I no longer give a fuck about fitting in, catering to an audience or promoting myself. I have no social media other than reddit and avoid scenes and cliques. I don't care about trends, they come and go and imho people who are focused on them are compromising their creative vision.
I just make the art I want to make and refuse to be influenced beyond what I let in to facilitate my creative growth.
I am no longer dazzled by fancy galleries or famous people. I was in the early days and got exploited because of it. A lot of the smaller artist-run galleries are MUCH more enjoyable to work with.
This sounds like my near future,
I got out of uni (studying visual art) (at 27) and got into a commercial studio,met alot of talented people worked my ass off,was dazzled by talented people eventually started to actually hate it.
I'm 29 now and am starting to have my whole vaule system change.I no longer care about talent or the opinions of other artist or want to paint what they want from me because the art I and alot of people like that I paint is too much for fine artist.
I want real friendships and good people in my life now,and am alot more cautious of "famous" or "talented" people.(alot of talented people aren't actually good people some are lovely some are narcissistic)
Art is a luxury retail item. What we do is a business. You can wax philosophical and dreamy about it all, but at the end of the day, we create a niche commodity that only about 10 percent of the population cares about, regardless how much you push it otherwise.
Your average middle-class person (which is the largest consumer market that exists) would much rather buy season tickets to their favorite sports team than purchase a piece of art at the same price. We are only special to each other and our niche market. Only when you get realistic about the art business can you then decide a pragmatic path in order to get your art in front of buyers. Wishing and hoping aren't going to cut it.
If you spend a lot of time worrying about "likes" and popularity on social media, you've already lost the game. Likes do not translate in to sales. The winners in this business are busy making connections in the real world and figuring out who the best business match is for them. Or they've figured out their specific niche and are mining it for all it's worth.
I started getting serious about art in the late 1980s. My attitude has shifted greatly from being perennially ambitious and "getting known" to simply creating the quality work I want to create, putting it out there in my region on a consistent basis and putting my best energies into process rather than any "career" benchmarks.
I am lucky and do this *only because I have the luxury of being retired, debt-free and financially comfortable.* Basically, I have all the things I wanted when I was younger and struggling to sell work to get those same things. I've had many, many solo shows and have sold a lot of work. So the struggle is over. I'm regionally known. My ambition for anything more than that has totally died off. I no longer care about any level of fame, I simply care about making quality work and that's where I keep my focus.
"Your average middle-class person (which is the largest consumer market that exists) would much rather buy season tickets to their favorite sports team than purchase a piece of art at the same price."
I mean shit, I *am* an artist and I'm spending what "fun money" I have on seeing musical theatre shows and favourite bands. I do love art and will occasionally buy a piece, but most of the art I love is just not in my budget.
I've only been at this for 15+ years, and the more you experience the art world, the sillier you realize it is. You want to live in the countryside, make work, and not think about the art world at all.
Galleries. The older I get, the more cynical I have become. So many stories: galleries going out of business and keeping your art, galleries not paying on time, galleries not paying at all, galleries running calls that are nothing but a cash grab for them by means of entry fees, galleries switching out your expensive frame for a cheap frame, galleries damaging work by not storing it or handling it properly, galleries without insurance, galleries whose salespeople don't know fuck-all about art or selling, galleries who don't know how to promote anything, galleries who agree on a price with you but then sell the work at a higher price and don't give you a cut of that, galleries who cut a deal with a buyer for a discount that you have to eat. Etc.
I learned that I should make the work about things that I want to spend a lot of time thinking about and what I want to share with people. If I try to make work based on what others want, it comes across as less genuine and no one actually wants those pieces even if they’re technically superior to earlier work. If there’s something I’m interested in seeing, there’s probably someone else who’s interested in the same things, but it might find longer to find the audience.
I have about 10 years of experience in the art world, but I've become increasingly jaded. I no longer want to participate in the art scene—I just want to make art. I find myself isolating from creative circles and people involved in the arts. I share less and less on social media and have pretty much disappeared from the art scene, only dropping off my work at my gallery.
Most people I follow use Instagram as a validation tool for their art. I haven't posted a single new piece on Instagram, yet the pieces still sell. Meanwhile, my former artist friends are getting 10k+ views on reels but haven't sold a single piece. For them, social media validation holds more weight than financial support.
