Structures #4
©2001 Lisa Call
54″ x 45″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Part III
This article is part 3 of my answer to a question about why I used to want to keep my day job and now I do not.
See Part I for the full question and my job history and how it relates to my art career history.
See Part II for all the reasons I want to keep my day job. Or at least used to.
Today I’ll start writing about why I now want to get rid of the day job. I tried to do this in a single post but kept getting stuck (hence the delay in writing). So today I tackle just a small part of the question, and that is the issue of making the art I want to make. In part IV I’ll tackle additional issues.
Art for Me
I wrote the following in my post on why I wanted to keep my day job:
Which leads to another huge benefit of the day job being separate from the art: I can make any art I want to.
I never have to consider the marketplace and worry that what I create isn’t going to sell. It doesn’t have to sell to pay the bills.
My goal is to push myself to become the best artist I can and I think this includes going through periods where my art isn’t at its best as I’m working through something new. I don’t have to interrupt the flow of my creative process to make the bread-and-butter art that does sell if art were also my day job.
Finding My Voice
When I started out as an artist I didn’t really know what I had to say, nor how to say it. By not relying on an income from my art, I could my focus artistic exploration to finding the answers to those questions.
I spent 15+ years in that quest, learning different techniques, rejecting them and then moving on. Finally I settle into a method of working and slowly developed my own vocabulary (my thin lines) within those boundaries (pieced quilts).
If you take a look at my Structures series you can witness the last 10 years of my journey. It was around 2004-2006 that things really started to gel for me. I’ve spent the last 5 years getting very comfortable with what I have to say.
Throughout this process, I didn’t have to worry if it was marketable or desirable or its saleability. I just made what I wanted.
Confidence
So now, not only have I’ve found my voice, I’ve made enough art (I’ve made over 300 textile paintings in the last 10 years) I’m very confident in the artwork I want to make and the new directions I want to explore.
When someone said to me in 2003 “your art looks like Nancy Crow‘s” I would cringe, because, well, it did. The above textile painting, while definitely my original work, is very heavily influenced by her working methods and style. It’s no surprise, I learned a lot from Nancy and I was just starting to find my way.
Today if someone said this, which they no longer do, (at least to my face), I’d think they are crazy and ignore them.
Confidence and experience. Invaluable.
Some Questions
Could I have gotten that confidence and experience while also selling my artwork? Probably – hard to say as I didn’t try it.
Would it have happened at the same rate? Again – who knows.
What I can say is that I’m no longer afraid that the marketplace will in some way tarnish my art and my quest to become the best artist I can.
Could it have the previous 15 years? Probably not. I suspect this was a limiting view of the world that I picked up somewhere along my artistic journey.
I suspect my new belief: that selling my art is a positive and the completion of the artistic process, has less to do with finding my voice than it does with being more courageous and living a bigger life.
Do I regret my choices in the past? Not at all. I love my artistic life. It’s just time for a change.
Selling Out
I like selling my artwork. It’s incredibly gratifying when someone selects to spend their money on artwork I created. It’s humbling and a huge honor, and I love knowing my art has value to others.
We’ve all heard it: “she’s very successful selling her art, she sold out”.
As I said before – we all have day job:
My belief is we all have a day job. We must do something to pay the bills. The only exceptions I see are the independently wealthy. As that doesn’t appear to be part of my future, I’m not going to write about it.
The rest us must trade our time and talent in exchange money. This is the day job.
Wanting that day job to be our artist passion is selling out?
I think not.
I find that notion ridiculous. Artists don’t need to starve. Money is a lovely thing, it allows us to do fabulous things (like go on a yoga retreat in Costa Rica) and to buy fabulous things (like yard landscaping so we can have gardens).
I do not believe that trading the results of my time and talent for money is bad if those talents are artistic, but good if it’s software development.
Whoever came up with that idea, well, they are crazy. Or maybe they don’t need to eat.
I need to eat. And so I am declaring selling my art to be fabulously fine.
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{ 19 comments }
Enjoyed this post Lisa. I am also a full time artist, risking my present and future income on selling my work. I agree completely that marketing and selling your work is just part of the process, and is not ‘selling out’. Other folks need and want art, and we are supplying this need & want. It is as tough as any other job, especially ‘freelance’ jobs. But it is what we want to do, and it what we are best at. I really enjoy meeting people who like and buy my work, and I am glad I get the chance to do so. Be proud – we are artists!
