Art to Inbox Week XIX - Breaking Down Myths about Artists, Part I
Hi Friends! Happy Monday.
Let’s break down some myths about professional artists working in 2021.
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The why
Aix is getting its annual influx of new teachers and students this fall and I find myself talking more and more about being an artist. It can be fun, of course! I love my work and talking about it brings me a lot of joy (and hopefully some joy to those listening, although, I have been known to ramble about Google Ads and Drop-Shipping).
That being said, after about four years of pursuing art as my career, I have compiled a long list of frustrating and exhausting responses to “What do you do?”, “I am an artist”. From the slightly annoying to the downright disheartening, these are some things I often hear:
“Do you have other jobs? How do you make a living?”
“Oh, nice! Where do you show, what galleries? Tell me when your next show is!”
“It seems like it would be easier if you had a real job and did art on the side.”
“You should do graphic design! I can see that being more reliable.”
“Have you seen that one gallery? You should go talk to them.”
“Oh, you’re living the dream! Painting all day and doing what you love, you’ve got it made.”
Orange & Blue
Nude Paintings on Paper
From my latest class, Saturday 18 Sept.
2021
When does the loving encouragement we show our kids to make art turn into judgments about starving artists who die poor?
Being an artist is by no means an easy career path. I am incredibly lucky and grateful to have had significant financial support from my family and friends over the years. Still, it is my honest, steadfast opinion that if we could reverse the outdated, detrimental stereotypes about starving artists never making it work, that art is not a real career, or that art is not a worthy professional pursuit, artists would find success much more easily, gaining funding, support, and collaborations in diverse sectors.
It is illogical that we put so much trust, joy and emphasis on art education for kids - sending them to camps and lessons, letting their creativity flow and encouraging them to make art - but then do not support them as career seeking adults during the job building process. Where did all that love for the arts get cut off?
Let’s take a look at the first four major myths and the facts that can help clarify the reality.
Myth #1
Artists cannot make a decent living, it is not a well-paid professional career.
The most pervasive myth of all, this continues to be the base view of fine artists - that art cannot support them, that it is not a real career and that successful artists have to have other, “real” jobs.
As with all small business, financial success can take years. It is the same for artists running their creative businesses, in extremely diverse forms. Growth takes time, and artists, like business owners can likely need investors or investments, help from family and friends, loans, and yes, often other jobs for support.
For some reference, according to the bureau of labor statics in the U.S., artists and craftspeople made almost $50,000 average salary in 2020. This is around the same for public school teachers in America, depending on the school (another place where we could use a lot more funding, but that’s another article). This may seem like a low-end salary for Americans, but keep in mind that unlike some salaried jobs which may only increase 2-5% a year and have a definite maximum that can be obtained over a lifetime, artists are constantly increasing their art worth. The value of their art can increase 100’s of percentages over a lifetime.
Further, the one salary income format is rapidly disintegrating, not only for entrepreneurs. Artists and creatives are in the best position to take advantage of multiple income streams in their businesses. Whereas a “lower-salaried” worker may end out their career with a maximum salary of around $70,000 or less after working 30 years, artists can start making six and seven figures on their various art forms in just a decade, depending on their audience, growth, value of their work, collectors, business model, etc. The risk and work upfront can be much higher, but the pay off has quite literally no ceiling.
TRUTH #1
Professional Artists are in a position for enormous growth in their careers, just like any small business, but with the added significant leverage of being able to take advantage of new and expanding sources of multiple creative income streams outside of the old model of only selling through galleries. Some of these include third party product drop-shipping, paid collaborations, third party seller websites, Etsy, Patreon, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Affiliate schemes, natural increase in art value, Google Ad Money on Blogs, etc.
Myth #2
Professional artists have to show at galleries to be significant.
It is completely unnecessary to show at galleries to “make it” as an artist in 2021. This is a narrow and outdated notion of how artists used to have to do business when there was no social media, easy website design, drop-shipping companies for prints, incredibly simple ways to show work (Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) and a thousand companies looking to collaborate with artists outside the realm of fine art at galleries.
