Lisa Call

In the comments of my last posting I raised an issue that has been occupying my mind quite a bit recently.

In regards to the SAQA auction and the low price much (40% in the first round) of the auction work is selling for ($50 for a 12″ square piece) and the fact that just about the only people buying the art are other quilt artists - I wrote the following:

What all of this makes me really wonder is - is there really even a market for art quilts? The only folks that seem to buy them are other art quilters and only then at prices that are not sustainable.

Are we all fooling ourselves? Could be saqa is just pointing out the obvious - that there is not an art market for quilts.

Maybe we should just pick up a paint brush instead.

A few weeks back Karen Jacobs took a mid year inventory of your art career. To date she had sold 27 paintings.

Are there any quilters out there selling this quantity of work?

The theme I hear over and over in the art quilt world is that you can not make a decent income selling art alone and that teaching is the best way to generate the cash needed to keep afloat. Many teachers report that most of their sales are to students (themselves art quilters).

If one doesn’t teach is there a market for art quilts?

I have no doubt there are a large number of painters that are unable to make a living from their art even though they are trying. Are the chances of success higher for a painter? There are painters making a living solely from their art work.

Are there quilt makers making a living solely from their art work?

Do you know of any?

 
These are some thoughts that have been running through my mind recently. My recent plans to attempt to generate income from the artwork has made me question if it is something I want to do or might even succeed in doing. As with any business a market analysis is a good idea. If you have information you are willing to share on this issue it would be most appreciated.

While I doubt I will stop making contemporary art quilts, given my love of the process, I do need to figure out what my big goals are for my art career. I used to think I knew but lately it seems the more I make decisions the less I’m sure of them.

As I mentioned before Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) is holding an auction for a large number of small 12″ square quilts. You can watch the progress by reading the news on the SAQA home page.

This morning I sent the following letter to the board of directors.

[I have been warned by a friend that I should not pursue this matter for fear I will be blackballed by the very influential and powerful members of the board. Apparently I don’t believe the board members are so petty as to behave this way. I suppose I could be wrong - but so be it - I refuse to sit there quietly and say nothing.]

Dear SAQA,

I am extremely concerned by the current reverse auction that saqa is holding.

Several years ago I sent you links to some documents from the society of north american goldsmith’s concerning art auctions, www.snagmetalsmith.org/Publications/Professional_Guidelines/. I’m curious if the saqa board has read them.

I’d recommend the board reading each document in entirety but failing that here are some summarizing points:

III. FINANCIAL IMPACT OF FUNDRAISING AUCTIONS ON GALLERIES

Despite any altruistic intentions, fundraising auctions are dedicated to the selling of artwork and craft, - and in doing so, compete directly with galleries. Galleries operate year-round and must recoup the expenses of renting or buying exhibition space, advertising, inventory, staff, etc. - before they see any profit. Auctions do not operate year-round but benefit from the on-going public awareness generated by galleries. Auctions that sell art or craft at prices far below retail compromise the economic viability of galleries.

A. Revenue deferred or lost. The same people who visit and buy art and craft at galleries are also invited to auctions. Patrons may defer a gallery purchase in anticipation of finding a particular artist’s work at an auction. Or in another scenario, if collectors have purchased a piece by an artist at an auction they may not be interested in buying another piece through the gallery. Given both these examples, frequent auctions impinge or may even exhaust the resources patrons budget for the viewing and purchase of art and craft.

B. Artwork Devalued. Auctions rarely sell artwork for full retail prices. All selling prices of artwork impact the market for art and become part of the provenance of artwork. Abnormally low prices generated by auctions may become the de facto market prices. Retail sales at galleries may be directly impacted - and ultimately the value of artwork in collections and artists’ livelihoods may be affected.

 
FINANCIAL IMPACT OF AUCTIONS ON COLLECTORS

A. Sustainability. If a piece of artwork is just what you wanted and sells well below the retail price, then collectors may have gotten a bargain. But this is a relatively short-term advantage, since this practice, ultimately, is not sustainable. Artists and galleries suffer the cumulative financial impact of frequent auctions, possibly putting them both out of business. This negative financial impact is compounded if the auction is held within the same geographical area as the gallery or the artist’s retail business.

