From the time PBS gave me the green light to film my production to the actual airing of the special was nearly three and a half years. The project itself included about five separate Action Plans. It seemed there was a new goal related to the project around every turn.
During that time there were a lot of ups and downs related to that particular project. In addition, I also had many other projects going on. Mounting my PBS fundraising efforts alone took a huge amount of emotional and social energy. In addition, I had massive expectations that I carried around in my head the whole time about what the opportunity might mean for my career.
When I reached my fundraising goal, you would have thought I would have felt elated. Instead, I felt incredibly empty and lost. Had I not experienced the feeling before, the very first time I went on a cross country tour and had a similar experience, I would have been convinced I had been struck with clinical depression. Other performers and artists I’ve talked to have experienced the same thing. And how can we not, considering what a huge emotional swing it is to go from performing in front of a huge crowd one day to being alone in your apartment the next. Moving toward a goal and achieving it can often have the same effect, so it helps to plan for it.
From my interview with artist/designer Noah Scalin:
"There’s the job that you to make money and then there’s who you are. I’m not my job. The way that I make a living as a creative person doesn’t define the totality of who I am. A lot of people are surprised that my studio is at home and I work regular business hours (M-F 10-6) For me, if these boundaries are blurred it leads to confusion. Structure allows me to be a part of the business world."
Noah Scalin
Noah Scalin is a blogger, musician, visual artist, author, graphic designer and founder of ALR Designs. Noah’s work at ALR has gained international exposure in over two-dozen books and is frequently featured in design publications which led to the development of a course on socially conscious design for VirginiaCommonwealthUniversity. Noah also founded, SPROUT, a long running community supported agriculture group. Skulls, a book based on his award-winning blog Skull-A-Day, was published in October 2008 by Lark Books. skulladay.blogspot.com
Does your day job give you enough time and energy to not only create, but also market your art consistently each week? If not, there are still some things to consider before you make the jump. If you’re going to have a legitimate art career without a day job, you should, at the very least, plan to:
·work long hours, usually 10 to 15 hours a day seven days a week.
·spend about 65% of your time doing business tasks as opposed to creative tasks.
·devote 3 hours of business promotion time for every hour of creative time.
·spend some of your savings on your start-up costs.
·have an income that isn’t steady or consistent.
·get lonely.
·fight the odds of failing. According to the Small Business Administration 4 out of 5 small businesses fail within five years.
For artists like TV host, Mark Montano, this freedom allows him to spend the majority of his days creating. “I’d say I spend about 12 hours a day creating, says Montano. “It’s what I love so I also feel that when I’m deep in a creative project, it’s a form of active meditation. So, I’m lucky in that aspect. It’s like being a creative monk you could say. I try my best not to get in my own way.”
Mark Montano
Mark Montano is an interior designer, artist, writer and TV personality. Best known as his work on both the Style Network and The Learning Channel: Ten Years Younger, which he hosted, While You Were Out, on which he frequently appears as a designer, and My Celebrity Home where he has been both host and designer. Montano can currently be seen on WE TV's new show, "She's Moving In". Montano is also the author of several books and has a regular column in the teen magazine Cosmo Girl. His latest book is "The Big-Ass Book of Crafts.” www.markmontano.com.
In the early days, before I knew better, I used to hire fellow artists and friends to help me with menial labor. I mean why not, right? They were always willing to help me frame paintings or pick up supplies, especially around the holiday season. It worked out relatively well. They made a few bucks and I didn’t feel as stressed. Besides, it was nice having company in my studio.
When I started needing help marketing my art, I applied the same equation, not realizing that “strapped for cash,” and having “free time,” weren’t the best qualifiers to use for a potential employee. Can you imagine what it would sound like if you applied for a job and during the interview you said, “Well, I need money and I’ve got free time to kill, so I think you should hire me?"
It took a couple of years and a lot of damaged friendships for me to realize that most of my friends just weren’t qualified to act as my art agent or sales representative. Artists and artist-run businesses run into this problem again and again. Qualifications just don’t figure into the equation when hiring.
