Friends at decor-artuk recently posted a helpful entry on marketing for artists. A short exchange between us followed, and I’d like to continue my bit here – everyone is welcome to join in, of course.
As my oil paintings mount up here (and they are the first work in several years which I feel are worthy of exhibiting), I will soon be re-entering the marketing fray in some way or another.
So just a reminder that my ‘anti-marketing’ posts aren’t about not selling one’s work, they are about the other sides of art which are getting lost in the marketing discussion. These facets of art/the arts are essential to human spiritual and cultural life, I feel. So I’ll continute to write about them here, perhaps reminding us why we chose to be artists in the first place.
When a work of art, piece of music, phrase of literature, etc connects straight to my soul I get launched out of my small life with its everyday cares. I get reconnected to the best in myself, and reminded of why I am here- even if I can’t express it in words. It is just a profound reassurance that life is fine as it is, warts and all, the larger wheel is turning in a beauty and order which is unfathomable to a human mind, and my small life is somehow held and counted in it. Those mysteries are what art touches.
A past post, Art’s worth, explores the issue further, with Rob Riemen, a Dutch publisher and writer who spoke eloquently of how art was a solace to him after a series of devastating personal losses.
In Kristina’s (decor-artuk) reply to me she says, ’… it does seem that art has lost a lot of it’s true characteristics; it has become like everything around us – you can sell it and you can buy it, it’s that simple’. (See the full comment here. )
Yes, Kristina I think , you are perfectly right. This made me feel my age, because being part of an earlier generation than most of the avidly marketing 30 somethings, I feel that loss keenly.
For one instant I even wondered whether in advocating a more ethical, and connected art I was becoming dated, an art veteran holding on to a disappearing age. But actually I think what we see emerging in all kinds of wonderful quirky forms outside the established art world -this is the future of art.
Read the rest of this entry »
I couldn’t have said it better
April 28, 2012
Check out this blog post by keri smith on creativity and success. I thought it was a gem. She touches on things close to my own heart, it’s just nice to hear them said by someone else.
Dealing with creative ‘post partum’ depression
March 21, 2012
I’ve come to the end of a year’s worth of rewarding free-lance projects and have landed in the familiar murky place of ‘what now?’. No matter how many times I experience this, it feels horrible. It is the flip side of the creative high (which is the feeling of being connected, engaged and doing something that matters). Instead, facing another unstructured day, I feel afloat, low energy, and unable to find meaning in anything I am doing. (What makes it worse, is I know how lucky I am to have a series of days to fill in as I like. Those of you dreaming of having this should know that it can sometimes feel like an impossible responsibility to fill in unstructured time meaningfully).
I know from experience that one has to hold tight and navigate these periods- ie while I’m down here, might as well look around. And, that they do pass.
Luckily another genuine aid in these times is Eric Maisel’s beyond-excellent book, The van Gogh Blues, where he correctly identifies these kinds of artistic depressions as meaning crises. For example, if you know your life’s path is to paint, but none of your paintings sell, this can bring about a meaning crisis. Maisel gives clear advice on how to combat these sorts of dilemmas. I also really love how he knows and acknowledges that creativity is a hard calling a lot of the time.
Here is a slightly paraphrased quote from the book:
The entire explanation for the birth of a novel, symphony, painting, scientific theory is that someone has nominated himself as a real worker in that field- has said, I can do this, ignores all cultural, social, religious and even psychological injunctions against becoming a fervent creator..
Poverty is simply a terrible inconvenience.
Failures are simply nasty facts of existence. Marketplace and institutional realities are simple factors to be braved and challenges to be met.
This is the heroism required of you: to reckon with the facts of your existence, to make hard choices, and to keep meaning afloat even as you struggle.
-Otto Rank, Art & Artists, quoted in E. Maisel’s The van Gogh Blues’
Continued in next post
Thanks from ArtCalling
January 1, 2012
I like practical, connected, and meaningful art. I am excited and inspired by the arts in healing and community art. For the last years I’ve been committed to finding alternative paths for myself and other artists so that we have choices outside the traditional ways of exhibiting and exploiting art. I have done a lot of thinking about right livelihood in relation to art, so will be airing some of those ideas here.
