“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”-- Stephen King
These quips of wisdom are nothing that most of us don’t already fully realize.
It’s just useful to be reminded every now and then so that we can consider whether or not we are running our lives according to this wisdom.
So yes talent is important but without hard work it means little.
But there is a vital third component that they don’t even bother to teach you in art school. It is not only vital to an artist’s success, it is vital to an artist’s very survival. What’s that? A market. It’s talent, hard work, and a market.
Art schools argue that they are not business schools and so at best they glance or skip over this subject.
At worst, condescending art professors degrade the very notion that an artist even needs a market and label pursuing one as “selling out.” Whatever the heck that means!
This leaves the majority of art students completely disoriented and later disillusioned.
Here’s what’s real. It’s incredibly expensive to attend the top rated art schools. My alma mater, The Cleveland Institute of Art, is currently charging over $50,000 a year. Yet only 20% of experienced professional artists will be lucky to make $20,000 from their art.
The admissions application should disclose that somewhere around seven years after graduation 90% of fine art majors aren’t even making any art anymore, never mind selling it.
So even though artists just spent a serious fat wad of money on tuition, or their hopeful parents did, and they may have tremendous student loan debt that they’ll never escape, 9 times out of 10 their art career is totally screwed within 7 years of graduation.
I can hear it now. But I don’t know how to define a market for my art work. I know! I didn’t either but I learned and that’s why I started Artists Who THRIVE.
Because not only did I get tired of hearing artist’s frustrations about establishing a market, I frankly tired of the general perception that artists can’t possibly wrap their pretty little heads around all this business mumbo jumbo. F that! Yes you can!
And guess what, you should. Why? Because people are still buying art. Yes. I know. It’s a fact that we are just grasping for air from a major economic recession and all categories of luxury have declined significantly.
Except one. Which one? You guessed it. Fine art. The “market” for fine art sales actually increased during the recent recession.
So wipe your tears and get crackin’. Take charge. Learn everything you can. Gather positive and intelligent influences around you and drop the rest. You can’t afford to be around nay sayers.
Apply yourself to the business of art as you did to mastering painting or drawing.
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Fantastic!
Thank you! When I started marketing my art, I regularly beat myself about the head because I didn’t go to a ‘real’ art school. It took me almost a year to get over that, and with the numbers you’ve mentioned in this post, I’m now officially GLAD that I didn’t go! When I had the chance, something in me just said, “No – don’t.” I trusted that voice, even though I wasn’t sure. Now I’m happy that I did.
As for a market, I’ve discovered that what seems to work for me is to put my art in front of as many eyes as possible and the market will find me. We can’t make people buy from us, and I hate that selling feels so sleazy. It feels more natural to me to just share what I do, and my ‘market’ has turned up in the most surprising places as a result.
I love this ‘Myth’ series, by the way. I have this weird, chronic, low self-confidence and you are helping me more with each post. I’ve gone from never having picked up a paintbrush to being a selling artist in 9 months, yet I still second-guess myself at every turn. Each of your posts has helped me stand on more solid footing every time!
Again, thank you!