Making a Living (eventually)

Journal Entry: September 1, 2022

wall in East Berlin - 2005 - #028 - 8.25 x 11 inches - photograph

Considering intellectual property, creatives are an endless source of potential wealth and prosperity. We often do not think of what we do in this way because the intellectual property that we generate in our minds and through our hands is not often brought to market. For artists, our work flows freely like water and it can be difficult imaging ‘privatizing’ our internal resources like companies bottle water. The water is free, the cost of bringing the water in a bottle to your hand so that you can drink it is where all of the production and distribution costs and profits are at.

While we usually are not making constant calculations related to the value of our thoughts, imaginings, jotting down of ideas, etc. there is value in it if that value can be contextualized in a marketplace. There are various markets/businesses where people sitting around contemplating solutions for problems or dreaming up new ideas are well paid for the effort such as lawyers, business consultants, engineers, scientists, researchers, programmers, product designers, etc. There are also established ways for people’s work to be protected by copyrights and patents.

wall in East Berlin - 2005 - #030 - photograph

We as artists tend to underestimate the value of our time and creativity because we do not think of it with a business mindset. Traditionally, working in the arts is considered a leisure activity. Hence, a business mindset among artists often takes a back seat since it is a private, individual activity rather than a manufacturing company. But artists are continually manufacturing art objects of some sort, usually – and rightly so – following a private, individual creative impulse rather than creating ‘products’ for a market. The idea of just making marketable products seems to be the antithesis to the whole point of practicing an art which is for personal exploration and expression.

However, taking into account there is a collector market out there, there is no reason not to work in a way that will allow the artist to capitalize on that demand should he/she want to. The way to think about this in my opinion is to design how you work in a way that is friendly to addressing that demand. The primary suggestion here is to work in a way and with materials that, as if by accident, yield finished objects that you are willing to exhibit and sell. Contrast this to working in a way that has no consideration to ever exhibit or sell anything. For instance, drawing in the sand on a beach that will quickly disappear with the next wave or on a chalk board that you are constantly erasing or on a dinner napkin that you wad up and throw away when you scrape your plate into the trashcan.

A flea market stall in Paris - 2005

You could have some life philosophy in which this is the most true way to be an artist, just stacking some rocks in the woods or arranging trash in an alley. However, if it is your intention to have a self-sustaining creative lifestyle, this needs to be a consideration that is only a matter of designing how you are going to capture your creativity in a relatively permanent and organized form.

Even if you are an artist who likes to work with alternate or unusual materials, processes of decay,  distress and destruction like, lets say: the Swiss artist Dieter Roth or before him the collage artist Kurt Schwitters. It is still possible to make the works in a way that can be relatively permanent, collectible objects.

Myself, I work with collage materials, often deeply distressed materials that might even be moldy but I usually do it in such a way that they are mounted on 300LB watercolor paper and framed for exhibition. I have endless boxes of collage material that, in itself, has no value at all. It is in fact, trash picked up from the streets or torn from walls. But with the addition of creative effort it becomes intellectual property, a work of art. Since, over the years, I have developed a market or following, I can sell the work eventually for a price that I am willing to let go of it. I would rather keep them all, but what good does it do me to hold onto everything when I don’t have time to look at it? It just otherwise sits in the dark in stacks in drawers. Why not share it and at the same time create enough income to live a comfortable life?

I know, for myself, if I had no intention to exhibit and sell my works, I would not even bother to finish them. For my own artistic purposes, I might be perfectly happy just to take a work far enough to get a feel for how it would look when finished. But if you are keeping in mind that others will eventually look at and study it, then it feels right to me to be considerate and take the time to finish your thought by completing the work. Hence at this point I don’t like to leave loose ends or things unfinished, but I don’t like to force them to the finish either. Sometimes you want to think about it for a while.

I have kept some paintings in a state of process for as long as 20 years where I work on it here and there as I work out the idea. I might think of something else I want to do to it or change my mind and paint something out. But it would make me nervous and unsettled if all of my work were in a constant open state and never completed or at least that I decide it is complete. You have to find the stopping point and move on to the next thing.

Anyway, the main subject I wanted to talk about is the idea about making a living as an artist. Since artworks can be whatever price you put on them (unlike most other things) and that someone will eventually pay for it, an artist needs to work out how much income one needs to live and to function as an artist. I used to tell people jokingly that if I am not going to sell something, I might as well not sell it for a lot of money. Which means, don’t undersell yourself or your work even if prospects seem bleak at the moment. The business side of art is a long game. It usually does not yield fast results. It can happen, but it is not common. So that means you might make art for a long time and have a lot of works completed before you ever start figuring out how to sell something and that’s fine. But looking forward, the works you have now might not find a market for 20 years.

In my case, since I keep my work well organized, I know with certainty that I am still selling artworks I made 10, 20 or 30 years ago! So, assuming you are still making art 30 years from now, everything you didn’t sell early on is still in play long into the future and at much higher prices that when you first made them and you will be glad you still have it to offer. How do you take it that far into the future assuming you will still be working? Planning for it, taking care of it, archiving it as you go. You are your own museum.

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