The closing of a gallery impacts the art community–artists, patrons, appreciators and collectors–by removing a location for the discovery and advancement of artists, the screening and selection of art work, and guidance offered by galleries relating to purchase and acquisition.

B. Auction prices can affect collection values. The value of a collection depends on the established value of the artists’ work. This value relies in part on demand for an artist’s work which is a matter of perception. When higher or lower (above or below retail) prices are generated at auction, the established value within a collection may change. Since appraisals for insurance purposes are often based on the recent sales of similar works by the same artist, changes in established market prices may impact appraised value. When generous bidding at auction yields higher than retail sales prices, every one wins. Unfortunately, since artwork sold at fundraising auctions often sells below established retail prices, the collectable value of an artist’s work may suffer.

 
FINANCIAL IMPACT OF FUNDRAISING AUCTIONS ON ARTISTS

A. Artists receive little or no compensation for donated work. Often, there is considerable pressure on an artist to donate work outright - receiving no percentage of the winning bid. Only the most generous auction organizers offer a percentage of the selling price to the artists. Since the work offered at auction typically sells well below the retail price, even with a percentage, the artist only receives an amount far below the wholesale value.

B. Artwork sold at discounted prices in auctions may affect your retail values elsewhere. Every artist should maintain control over the selling prices of his or her work. (Please see the discussion about value in the Discounts document, section II. Some Remarks About Pricing). Since auctioned artwork often sells far below retail price, maintaining control of pricing is impossible. The ultimate result of this discounted selling price is that the value of an artist’s work and the ability of a gallery to command full retail prices for the entire body of an artist’s work is adversely affected.

 
IV. RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE PROFESSIONAL GUIDELINES COMMITTEE

A. Set a Reserve Price
The Professional Guidelines Committee recommends that the auction sponsor set a “reserve price” for work offered in an auction. The “reserve price” is the price below which the artwork will not be sold. This reserve would ideally be 80% of the retail price. The artists should be offered 40% of the retail price for their donations. The art organization will receive 40% of the retail price for fundraising and the collector has the possibility of receiving a 20% discount. Work sold above the retail price (as a
result of generous bidding) creates additional revenue for the auction sponsor.

 
I find the current auction being held by saqa to fundamentally flawed given the extremely low final bid ($50 /sq foot) and that the artists are not receiving a portion of the sales.

Does the saqa board disagree with the findings in the above reports? If the board disagrees I would like to understand why they disagree (does the board have proof that this information is incorrect?). If the board agrees I’d like to understand why the board is holding an auction that clearly goes against the recommendations in these guidelines.

While I am not a member a saqa, I am a member of the larger art quilt community and I feel the actions of saqa are negatively impacting all of our careers and I would like to understand why a professional organization that is supposed to be supporting their member artists is behaving in a way that is hurting all quilt artists in the long run.

 
Lisa Call

In my last 3 posts I showed three pieces I completed last year. The original plan for these pieces was a single quilt.

This is the final image I took as a single unit:

After completing the quilt to this point I put it away because it didn’t quite feel right. Several months later I pulled it out and added in the large blue shape in the green section and then I quilted the piece.

It looked something like this (only as a single piece):

 
After putting it up on my wall and looking at it I suspect I felt like Cynthia, a wonderful ceramic artist, might feel when a piece doesn’t survive the final kiln firing. All that work and - arg!!!!

I knew there was no way I would ever show the piece in public as it did not live up to my standards. There were a couple things that just didn’t work.

Last year I made a few pieces where I extended the quilted line into the next shape using thread. One of my more successful attempts at this type of quilting was with Structures #60. The faint lines that continue from one block to another were made with thread.

