For Artists: The Long Game
The gallery section of my Gallery + Studio.
The gallery is quiet right now so I thought I’d type out some things that have been on my mind. My professional life has included work as an artist, curator and art professor. As such I’ve viewed art from multiple viewpoints, and things do look quite different from each point of view.
I get a lot of questions from aspiring artists. I’ve kicked around ways to share the perspectives I’ve gleaned in some kind of formal structure but nothing has really landed. I don’t want to be another artist on the internet selling systems to artists on how to make a living as an artist. Because the truth is that building an art career takes much time and nurturing. It rarely (unicorn level rare) happens overnight.
When you see artists online who drop a body of work and it sells out quickly, that is likely happening for one or several of these reasons. They (a) have a huge following which has taken years to grow, (b) their work is priced very affordably which means it likely won’t support a full-time living (the math simply doesn’t work), and (c) there is a lot of time and hard work that has gone on behind the scenes that is simply not visible.
In my experience many people who purchase art valued over a certain amount take their time to do so. They follow the artist and get to know the work. They think about how it will enhance their home and life, just like we do with many other types of purchases.
As mentioned, I get a lot of questions about how to do this stuff. This is one of the reasons I have a private consultation option on my website which I call Office Hours. There is no one size fits all answer and the advice I give depends on experience, skill level, professional goals and much more.
Life as an artist is a long game, with many twists and turns. That is the first piece of advice I often what to give.
The second piece of advice I want to give is to get to know art history.
Dive deep. Learn about those who came before us. It’s foundational. It will give not only your art practice rich context, it will enrich your life in general.
So I guess if I were to create a system (which I won’t), it would go like this:
Step 1: Prepare for the long game.
Step 2: Study art history first, or at least alongside your studio practice.
Step 3: Learn to write an artist’s statement, bio, build a website, and take good photos of your art.
Step 4: Share your work. Finding collectors will take some time (see Step 1).
The summer studio area of my Gallery + Studio.