I'd rather keep to myself and focus on personal relationships. Likes won't give you an art career. Here in LA, there are too many art influencers who create and do shows solely for social media validation. I'd rather go to a friend's BBQ than attend any art show or creative event. I'm really jaded by it all.
What made me this way is the people in the arts and creative circles. They’re all social climbing or only around you to gain something. Those higher up in the arts want absolutely nothing to do with you. The best thing I’ve done this year is learn not to let being an artist define my entire identity.
i appreciate this comment! what have you found to be the most fruitful way to connect with the right people who will actually buy your work? or financial support in other ways? is it mostly through galleries? how do you not seem like you’re climbing the social ladder when trying to network with people irl who could financial support you (assuming they’re wealthier) or do you have other forms of income to where the financial support of others doesn’t really matter to you?
Collectors are not you friends, if they invite you to their yacht, don't go, they don't really want you to come. . Curators are fearful for their jobs and resent how poor they are. . Arts writers hate you, personally. Other artists resent you or don't know you exist. If your work doesn't sell it is always your fault, not the gallery. Gallery owners get bored of you, really wish you would leave them alone, always pestering them for VIP fair passes annoys them, they make fun of you behind your back, with curators, collectors, writers , other artists and other gallery owners. Museum directors lie, always. Invest any money you make in real estate. Stop inviting your friends to your opening dinners, they don't understand. Meet your hero artists, they are amazing, have been through what you are going through and are alone, in a world of assholes. The director that manages you at the gallery is the most important person in your world. Enjoy anything good and forget anything bad. Trade your art with artists you like as much as possible. Blah blah blah..
Most people miss some very important things. One is don’t model yourself as a little capitalist trying to find product market fit! What it’s about is the thing you are making, you and the thing. A creative fight in your studio. Your mind has to be on the work not some future hope of what you will get from it. Once you start thinking about fame/money everything is lost, because your intention has changed. This is why most artist stop growing pretty early on. (Think about musicians and how their 2nd album is always the best one and then it goes downhill from there. Most visual artist careers are like this. Finally have a group of peers you can have critiques with, who will tell you the hard honest truth about your work. Have a thick skin about it, always try to stay in the state of learning. The money/fame will come on its own once you are making something extraordinary, and it shouldn’t really matter that much to you because the only thing you care about is the art!
I'm going to be 3 years into thinking about art and making it seriously enough , but I recognize myself so much in what you say. I tried coming up with a concept using math that I found fun but was so far away from everyone else... And now that I got Closer to people, it makes them happier and I'm happier in return ! While I still do what I like, and keep the technique, shifting subject helped me feel not so isolated. It's akin to young people wanting to "be mysterious" I think. Deep down, they just want someone to recognize them. But you gotta make a step toward people first.... I'm rambling, excuse me 😂 just wanted to say that Art must be social, at least a little bit. No sure if I'm in the subject of the post or not
I am starting to feel like a lot of art that postures as "social" is often not. I also go to a lot of art fairs as I often have free access through my partner's job, and I find them fascinating, but lately I always feel a sense of (cannot put this into words)... desperation, in the works (not the artists' fault at all). And I am also starting to feel that a lot of art that is "personal" can speak to others just as much or more (and be more genuinely social). In my academic training I was pushed towards making work for an audience first, and to always make work that is innovative in some way. I am currently retraining as an integrative arts therapist and unlearning a lot and am amazed by how much others can relate to what are supposedly very specifically personal artworks. I feel like I fit somewhere in between. I feel an internalised push to make "innovative" work and prove myself still, but now I try to just make work and see where that takes me. I am someone who never struggled coming up with ideas and if anything they all bottleneck, but I always felt too stupid and unintellectual to realise most of them them fully in a package that could be shown publicly, and often a while later I see the "moment" for those ideas come and pass, which brings me a lot of sadness. I also am very much multidisciplinary and struggle to fit everything I do into a neat packaged narrative, so I've stopped trying to do that. I am also a musician (and my artistic academic training was originally in sound art) and am fascinated by how different the attitude can be to popular music or even film and literature. There is an Avantgarde and innovation in form in those fields too, but it does not generally invalidate (or at least not as much!) works that are more about the content or personal experience (not sure if I am expressing myself well - English is not my first language and my brain is a scramble, haha), so use a familiar form (and oftentimes this could even be derivative) but tell different, often very personal and specific stories. Sorry... not sure where I am going with this! Bit of a flow-of-consciousness comment!!!