Alison, that is just so fabulous. I love reading the success stories of full time artists. Definitely not selling out. Artists definitely provide a much desired and needed product!
Selling is not selling out. Selling out is when your work is not selling well, and you compromise your artistic vision to appeal to the marketplace.
Really? or is it just a day job? Trading time and talent for money.
It is creating art, which is a lot more artistic than developing software.
Did I sell out by getting a day job?
I don’t think so.
Lisa, I have so many of the same thoughts as you do about working and why I work at a “job” and also am an artist. I had sooo many destructive and desusional thoughts about what it meant to be an artist when I was younger. But there was no one to show the way then either. I decided because I needed security that I would work and try to find my artist’s way when I had the time. Now I ask myself “am I less committed than a full time artist?” I don’t think so, I”m just stressed out! I need to make that change also but haven’t figured out “how” quite yet. Your blog and thoughts really help me right now. Thank you!
Debora, I’m with you in believing I’m just as committed as an artist without an unrelated day job.
I’m still working on the “how” also. I figure at some point, I just have to take the leap and some of the “how” will present itself then. But I’m also the planning type so I’m going to make sure I have a parachute before I jump :)
You say so much great things here Lisa, thanks for this series of posts and for sharing your thoughts on being an artist and living in a world that goes round not on art but on money. I too get a thrill when I sell my art, it gives it another value that is comes to me as a bonus, because I enjoyed making the art too. :-)
iHanna – yes yes! It’s a double bonus – the thrill of creating + the thrill of selling.
LOVE this post!! Screw the “selling out” attitude. I love to see successful artists — how gratifying is it to see people making a living at their craft and creativity?!
I went through the same thoughts when I went full-time (sell out vs. making money; keeping my “voice”) — but what stuck with me was this: I was turning away great projects simply because I didn’t have the time to do them. Since being FT, I have taken on the most amazing commissions, designed probably my best series of work to date (and cranked it out in just over a month, amazing what you can do when you have the ideas *and* the time), and been able to say YES to all the cool things that passed my way. And anybody who thinks doing commission work is selling out can bite me (I get that comment plenty). When someone likes your style and says “can you design a huge piece just for me, and tell me what it costs?” it’s like getting a blank check to do what you love, AND get paid for it.
I don’t know if I shared this before, but this was a post I wrote when I was going through the same transition…
http://copperleafstudios.net/archives/513
Best of luck, and will keep reading about your journey :}
Chris – thank you for your response. What a wonderful positive experience you’ve had. I’m smiling for you.
I love you are doing what you love and getting paid for it.
Thanks for the link to your article.
I love the term you used there: Knitting your safety net.
That’s where I am right now. Figuring out how big it needs to be also. At some point I will need to stop knitting and jump!
I wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember, but instead I went the way of “security” (and I say that with as big a set of dubious quotation marks as possible). While I had a job, I pursued art on the side, telling myself it was just a hobby, while always wishing I had more time for it. I sold pieces, and never had a problem with the dilemma of whether I “should” sell my art or not; I wanted to sell it. Some pieces just wouldn’t sell, but that was okay, since it wasn’t my sole income source. I hadn’t yet found my voice, but I felt very close to making a breakthrough towards it.
Then, in April, my day job quit me. I was laid off, and my (for all intents and purposes, *former*) industry took a nosedive, which it is not likely to recover from any time soon. This was supposed to be one of those moments of “the universe hath decreed: go forth and fly, little bird!” and then I’d make a spectacular leap into being a full-time artist.
Except…I’ve spent the time since then panicking about money, and every piece I begin is no longer a chance to explore, it’s “omigodthispiecehastosell,” which often freaks me out to the point of not being able to continue. My husband (thankfully) still has a job, and we’re scraping by, but this only intensifies the “I need a ‘real’ job” feelings.
My work sells, but it’s not enough to pay even one bill, I don’t know if it will ever get there, and that scares the hell out of me.
Jen – thank you so much for responding. Your experience is very real and clearly very scary for you. Thank you for being real.
I’m sending you lots of positive thoughts and hope that it all works out.
