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| group photo |
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| bunny and seahorse |
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| cocker spaniel puppy wearing a santa hat, and hermit crab |
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| A buck (great for the hunter who didn't shoot one during hunting season) and a tortoise |
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| snow goose and ermine |
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| Chickens, I'll be making a lot of these I think! |
It's worth pointing out that although I've devoted myself full time to my creative pursuits since quitting my last full time biology job in 2005, I can't honestly say I make a living as an artist, rather my husband and I live frugally off the income from a few residential rental properties we own. After looking through my 2011/2012 expenses I've realized my art practice is something I need to start keeping an eye on.
There have been a few artists I've spoken to lately who have mentioned they're lucky if they 'break even'. I'm assuming this just means they pay for their art supplies. Not sure if this would include gas, mileage and lunch when dropping off work and going to openings, power bills for running studios and kilns, and any sort of dollar amount for one's time. It begs the question of how to avoid 'working for free'. I love sculpting!! but I also would love to make more money than what I spend on doing it! Mainly because I've been out of the work force for so long that I'm pretty sure I'm unemployable, also because I think it's only fair. I'm a manufacturer, offering people the opportunity to purchase things that were locally, lovingly made.
Lots of my work has sold over the years, but my main problem to date, I think, is that a shop will sell something of mine, and I'll think, 'woohoo! a sale!' and believe that I've made x amount of dollars off that piece. Lately I've realized that my earnings get watered down by the time and materials tied up in all the unsold pieces sitting in storage at venues or in my kiln shed.
So, what to do about it?
Fortunately, I've noticed something. Whenever I go that 'extra mile' on a piece, do a little extra detail work, or it's something I was just noodling around with having fun in my studio, and decide, oh, it's not serious so I'll put a reasonable price on it, it tends to be the first thing that sells. It's worth noting that these are pieces where I tend to just stop caring and am fully 'playing'. Unlike the times where I get serious, turn myself into a machine, and try to crank out a bunch of objects that I think will sell (although those things will sell too, just not as quickly).
This is good news, seeing as the reason why I decided to attempt a career as an artist in the first place was to see if I could get paid for doing what I love all day. It's a good reminder to try to put 'the love' back into my sculptures, because that's really the advantage I can offer to consumers, when they have the choice between buying something I've made versus something that came from a foreign factory. I'm sure foreign child wage slaves don't get the luxury of lounging on their studio couch binge watching "Glee" while whittling away the last offending flecks of clay from the insides of the chicken christmas ornament they're working on, knowing they can pop downstairs for more tea or snacks, or outside for a walk as needed.
I've also had the experience of being 'profitable' without even realizing it at the time. In the autumn of 2005 I was freshly back from working on a community art event in Taiwan, and full of creative energy. That's when I began making silly looking papier mache animals with santa hats on them. I called them "Merry Creatures" and gave them names, like "Marian the Christmas Daschund" "Ned the Christmas Cobra" "Steve the Christmas Penguin" etc. I took them up to the Paper Umbrella in Regina, and they sold the first few for me, for $9 each minus a 30% commission. I was so pleased that they had started to sell that by Christmas I'd made (and they sold) about 50, and my price was up to $15 each by Christmas 2005, and $21 each by Christmas 2007. I sold about 150 ornaments over the 3 winters I spent in Regina, plus a few dozen "Pulp Creatures" figurines.
After Christmas 2005 I started Art School where, to my surprise, none of the faculty was interested in my papier mache cottage industry. Since then I've spent thousands on a kiln, wheel, pottery supplies, art school, and only now have I decided, ok, time to make a conscious effort to treat my art as a business. So I've thought a lot of that first Christmas season, selling stuff, not knowing what I was doing, but ironically being quite profitable. It gives me hope that I have a good intuition for making work that is both salable and enjoyable for me to make.
I'm not complaining about having not made a living as an artist yet, the truth is I've never really tried before and have spent a lot of time and expense on fun things including art installations and volunteering for various things. From now on, though, I want to be able to fund these activities through sales of my art. I've never applied for any kind of grants as an artist; mainly because I feel like I've blown through my share of tax dollars as a biologist.
My goal for 2014 (well I'm starting now) is to see if I can earn the equivalent of a minimum wage job. Mininum wage in Nova Scotia is $10.30 per hour. This is just my 2014 goal; eventually I'd like to be earning what I would have as a biologist.
Do I know what I'm doing? Absolutely not, which is why "how to make a living as an artist" is followed by a question mark in the title of this blog post.