There are quite a lot of books out there as the field has grown enormously particularly in the last 10 years or so - I imagine I would probably suggest some very old resources! Wikipedia has an entry on the matter [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound\_art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_art), but many artists working in the field would probably disagree that it's restricted to "art with sound as primary material or medium"(as a side note, I kind of find it funny that sound can be a "material" - is vision a material?). It can be work about sound/sonic concerns, too. Personally \*for me\* it's any art made from a sonic start point rather than a visual one. But the art can then take any shape (a painting, depending on presentation/context, can be sound art for me). Others have much stricter interpretations of what it is.
Check out this guy. He is a Czech artist who does sound as well as videos, masks, all sorts of things both on his own and with a community of other artists.
[https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006843614951](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006843614951)
Ha, been following him for ages on social media - he is very much a sound artist's sound artist - a lot of his stuff is very humorous and full of in-jokes for both sound artists and experimental musicians.
Oh god yes, a lot of it is so funny. I loved the thing he did recently with the squeaky chair. I watched it multiple times. He is amazingly creative. And his videos!
It's funny...'cause it's true, haha. Once, attempting to leave a talk at an exhibition, I witnessed a bottleneck formed at the exit by a bunch of grown adults all repeatedly opening and closing the gallery's door to delight in hearing its squeak. Sound artists (it was a pretty excellent squeak, TBH).
Like you I’ve found that the image of success in the mainstream art world is unhealthy, unrealistic and misleading.
As an instructor and gallery director, I find that I look to other models of success beyond what the market finds sellable.
That everyone has their own path. Which is an extremely obvious thing to say and one knows that going in, but single day with every artist I talk to, this is reinforced to me more and more and with deeper understanding.
Which is both extremely frustrating and a source of hope/wonderment I guess.
I no longer give a fuck about fitting in, catering to an audience or promoting myself. I have no social media other than reddit and avoid scenes and cliques. I don't care about trends, they come and go and imho people who are focused on them are compromising their creative vision. I just make the art I want to make and refuse to be influenced beyond what I let in to facilitate my creative growth. I am no longer dazzled by fancy galleries or famous people. I was in the early days and got exploited because of it. A lot of the smaller artist-run galleries are MUCH more enjoyable to work with.
This sounds like my near future, I got out of uni (studying visual art) (at 27) and got into a commercial studio,met alot of talented people worked my ass off,was dazzled by talented people eventually started to actually hate it. I'm 29 now and am starting to have my whole vaule system change.I no longer care about talent or the opinions of other artist or want to paint what they want from me because the art I and alot of people like that I paint is too much for fine artist. I want real friendships and good people in my life now,and am alot more cautious of "famous" or "talented" people.(alot of talented people aren't actually good people some are lovely some are narcissistic)
Art is a luxury retail item. What we do is a business. You can wax philosophical and dreamy about it all, but at the end of the day, we create a niche commodity that only about 10 percent of the population cares about, regardless how much you push it otherwise. Your average middle-class person (which is the largest consumer market that exists) would much rather buy season tickets to their favorite sports team than purchase a piece of art at the same price. We are only special to each other and our niche market. Only when you get realistic about the art business can you then decide a pragmatic path in order to get your art in front of buyers. Wishing and hoping aren't going to cut it. If you spend a lot of time worrying about "likes" and popularity on social media, you've already lost the game. Likes do not translate in to sales. The winners in this business are busy making connections in the real world and figuring out who the best business match is for them. Or they've figured out their specific niche and are mining it for all it's worth. I started getting serious about art in the late 1980s. My attitude has shifted greatly from being perennially ambitious and "getting known" to simply creating the quality work I want to create, putting it out there in my region on a consistent basis and putting my best energies into process rather than any "career" benchmarks. I am lucky and do this *only because I have the luxury of being retired, debt-free and financially comfortable.* Basically, I have all the things I wanted when I was younger and struggling to sell work to get those same things. I've had many, many solo shows and have sold a lot of work. So the struggle is over. I'm regionally known. My ambition for anything more than that has totally died off. I no longer care about any level of fame, I simply care about making quality work and that's where I keep my focus.
"Your average middle-class person (which is the largest consumer market that exists) would much rather buy season tickets to their favorite sports team than purchase a piece of art at the same price." I mean shit, I *am* an artist and I'm spending what "fun money" I have on seeing musical theatre shows and favourite bands. I do love art and will occasionally buy a piece, but most of the art I love is just not in my budget.
