How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist: Selling Yourself Without Selling Your Soul - Softcover

Michels, Caroll

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805006044 ISBN 13: 9780805006049

Publisher: Holt Paperbacks, 1988

Synopsis

Covers public relations, exhibitions, art dealers, rejection, grants, other sources of income, insurance, resumes, and motivation

About this title

About the Author:

Caroll Michels is a successful sculptor whose artwork has been exhibited in museums worldwide, and she has worked as a career coach on behalf of thousands of artists since 1978. She lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist
1Launching or Relaunching Your Career: Overcoming Career BlocksAs an artist you have experienced the exuberance of creating something you like, which might be the culmination of a direction in your work or might articulate something new. It felt good. The goodness screamed out. You mastered and controlled. The power felt good. Your expectations were rewarded.However, producing something you like and believe in does not resolve the question of how to use your creation to survive and prosper. For artists, the question is particularly complex because of the difference between survival and prosperity as defined by artists and those in other professions. For an artist, survival often means barebones existence; prosperity may be keeping your head above water. In other professions, survival is keeping your head above water; prosperity is success.Being an artist means believing you are an artist; making a living as an artist requires mastering many of the skills and professional attitudes shared by successful self-employed persons engaged in other occupations. Equally important, it is necessary to overcome the career blocks that are particular and indigenous to the fine-arts field.In the book A Life in the Arts: Practical Guidance and Inspiration for Creative & Performing Artists, the author and psychotherapist Dr. Eric Maisel pinpoints twenty types of creative blocks that artists often experience:Blocks from parental voices, personality blocks, personality trait blocks, self-censorship, self-criticism, world criticism, world-wariness, existential blocks, conflicts between life and art, fatigue, pressure paralysis, environmental blocks, social blocks, skill deficits, myths and idealizations, self-abuse, anxieties, depression, and incubation and fallow periods.1Although these problems and limitations are presented as creative blocks, they are the very same obstacles that encumber career development.REJECTING THE MYTH OF THE ARTISTOver many years our society has created a myth about what it means to be an artist. Perpetuated consciously and subconsciously by artists and nonartists, this myth is based on trading off many of the things that other people value for the right to be an artist.For example, the myth tells us that struggle, complexity, and suffering are necessary components of creativity, and without these key elements an artist will stagnate. The myth tells us that the desire for comfortable lives and financial success will ultimately poison and distort art, that a true artist is concerned only with art and anyone else is a dilettante. The myth tells us that real artists do not discover themselves. Other people do, preferably when the artist is dead!The myth warns us about selling out, although the majority of artists who are concerned about this issue are not in a position to sell out, nor are they quite sure what it means.The myth says that artists are expected to be flamboyant, provocative, moody, weird, or antisocial. Writer and social critic Tom Wolfe suggests that this stereotyped image of the artist was formed in the nineteenth century, based on the style and behavior of writer and art critic Théophile Gautier. Wolfe writes:[W]ith Gautier's own red vests, black scarves, crazy hats, outrageous pronouncements, huge thirsts, and ravenous groin ... the modern picture of The Artist began to form: the poor but free spirit, plebeian but aspiring only to be classless, to cut himself forever free from the bonds of the greedy and hypocritical bourgeoisie,to be whatever the fat burghers feared most, to cross the line wherever they drew it, to look at the world in a way they couldn't see, to be high, live low, stay young forever--in short, to be the bohemian.2Many of the basic problems of artists trying to enter the art world and sustain a career there are created by their feelings of insecurity and helplessness. There is a direct correlation between how artists see themselves and where art-world power is currently centered. For example, the term stable of artists is commonly and casually used by both artists and dealers alike. It refers to the artists who are represented by a gallery, but it implies much more, and, unfortunately, as a metaphor it works well. It suggests that artists are like herds of animals that need to be contained in an environment where their master can control their lives. Starving artist is another demeaning and frequently used phrase that contributes to the stereotypical image of how artists are perceived and how they see themselves. The lingo is used in advertising, on Web sites, in URL titles, and in products, and even as the name of art galleries.PERCEIVING "FINE ARTIST" AS