in grey tones now. 

All for now... keep searching for answers.