Art Career
- Art Show Advice
- Consignment Contract
- Business Plan
To the artist, Art is a verb, but to everyone else, Art is a noun. You do your Art, but then you have to make a living somehow, ideally selling your Art if you want to be able to keep on doing your art. So how to do that?
If I had a son or daughter who really wanted to be an artist and demonstrated commitment by constantly working on his/her art skills, I would advise him/her to get an MFA from Yale or some other well-ranked college near NYC or LA (not Chicago). Then, spend a lot of time in your city, participate in group shows, get to know as many people as possible and strive to get represented by the most important gallery you can. Who you know and who can help you meet the 'right' people is critically important.
The key is self-promote, self-promote, then be sure and toot and toot your own horn everyday, then self-promote some more. Witness Andy Warhol - he showed up at every important gathering in town for 15 minutes to get his picture taken, working hard to meet people and keep his face and name in the papers.
Keep in mind there are 10,000 artists in each of these metropolises that are competing with you. You have to find a way to be unique and stand out from the crowd. It's not enough to be 'good'. You have to be different as well. Controversial is even better. Witness Andres Serrano and Chris Ofili.
Why? Well, there are two classes of artists and it has nothing to do with how 'good' they are. There is the group of artists who are well-paid, and then there's the other group. It's all about how well-known you are. If you are in NYC or LA and can get well-known and written about in the media, the value of your artwork will go up, you will get placed in important shows and museums, and by the time you are 40 (maybe sooner) you will have money in the bank, an IRA, you can afford to get married and have kids, travel, maybe even have a second home.
What's the alternative? Galleries outside of LA & NYC have a hard time selling important artwork. Landscapes yes, anodyne work yes, but not cutting edge. Rich people will fly to Europe, London, Hawaii to buy their artwork. They want something they can bring home as a trophy. So it's hard to make a living through galleries in the vast sub-continent. Paintings will do best. Your major market will be for the corporate sector. That's why most of the hinterland galleries have a large framing side-business.
One problem with the in-between area of America is that there are a lot of art shows. The middle class shops at art shows, looking for a broad selection and good bargains.
What's an artist to do? Not every artist can live in NYC or LA. The traffic is horrendous, the cost of real estate is prohibitive, hard to find peace and quiet.
Marry someone with money or with a steady reliable job. Then you can do your artwork and not worry so much about the bills.
Get famous doing something else - writer, actor, singer - then move into the arts with all that instant buzz.
Art Shows are one choice and used to be a fairly good choice, until the economy crashed. Now artists are doing more and more shows and making less and less money, driving more, getting exhausted.
Specialize in painting. My painter friends can paint a $5000 canvas in a day, whereas it takes me a month to finish a metal art project priced that high.
Ebay - lots of people selling on Ebay. Ebay is a special skill - you can't just put up one painting. You have to set up a shop with lots of items people can browse through.
Artful Home used to be a good venue, before the people with money got scared of spending it.
Go on-line and represent yourself directly. Learn Dreamweaver, SEO, keywords, html, css, php, email marketing, photoshop, how to get high Google ranking. Do videos, write articles and work hard to get the in-links. That's what I do. But you have to have a head for all that software and coding.
Set up a gallery and sculpture garden and have openings. That's fun and can make some money. On the other hand, if you choose an area that only has a 2-3 month 'season', you will not have much fun or make much money.
Make folk art furniture - easy and fun - I have a friend making $800/day doing that. Anything functional is attractive, especially funky furniture.
Fashion design and jewelry - target women as your customers. Women always need more clothes and jewelry. Many jewelers make $100/hour and up.
Haute Cuisine - this is a great way to be an artist and still make money.
Graffiti artist - self-promote on a city-wide scale while you build your reputation - be sure and watch Exit Through The Gift Shop
Animated CGI films - lots of brilliant artists having fun and doing well financially
Graphic Design - good steady money - Menus, playbills, business cards, postcards, advertising, billboards - generally pays $100+/hour
Commercial photographer - day rates are $500-1000 and up