Over the years my thinking has been inspired by other artists, writers and friends, and I look forward to sharing some of those sources.
Dear friends, with the above words in march 2007, I started this blog.
Looking through the past 5 years’ posts I’ve stuck pretty much to the original intent. The main themes have stayed roughly the same.
Through airing ideas here and the dialogue that has followed, ideas have developed and gained clarity. Especially those concerning new ways to think about art and; the challenges of art and market.
I’ve shared my oil pastels, older oil paintings, and new craft work. Have shared my dreams and goals, my ups and downs, and generally let a little slice of my life show here.
I want to thank all of you who have been popping in here from time to time and especially those who’ve taken the time to comment. My life has been enriched by your thoughtful remarks and the contact with like minded-souls as well as those with other views.
Alpha, Michael monocle, Thea, Rachel and Phil have been the most active commentors. Thanks so much folks.
13,037 people visited in 2011. Most of you are from the states, with the UK and Holland close behind.
The top referring sites in 2011 were:
Thank you.
Money and art dilemma- to share or to charge?
December 16, 2011
In his’ Making and Connecting’, Gauntlett hits up against a basic dilemma- how to work with a gift in a market based society. How could a discussion of craft and art not touch this issue?
This upsurge of people making things and sharing them in on and offline communities is distinguished by a strong current of giving and sharing. Think of book drops,art postcard crossing, many forms of guerilla art, etc. So much of this tendency is a reaction against the present system where the worth of things…(and people!) is determined purely economically.
So how do we reconcile this genuine desire to share our creative efforts outside an economic framework with the just as real need to earn a living?
Free platforms as exploited labour*
*(This subhead is a direct quote from the book).
OK, we have some new channels for sharing our art and ideas- YouTube, Facebook, Flickr etc. These are open platforms where, for no charge, with no credentials, and hardly any conditions, we can put our stuff out there.
Some people claim that You Tube, for example, makes gobs of advertising money off the millions of people posting and viewing videos there. Gauntlett has done some research and writes that it actually costs YouTube more to host the site than they are receiving through ads. (Based on 2009 figures, YouTube makes a bout $1.20 per video on ads per year and spends $3 per video to host the site).
We generally accept that no ads would mean no free sites.
He also says that most of us don’t care about the ‘free labour’ harvested by these sites because we want to share our work and we have ‘no thoughts of economic value’ except being glad that we don’t have to pay to share our creative work online.
Around a campfire
David suggests that the atmosphere in most of the open platform sites is like being around a campfire. Maybe my singing voice is beautiful and I could print out tickets and charge a fee, but that would completely change the underlying agreement of mutual sharing.
OK, fair enough. But then he goes on to rightly say, that in a society where everyone gets paid for what they produce, creative people should also get paid for their efforts. This is where it gets tricky.
Gauntlett cites the example of the music business to illustrate this point. People seem to feel entitled to download music free of charge while most of the musicians are struggling to survive from their music. Some established bands or star status artists make good money from their products and tours, but they represent only a fraction of the whole profession. As a rule, it is the managers, PR people and other middlemen who are making big bucks off the musicians ‘backs. Gauntlett has a suggestion to remedy this. Read the rest of this entry »
If everyone is an artist….?
December 15, 2011
There are several points of discussion ,’Making is Connecting’, brings up for me. The first one is:
if anyone can make and sell their work on (and off) line, is everyone, then an artist?
If everyone is an artist, then, of course, no one is.
Not in the same sense I’ve been brought up to believe; that an artist is someone with a calling who devotes his or her life to learning to express themselves in their chosen craft/discipline. This almost always involves a rigorous path of education and then the required 10,000 hours of practice before one can even begin to make work of stature and relevance.
I think, though, that the ways to discern people devoted to excellence in their calling from the dabbler have been blurred. James Krenov acknowledged this in the last century and suggested that keeping professionalism and amateurs strictly separate was the best way to honour the artist and leave the hobbyist to putter in their own domain. I apologise for sounding harsh, but for many years this is how I felt about hobbyists, even though in some fields, I am one myself.