Hire Out
“Strategically, the idea is that hiring someone will free up time to do the things that only you can do,” says author, Jeri Goldstein.
If the time you’re spending doing menial tasks is taking time away from your ability to bring in larger, money-making gigs, then it may be time to think about hiring someone.
Christina Augello, the producer of the San Francisco International Fringe Festival says, “As a producer of a 4 venue, 2 festival arts complex there are many tasks I am not able or interested in doing. In this case, it has definitely been worth the investment of hiring a managing director and production manager as well as hourly house managing staff. This lets me go home at night when I’m not rehearsing or performing.”
Christina Augello
Christina Augello is a performer actress, arts advocate and founding artistic director of EXIT Theatre and the San Francisco International Fringe Theater Festival. She has performed in the Bay Area for over thirty years and has toured with ensembles and solo shows in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. www.theexit.org.
Knowing that fame is fleeting and seemingly dependant on the winds of fate – here one day gone the next - would you choose fame and the accompanying financial gain or a career that would include the same financial gain spread out over an undetermined amount of time? When the band REM signed a seven record deal with Warner Bros., I remember hearing an interview with lead singer Michael Stipe where he said, “We can basically record musical burps on our next seven albums and it doesn’t matter, we’ve already been paid.”
Sometimes having money takes you out of the struggle that was the impetus for your creative drive too begin with. As renowned personal growth blogger, Steve Pavlina attests, “It’s too easy to become dependent on external funding, and there are always strings attached. What happens if your financial support gets cut off while you’re in the middle of a creative project? I worked hard, sometimes sleeping at my games studio office, but when my funding source was cut off, I was stuck with unfinished projects that never saw the light of day.”
Steve Pavlina
Steve Pavlina is widely recognized as one of the most successful personal development bloggers on the Internet, attracting more than two million monthly readers to his website. He has written more than 700 articles and recorded many audio programs on a broad range of self-help topics, including productivity, relationships, and spirituality. Pavlina has been quoted as an expert by the New York Times, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, theLos Angeles Daily News, Self Magazine, and The Guardian. www.stevepavlina.com.
My friend sold an award winning screenplay two years ago. He still has to borrow money from his parents. I know another artist who has a TV show on a major network. When he went on a national book signing tour, many of the bookstores were empty. Another friend has written her fourth book, one has already been made into a movie. She still lives paycheck to paycheck. From the outside world, each of these artists has “made it.” An award wining screenplay, a television show, a best selling book, yet the marketing efforts never cease.
As PBS producer Paul Roberts confesses, “Marketing your work never stops, it just gets different.”
Not too long ago I listened to Bill Moyers tell an NPR reporter how he was responsible for raising the money for each PBS segment that he filmed. Having to raise the entire PBS budget myself, for my own special, I understood exactly what he was talking about.
It's not enough to just make a great item. You have to market and sell it too. The cycle never stops. Although you may eventually have someone who handles your marketing, accounting, and sales, it will always remain up to you. You’ll have to do it yourself or know enough about it to hire the right person, especially if you want the results you crave. The truth is you have to learn to take on roles which are often out of your comfort zone.
Technology has leveled the playing field in terms of what I call personal image transportation or more precisely how artists package themselves and get their message out into the world. It seems like anyone with a video camera can get a film to Sundance, a high school rock band can easily have a slick CD package that makes them look like a million bucks.
On the positive side, open access to what would have been considered cost prohibitive packaging allows smaller voices to compete with larger ones. On the negative side, since everyone seems to have matching accessories in terms of marketing: a glossy brochure, a slick CD package, a flashy website, a book, etc., it’s extremely hard to tell the difference sometimes between anadvertisement for Coca-Cola and an advertisement for an individual artist. With the mass branding that has washed over into the art world, savvy fans are become apt at recognizing it and quickly being turned off by it.
As storyteller and story coach Susan Klein says, “Full color glossy brochures does not a career make. Anyone can look good on paper.”
Unfortunately, most artists seem to consume themselves with their packaging rather than paying attention to two areas that should require much more attention:their voice and how they interact with others.
