So you think you want to be an artist? You know the dream: You are going to sit in your light-filled studio all day long and make art with music playing in the background and the sounds of birds singing their own sweet song outside your window. People are going to be so impressed by your work (which is quite good, by the way) that they will come to you – through word of mouth, through your website, through the press that will be knocking on your door, eager to tell the world about your art. Right? Wrong. Think again. Please, think again.
Thanks to Tim Tate for this visual
The life of a working artist is often less about the art and more about the business of art. There is nothing sexy, glamorous or easy about it. Do it if you are compelled to make art. Do it if you want to work really hard at something you love. Don’t do it if you think it is an easy life or all about making the art. Don’t do it if you need a significant savings account to feel safe in the world. Don’t.
There was very little art making going on during my time in each of the four studios last week, but there was a lot of serious business happening – marketing, packing, shipping, scheduling meetings, writing proposals, researching funding – and so much more.
This morning’s post is long and though it has many photos (see even more in this slideshow), don’t expect sexy images of artwork, pics of daMuse learning how to pull a print, flameworking a marble or trying her hand at making a bas-relief tile (but since you might need a good laugh after reading this post, I will come back and show you the perfect picture of what-not-to-do-in-bas-relief).
The message today is one that everyone should hear, from collectors to gallery owners, art students, art educators, curators, Joe and Jane Q. Public:
The life of a professional, working artist is not easy or romantic – often not even lucrative. I believe their contribution is critical and as a society we need to do more to support the path of individuals who dedicate their life to making art.
Week two of my internship was marked by meetings, more meetings, trips to galleries, packing sculpture, standing by as sculptures were being photographed for a show, helping to prep for a presentation and more meetings.
Michael is dangerous with that red pencil. I kept a safe distance away.
At the WGS they start their week with a Monday morning meeting. With music on in the background (see, there’s your music), and chocolates on the table (even more delicious than the music), Michael Janis follows a typewritten agenda, red-pencil in hand, monthly calendar nearby.
WGS, one of the busiest glass studios on the East Coast, is a fast-paced working environment. In addition to creating public art commissions, private commissions, one-of-a-kind awards, and hosting workshops and classes, each of the directors and staff work on their own art for shows, for galleries, for sale.
The meeting covers a wide range of topics, including school and studio maintenance, supplies that need to be ordered to cover projects and classes for the week, repairs that must be completed, the firing schedule for the week, upcoming meetings and events, who’s in, who will be out, which days, what nights, what needs to be shipped, what crates need to be built, what planning needs to happen for their 10th anniversary show, who has achievements to be reported (last week Michael found out that he will be named one of the Rising Stars of the 21st Century at Wheaton this coming June – way to go Michael!).
Are you tired yet? Eyes glazing over? Grab a cup of coffee and get some caffeine coursing through your bloodstream because I’m not even done talking about the WGS Monday morning meeting – and we haven’t visited the other three studios.
Three sets of hands and eyes check this test panel.
The WGS crew also spent a good deal of time discussing test panels that came out of the kiln for a public art commission they are working on for a store in Bethesda, MD. After a quick report on two show openings attended over the weekend, the last part of the meeting focused on conversation about pieces that each of them are working on individually.
This is the business of art fully charged. For Tim, Erwin and Michael, the studio and school come first and they fit their artwork in when they can.
Still with me? As I said earlier, there are meetings, conversations, schedules to go over, mechanics to figure out and more. . .
Here I am carrying Margaret’s Dirt Drawings out of the Project 4 Gallery.
If I look like I was about to drop them, I was – they were heavy!
I sat in on a meeting at Project 4 Gallery, listening as Margaret Boozer, fellow Red Dirt Studios artist J. J. McCracken and gallery director Brittany Yam set the date and scope for a Spring 2012 show and later discussed an upcoming proposal for a public art commission.
From there we delivered a piece Margaret donated to next month’s gala at Washington Project for the Arts and then on to take a second look at a building nearby where RDS will be completing four projects in the lobby. We rounded out the day (after lunch at Busboys and Poets) with a quick visit to see one of her installations in the city.
Moving on to Flux Studios and Ani Kasten Ceramics, the tasks at hand were similar – I attended a meeting at Flux with three of the studio’s artists about a collaborative piece for a local show, watched Laurel Lukaszewski assemble one of her extruded coil sculptures that will be part of an upcoming solo show in Norfolk Virginia (she is trying to streamline the packing and installation process, so this was a dry run), scanned dozens of images for a presentation Novie Trump will be making later this month, watched a photographer shoot images of Ani’s sculptures and helped Ani finish packing the last of her pieces that will be shipped out to New England for a show – she spent two full days building boxes, packing, weighing and labeling the work.
Are you bored yet? Surprised? Disillusioned? Or does this very tiny glimpse give you a new appreciation for the amount of time, energy and resources that actually go into a piece of art that you purchase?
This post is meant to be part of a larger dialogue about about what it takes to devote your life to making art; about what kind of support is necessary to nurture artistic maturity; about how as a society, we value (or don’t value) art and the making of art. Your thoughts, responses, and input are always welcome and appreciated.
{click image below to watch slide show}
SUCH a great post. a mind for business is what separates successful artists from starving ones…
Thought-provoking and articulate article. For those of us who are working artists, we find the balance somehow, more or less gracefully: each of us has our own criteria for how much inspired creative flow in the making itself, and how much inspired creative action applied to our business. Long ago I ran across a saying, in big messy block letters photocopied over and over…. ‘ART IS A DIRTY JOB BUT SOMEBODY HAS TO DO IT’. The imperative to create takes many forms.
My friend Mark (with whom I went to glass school) used to carry THAT VERY image in his wallet. It was from a matchbook cover in the 80ties. We’d laugh bitterly at how the dollar amounts were just about right…