There are many reasons that successful artists choose to not or cannot show at galleries in 2021:
Gallery Commission Cut: Galleries generally take 50%, 60% and sometimes more of a commission for selling artists’ work. For some artists, this is a good trade off as it allows the artists to focus completely on their work and not have to worry about selling (that is, if the gallery is good enough at selling their art!). For others, this is a very good reason to not go to galleries and try selling and marketing their own work, especially if they have a passion for social media, photography, and growing their audience.
Payment upfront: most people not in the art world do not know this, but if you are an emerging artists trying to make connections with galleries, it’s likely that many of the shows you will be accepted to are “pay upfront” type shows. This type of show may accept more applicants but only because they run their show off the artist’s payment. These can be great if you have the funds for investing, but the major downside is that artists already spend a lot of money preparing their work to be show ready - a fee sometimes as high as $200-300 just to show work can be very prohibitive.
Application Fees: Again, most people might now know this but in order to even apply for a lot of gallery open calls, there is usually an application fee. These can range from $10-$75 and more. Again, unless you have the fortune of making a close connection with a gallery right out of art school or early in your career, these are the shows which can seem like the only way into galleries.
Closed Gallery Culture: Many galleries which do not ask for payment for open call shows or application fees can have a very closed culture. Does this mean artists can never make connections with them? No. However, it is important to note that walking into a gallery and showing the owner your work very generally does not get you representation. It can take years of establishing your practice and relationships with galleries (it’s really all about who you know, after all), to gain representation by a gallery. Further, If you have worked at a gallery you will know how insanely competitive and personal this process is - galleries may sift through hundreds of emails a day of artists sending their work.
Prohibitive Upfront Costs to Show Work: For some artists who work on paper, mixed media or anything besides basically a canvas you can hang on the wall, the upfront costs for framing your art and making it gallery presentable can by huge. Just for a reference, I recently showed around 12 pieces for a show I self-curated this summer and the framing for all my pieces cost easily over $500, and that only included two larger pieces with several small ones. As much as cutting costs and being thrifty about frames is smart, ultimately, if you want to show gallery presentable work you have to frame professionally. If you have tons of gallery ready work but not enough funds to present them to galleries, that can be another block in approaching and gaining representation.
No Guarantee of Selling Work: Say an artist does gain representation, shows some work, can handle the upfront costs, and has enough gallery “showable” work in the first place, there is still no guarantee that work sitting at a gallery will see the right buyer or sell. Waiting for payment from work shown at galleries can be very inconsistent. The gallery model is dying, and with so many other options for artists to make more consistent income with less overhead, it’s easy to see why successful artists are finding their success in other arenas.
FACT #2
Being represented by galleries and showing at galleries is not the only way to gain success as an artist, and is certainly not the best for all artists. Gaining representation at a gallery can take years of approaching and presenting work time and time again. It can be incredibly expensive upfront and some artists do not work in easily gallery friendly forms.
MYTH #3
Artists have to have a Bachelor or Master in Fine Art to be successful in the art world.
I remember thinking during my first week at Tulane University back in 2010 about what I should have done for my majors. I was funded on a full-ride military scholarship from the Navy so my majors were set to science or engineering. I had no conception of the art world at the time but my dream idea was to pursue a Bachelor in Fine Art and Tulane Business School. I could imagine how incredibly smart it would be to train both in fine art and business.
Going to art school is certainly an amazing practice. It can give students the space and time they need to develop their actual artwork, which is hard to come by once you start working at a full-time job or juggling lots of part-time jobs in order to supplement your budding creative business.
However, it is not necessary to have gone to art school to be a successful artist. Every artist I have spoken to after their master degree has almost no idea how to jump into actually selling their art. The focus on an actual career after is sadly lacking in most undergraduate and master programs.
Most programs (masters included) do not address the real world situations which artists face as entrepreneurs and with increased ease of learning directly from other artists on their platforms (i.e. Emily Jeffords, Laurie Anne Art, etc.) it is making more and more sense for artists to go back to a more ateliers, direct tutor to student style of learning, and self-led continued education outside of formal academies.
