How Not To Be a Starving Artist
Maria Mildenberger is a visual artist who has made money from her art. She creates wall coverings from her business base in Vancouver. It's called 'The Red Palette' and Milderberger who designs surface, textiles and wall paper, has plenty of clients. She said in effect to 'The West Ender's' Jennifer Scott, "If you want to be an artist you must work hard."
This too is the underlying message of Chris Tyrell's books. Tyrell who's also based in B.C. has written two very fine books called 'Artist Survival Skills' and 'How To Make A Living As A Canadian Artist'.
I recommend both books for any person who wants to succeed in the visual arts. Tyrell's books are full of down-to-earth practical info on how to get your name and your art out into the world and make decent money doing this.
At the beginning of this story I told about an encounter I had with a woman many years ago. "Oh you're a starving artist are you?" she told me years ago when she found out what I did. There's been enough impoverished artists . Read Tyrell's books to escape that fate and learn a lot too.
Tuesday 29 September 2015
Thursday 24 September 2015
Starving Artists - Part Six by Dave Jaffe
Starving Artists - 19th Century U.S. Artists Drew Money
James Boggs who draws one side or two of currency bills has many imitators who copy his art work and try and pass their work off as something made by Boggs. Their art work is a version of a version of a dollar bill drawn by Boggs. How do the power structures deal with these people because they could be breaking the law at least twice?
Then there's artists who lived long before Boggs and sort of did what he did. 19th century artists like William Harnett, John Peto and John Haberle painted pictures that included very realistic looking dollar bills.
"Though their work never enjoyed intellectual prestige," writes Edward Lucie Smith in his book 'American Realism' "some had moments of popular success beyond the reach of more ambitious artists.
One of these artists William Harnett was warned by U.S. Secret Service agents not to paint dollar bills. They told him he was a counterfeiter and could go to prison."Harnett", says Edward Lucie Smith, "accepted the warning, abandoned this kind of subject." Yet when Secret Sevice agents warned John Haberle, he kept on painting pictures that included portraits or copies of dollar bills. Haberle painted a picture called 'Reproduction' that included a copy of a U.S. ten dollar bill.
These paintings belong to a type of painting called 'trompe-l'oeile' or 'trick of the eye' paintings. They were painted to be so realistic that the person looking at them would think the objects in the painting were real.
In Europe in the 19th century 'trompe-l'oeil' paintings were still filed under the heading of 'still life paintings'. About this time they disappeared in Europe as artists turned to other subjects. Yet at this time in the U.S., this type of art became very popular.
To-day, the paintings of Harnett, Peto and Haberle could sell at auctions for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Their works were of course popular in their lifetimes too.
Still, the careers of these men and the career of J.L.S. Boggs proves it's sometimes hard for a visual artist to make money no matter what he or she draws, sculpts or paints. Yet these days there are books that show visual artists. We'll look at them in the next part of this story.
James Boggs who draws one side or two of currency bills has many imitators who copy his art work and try and pass their work off as something made by Boggs. Their art work is a version of a version of a dollar bill drawn by Boggs. How do the power structures deal with these people because they could be breaking the law at least twice?
Then there's artists who lived long before Boggs and sort of did what he did. 19th century artists like William Harnett, John Peto and John Haberle painted pictures that included very realistic looking dollar bills.
"Though their work never enjoyed intellectual prestige," writes Edward Lucie Smith in his book 'American Realism' "some had moments of popular success beyond the reach of more ambitious artists.
One of these artists William Harnett was warned by U.S. Secret Service agents not to paint dollar bills. They told him he was a counterfeiter and could go to prison."Harnett", says Edward Lucie Smith, "accepted the warning, abandoned this kind of subject." Yet when Secret Sevice agents warned John Haberle, he kept on painting pictures that included portraits or copies of dollar bills. Haberle painted a picture called 'Reproduction' that included a copy of a U.S. ten dollar bill.
These paintings belong to a type of painting called 'trompe-l'oeile' or 'trick of the eye' paintings. They were painted to be so realistic that the person looking at them would think the objects in the painting were real.
In Europe in the 19th century 'trompe-l'oeil' paintings were still filed under the heading of 'still life paintings'. About this time they disappeared in Europe as artists turned to other subjects. Yet at this time in the U.S., this type of art became very popular.