Structures #60    ©2006    33"x89"

You can understand this better if you look at the detail shot:

In what was to be Structures #58 I attempted to do long sweeping arcs continuing the pieced lines across the entire quilt surface. I drew in the lines I wanted to stitch with chalk but didn’t think much about all the places where this newly stitched line had to jump across pieced lines. The chalk lines were beautiful arcs but the final sewn lines were not so pretty. In fact it looked terrible.

The sewn lines were very prominent and very croooked and they ruined the beautiful flow of the quilt. It’s not quite as obvious in my collaged image but in the real quilt it look terrible - very distracting and amateurish. And it was confirmed by a few close friends in my critique group.

This was the worst of the lines:

 
The other problem with the quilt was the middle pale section. Even looking at the first image in this post I can see it really doesn’t flow well with the orange and green sections. The pieced yellow lines are very subtle in that section and after it was quilted it really looked out of place in between the green and orange sections. The stitched quilting lines were very prominent in this yellow section and it looked completely different than the rest of the quilt and it didn’t look good.

 
When a quiltmaker is faced with this type of mistake there are usually 2 choices to be made: 1) donate it to a charity as a baby quilt or 2) cut it up. I went for #2 as I didn’t want to scare any innocent children.

I was a bit dubious at first but after a while these resulting 3 small quilts really grew on me and I like them quite a bit. The yellow piece, which is what I felt ruined the whole, is my favorite of these smaller individual pieces. I love the prominent pieced line on the pale yellow fabric.

I really love the idea of extending the pieced line using thread but I learned in this piece that it is not technically an easy thing to do. When I try this again I will definitely make sure to take more care.

Here are the final 3 pieces again:

 

Structures #58    ©2006    30" x 32"

Structures #61    © 2007    23" x 32"

Structures #62    © 2007    33" x 19"

 
I really appreciate all the comments on my recent posts about sacrifice. I have more to say but it will have to wait until later. It’s studio time now.

Structures #62    © 2007    33" x 19"

I received some great comments on my post about sacrifice yesterday. Thanks everyone.

Pam and Daniel both commented as I used to, which is that making such choices for art is not a sacrifice but instead just a choice.

I was a stay at home mom for 9+ years. The new catch word of the day was sequencing. Sure we can have it all, we just can’t have it all at once so we sequence through our lives.

I agree with this, which is why I have no problem spending some years working on my computer science career and building my financial security for the future. I’ve done the undergraduate/graduate school gig, the stay at home mom thing and I’m now doing the hard core corporate career. I know the time will come when I can have the art career I dream of. I can wait. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity in my life to do so many different things.

I’m not shutting the door on anything, but I’ve still made sacrifices by living my life this way.

When I quit my job to stay home with my kids in 1992 the computer industry was hurting. Not long after things really picked up and we had the dot com craze. I missed it. By the time I returned in 2002 the bust had come, and so had 9-11. I missed the late 90s when salaries went through the roof and so when adjusted for inflation I took a pay cut when I returned to the work force.

If I were to add up the lost salary, retirement, health and other benefits that I chose to forgo at that time it would add up to between a half and one million dollars. Call it priorities, sequencing or just plain sacrifice - I lost something in exchange for the amazing opportunity to do something I loved. I in no way regret my choice but the word I use to describe this is sacrifice : a surrender of something for the sake of something else. There was a real measurable price that I paid when I made that choice.

I’m now sacrificing time instead of money so it’s harder to say exactly what it is I’ve traded away to do what I’m doing, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a real cost to the choices I am making.

Pam makes a good point that life isn’t about either/or. I agree and I constantly think about alternatives - but in the end a choice is made on how to use my current resources given that I need and want more things than I have time/money to do/afford. Once a choice is made something is sacrificed. Some day it might also become a reality if enough resources are available in the future. But if there is one thing I am sure of, something else is likely to come along and I will always be making a choice between things I really want to be doing.

 
This is the 3rd piece in the grouping of three that I will discuss more in my next post. Again this was completed in 2006.

Any guesses as to how these pieces are related?