Just one excellent example (and there are MANY) from my lovely New Orleans is the incredible artist Ashley Longshore. Longshore is a household name in New Orleans and has made her career on the basis of having never been to art school, famously. When I first started following Ashley she was already gaining a huge following on Instagram and I believe was one of the first artists to become famous off the app. Although Longshore did show at galleries, her main fame came from Instagram. Now she’s a well-established, 7-figure making artist with her own gallery uptown on Magazine street who shows all over the world.
TRUTH #3
University or College Art School does not necessarily spell success for artists. Many successful artists working in 2021 never went to art school; other forms of learning (online, one-on-one, continued education) are becoming more relevant and helpful to career artists.
Myth #4
Artists spend all their time drawing, painting, and creating art so they must have it “made” or be living “the dream”.
Career artists are entrepreneurs. They do not create art for leisure. They are not hobbyists who paint only for fun and relaxation. This is their chosen career and the idea that they paint, draw, create and relax all day creating is extremely misrepresentative of the amount of dedicated work which goes into being a professional artist.
Currently, and this will be different for all artists, about 10% of my total time and energy is spent actually drawing and painting. I spend about 90% of my work week, and most weekends, doing administrative tasks that are building my businesses and selling my art so that I can one day confidently create art for most of my working hours. Even for artists represented by galleries, there is a huge amount of administration that has to happen to continue growing one’s career, or even just to keep it stable.
A list of some of the things artists might do in a day that are not painting, drawing or creating art:
Photography. Photographing and editing artwork: for listings and prints, style shots of my studio weekly, and other photography for marketing and promoting on Instagram and my website.
Listings. Creating listings: uploading photos to listings, creating the text, formatting, pricing and links for listings.
Applications. Writing applications for residencies and open calls.
Licensing Collaborations. Approaching businesses online or in person, preparing and sending art portfolios out for collaborations.
Research. Researching companies, galleries and residencies to apply for and contact.
Clients. Messaging, scheduling answering questions and building connections with clients on Instagram, email, and in person.
Framing. Taking art to get framed, framing art in studio, picking up art, photographing and cataloging framed art.
Shipping and Orders. Wrapping, packaging, writing handwritten notes, preparing information and business cards and physically shipping sold art and art for exhibitions.
Social Media. Posting on Instagram and other socials as well as making stories, reels and videos to promote artwork.
Continued Education. Taking continuing education classes, watching workshops, reading articles and books about art and business, and participating in collectives online.
Emails. Writing and preparing subscriber emails (like this one!)
Blogging. Writing blogs, preparing and proposing affiliates to companies, ordering affiliate materials to photograph and market.
Third Party Company Orders. Taking print orders and fulfilling them on third party print sites (e.g. Etsy).
Organizing. Scheduling and considering collection launches, marketing launches and strategies for growth with how to implement steps.
Other work. Working at other part time jobs.
Major Take-Aways:
Changing our outdated beliefs about the “starving artist” stereotype could significantly help artists gain success earlier on in their education and careers.
Fine Art is a valid and worthy profession with increasing opportunities for financial success.
Relevant and helpful forms of art school are rapidly changing, leaving Bachelor and Master programs behind.
There has never been an easier time to “make it” as an artist thanks to social media and small business resources.
Career artists do not all “have it made” just because they practice art, a form of leisure for non-professional artists.
Are you curious about what a typical day might look like for a professional artist?
*Please note
This article is not intended to say that every artist needs to be a “Career Artist” to be successful. Every artist has to define their version of success. I would argue that not every artist should be a creative entrepreneur and that does not make their art worse or less worthy.
Secondly, I do not wish to downplay in any way the significant financial help I have received from my family (and my gratitude to them) in order to pursue this career as well as multiple other side jobs through the years to supplement my income - which I still work!
It is my goal in these articles not to make being a professional artist sound viable to everyone, but to make it known that the potential for art business is very much alive and accessible for dedicated artists, and that our detrimental ideas about starving artists make it even more difficult for artists to gain support and success.