A VALID PROFESSIONIn our society, there is a myth that suggests that to be antibourgeois, a free spirit, and classless, one should not have an occupation. The myth implies that being an artist is a state of mind and casts great doubts on whether being an artist is a valid profession.Seeds of doubt suggesting that fine art is not a valid occupation are planted and reinforced, for example, by educators who, under the guise of providing career advice, emphasize alternatives to fine art and steer students into applied arts fields. Medical and fashion illustration, set design, graphic design, industrial design, and commercial photography are viewed as viable alternatives to painting, sculpture, and fine-art photography. Students in art school are encouraged to take a lot of education courses to have something to fall back on. If we were educated to believe that being a fine artist is a valid profession, there would be fewer artists needing anoccupational backup. Has a law student ever been advised to take a lot of education courses to have something to fall back on?Although the cautious advice given to artists comes from people who are trying to be helpful, it is advice based on other people's experiences, as well as on hearsay and myths. Other people's reality should not be your reality, nor can it be.Believing in other people's perceptions is a disastrous trap. However, artists sometimes find it attractive, hoping that it can be a shortcut on the road to success or shield them from confrontations. Ralph Charell, author of How to Make Things Go Your Way, observes:If you filter the perceptions you receive through mediators, you deprive yourself of a direct encounter with the event itself. The more you come to depend on the perceptions and opinions of others, the less of yourself you are able to put into the equations of various experiences of your own life. Soon, if the process continues, your life becomes dim and pale and you are eventually at sea, tossed and buffeted, alone under a starless sky, without an internal compass of your own.3DUAL CAREERS AND LOW-INCOME EXPECTATIONSArt educator Ronald H. Silverman clearly sees the correlation between how artists are viewed as low-income producers and the low priority art is assigned in school curriculums. Pointing out that substantial evidence indicates that more than 90 percent of school-age children do not connect art with a means of acquiring money or earning a living, Silverman goes on to say:While these figures may reflect pervasive cultural attitudes which stereotype artists as starving Bohemians, they may also be the consequence of current art education practices. Teachers are either ignoring the economic impact of the arts or they are telling their students that an interest in art has little if any economic career implications. Although these approaches may be the honest view of well-intended teachers, they do not square with thefacts. They may also be the key deterrent to art becoming a part of the basic school curriculum.4Low expectations of artists' earning power have given rise to the practice of dual careers. While few question its symbolic implications, the concept of dual careers for artists is a widely accepted norm that is readily encouraged and propagated. For example, the academic dean of an art college condones the practice of dual careers:We are teaching [artists] that having a dual career does not necessarily mean that you make less art. After all, what's the point of having all your time free to make art if you have no money for materials and supplies? This no longer means that artists have to wait on tables. There are many more opportunities and diverse choices for the artist today than ever before. They may go into arts administration or arts-related services.5The phrase dual career is a euphemism for holding two jobs, and under the work ethic of many cultures and religions it is emblematic of fortitude, stamina, dedication, and responsibility. But in reality, and in most cases, anyone engaged in a dual career for any length of time understands that it creates a life-style of frustration, confusion, stress, chaos, exhaustion, and guilt.INSUFFICIENT TRAINING OF FINE ARTISTSEven when students persevere and select fine arts against all odds, they may enter their careers questioning the propriety of earning a living as a fine artist. Moreover, they usually haven't the foggiest notion of how to begin.The late artist and author Jo Hanson believed thatartists are set up for difficult career adjustments by the omissions from art education, and by the self-image projected through the art sub-culture that discourages, and even scorns, attention to business management and competence in it. In attitudes and preparation, I believe most of us begin with several strikesagainst us. We find, through difficult experience, that we must work our way up to zero to get in a position to go forward. I speculate that "successful" artists are the ones who figured things out early in their careers and could follow a clear line toward their goals.6In previous editions of this book I described my experience in the mid-1980s when the College Art Association held its annual conference in New York City. Responding to an open call for panel discussion topics, I submitted a proposal suggesting that the conference include