navigating creativity when trying to sell your art
Practice What I Preach:
About two years ago, I published a book called, “Creative Sanity: Where Art Meets Presence.” In it, I explore the benefits of losing yourself in a creative space, where making things empowers the reader to find the self through artistic activity. It was a project two years in the making, involving 27 artists from 10 different countries who shared their states of mind while in the act of making art. It has yet to make the New York Times best seller list, but while writing, designing, collaborating with artists from around the world, and publishing the book, I lived by one principle; lose yourself in the process of creation to discover yourself. Ah, but then came the selling part of the project, and the narrative changed. It actually needed to sell to be considered ‘good’.
Role Models:
The artists in “Creative Sanity” showed an inspiring commitment to their craft. Art requires incredible sacrifice and belief in what you’re doing.
That’s when I veered from the path originally set out by “Creative Sanity." The need for acknowledgement, for acceptance, quickly shifted my focus from the process of creating a meaningful book, to the selling of the product. That colossal shift in priority then spilled over into everything I was painting and designing. It’s an easy trap to fall into. The logic was simple. I sought validation from a community and system that rewarded strong work the same way that all economic systems reward achievement; money. And while getting approval from the security of my friends and family circle is easy, getting noticed by the art market presents a set of new and frightening challenges. My process had changed while I was pining for the approval of a new, more sophisticated audience that would hopefully pay me for my efforts. The goalpost had moved from ‘art for art’s sake’, to ‘art for money’s sake’, and the works suffered as a result.
The Journey That Asks Questions:
The desire to monetize my technical skills as a painter and graphic designer has been a journey long in the making. The thought of being an artist good enough to make money at it has always been in the back of my mind. I’ve sold paintings here and there, but never knew enough about the business side of fine art to mount a concentrated offensive and develop a market for my work. So about a year ago, I sought the guidance of an art coach to help identify a ‘sellable’ style of painting, and then find a market for whatever it was I was planning to sell. There was one big problem; I didn’t have much to say in my work. Technically, I’m pretty good with a brush. But all of that painting technique means nothing if the work lacked expression. So now I had to confront myself. I had to find my authentic voice in paint. But therein lies the most challenging part of marketing one’s own self expression; are you, as an artist, successfully communicating what you’re trying to say? There were so many unanswered questions about me, what I was trying to express, and zeroing in on my target audience (if any) for my work. Kudos to my art coach. She remained patient through all of my questioning. She knew they originated from naivety and a lack of experience.
Venturing out:
A wholesale change in painting technique and subject matter signaled a shift in the target audience for the work. Would it gain acceptance?
Through five one hour sessions, my coach revealed just how ignorant I was about the market and amount of work required to succeed in its system of self promotion, stylistic trends, and work demands. Clearly I had a long uphill climb. Confronting the realities of reaching my goal was difficult on a variety of fronts, not the least of which was self actualization. What did I have to say about the world, and why would others bother to share in my observations and insights? I had to find and express my vision of what the aesthetician Clive Bell calls the creation of significant form. Ideally, the forms that I created would originate from an authentic vision seen through the filter of a heartfelt need to communicate, to express something I felt would prompt viewers to see the world in a new way. The paintings would impact the viewer enough to invite a deeper dive into their aesthetics and their objectives as an expressive form. But that’s where I lost my way as an artist. I became so obsessed with art market trends and trying to shift my style to whatever would sell, that my style got lost in the distraction of making a sale. I was becoming exactly what my book preached against; a sellout.
Acceptance:
A few pieces that have received praise from visitors to our home. Works with recognizable subject matter seem to be more appealing to more people.
Moving Beyond the ‘Nice’ Crowd:
I don’t have anything against money. We all need it for important things like eating, for example. But when it becomes the driver of an artist’s creative energy, the creativity becomes inauthentic and hollow. My focus had shifted towards the product, leaving behind the joy of the creative process. My creative energies suddenly shifted and succumbed to a need for validation in the form of monetary compensation. The nagging need for acceptance by people outside the family support system had driven my art to creative efforts that lacked vibrance. I wasn’t making art out of an exploration of expressive voice. I was making it hoping to please people with money to spend. My coach instructed me to make 30 pieces of s*** in a short span of time to release my inhibitions and just paint with instinctual flow. At first this process brought an energy and joy to painting that I hadn't felt for quite some time. But the reception to this work was muted at best. My family and friends no longer acknowledged the paintings as having any quality at all besides “nice”. Ask any artist. The word nice represents the safest of outs in a conversation related to art. Nice represents the failure of an artwork in the eyes of the person who made it because nice implies that the work invoked no thinking. It’s not their fault. Most people are not well versed in art and aesthetics. But the art and aesthetics crowd is who I was trying to appeal to. The questions remained. How do I first get my work in front of the art crowd? And what will they like enough to come back for more?
Square One:
I’m not sure that, had my work been noticed by the right people and the money started flowing in, I would have been able to sustain the sellout for long. In many ways, I’m back at square one, just painting what I want to paint. Creative exploration is a learning game that demands patience. I’m constantly reminding myself that this is an ongoing process. There is still much to learn. For now, I’m holding onto the only constant that is under my control; that one of life’s true joys is working in the studio to solve a visual problem. Feelings of anticipation and discovery that happen during the painting process are rarely found elsewhere. To lose those feelings in the studio while making what others want, is sure to appear in work that lacks the vibrance and rhythms of paintings created within an authentic state of creative flow. Perhaps it’s selfish, and it may not sell, but making art to discover more of how I see reality and my place in it is really the final point of it all. If others see value in it, enough to actually pay for it, then welcome to my world! If not, then I’ll just keep painting, and learning more about myself along the way.
Clive Bell, Art (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1913)
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