Pro-Ams
Things are radically changing, though. In his book, ‘The Element’, Sir Ken Robinson cites the rise of the so-called ’Pro-Ams’. (partially paraphrased)
This is a kind of amateur who works at increasingly high standards…the Pro-Am pursues an activity as an amateur, mainly for the love of it, but sets a professional standard. The Pro-Am uses his leisure not for passive consumerism but is active and participatory involving knowledge built up over a long period of practice.
While no professional in any field enjoys being undercut by people offering lesser quality work at cheaper prices, I actually welcome this democratisation of art and creativity because it frees us all from some very confining boxes. Creative people are finding channels, not previously available to non-professionals, for sharing their work. And professionals,too, get a chance to let down their hair and try out some other areas without the constraints of having to be perfect first.
Real Artists
I think there will always be a place for excellence and authenticity. There are simply artists who either reach such high levels of their craft that it communicates to whoever is receptive to it. Or they touch a nerve which the whole society is poised to express but hasn’t yet realized. And in so doing give it a voice and a face.
And reluctantly I must admit, that maybe the distinction of the Real Artist might be passé. Or it is expanding to include various degrees of commitment and expertise.
There is to my eye definitely a distinction between the talented crafter who at this moment is flooding Etsy with (extremely popular) owls, birds and vintage. And the artist drawing from their own experience to give wings to a vision.
More about art vs craft another time.
Making is connecting I, craft empowers
December 12, 2011
I really liked David Gauntlett’s book, ‘Making is connecting’. His clear and readable writing style shed light on many issues I am concerned with. He provides well researched and -formulated arguments for the value of craft and everything to do with its resurgence both on and off line.
Craft is political
Gauntlett ‘s particular contribution with this book, is I think, to show that
the current rise of crafts is not some charming sideline to more important social changes, but it is an urgent political statement in its own right.
From creating our own clothes to making our own internet content, we are moving away from the ‘sit back and be told’ society to a ‘making and doing’ one- and that is individually empowering. He shows how the rise of internet has made it possible for the many users of open platforms (like YouTube) to form not only an alternative, but even a serious threat to mass-produced media entertainment.
People are not mindlessly accepting what the mass media is feeding them but are creating their own alternatives to reflect their views in the form of videos, zines and photo sites to name a few. He says this choosing leads to a whole new perspective and potentially a political shift to how we deal with the world.
Craft creates community
Speaking of craft today, Gauntlett says that making things with one’s hands (or with software tools) take time. This slowness contrasts with our guzzling, fast-consumption society, and leads to self-reflection and eventually self knowledge. Seeing something through every step of creation from conception to realisation makes us more proactive and constructive.
Craft has become more than just a few individuals making nice things, there is now a sense of community and shared purpose, largely because of the internet.
continued in next post.
Making is connecting III, Joie de faire
December 12, 2011
continued from previous post
Joie de faire
A significant part of the joy of craft and online creativity is that it does not rely on hierarchies of experts and elites to be validated and doesn’t depend on editors or gatekeepers for its circulation.
Craft is more about creativity and the process of making at a grass-roots level and not caring so much about star status, commercial returns or validation by the established art world. There is an inherent joy at creating something and then sharing it within a community or group with similar interests. Gauntlett speaks about the need to keep the web a free platform and defend it against being turned into one more instrument for consumerism. It needs to be a bit messy, chaotic, and personal to keep the creative element alive.
And of course the web isn’t everything…people create their own networks and experiences around the process of making things because they like to see and share the whole fruits of their own creativity and to feel connected to other inventive people, and to feel part of meaningful productive social processes which have continuity. This urge appears to be timeless and enduring…
He concludes with:
Making things shows that we are powerful creative agents- people who can really do things, things that other people can see, learn from and enjoy. Making things transforms materials but also one’s sense of self. Creativity is a gift in the sense that it a way of sharing meaningful things, ideas or wisdom, which form bridges between people and communities.
Having read and studied this book, I am armed with yet more arguments for why creativity is so vital to a healthy society as well as happy, purpose-filled individuals. And though the massive subsidy cuts and other hostile actions against the arts (tripling art sales taxes) here in Holland will do some damage, I am less worried by them than I was. With the widespread emergence of a sense of craft as important to our well being, and a renewed appreciation for things made well by hand, I feel that in the coming years there will be a lot of healing and amazing positive developments in creative areas.