a panel focusing on the importance of including career management courses in fine-arts college and university curriculums. Although the response to the idea was less than enthusiastic, I did not receive a total bum's rush, and was given fifteen minutes to state my case at a session called "Special Projects," a potpourri of topics not valued enough to warrant panel discussions.Five of the fifteen minutes had to be used to establish my credentials to this particularly credential-conscious audience. With a limited time allotment I managed to make the point that hundreds of students are being graduated each year ill-equipped to handle the realities of life after art school or navigate the maze of confusion surrounding the art world.There was polite clapping, and a few members of the audience later told me they were in agreement with my position. But it was apparent that career courses for fine artists were not on most educators' list of priorities.In many schools even the mention of "career" and "life after school" is discouraged--or, as one recent graduate of an art school in an Ivy League university complained, "My teachers made me feel guilty when I asked questions that were in any way related to the business aspect of art or how to go about finding a gallery. I was chastised for admitting that I was concerned about making a living from photography."Some academics who discourage career advice at the college level believe that students should be sheltered from real-life survival issues while in school. But many fine-arts faculty members are opposed to career development courses for selfish and self-servingreasons: they are aware that today's student artists will become tomorrow's practicing artists, and eventually artists with whom they will compete for gallery, museum, and press attention, so there is much resistance to imparting any sort of information that could possibly give these future peers a career edge or jeopardize their own pecking order in the art world. Even long after I started doing artist career development workshops at colleges and universities, my presence was so threatening that I was considered a "witch"--and not a good witch! Invitations to conduct workshops were generally extended by well-intentioned career counselors at academic institutions who would enthusiastically announce my visit to the art department faculty, who in turn chose either not to inform students about the workshop or adamantly suggested that the workshop be boycotted.In 1999, I conducted a workshop at the Savannah College of Art and Design that was organized by a faculty member who had read my book. She rallied all of her students to attend the workshop and persuaded a few other faculty members to urge their students to attend. Word quickly spread to the college career counselors about the success of the workshop, and a few years later they invited me back for a repeat performance. However, the faculty member who had enthusiastically organized the original workshop had left the college. Without the support of the faculty, and without exaggeration, in the morning session only a handful of students attended, and in the afternoon session only one student showed up!Career development information is not only opposed by academia for self-serving reasons, but it has also been used as a scapegoat to explain the ills of the art world. For example, the book Has Modernism Failed? by Suzi Gablik contains a reprint of a brochure announcing a series of workshops called "The Business of Art and the Artist," sponsored by the Maryland Summer Institute for the Creative and Performing Arts, the University of Maryland, and the U.S. Small Business Administration. Gablik concludes that the workshop wasanother telling example of how much career progress, even in art, now depends on making organizational values an intrinsicpart of one's life ... . The assumption is that success in the higher corporate world of art requires training in the techniques of business administration, and it leaves no doubt that the principles and practices of corporate management now produce the psychological model shaping even the lives of artists.7The development of a program on survival skills for artists--one that covers such topics as health hazards, contracts, copyright, estate planning, insurance, and record keeping--is hardly an indication that artists are motivated by corporate institutional and organizational values. But Gablik is not the only misguided individual who believes in the myth that it is far nobler for artists to drive a cab to support their art than to derive a living from creating art!SCHOOLS THAT ADDRESS REAL-LIFE ISSUESMore and more headway is being made to help fine-art students prepare for the transition from art school to real life.In 1996, when I was preparing the fourth edition of this book, I contacted 156 schools in the United States with four-year fine-art programs, most of which were accredited members of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. A letter was sent to each school to inquire whether a required or elected credit or noncredit course or workshop was offered on professional practices and...

About this edition

• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0805006044
• ISBN 13: 9780805006049
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 384