for love or money
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 10:21AM The dust and blood have settled from exhibiting at the Artist Project and as i examine the bruises thought i'd blather about the experience of throwing your work out there to the public. Probably the only occupation where you are worth more dead than alive, living as an artist is a constant state of feast or famine ... not for all artists of course... some sip wine at fancy galas (thank you S Harper) on a regular basis but i would guess that accounts for about 5-10%...the rest of us are in the trenches. Here is the math on my most recent roll of the dice... sales $250 expenses...booth $950, electricity for booth $105, parking $27, rental car $88, supplies $150, cards $30, food $80...
When i look at the figures i get why people often exclaim "You make a living at this" ... maybe i don't. If i had a quarter for every smile and compliment received perhaps...Hey wait a minute! A donate button...can you spare .25 if I made you smile, or caused the wings of inspiration to flutter. Is displaying art in public any different than busking? Much the same except no hat to pass around. Click on the donate button if you want to drop a quarter in the bucket.
Reader Comments (1)
I just read your comments about the Artist Project, Kevin. It was a beautiful show and you were in great company and that very same company should feel good and proud to count you among their number. As far as being in the trenches, well, this topic should exhaust itself in a few hundred years. This is a very introspective time of year, isn't it? Christmas is over and there aren't a lot of shows till late in the spring and somehow we have to survive till then. But it's also the time of year for some of the worlds great auction houses to have their seasonal auctions. And with the beat of a butterflies wings in the Amazon, our livelihood is affected by how many millions they can get for a piece of art that may or may not be beautiful, that may or may not have been the artist's best work, that may or may not hold any interest whatsoever except for the fact that it may or may not be rare.
February and March offer up a time for thought and wonder. I've been to your studio. It looks nothing like a famine and everything like a feast. The groaning boards of well arranged parts and pieces look like the most amazing banquet set not for emperors and diplomats, but for the countless number of people who have bought and now own one or more of your amazing pieces. And if I were to find something that all those people have in common I would take a guess and say that they looked at your work and said "That is So Cool!" And we artists may or may not have anything in common with all the dead artists whose work is bringing millions of dollars to living collectors, but I do know that February and March is a good time to take chances with what your working on and take things a little further and consult all those odd little note books and sketch books and idea books and get to work on all those things that make our jaws drop just a little bit further everytime we see something new of Kevin Maclean's. Have a good March Break, Kevin