And your comment is exactly in line what I’m talking about next in this series: fear of failing – which is keeps me in my job. So thank you.
My, my, my. Again, Lisa, thanks for another thought-provoking post. Cheers to you for sharing your journey through this process as it helps others struggling with similar issues.
As you well know, it’s necessary for me to have “the other job”. I’ve had many “other jobs” over the years while pursing my art. It’s interesting to look back over the years to see how those career paths have changed while the art has always been there. Each time I take a step closer to what works for me.
Right now I enjoy my “other job” and I do not want to give it up completely even for the sake of full time art. [No worries! :) ] There’s things I get from it (and not just the $) that are important and fulfilling for me.
I seem to struggle with the balance of it all. In one way, having the financial safety net of “the other job” allows the freedom to take chances and explore creatively. On the other hand, time then becomes a premium and allow less opportunity to find the voice. Right now I’m working on learning to better balance the two.
Interesting take about how creating for the marketplace may not be “selling out” but just another version of the “day job”.
Tracy –
First very happy to hear the other job isn’t going away (Tracy is my most excellent massage therapist – I’d be sad without her monthly amazing touch).
But you touch on such am important part of all of this – balance. While complete freedom from worry about money is fabulous, trading that for no time to create art is not fun. Finding the right balance between those is so important.
I’m going to write more about selling out in the future, because I think it’s a big topic for all of us.
Very interesting article and comments too. I’m a stay at home mom who never went back to work after my children were grown. I have my grandson mornings now.
My artistic outlet has been making quilts for family members for a number of years. Just this year I have been branching out making other fabric creations in the hopes of selling them. It hasn’t been very profitable yet.
My biggest trouble is that I get discouraged and don’t see the sense in creating if no one wants what I’m making.
I waste time on the computer when I could be making things, time really isn’t a problem. I seem to lack motivation. Unless I’m designing fabric at Spoonflower; I can spend countless hours doing that. I’m just not that good at it and there are lots of others doing it, too.
Most of what I have made from fabric has a use if it doesn’t sell. I can give these items for gifts.
Kathy,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I suspect you aren’t alone. I know I waste much time online when I could be in my studio also. It’s a constant battle to not dot hat.
Motivation is a challenging issue. I think selling art is a long haul process so sending you some motivating thoughts for the new year!
Lisa, have really enjoyed reading your posts. You give alot of very valuable food for thought. I particularly liked what you mentioned about finding your artistic voice. I have also chosen the “security” path over art as a career in the past, I have given myself a hard time over not having the courage to persue art completely as a career. I do not enjoy my day job, but however, I find that it is fantastic fuel for the fire so to speak. I have to keep at my art for my inner well being and I think it is important like you say to find your voice. That has only just dawned on me from reading your blog, I’m allowed, indeed required, to get to know my artistic self..and a day job gives you that space, even if it can be uncomfortable sometimes. That makes it easier to not give myself a hard time, so thanks. As for selling out, I’m in complete agreement that its a load of codger….your work has value, allow yourself to recieve acknowledgement of that, plus ya gotta eat :)
Gardengirl – very happy to hear you have decided not to give yourself a hard time anymore. That’s huge. I’m smiling for you.
—lisa
What a great read! I so enjoyed this article. I myself have a ‘day job’ and enjoy indulging in my art outside of hours. Not really selling (yet), but am still developing and seeing what works best for me. I trained as a botanist thinking that I would get a job in pharmaceuticals or something… always a need for that sort of thing and felt I’d get a job easily (security). Problem was, I forcefully tried to neglect my art and it NEVER worked. Starting with me choosing not to take art for an A-level is where it started to become obvious that I would never be able to let that part of me go. Yet still at the cocky age of 16 I thought nothing of it. I ended up dropping a science in the end to do art and had to catch up (which I secretly enjoyed, as I had to do two years of art in one year :) ).
So, I am now 26 and not working in pharmacueticals, but am trying to become a professional botanical illustrator (with a day job on the side). I have had to train myself, and it is great when I feel I have made a leap in my skill. I love the discipline required to do that sort of art, but I still have to do other more creative things, like intaglio printing or textile work, which is always ‘free-style’.
Thank you for your post… it is inspiring. Your work is fabulous and feels me with excitement.
Jess
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