Blog

There has been a lot of talk about the art market here on FASO which is the site host that I and hundreds, maybe thousands of other artists, have their website. The state of the art market is naturally import to those of us who create art and hope to sell what we create. There is a great deal of information and interesting ideas being presented in terms of making money or even living off one's work. Some from working artists and some from those who manage, in some way, working artists, and some who I wonder where their expertise comes from. Now I'm not about to contradict what they have said, partly because I am no marketing expert and because what works for some will not work for others.

Mostly I want to discuss something I touched on in my three part blog about the high end art market but did not go into any detail as it was mostly just a side bar of those blogs. Blogs that were an attempt to give a humorous and perhaps somewhat sarcastic view of the high end art market and what we as artists can do about it. But here I want to talk about where do we as artist want to position ourselves as artists in terms of marketing and living off what we create, or not. I am sure there will be those who disagree with what I am about to say, and that's OK. Disagreement done properly and with respect helps to create discussion and discussion in itself is a very good thing. So as artists we need to ask ourselves where do we as individuals want to be in terms of marketing our work and whether or not making a living off our art is do-able or even desirable.

Many years ago I read an article in the 'American Artist Magazine' about an artist named Milton Holm. I really liked his work and his approach to painting, so much so that even though I had given away my many, many art magazines I did keep that issue, still have it to this day. Now when I read the article those many years ago I was working a full time, real job. Not that working as an artist is not a 'real' job, it is. By 'real' I mean the kind of job that the artistically uninformed would look at as a real job. Most jobs that I had, to help support my family, well, I hated, didn't want to do them and wanted desperately to make my fame and fortune from my painting. Anyway, in this article Milton Holm said something I didn't want to hear back then and didn't want to do, he said that he preferred to work at regular jobs so he could paint what he wanted to paint and not paint something because it would sell. Now some artists would call that being true to yourself, some would scoff and argue that selling what sells is still being true to yourself. I believe both are right.

I know of artists who are very aware of the the art market and create accordingly, some do well financially, some do not. I know of an artist who basicily created his own market, quite successfully. I know of artists who don't give much thought to the market and paint what they wish to paint, some successfully and some not. Truth is I'm one of those who doesn't give much thought to the art market but paint what I want to paint, how I want to paint it. I am not terribly successful financially but I am successful in other ways. I have a regional reputation, due to my painting and teaching. I have been asked to give demos, critiques and to act as a juror. I have won awards, most recently an Honorable Mention for a pastel landscape by the Pastels Journal magazine's 'Pastel 100' for 2016 (sorry for the plug, well, not really sorry). And I do sell paintings. So not a lot of money but I am getting recognition and I believe that there are few of us in any creative field that doesn't want recognition.

In a lot of these articles, blogs and books the experts give a great deal of advice. Whether a particular bit of advise is good or not depends on what the artist desires and is willing or capable of doing. One thing I find interesting is that they say the artist should market creatively, as creatively as they do thier art, I agree with this. Sometimes the creative marketing may go against the practiced norm. This is good because as more artists venture away from the way art has been marketed in the past new ways of marketing emerge. Times are changing and how one markets should too. Oh, let's make one thing clear here, marketing ultimately means selling. So how we sell our art can and should break some of the old rules of selling (marketing). Art has kind of been put in a box as far as how things should be done in terms of selling. But should not how an artists markets or sells their art be their business and no one else's? So long as that marketing or selling is fair and in accordance to agreements they may have with others, such as galleries or dealers. I like what the artist Andrew Wyeth has said, I believe in reference to painting but could be applied to marketing as well, 'There are no rules'.

So here is the point; each artist must discover for themselves what it is they want from their creative endeavors. And each of us must respect the other's decision. If you wish for financial success and are willing to work at least as much on marketing as creating art then go for it. If you would rather create more and market less, well OK. We all come to this profession for various reasons, and the choices we make are our own. Each of us will be rewarded and suffer the consequences based on those decisions as every decision has a price or benefit. If an artist is not happy with thier situation then of course they need to take steps to remedy that. We each need to decide our place in the art world and how we decide to market or not and be respectful of those artists who choose differently, just as they need to respect your choice. There is no right way or wrong way, there is just what way you desire and works best for you.