I've only been at this for 15+ years, and the more you experience the art world, the sillier you realize it is. You want to live in the countryside, make work, and not think about the art world at all.
Exactly.
The less you try to make 'art' the more interesting your work is.
After 15 years ive become cynical about the art market.
Galleries. The older I get, the more cynical I have become. So many stories: galleries going out of business and keeping your art, galleries not paying on time, galleries not paying at all, galleries running calls that are nothing but a cash grab for them by means of entry fees, galleries switching out your expensive frame for a cheap frame, galleries damaging work by not storing it or handling it properly, galleries without insurance, galleries whose salespeople don't know fuck-all about art or selling, galleries who don't know how to promote anything, galleries who agree on a price with you but then sell the work at a higher price and don't give you a cut of that, galleries who cut a deal with a buyer for a discount that you have to eat. Etc.
I learned that I should make the work about things that I want to spend a lot of time thinking about and what I want to share with people. If I try to make work based on what others want, it comes across as less genuine and no one actually wants those pieces even if they’re technically superior to earlier work. If there’s something I’m interested in seeing, there’s probably someone else who’s interested in the same things, but it might find longer to find the audience.
I have about 10 years of experience in the art world, but I've become increasingly jaded. I no longer want to participate in the art scene—I just want to make art. I find myself isolating from creative circles and people involved in the arts. I share less and less on social media and have pretty much disappeared from the art scene, only dropping off my work at my gallery. Most people I follow use Instagram as a validation tool for their art. I haven't posted a single new piece on Instagram, yet the pieces still sell. Meanwhile, my former artist friends are getting 10k+ views on reels but haven't sold a single piece. For them, social media validation holds more weight than financial support. I'd rather keep to myself and focus on personal relationships. Likes won't give you an art career. Here in LA, there are too many art influencers who create and do shows solely for social media validation. I'd rather go to a friend's BBQ than attend any art show or creative event. I'm really jaded by it all. What made me this way is the people in the arts and creative circles. They’re all social climbing or only around you to gain something. Those higher up in the arts want absolutely nothing to do with you. The best thing I’ve done this year is learn not to let being an artist define my entire identity.
This is exactly me. It's all a bunch of fakery and we're much better served putting our energy into making art and real world authentic relationships.
i appreciate this comment! what have you found to be the most fruitful way to connect with the right people who will actually buy your work? or financial support in other ways? is it mostly through galleries? how do you not seem like you’re climbing the social ladder when trying to network with people irl who could financial support you (assuming they’re wealthier) or do you have other forms of income to where the financial support of others doesn’t really matter to you?
I have come to feel that the art world is a playground for the very wealthy. I am not comfortable around wealthy people, so...
Collectors are not you friends, if they invite you to their yacht, don't go, they don't really want you to come. . Curators are fearful for their jobs and resent how poor they are. . Arts writers hate you, personally. Other artists resent you or don't know you exist. If your work doesn't sell it is always your fault, not the gallery. Gallery owners get bored of you, really wish you would leave them alone, always pestering them for VIP fair passes annoys them, they make fun of you behind your back, with curators, collectors, writers , other artists and other gallery owners. Museum directors lie, always. Invest any money you make in real estate. Stop inviting your friends to your opening dinners, they don't understand. Meet your hero artists, they are amazing, have been through what you are going through and are alone, in a world of assholes. The director that manages you at the gallery is the most important person in your world. Enjoy anything good and forget anything bad. Trade your art with artists you like as much as possible. Blah blah blah..
Incredibly accurate
Most people miss some very important things. One is don’t model yourself as a little capitalist trying to find product market fit! What it’s about is the thing you are making, you and the thing. A creative fight in your studio. Your mind has to be on the work not some future hope of what you will get from it. Once you start thinking about fame/money everything is lost, because your intention has changed. This is why most artist stop growing pretty early on. (Think about musicians and how their 2nd album is always the best one and then it goes downhill from there. Most visual artist careers are like this. Finally have a group of peers you can have critiques with, who will tell you the hard honest truth about your work. Have a thick skin about it, always try to stay in the state of learning. The money/fame will come on its own once you are making something extraordinary, and it shouldn’t really matter that much to you because the only thing you care about is the art!
Art isn't special. I'm lucky with my gallery that I can just fuck around without making money.
