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How to make money as an artist?
by Olivier Duhamel
In this article
I will not give you a silver bullet that would turn you into an instant
money making art practice. I will rather share with you the simple
techniques I used to free myself from the day job and earn a decent
living making art.
Introduction.
You are probably what they call an “emerging” artist. You just graduated
or launched yourself as a full time artist or have been a hobbyist for
years and thinking of quitting your day job. This is obviously
financially very risky as art is a luxury and most artist find it very
difficult to earn a living from their art…Most of us have a “day job” to
pay the bills. The day job is also taking the bulk of our time, leaving
us with very little time to create… sounds familiar?
I have been living as an artist for the
last 4 years. I make small bronze figurines, pencil drawings and body
castings. I sell the bronze figurines in art galleries around the world,
make pencil drawings and body castings on commission from my studio. In
addition, I sell a digital instruction manual on how to make a plaster
sculpture of someone’s torso. The combined incomes I derive from these
activities afford me a privileged lifestyle.
I meet many artists struggling
financially and thought that I would share some of the things I have
done to get me where I am.
Art Galleries
When it comes to selling your works, art galleries are your best
friends.
You could stop reading here. I have told
you everything you need to know. Art Galleries are in the business of
selling art. They are the people you need to engage with to sell yours.
It is as simple as that.
They display your pieces, talk about
them, sell, and collect the money on your behalf. They typically charge
around 40% commissions and up to 60% which may seem a lot but is in fact
a smaller or equivalent mark-up to what most retailers would normally
take in other industries. They are knowledgeable about art, can advise
about pricing, have a database of amateurs and collectors, organise
regular exhibitions drawing potential customers. They advertise.
There are other ways to sell your work
such as auctions, fairs, competitions, exhibitions, directly from your
studio or even online. These distribution channels must certainly not be
overlooked but in my experience, art galleries are by far the most
effective way to put your work in front of the public and sell it.
Finding galleries
How to find a gallery willing to take some of your pieces on
consignment? This is the hard part… You probably have already tried and
have ended frustrated. Nobody wants to show your work, galleries do not
return your calls, your emails remain unanswered… Do not give up as this
is the best if not the only way to put your work in front of the public
and sell it. Ignore email. I have found that sending email produce less
than 1% response rate. The best is a phone call and an appointment for a
vist or even walking cold into a gallerie. This is not always possible.
The second best method of approaching a gallery is by sending a letter.
A letter will stay on the desk for hours, weeks even months and may
eventually be read where an email will quickly get buried at the bottom
of the inbox . In a letter you can include your catalogue, your CV, your
exhibition history… In my experience written letters enjoy a much
higher response rate. You can find addresses of Galleries in the yellow
pages or some website directories.
Trust.
Art is no different from any other business. You must build, gain and
keep trust. I will not tell you on how to do that. You probably know it
already. Good communication, honesty… This is no rocket science.
Problems.
There are however a few pitfalls to be aware of.
For example, I have noticed a pattern
that repeat itself fairly consistently with many galleries. After having
reached an agreement with a new gallery, they would fairly quickly sell
a few of your pieces. You are all excited and send them more but then
sales inexplicably slow down or die completely… What has happened? This
is how I explain that phenomenon. You were the new guy on the block and
your pieces were probably initially displayed prominently and sold
easily; until the next new guy on the block comes along and pushes you
back until your pieces eventually end up in a cupboard in the back room.
Stay in touch with galleries, send them images of your new work, give
them news, and ask them to remind you how many of your pieces are
currently on display.
There are also galleries that simply
never sell anything at all. That is no one faults. Do your research. How
long as the gallery been in operation, where is it located, how many
other artists like you do they represent? Be patient, selling art is not
like selling fresh milk but in my case, if a gallery has not sold
anything in 12 months I take my work back and find another gallery.
Getting paid.
Most galleries will pay you the month following a sale. This is standard
and fair. But there are also galleries that say they have sold your
pieces but the cheque is always in the mail. Art is a tough business.
But what to do when you are owned money. If the gallery is selling well,
be patient and courteous as you probably want to preserve a good
relationship. Do not send any more pieces until all money due is
received.
Vanity shows.
I keep hearing and reading that you should not pay a gallery to exhibit
your work, should not participate in exhibition where artists have to
pay their way in. These kind of shows are dismissed as being “vanity
shows” and frown upon. I completely disagree. If you have works to
show, a list of customers, friends, family, acquaintances, neighbours
that could fill a room but do not have a room, why not rent it from a
gallery? You will benefit from accessing their address book too.
Advertise
Yet again, art is no different from any other business. The public must
know about your studio, must know about your name, must know about your
exhibitions and about the galleries where you sell you work. Do not
expect that word of mouth alone will make you a celebrity. Galleries
advertise their exhibition. Offer them to participate to this cost.
Every time you have a show, a major commission, win an award or anything
significant occurring in your carreer, send out a press release. It does
not have to cost you the service of an expert PR. A simple email to the
editors of relevant newspapers and magazines and web sites is
sufficient. As a rule, be very friendly with journalists. (As a rule be
also friendly with anybody else, but particularly with journalists.)
A contract
Is a contract necessary? A handshake is the typical gentleman agreement
between artist and merchant and is based entirely on trust. A contract
may seem like a protection against the kind of pitfalls and
misadventures described above but it is not. Once the trust between two
parties has all but vanished, a contract is of no value and no help. If
on the contrary you are in a good relationship with your gallery a legal
agreement serves no purpose either.
Online is the future right ?
Web site? Blogs, Facebook? Twitter? Ebay ? this is the new way to do
business right ? Wrong. This will not work, stay away, It will
only keep you away from where you should be spending the bulk of your
time, the studio. I can’t resist quoting Matt Johnson: “..Strong
works carry momentum. They market for you forever; long after you get it
out there. So if you're continually making significant things, selling
and showing them, the sales will continue. And while times are changing
and methods morph, we have never become better artists by increasing the
antworks. Keep the intensity where it belongs, keep your friends few,
and keep the output undeniable…” Matt Johnson –
www.evaldart.com
In other words, if you are a painter,
paint 8 hours a day, if you are a sculptor sculpt, if you a re musician
play… You’ll get better, create a significant body of work, people will
notice. You may think that I am not doing what I am preaching, spending
time publishing this on the web... This web site has slowly grown over
the years, I only spend on it one hour or so every second day and I have
a background in computer that allows me to do this with very little
effort. For most people it would take a huge amount of time to learn it
all or a huge amount of money to pay someone to do it. Plus In my
case, I am selling a book to the world... This web site is my
advertising.
After reading me thus you may feel that
you knew all this already, it is after all plain common sense… you just
have to do it.
Olivier Duhamel – April 2008
©Olivier Duhamel - 2008-2009
About the author.
Olivier Duhamel is a New Zealand sculptor specialising in
bronze figurines. He is also the name behind the Bodyscape life
casting studio and the author of the famous and very respectable “Boobs
casting manual” published on
www.bodyscape.net.nz. This article can be reproduced freely on the
condition that it is not modified and that this last paragraph is
included..
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Bodyscape