Born and raised on Martha's Vineyard, Susan Klein is an internationally-known, professional storyteller, and author of Through a Ruby Window, a collection of stories about the Vineyard in the ‘50s and ‘60s. As owner of Ruby Window Productions, Susan offers acclaimed Story Wisdom® workshops for lawyers, educators, writers, and speakers, and coaching and editing for the page and stage through An Alien Eye. Susan is a director/producer of numerous award-winning spoken-word recordings, an the 2007 recipient of the Creative Living Award presented by the Permanent Endowment of Martha’s Vineyard and the National Storytelling Network’s coveted Circle of Excellence Award.www.susanklein.net.
Homework of the Day: Find the Thematic Nugget in Your Art
What are you trying to say with your artwork? You may not know. So, this week, bite the bullet and ask 3-5 friends what they think the underlying theme is in your art form. You may be surprised at their feedback.
My art studio used to be across the hall from the sculptor, Tom Friedman. Tom created very unique sculptures that sold internationally for hundreds of thousands of dollars. One piece was his name written on a piece of paper until the ink ran out. Another was a piece of bubble gum stretched from the floor to the ceiling. All of his work had a very autistic-like quality to it, much like something Rain Man might have created.
After sharing a space so close to his I began to dwell on signature styles a little bit more. I don’t think a signature style is something that can be reproduced. For instance, if I wrote my name on a piece of paper until my pen ran out of ink it wouldn’t have the same effect as when Tom created it. Though imitation is an essential part of the process of finding it, sometimes you have to exhaust yourself trying to be everyone else until the only one left is you.
I finally decided that artistic style is really about finding the effortless place within yourself where your deeper voice is able to shine through. So many artists have the idea that in order for something to be worthy it must be difficult. In terms of artistic creations though, I don’t think it’s so much about pushing the envelope to discover something brand spanking new as it is finding something that is unique only to you, buried within. When you find it, it’s about sharing your discovery publicly and so repetitively that others can’t help but take notice.
Myth Eight: Your art is totally original As artists, part of our natural process is to create a signature style within our work itself. Silk screened soup cans scream Andy Warhol. The movie “Reservoir Dogs,” is classic Quinton Terintino. When you see a small part of each of these artists work you recognize the artist immediately. This is also known as our style or voice and it is oftentimes an inseparable part of who we are as artists.
One reviewer said I was like “Phillip Roth on Acid.” Another, disagreed and said I was like, “Lenny Bruce on Zoloft.” Reviewing my CD, someone else said my musical style was like “Greg Brown sprinkled with Jason Mraz and steeped in Jack Johnson.”
When you work at your craft long enough, a signature style develops naturally. And although you will forever be compared to the highest common denominator, it is a compliment nonetheless to find that your authentic self and your genuine message are able to reach out so universally.
From my interview with solo performer Rusty Dewees on art and originality.“I foundMy most successful show is called “The Logger,” which are stories about a blue-collar logger in rural Vermont. The stories are authentic and came out of me based on my experiences growing up here. But for the longest time, people thought I was the logger, much like people think “Larry the Cable Guy,” is the character he portrays.
For a while no one knew about the other side of me, the business man, the actor who’s been on The Guiding Light or went to New York and studied theater. I had to ask myself if I really wanted the public, who had been coming to see this working class character, to know about this other part of me. In the end, I decided that as an entertainer, I felt like my fans deserved to know all the parts of me.”
Rusty Dewees is “the Sammy Davis Jr. of the Green Mountains.” He is a comedic artist, actor, producer, writer, musician, who was formally trained at the GeorgeLorisActorsTheatreSchool and the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York. Dewees is best known for his portrayal of The Logger in his one-man shows, which has spawned three Logger DVDs, two CDs, five calendars, Logger apparel, a book and a compilation ofcolumns for syndicated and regional newspapers. In addition to notable roles off-Broadway and in national commercials, he has appeared on All My Children, Law & Order, and Saturday Night Live. www.thelogger.com.
Our ARTIST OF THE WEEK is Tiffany Glass Ferreira , Visual Artist and Founder of the Real Small Art League.
