Booktip: How to Survive & Prosper as an Artist
A year or so ago I bought “How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist” by Caroll Michels. The author is a sculptor, but also an artist career coach living in East Hampton, NY. The book talks about establishing prices for your work, attracting attention to your work and building immunity to rejection (there’ll be another post about that one soon…!).
I was prepared for a book that wouldn’t sugar-coat anything. However, not only does it do away with the notion that art is only art when you’re starving, it has some REALLY good advice on how to market yourself as an artist.
Especially helpful to me was the section about non-gallery spaces like bank lobbies or coffee shops. While that may sound like it’s for people that aren’t serious about their art or the losers that can’t get in with a dealer or a gallery, I would seriously dispute that.
What good is visual art if nobody sees it? Is it better to have a rotating exhibition at your house or to have some of that hanging at – yes – a coffee shop? I came to photography outside of art school, and I’m proud to say that what I have I have worked hard for and primarily taught myself. Yes, I lack the connections I would have forged had I taken another route. It’s not an issue for me, though. DIY photography, if that’s a word for it, is nothing to be ashamed of.
Neither am I ashamed that I’m looking at non-gallery spaces first and foremost. Will that help me sell stuff? Maybe not, b/c people tend to get sticker shock (another post in the making!) or want the photograph including the frame for half the price or are simply not there to buy anything. Yet, I’ve had more people talk to me about the stuff I’ve had hanging at public places like that than I would have thought.
I’m not saying galleries are not important, and I’ll definitely be working on establishing relationships there, too. What I’m saying is that the most important thing for me is that people get to see my photos, no matter where they hang. Portraits, still life, street photography alike.