To-day, the paintings of Harnett, Peto and Haberle could sell at auctions for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Their works were of course popular in their lifetimes too.
Still, the careers of these men and the career of J.L.S. Boggs proves it's sometimes hard for a visual artist to make money no matter what he or she draws, sculpts or paints. Yet these days there are books that show visual artists. We'll look at them in the next part of this story.
Tuesday 22 September 2015
Starving Artist - Part Five by Dave Jaffe
Starving Artist - Part Five
So far this story of poor artists has been a predictable one. It's message is very simple and sad: Most visual artists don't make much money, the message goes, and never will. Yet there are exceptions to this rule. One of them is the American visual artist named James Stephen George Boggs or 'Boggs' as he's known in the art world. Boggs makes money simply by drawing excellent copies of U.S. dollars.
Boggs, as James Weschler points out in his book on Boggs, makes money by drawing it. He has drawn one side of many U.S. dollar bills. Then Boggs tries to buy a meal or something else with his fake dollar bill.
Sometimes at the beginning of his career, waiters, food servers, salespeople and others would say in effect, "Sorry. I can't accept this. You'll have to pay me real money." Yet as Weschler goes on to say in his book on Boggs, called 'Boggs: A Comedy of Values' in the end Boggs made lots of money and became famous in several countries.
And to-day, his U.S. dollar bills sell for thousands and thousands of dollars. Of course Boggs's road to fame and fortune did hit a few bumps along the way.
In Great Britain where he drew a one-sided version of the British pound he was charged in the 1980's by the Bank of England for counterfeiting the British pound. After a juried trial in the famous Old Bailey court house, Boggs was pronounced 'Not guilty' and he was free, well sort of.
Once back in the United States Secret Service agents raided his home. They seized piles of his art work and other things like the receipts he bought from art work sales. For Boggs keeps the receipts and other things like change he gets from buying things for his art work. Often he sells receipts, change and one of his bills as a complete work of art . The Secret Service people kept Boggs's works and materials but never charged him with anything.
"But isn't this man a counterfeiter?" someone asked me when I told her about Boggs. "He's breaking the law."
This of course was or is the reason that police and others have tried to stop Boggs from making art. Yet so far the law has failed to deter him from making his art. Boggs now uses a computer to do his work and no longer draws his work with a pen. Yet the police are still interested in him.
In 2006 he was charged in Florida with having amphetamines, drug equipment and a concealed weapon in his possession. Yet he's still churning out versions of his currency. He's an artist who makes money by drawing money. In the art world that's a success story And Boggs isn't the first artist who drew a country's currency.
We'll look at some of these artists in the next chapter.
So far this story of poor artists has been a predictable one. It's message is very simple and sad: Most visual artists don't make much money, the message goes, and never will. Yet there are exceptions to this rule. One of them is the American visual artist named James Stephen George Boggs or 'Boggs' as he's known in the art world. Boggs makes money simply by drawing excellent copies of U.S. dollars.
Boggs, as James Weschler points out in his book on Boggs, makes money by drawing it. He has drawn one side of many U.S. dollar bills. Then Boggs tries to buy a meal or something else with his fake dollar bill.
Sometimes at the beginning of his career, waiters, food servers, salespeople and others would say in effect, "Sorry. I can't accept this. You'll have to pay me real money." Yet as Weschler goes on to say in his book on Boggs, called 'Boggs: A Comedy of Values' in the end Boggs made lots of money and became famous in several countries.
And to-day, his U.S. dollar bills sell for thousands and thousands of dollars. Of course Boggs's road to fame and fortune did hit a few bumps along the way.
In Great Britain where he drew a one-sided version of the British pound he was charged in the 1980's by the Bank of England for counterfeiting the British pound. After a juried trial in the famous Old Bailey court house, Boggs was pronounced 'Not guilty' and he was free, well sort of.
Once back in the United States Secret Service agents raided his home. They seized piles of his art work and other things like the receipts he bought from art work sales. For Boggs keeps the receipts and other things like change he gets from buying things for his art work. Often he sells receipts, change and one of his bills as a complete work of art . The Secret Service people kept Boggs's works and materials but never charged him with anything.