But these are things I've decided I'm going to try to help the process:
1. - Photograph everything I make from now on. Would you believe I've sold over 150 "Merry Creatures" and never took a photo of any of them? I wish I had.
2. - Overcome shyness and anxiety with respect to Social Networking. To this end I've already recreated my twitter account (@susanpaczekart) and after a few month long break from facebook plan on logging back on and making a fan page. It's occurred to me that most people are so wrapped up in their own businesses it's silly to worry about promoting mine.
3. - Work smarter. Plan things out so that my kiln is fairly full when I fire it. Make things I love but work in series to cut down on the time that painting glaze or acrylics takes. Plan my trips when I drop work off so I'm making the most out of the gas/mileage. Pay attention to how much time I spend doing various things; like blogging even, so I can be more efficient in my use of time.
4. - Post regular blog posts with pics of my stuff in various stages of progress. I can't justify the time it'd take to post every day but am aiming for at least once /week. I'd also like to include some posts where I ask artists around here what they think about various things.
5. - Make better work! actually if this list was in order of importance, this would be #1. I love Jim Rohn, there's so much great stuff by him on Youtube. One of my favourite quotes:
Don't wish it was easier wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenge wish for more wisdom - Jim Rohn
I feel like time is the one commodity I have in abundance, it doesn't cost me extra dollars, and I'd rather put extra time into a piece and increase the chance it'll sell than end up with boxes of unsold stock.
6. - Don't get sucked into time sucks. This one I've already overcome I think, but when starting out as an artist it's funny how many people think they're doing you a favour by inviting you to donate work to this auction or that fundraiser. "Oh, it'll be great exposure" mmm hmm...
Last fall I did my first 'craft fair' ever, it was for a charity and I'd never been before but I had a feeling it might not go so well. I went anyways for the experience... It took up 17 hours of my husband's and mine's time (34 hours total), once I packed up stuff, loaded the car, driven to the event, set up the table, sat the table, packed everything up and went home. I sold $210 worth of stuff (It wasn't promoted very well, several artists didn't sell a thing), minus $30 for the booth, minus 20% commission on sales, so 210 - 30 - 42 = $138 I made; so not even counting materials and labour to make the items that sold, for just our time at the event we earned $138/34 hours... oh wait, no let's subtract $40 for gas from that... $98/34 hours = $2.88/hr for our time being at the event. This would get diminished by actually factoring in the time and money, firings, etc for the things I fired and sold. I guess my point is before committing to an event, do some research, or visit the year before to make sure it's worth the time. Obviously some things are super fun and social to do even if they make little economic sense, but it's good to know what you're getting into! Brings me to the next point:
7. Mind my own business. I've realized that organizers of other businesses (venues, websites, craft shows) are minding their own business and out to do what's profitable for them. I think the trick might be to look for opportunities where mine may intersect with theirs into a mutually beneficial win/win.
8. Know when to say no. I've realized I don't earn enough for my art practice not to be bliss, and I need to quit making the assumption that every opportunity that comes along is in my best interest. Eg, if I could build a time machine I probably should have said "no" when I was offered a show in a gallery the week after I got married. It made me a nervous wreck in the weeks before and the work I made really sucked.
9. - Quit expecting validation from everyone (friends, family) there are a lot of people who don't really get what I'm trying to accomplish. I've come to realize that's totally fine, and am trying to save all my blah blah blah about art for other artists friends I'm making who want to hear about it. Well my husband still gets an earful but he's a good sport and supportive. By putting more of myself into my art I'm getting plenty of validation from my creations. If that makes any sense.
10. - Learn from like-minded people!! Since moving to Nova Scotia to do the full time art thing I've come across other artists who are pessimistic about the whole topic of making a living as at their trade. Sure, the economy here has been even worse than usual since the Canadian dollar got stronger, and with less tourism. And yes, it seems every artist and her dog seem to be moving to Nova Scotia to hone their craft. When I got back into twitter I've found that for every nay-sayer, there are plenty of great, pro-artists-making-money articles and inspiration on the internet, from all over the world.
That's it for now, this is a post I'll likely revisit and work on (I've already added a couple points since posting).
Here are some links to sites and articles I've found that I really like, I'll probably add to this list over time, if only for a reference for myself. A lot of these posts are by people selling services to artists, but the messages are still positive and affirming.
Artsy Shark
The "Rants" and many many articles in the blog section of The Abundant Artist
This Abundant Artist guest post by Martin Stellar on why artists should tell their stories.
"An Entrepeneur's Vision" Art Business Institute interview with Debra Zeleznik
Art Biz Coach
Paul Klein on How to Succeed as an Artist - this is great!
This is also great:
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