Romania: Here We Come

John Bishop Fine Art : Podcast

Just want to give you guys an update on the Romania experiment. We leave in a week, and will fly to Istanbul, then on to Bucharest. We'll be in Romania for just over three weeks, and in that time, we'll need to finalize the establishment of a business, open a bank account, secure the services of an accountant, scope out the art scene, and possibly look at some real estate. You know, your average holiday abroad.

If you haven't been following our newest adventure, Bogdan and I have been running our art business here in Texas since 2015, and are now considering purchasing some property in Romania and living there for part of the year, or permanently.

We know that we can't sell our home and afford something closer to the city, and moving farther away from Houston (or any other large city) would only diminish our income more. The option then becomes for us to move to a place where we can afford to live off the proceeds of our art. If moving to a remote rural setting in the States won't work, we can move abroad, where our regular income will stretch much further. One possibility is Romania.

So we've met with a Romanian lawyer, and an accountant, and the process has begun. Owning a business in Romania will grant me a special visa, which will allow me to stay in the country for longer periods of time, and to earn money while I'm there. As far as we can tell, once established, we could live comfortably in Romania for about $2,000 per month.

What would we stand to lose if we try to live both in the USA and Romania? We're not likely to sell a lot to Romanians. But because Romania is in the EU, we can travel around Europe to art fairs and galleries.

But there's also the realization that living in Romania can be tough. While I am moving to a new adventure filled with possibility and opportunity, Bogdan is moving home. He will be moving back to his family, who haven't been there for all of the changes he's made to his life, his values. In many ways, I think the move to Romania scares him more than it does me. I have to be super sensitive to that as we explore this new chapter in our lives.
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“Art Life Podcast with John & Bogdan” is a weekly blog/vlog/podcast that creates a community, a conversation, between creatives in all sorts of fields at all sorts of levels. We want to discuss what we’re learning, what we’ve experienced, and whom we’ve met in our journey of running a freelance creative business. John Bishop is a visual artist living in Houston, Texas. His work is largely abstract, and explores how to turn mythic, archetypal symbols into individual experiences allowing us to see them in a new way, with fresh eyes. Bogdan is a videographer and fine art photographer who constantly seeks to stretch the boundaries of traditional photographic work, with the added flare of his artistic eye. Both artists’ work can be seen online, or at their studios at Silver Street Studios, 2000 Edwards Street, in Houston.

John Bishop: http://www.johnbishopfineart.com

Bogdan Mihai: http://www.bogdanfotoart.com

Bogdan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bogdanoninstagram/

John’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnbishopfineart/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnBishopart

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/johnbishopfineart

Buburuza Productions: http://www.Buburuzaproductions.com