"But isn't this man a counterfeiter?" someone asked me when I told her about Boggs. "He's breaking the law."
This of course was or is the reason that police and others have tried to stop Boggs from making art. Yet so far the law has failed to deter him from making his art. Boggs now uses a computer to do his work and no longer draws his work with a pen. Yet the police are still interested in him.
In 2006 he was charged in Florida with having amphetamines, drug equipment and a concealed weapon in his possession. Yet he's still churning out versions of his currency. He's an artist who makes money by drawing money. In the art world that's a success story And Boggs isn't the first artist who drew a country's currency.
We'll look at some of these artists in the next chapter.
Thursday 3 September 2015
Starving Artists : Part Four by Dave Jaffe
Starving Artists - Part Four
Emily Carr was just not unlucky being born in 1871 and dying just before the great consumer boom started in North America in 1945. She also was unlucky by being born maybe in the wrong country, namely Canada instead of the United States.
The U.S.'s Gross National Product is at least 12 times Canada's. By the early 20th century when Carr was in her 30's, magnates like the Harrimans, the Mellons, the Carnegies, J.P. Morgan and Leland Stanford, had amassed vast fortunes. A very small part of their money went to buy fine art. In Canada by 1900 there were some multimillionaires too, but nothing of the scale of the American very rich.
So money spent on the visual arts in Canada has rarely come close to money spent on these things in the U.S. of A. Some present day Canadian artists have made some decent money. Yet their proceeds can't come close to the incomes of American artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol or Jeff Koons.
In the 1950's, the Canadian government set up the Canada Council to aid visual artists and other creative people."I'm applying for a Canada Council grant," a musician who played modern music said in the 1970's. Yet these grants that are a good thing can't make any artist lots of money.
Then, too, after 1945 and the end of the Second World war thousands of men and quite a few women went to universities and colleges to study the visual artists. This was a big change in Canada. Yet there was a downside to this trend. Competition for grants and art sales became much more intense because there were many more artists than there were in say 1930. So many artists lost out in the struggle to earn a decent living from their work.
"I can't afford to buy my own work," an artist with the Bau-Xi gallery said in Vancouver just before one of her exhibitions opened. Her paintings on the gallery's walls were priced from $5,000 to $12,000. "My work is for rich people and not for people like me."
For whatever reason, artists of all sorts keep popping up in Canada. Yet most visual artists and probably many other creative people won't get rich or earn too much money from their work.
That's just the way it is in Canada right now and will be for the foreseeable future.
Emily Carr was just not unlucky being born in 1871 and dying just before the great consumer boom started in North America in 1945. She also was unlucky by being born maybe in the wrong country, namely Canada instead of the United States.
The U.S.'s Gross National Product is at least 12 times Canada's. By the early 20th century when Carr was in her 30's, magnates like the Harrimans, the Mellons, the Carnegies, J.P. Morgan and Leland Stanford, had amassed vast fortunes. A very small part of their money went to buy fine art. In Canada by 1900 there were some multimillionaires too, but nothing of the scale of the American very rich.
So money spent on the visual arts in Canada has rarely come close to money spent on these things in the U.S. of A. Some present day Canadian artists have made some decent money. Yet their proceeds can't come close to the incomes of American artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol or Jeff Koons.
In the 1950's, the Canadian government set up the Canada Council to aid visual artists and other creative people."I'm applying for a Canada Council grant," a musician who played modern music said in the 1970's. Yet these grants that are a good thing can't make any artist lots of money.
Then, too, after 1945 and the end of the Second World war thousands of men and quite a few women went to universities and colleges to study the visual artists. This was a big change in Canada. Yet there was a downside to this trend. Competition for grants and art sales became much more intense because there were many more artists than there were in say 1930. So many artists lost out in the struggle to earn a decent living from their work.
"I can't afford to buy my own work," an artist with the Bau-Xi gallery said in Vancouver just before one of her exhibitions opened. Her paintings on the gallery's walls were priced from $5,000 to $12,000. "My work is for rich people and not for people like me."
For whatever reason, artists of all sorts keep popping up in Canada. Yet most visual artists and probably many other creative people won't get rich or earn too much money from their work.
That's just the way it is in Canada right now and will be for the foreseeable future.
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