Art and the commercial context

We’re all familiar with the cliche of the ‘starving artist’ and although it’s generally an exaggeration, it’s true that the life of an artist is well known to be one with relatively little financial certainty. Unless you’re a commercial artist, working for a company, you’re not likely to have a regular salary coming through your work. For this reason, many artists have other jobs as well as their artistic career, sometimes in related fields such as design or restoration.

Of course, this is not to say that it is impossible to make enough money as a full-time artist. There are many talented artists who manage to do just that. Yet it takes time to build up the kind of awareness of your work, exposure in wider markets, and circle of buyers you need to be able to make a living simply from your fine art. Even with all that, a certain amount of luck is involved which means that income can fluctuate from year to year.

Because of all this, many artists would like to be able to augment their income in other ways. Yet many resist the idea of taking on either a full-time job that would allow them to work on art at the weekends, or a part-time one that would give more flexibility in terms of time for creative activity. They fear it will drain their energy and resources and detract from their work when they do sit down to it.

An alternative that is often considered is for the artist to use their skills and talent to produce both fine artworks, which are of course themselves available for collectors to buy, and also other, generally smaller, more commercial products. This allows the artist to keep their energies devoted to the creation of art, but also to make that art something that many people can afford to buy, as well as admire. Although it is often appropriate for an artist to set a relatively high price on their original works, it does cut them off from the large market of people who enjoy their style and abilities, but are not ready or not able to pay the price for an original work of their own.

Despite the value of increasing their audience in this way, some artists worry about the effect this may have on how others perceive them as an artist, and what they think of their work. There is a concern that anything that falls outside the realm of what is understood to be fine art is not an appropriate thing for a fine artist to be involved with. Yet even in the world of fine art, the barriers and perimeters have changed dramatically in the last fifty years or so. Marcel Duchamp, who turned everyday objects into works of art simply through a shift in perspective, ensured that, and the tremendous influence of people like Andy Warhol on many areas of the art world blurred the distinctions that had once seemed clear with ‘factories’ that turned out work to a set design that might have had no more contact with the artist than the initial idea and his signature. Moreover, museums and galleries all over the world sell reproductions of their famous works so that visitors can take home a small version of their favorite painting. Provided you stay serious about your work, there’s no reason entering a similar market should impact on your reputation as a serious artist any more than the myriad versions of Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ affects his renown.

There are a number of ways to access this market, with all sorts of goods that can be adapted to fit your creative direction. Explore the possibilities, and put serious time and thought into working out which is best suited to your work. If you can, ask those you think might be interested in such things, whether it’s your local community or an online one, what sorts of products they’d like to see, and perhaps even what sort of price they’d expect to pay for them. Research like this before you start can be extremely useful in helping focus your thoughts in the right direction and in setting appropriate expectations. It’ll also be a bit of pre-launch marketing that hopefully gets your audience on board!

The most obvious beginning is to sell prints of your works – that is, smaller, cheaper ‘copies’ of an original piece. These are often popular with viewers who love your work but can’t afford it. You can also look at greeting cards, which remain very popular in a huge number of countries; people love to feel that they have chosen a really unique card for their friend or family member, and of course finding out that it’s the work of an artist, rather than simply bought in a store, adds to the appeal of the card for the one who receives it. Some artists enjoy putting designs on magnets, finding something that resonates with them in the magnetic concept and the idea that people will see their work on an everyday, intimate basis. Some find fabric inspiring and produce wonderful cloths, clothes and other material products.

There are various ways to promote your new wares once you’ve designed and created them. Good locations to introduce new people to the idea are local fairs, where you can talk to passers by and explain the concept and a bit about yourself. Local stores are sometimes happy to set aside a little space for local artists to advertise, something that can be particularly effective if it’s a small store where the owner is happy to tell customers about you. Of course, there are also opportunities online and through word of mouth. Again, it’s up to you to decide what works best for you.

It’s also well worth listening to your audience on a regular basis, encouraging interested art-lovers and previous buyers to give you feedback on what they liked, what they were looking for, their experience with you and your work. You don’t need to take it all on board, but there’s nothing wrong with letting this kind of response nudge you in a direction you’re interested in exploring anyway. Successful LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya, for example, originally only began sculpting out of the trademark bricks when he heard about a competition LEGO were running. He’d never have given up his job to concentrate on sculpture full-time if he hadn’t been listening to the feedback he received, and it has turned out to be a great, rewarding career path for him.

This kind of approach might not be appropriate for everyone, and it’s up to each artist to work out for themselves what would be a good direction to go in. Discussions with friends, fellow artists and gallery directors with whom you have a relationship can be a part of this. If you do decide to go for it, though, approach it with all the creativity you put into your other work, and see what happens.

If you’ve used any of these ideas in the past, or are planning to in the future, let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear about it!