Artists have a key role to play in this new scene, to not only do ethically sound, relevant, and socially engaged work, but to open other people to their creative potential.
I trust that then, the questions of livelihood will start to resolve. But it will take a while before the society and the systems change sufficiently to allow that to happen. At least we have a better idea of what we could be moving toward.
Business is not war unless you declare it to be
November 27, 2011
I recently received a link to an article which contained some useful information but the underlying assumptions were disturbing to me.
The article is basically a long pep talk for artists and designers whom, the author cites, seem to regularly get taken advantage of by their clients, and rarely make serious money.
There is good advice in there, but I have a real problem with the basic tone, which is so aggressive, it comes close to cancelling out any of the useful points. What disturbs me about this is the arena in which this young man has chosen to operate. It frames business as war where only the powerful can win and the weak (or good soldiers as he calls them) always get taken advantage of. The business concepts on which the arguments are based assume the worst about human nature so that all the tactics presented are about self-preservation and intimidating others before they get a chance to intimidate you.
The author spends a lot of time explaining how to force others to meet your needs, and how to demand respect.
Well, respect can’t be ‘demanded’, it needs to be earned. And nowhere in his 15 page article did I find a word about respecting your client- her intelligence, his creativity, her ability and desire to create a good working situation for you.
Words such as fight, attack and escalate are used regularly throughout the article.
Business as self-preservation and getting ahead at all costs, and being able to dropping the right influential names, and mentioning one’s 5-6 figure monthly salary, are presented as The definition of success. It is a paradigm which is unfortunately so widespread that most people can’t even see that this is a choice.
My experience is that if you live in a world defined by these parameters, this is exactly what you will get; you’ll feel pressured to always maintain a warrior stance in order to survive. And you won’t be able to see kindness and generosity, even when it is right under your nose, because you won’t be looking for it.
There were a few things I did like about the article, scroll down to see next post.
Gentleness can achieve enduring results
November 27, 2011
continued from previous post
The part of the discussion that spoke to me concerned ‘philosophy’ as opposed to ‘tactics’. The author has captured something I mention here a lot when I say, ‘Don’t ask how to market better on Twitter, but ask yourself what you stand for and where you want your energy to go, what do you want to feed and help develop in the world?’
He says it this way (paraphrased):
Start acting on principle instead of tactically. Most people ask, ‘What should I do?’, but this still leads to a stressful scrambling kind of life.
The next step up is thinking strategically, ‘What am I trying to accomplish’, and focusing on the goal. Not not getting all frantic about tactics, you can lead a good, rewarding balanced life.
‘There is an even higher level though. This is acting philosophically instead of strategically. This asks,’What is right and wrong? What’s worth living and dying for?What do I stand for? Who am I?’.
There are also some excellent points about how to deal with situations where clients try to change the terms of the original agreements during the work, and how designers often get roped into delivering more work than they get paid for.
This said, the article as a whole gets my back up. I feel that this take (see previous post) on business is becoming outdated, and I’d like to see young, gifted and ambitious people like him spending their considerable energies more like Jonathan Harris does – on building new models instead of cleverly figuring out how to exploit the existing ones purely for their own gains.
I”ve avoided mentioning the author’s name before now because while I disagree with his means, I don’t want to make it personal. If you want to read the whole article, it is called, ‘Designers, get paid by being a prima donna’
Marshall ends with these words:
I do think artists deserve to be treated better, but that means demanding to be treated better.
If you only take one thing from this piece , it’s to lay down a set of principles about what your time, your art, and your life are worth, and to explain them in advance. In the process, educate people about how best to work with you, and immediately call someone out when they start disrespecting your principles and your life.
We’re on the planet for a brief blink of an eye…It’s too short to share that time with people who won’t respect yours, and yet eternally long when shared with people doing beautiful and creative things….
Well, who can argue with this. Certainly not me. I totally agree.
But where we differ is Read the rest of this entry »