HER ACCOMPLISHMENT: This week she launched Real Small Art 2.0, random acts of artistic kindness with GPS navigation. Now you can use outer space satellites to find Tupperware containing tiny works of art. Check her out at http://www.bit.ly/hGwaM.
If you'd like to be considered for artist of the week join the "Manifest Your Creative Destiny" Facebook group at: http://bit.ly/rISx2
In his book, On the Road, Jack Kerouac said it best when it comes to artists and their sense of originality. “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
I have a theory that most people don’t buy artwork because they like it.My theory is that they are investing in a lifestyle that they want to support. By giving their money to an artist it allows their own inner artist, who they may be yearning to connect with, to be fed vicariously through you.
Your life and your experiences may be totally original and the relationships you develop as a result of your art may also be unique, but the truth is that art is an attempt to copy life and as a result it is an emotion evoking medium. This means art makes the viewer feel (or not feel) certain things, be it love, hate, jealousy, grief, happiness, sadness, etc.
With this in mind, no matter how original you think your work is, it has been done before.The story behind it may be original, but the work itself is not. From a marketing perspective, if you continue to answer the question “What is your work like?” with “Oh, I can’t describe it,” you should know, this answer may be the limiting factor in reaching your true measure of success.
Myth Nine: Artists are flakes No where is this myth more apparent then when it comes to artists and money. When artists first begin to price their work there is a tendency to either price way too low, too high or apologize for having to charge money for their work. Jewelry artist and Etsy.com shop owner, Nikole Sarvay, admits, “I’m still shocked when people buy a piece of my jewelry. I definitely struggle with putting a monetary value on my creativity.”
I can remember finding myself in this exact same position many years ago, when I was just beginning to sell my paintings. The way I figured it, my paintings should sell for the amount that my friends could afford and so $35 seemed like a good price. Since most of my friends were artists, it made sense that I should put an extremely low price on them. It never occurred to me that there were people out in the world who had much more money than my friends, who could actually afford to pay whatever price I put on my work.
This difficulty in pricing came directly from the idea that my artwork was still an extension of my self esteem. I was young. I lacked confidence in my work. I had never taken an art class and so I didn’t think my artwork was worth very much. This was my attempt to be logical about my prices. When someone bought a painting, I was just grateful that someone was interested in giving me money for something that took very little effort on my part to create. It never even occurred to me that I should recoup the additional investment I had in the framing or my time.
Nikole Sarvay is a self-taught jewelry designer who forges with metal and hammer.using semi-precious stones, glass, sterling silver, brass and unique findings in her jewelry. Having spent the majority of her professional career in the social work field, Nikole Sarvay began creating jewelry as an emotional release from the demands of her stressful work environment. After a major life transition in late 2006, her creative process evolved into a moving meditation - a practice in approaching her life in an entirely different way. Nikole lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, two cats, and their Bernese mountain beagle, Rilo. Visit Nikole’s blog at http://clearframe.typepad.com
Myth Nine: Artists are flakes When the Capital Fringe Festival hired me to bring my 21 Hours for Artist’s series, it seemed like a solid gig. The Cap fringe has a great reputation.
When I arrived at the venue though, (a library in DC), it seemed that no one had reserved the space for me although it had been advertised in fringe programs and been on community calendars for a few months. In fact, upon closer examination at the fringe materials, in one publication my class was advertised to be happening at one address and in another, it was advertised to be happening across town.
The library wasn’t happy with me. They reluctantly gave me a few chairs and let me hold the class outside on the lawn. To give everything a twist, NPR showed up to document the entire event.
In the end, the lesson I learned. You can take the business out of the artist, but you can’t take the artist out of the business. The Cap Fringe, like most fringes, is a business run by artists. You can listen to the inspiring and flakey NPR event at: http://bit.ly/jH0Du
In the past, when I’ve been so consumed in a painting that I existed on nothing but moon pies and chocolate milk for days, I have to admit, things like time manages to escape me. In fact, when I’m in the active phase of creation, things like appointments, food, the weather, and clean clothes seem so very unimportant.
This may be a contributing factor as to why, after dating non-artists my entire life and having those relationships fail miserably, it feels good to finally be dating a fellow artist. She can finally understand that side of me from the outside that can appear to be quite flakey at times.