Detail of Structures #62:

Structures #61    © 2007    23" x 32"

 
Some years ago someone asked me what I was willing to sacrifice for my art. My first thought was that I wasn’t willing to sacrifice anything. My thinking was that when presented with a choice I would pick what I wanted and the result wasn’t a "sacrifice" but was instead simply a choice. Sure I was choosing to forgo some things in exchange for time or money for my art but it wasn’t a "sacrifice". That sounds so negative to me. So I looked up the definition and sure enough sacrifice is probably the right word.

Sacrifice:
a: destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else b : something given up or lost

Any time I make a choice to work on my art or focus some aspect of my life on my art I’m sacrificing the opportunity to place that focus somewhere else. I generally have no problem making these choices and they feel right. It’s okay with me there are things I don’t have time or money or energy to do because of the priority I give my art.

In several recent posts (here, here, here and here) I have discussed my need to work as a software engineer to pay my bills.

The stereotypical sacrifice artists are expected to make is that of living as a starving artist while waiting for the art to take off. I’m clearly not doing this. And for ridiculous reasons there are times when I feel as if I am not a legitimate artist because I’m not willing to make such a sacrifice. Which is just silly because there is no right way to be an artist.

I choose to work the fulltime well paying software engineering job with excellent benefits because it allows me to focus 100% on creating art I want to make, not art that will put food on my table.

In exchange for the freedom to grow as an artist in any direction I chose and the luxury of not worrying about health insurance, 401k funds, and my mortgage, I have sacrificed my time. Not just studio time but also time for just about everything else in my life: friends, family, house, recreation, etc.

I think there are times it sounds like I regret or resent this decision and that is not the case. Years ago I came up with a plan on how to reach my end goal of becoming the artist I wanted to be. This was the sacrifice I was willing to make, that I happily make every day.

The decision to sell my work this year is not a change in direction but part of the same over all plan that will help me achieve my long term artistic goals.

Admittedly there are days I wish I could just win the lottery and the past few months I’ve been a bit restless but I know the choice to continue working until my children are out of high school is the right choice for me at this time.

If all goes well I only have 7 more years to go, which really isn’t very much in the long run. I’ve been at my day job for 5 years now so I’m almost half way done. I just have to keep my focus and not forget the long term goals and the sacrifice doesn’t feel like a sacrifice at all. Just a really great choice I made to live the life I want and make the art I want to make.

 
Structures #61 is the second piece in the grouping of 3 I want to show this week. It was also completed last year. Below is a detail of the quilting stitches as they comprise a major portion of the design in this piece.

Detail of Structures #61:

Structures #58    ©2006    30" x 32"

 
For the second summer in a row I find myself being extremely productive in my studio while the rest of the world relaxes on the beach with a trashy novel and a beer. Last night I put the finishing touches on my 20th completed piece for the year, 7 of these completed in the last 4 weeks. I feel a bit out of sync with everyone else but I’m thoroughly enjoying myself.

I was thinking last night about why I am so focused.

This is what I came up with

• There is no morning rush to be out the door at 7am to get the kids to school. I still get up at 5:30am (with no alarm clock) but spend the time from 6-8am in my studio working before leaving for the day job. That’s an additional 10 hours in the studio each week that I don’t have time for during the school year.
• I seriously cut down on the amount of time I spend on my computer doing nothing. I’ve decided to check my email only a few times a day. I don’t check my email at home very often at all anymore and just a few times during the day at work. If I have art business tasks to complete via email I write down my list of items to do on the computer before turning it on. Once I complete the items I do my best to turn it off again right immediately. I’m stilling working on this but in the past few weeks I’ve really gotten much better.
• I’m slowly whittling down my inbox and my goal is to have no unanswered emails leftover at the end of each week. Shuffling through the same old emails over and over again and not answering them, as I normally do, is really quite silly. I unsubscribed to almost all of the large email groups I used to belong. Reducing the computer time not only frees up more time to do other things but it also frees up a lot of energy. I was feeling very bogged down by the sense of commitment I felt to the 60-80 unanswered emails that never seemed to go away. Over that last month I’ve slowly worked that number down, currently at 23, and by the end of this week hope to hit 0 for the first time in, well probably 20 years (I started reading email in 1984). It feels great!
• I have been to Arizona four times since Christmas, plus a trip to Kansas and the 2 weeks in Ohio in May. Right now I just want to be at home. I’ve had enough travel for a while and am really not envying anyone’s vacation.
• I’ve been listening to a lot of books on tape while in my studio doing the quilting portion of my art (I find it hard to listen to books while I’m designing the work but the quilting is a much more meditative process that doesn’t require a lot of difficult artistic decisions). I’m mostly listening to what I call modern american trash. The beach reads. They are fun and they keep me glued to my studio chair waiting to hear what happens next.
• I’ve started spending more time relaxing, watching movies, playing games, working in my yard and just hanging out. In setting aside some down time it has energized my desire to focus and work hard during the time I do have for the studio.