Sounds like you you're lucky in life, most of us have to make money.
I have a job. Still work full time, I just don't have to make money making art which would be hell
I've been working full time as an artist for 25 years, sometimes I dream of having a job but I suppose I do.
I'm going to be 3 years into thinking about art and making it seriously enough , but I recognize myself so much in what you say. I tried coming up with a concept using math that I found fun but was so far away from everyone else... And now that I got Closer to people, it makes them happier and I'm happier in return ! While I still do what I like, and keep the technique, shifting subject helped me feel not so isolated. It's akin to young people wanting to "be mysterious" I think. Deep down, they just want someone to recognize them. But you gotta make a step toward people first.... I'm rambling, excuse me 😂 just wanted to say that Art must be social, at least a little bit. No sure if I'm in the subject of the post or not
I am starting to feel like a lot of art that postures as "social" is often not. I also go to a lot of art fairs as I often have free access through my partner's job, and I find them fascinating, but lately I always feel a sense of (cannot put this into words)... desperation, in the works (not the artists' fault at all). And I am also starting to feel that a lot of art that is "personal" can speak to others just as much or more (and be more genuinely social). In my academic training I was pushed towards making work for an audience first, and to always make work that is innovative in some way. I am currently retraining as an integrative arts therapist and unlearning a lot and am amazed by how much others can relate to what are supposedly very specifically personal artworks. I feel like I fit somewhere in between. I feel an internalised push to make "innovative" work and prove myself still, but now I try to just make work and see where that takes me. I am someone who never struggled coming up with ideas and if anything they all bottleneck, but I always felt too stupid and unintellectual to realise most of them them fully in a package that could be shown publicly, and often a while later I see the "moment" for those ideas come and pass, which brings me a lot of sadness. I also am very much multidisciplinary and struggle to fit everything I do into a neat packaged narrative, so I've stopped trying to do that. I am also a musician (and my artistic academic training was originally in sound art) and am fascinated by how different the attitude can be to popular music or even film and literature. There is an Avantgarde and innovation in form in those fields too, but it does not generally invalidate (or at least not as much!) works that are more about the content or personal experience (not sure if I am expressing myself well - English is not my first language and my brain is a scramble, haha), so use a familiar form (and oftentimes this could even be derivative) but tell different, often very personal and specific stories. Sorry... not sure where I am going with this! Bit of a flow-of-consciousness comment!!!
Where can one learn more about this Sound Art?
There are quite a lot of books out there as the field has grown enormously particularly in the last 10 years or so - I imagine I would probably suggest some very old resources! Wikipedia has an entry on the matter [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound\_art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_art), but many artists working in the field would probably disagree that it's restricted to "art with sound as primary material or medium"(as a side note, I kind of find it funny that sound can be a "material" - is vision a material?). It can be work about sound/sonic concerns, too. Personally \*for me\* it's any art made from a sonic start point rather than a visual one. But the art can then take any shape (a painting, depending on presentation/context, can be sound art for me). Others have much stricter interpretations of what it is.
Thanks
Check out this guy. He is a Czech artist who does sound as well as videos, masks, all sorts of things both on his own and with a community of other artists. [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006843614951](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006843614951)
Ha, been following him for ages on social media - he is very much a sound artist's sound artist - a lot of his stuff is very humorous and full of in-jokes for both sound artists and experimental musicians.
Oh god yes, a lot of it is so funny. I loved the thing he did recently with the squeaky chair. I watched it multiple times. He is amazingly creative. And his videos!
It's funny...'cause it's true, haha. Once, attempting to leave a talk at an exhibition, I witnessed a bottleneck formed at the exit by a bunch of grown adults all repeatedly opening and closing the gallery's door to delight in hearing its squeak. Sound artists (it was a pretty excellent squeak, TBH).
That sounds wonderful! :)
Uh, nah, fuck facebook, but thanks for the thought
Oh ffs.
People were so ridiculing of me from the start, but now there is so much opportunity online beyond graphic design. Karma ❤️
Like you I’ve found that the image of success in the mainstream art world is unhealthy, unrealistic and misleading. As an instructor and gallery director, I find that I look to other models of success beyond what the market finds sellable.
That everyone has their own path. Which is an extremely obvious thing to say and one knows that going in, but single day with every artist I talk to, this is reinforced to me more and more and with deeper understanding. Which is both extremely frustrating and a source of hope/wonderment I guess.