We all need that balance of moderation, which is what I learn most when I practice yoga.
Today’s homework for you rigid types: Pick at least half a day this week to be a complete irresponsible flake to the extent that someone may say, “Wow, what’s gotten into you, that’s so unlike you to miss an appointment or not return a call.”
Today’s homework for you flakey types: Pick at least half a day this week to be a completely responsible to the extent that someone may say, “Wow, I really didn’t think you’d show up, or be on time, etc.”
Myth Nine: Artists are flakes My first business plan consisted of one-sentence scribbled on a napkin from the bagel shop where I had just quit. With that napkin, I set off to make my living as a painter at the Portland Saturday market (the country’s largest outdoor art market).
My decision to “go for it” had come in the middle of the night during an anxiety-filled-sweat-soaked panic when I suddenly seemed to realize how shallow my life had become. For eight hours a day, my life consisted of little more than listening to a buzzer and watching a red light flash on and off instructing me to put trays of round bread in an oven and then take them back out. When I reached through the darkness for the napkin and a pen, my focus was simply to make enough money each month from my artwork to never have to work a 9 to 5 job again.
My straightforward mission would not fail me because I had left myself with little room to fail - The napkin said so. A year later, I found myself with more money, more freedom, and more happiness than I had ever had in my life.
Moral: Those things which constitute flakiness – not being on time, not being organized, not having a focus, not following a plan - never need to exist on such a black and white palette in order to work. Sometimes the way that will work best for you is a watered down version of what works for everyone else.
Myth Nine: Artists are flakes If you think having a good sense of business is akin to putting on a suit and tie and “selling out” think again.
The rock band GWAR meets regularly with a financial officer to go over the specifics of their own business plan which now includes, after renting for many years, buying their own studio space where they’ll be able produce video, own a music label, have health insurance, and keep creating their renowned sculpture and stage shows. As GWAR’s Dave Brockie told me during his interview, “With this plan, at the end of the day, we’re underground Gods with the most dangerous, most authentic artistic movement ever created.”
Dave Brockie is a musician and performance artist who is best known for his portrayal of Oderus in the American thrash metal/punk rock band GWAR which he helped found. The band, which has appeared on The Jerry Springer Show, The Joan Rivers Show, and Viva la Bam is best known for their elaborate Sci-Fi horror costumes and graphic, politically and satirically-inspired stage performances that include spraying their audiences with imitation fluids. Brockie lives in Richmond, VA.www.gwar.net.
Myth Nine: Artists are flakes Art as an item for sale isn’t the same thing as a vacuum cleaner or a hamburger or a pair of socks. A piece of artwork, regardless of the medium, is a creation that an artist has a very intimate connection to. It’s created using a great deal of intuition, emotion, and abstract thinking; things that don’t figure into a world which is based mostly on quantification and measurement.
When the two worlds of business and art collide, it can look as though artists have a difficult time finding their place and coming to terms with how they fit in. Being on time and keeping track of finances may not come easy to every artist, but there are things in the artist’s studio the general population would find extremely hard to do as well. As my marriage counselor used to say, “Before you make an assumption, consider the source.” People generally have a lot more going on than what meets the eye. And with artists especially, this process isn’t necessarily linear.
Jeri Goldstein, artist consultant and author of the book “How to be Your Own Booking Agent,” says, “ I’ve found that artists may be specifically challenged in regard to certain business aspects, but it’s not because they are disorganized, it’s usually because there are certain knowledge gaps in their business skill set.”
Jeri Goldstein is a former music agent and manager who is author of the award-winning self-published book How To Be Your Own Booking Agent (now in it’s 7th printing). The book is used as a text book in music business courses at Universities across the US and in Canada and by musicians and performing artists world-wide. Jeri is also a performing arts consultant who offers strategies and techniques on booking tours, negotiation techniques, marketing, music business and performing arts career development. www.performingbiz.com.
I'm available to teach "How to Make More Money with Your Art" (my NPR featured class) for your organization or privately for you and your friends. For details visit slashcoleman.com.
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