 
The above piece is one I finished last year. I have a few related pieces that I will show over the next few posts and then provide more of the story on the work.

I haven’t photographed the new work yet but it will appear once I get to that task.

Structures #77    ©2007    17" x 17.5"

 
In my post at the beginning of the month about more thoughts about selling art, I received a few comments about teaching being another option for income for an artist. I agree, many of the big names in the art quilt world became "big names" because of their teaching and I suspect it is what generates a large part of their income. Not just the teaching fees but also from the students that purchase their work. It is definitely one of the more viable ways of making a living as an artist and I have thought about teaching quilt making off and on for many years.

Near the end of my undergraduate years I came to the realization that interviewing for a job was a terrifying prospect so I applied to graduate school instead. I was accepted and off I went to one of the top ten research universities in the country for computer science, with the thought of getting my PhD. I did quite well in the program the first few years until then I discovered a rather large problem - I really didn’t like computer science very much. Although as a teaching assistant I got to teach 2 classes in introduction programming each semester and I loved it and I was good at it.

Unfortunately UW Madison believes it’s PhD students are destine for greatness and they groom them for the research circuit of which I had no interest. So after 4 years of graduate school I suggested to my adviser that I do a fairly easy thesis just to get the degree so I could get a tenure track position at a small teaching university. I promised to never try to enter the research arena and embarrass the school. I thought it sounded like a most reasonable request. He said no. He said I was too good and I would regret it and I would thank him later for not letting me throw away my talent (or some such thing).

So I did what any rational 26 year old would do. I quit.

Maybe not my best choice in life but at the time I was fed up with a lot of things at the school and it seemed like the only option I could live with.

I always had plans to finish my PhD but following a husband, who did finish his PhD, from post doc to post doc and then having children and becoming a stay at home mom, it never happened. When my son was a few months old I did interview for a teaching position at William and Mary in Williamsburg. Problem is we had only just moved to town and I didn’t know anyone and my husband wouldn’t take off work. Lacking any other babysitting options, I took my baby along on the interview. Needless to say I didn’t get that job. And it’s maybe not hard to figure out why I didn’t keep the husband either.

So yes, I do love to teach and have taught quilt classes in the local quilt shops and rec centers on a few rare occasions. I enjoy it but then I get the paycheck, which is ridiculously small, and I decide to donate my time to other charities instead. There is simply no money in it.

There is the national quilt teaching circuit and here it is possible to make more money. But today my primary dream is to make art. If I were to teach enough to make a living it would seriously cut into my studio time. So again - I question - would it really solve any problems? Or would I be trading my cube jockey job for a teaching job and in the end I’m still not in my studio doing what I want?

I do know that with my kids still at home it’s not really an option right now because I like being here with them. But I do think about it. Thank you to those of you that suggested it, and suggested I would be good at it.

 
I finished the above piece, Structures #77, less than an hour ago. My goal was to do something simple and to really focus on the quality of my pieced line (the line between each of the different fabrics). I think I made some progress in this small piece in getting the sensitive line that I prefer, versus a straight rigid line, so I’m most pleased.

 
PS. A few years ago I emailed the professor that refused to let me skate by on my PhD and thanked him for turning me down. I told him that I wasn’t sure I would have become an artist and a stay at home mom, extremely important things in my life, had he allowed me to follow the path I had selected at that time. Funny, he didn’t answer my email. I suspect that is not what he meant.
 

Torn Between The Two © 2007 Jessica Torrant
Reprinted here with permission from the Artist
Ink and watercolor painting 4.5" x 5"

 
I bought the above piece from Jessica Torrant in January this year. I really love this painting as it so accurately captures the anguish many decisions can cause for me. This last weekend I reorganized some of the art on my walls and I was reminded again how much I can relate to this piece and wanted to share it with everyone.

 
Sometimes it’s too easy to focus on the negative things in life. Like my dilemma of working full time when I’d rather make art, or the fact that I went on 8 trips out of the state in the past 10 months and I feel completely scattered as a result of being gone so much, or… well you get it. The list can go on and on if I wanted to focus on it.

So lately I’ve decided to take some advice I’ve heard many times and have even suggested to others. Each night I write down 3 things I am grateful for that happened during day. I haven’t been doing it long but I know I am rather hard on myself. Thinking about and writing down my accomplishments and other joys has really helped me keep things in perspective.

I fulfilled my goals for the long 4th of July weekend. In those 5 days I spent 50 hours in my studio, 5 hours working in my yard and about 7 hours on the business of art. Plus I baked myself a peach cobbler and I organized my office. Reading Christine Kane’s Post asking Where is Your Attention really helped me stay focused on the positive throughout the weekend. It’s so easy to get distracted by the internet but I turned off my computer and turned my intentions into a reality.

Structures #34    ©2006    55" x 57"

 
Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum’s Hot Cars, Cool Jazz Evening
Saturday, July 21 at 7:00 pm at Ferrari of Denver

It’s summer time in the city and what could be better than spending a Saturday night enjoying some great music, tasty libations, and sitting behind the wheel of a sports car?!

The Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum and I invite you to join us for an evening of hot cars, cool jazz and fabulous quilts by Betsy Cannon and myself, including the piece shown above. These works of art will also be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the museum. This event is hosted by Ferrari of Denver, 1480 E. County Line Rd, Highlands Ranch, CO 80126.

Tickets are $50/person and include 2 drink tickets. Hors d’oeuvres and drinks will be served. Jazz music provided by the Ryan J. Elwood Jazz Ensemble.

Purchase tickets online by July 14 at blacktie-colorado.com/rsvp. Enter the event code: quilts

Please call the museum at 303-277-0377 with any questions.

 
This is the type of fund raising event using art donations that I 100% support. I get to price my work at my own prices and I will receive a portion of the sales price as will the museum and if things don’t sell I will take the work home with me. Everyone comes out a winner in this plan. The collectors, the artists and the organization. I’d love to see other groups following the very creative ideas this group has come up with to raise funds without taking advantage of the artist.

Plus I get to pretend to drive a Ferrari - how cool is that?

If you can attend don’t forget to buy your tickets by this saturday online. The museum is a wonderful organization to support.

Structures #37    ©2007    84" x 72"

 
Although I don’t have any vacation time left at the day job (I’m currently about 20 hours negative) I’ve decided to take Thursday and Friday off and spend the next 5 days concentrating on my art. My plan is to spend 10 hours in the studio each day and 2 hours working on the business side of my art. I have a list of quilts I’d like to complete during this time and my main goal for the office work is to reevaluate my goals and get back on track in that direction.

I haven’t had an opportunity to focus on my art like this for a very long time so I’m quite excited.

But before I start I’m off to see if Bruce Willis survives in Live Free or Die Hard. My 14 year old son tells me he’s an ancient action hero. I wonder how old action heroes are allowed to get - think there is a rule?

 
I finished the above quilt last year and I realized I never posted a finished image of the quilt. It’s quilted with dozens of different thread colors, which I wrote about last year in this post about thread.

Detail: