For the Purity of it or for Money?

Its Journal Time.
This time is an oldie but goodie question and its the age old topic of "Doing Art for the Purity of it?"

A fan of my work just out of curiosity asks me: Do you do it simply for artistic purpose and passion and sell them as a +1 or do you make things simply to sell them?

The answer is both.
I am not rich nor do I have an investors. I need to recover my materials cost. Don't believe in that "starving artist for the purity of Art crap" Whoever wants you to believe in that are usually rich folks being backed up or some evil jealous person who wants to see you fail with your talent believing the purity lie. In the past I've got some folks always come up to me says things like that and I check out their background and its 100% true. It a freaking load of crap.

You want to be a true artist nowadays, Money is the measure of your Art's value. When people want to pay for your Art that means you are doing something right and creating desire in someone's heart.

In the Advertising industry where I've worked for 5 years+ each of my clients spent millions $$ on product launch parties to advertise their products to create desire - A want or a need for that product where people would pay Money for it.  Now how many Artist can really do that with simply a block of clay, some resin and paint?

I challenge every freaking Artist on this Site to do that. Make money from your Art. That's what real success is. Most are afraid to succeed , not fail, because most do not try and want to succeed. They do for hobby, nothing wrong but they are not taking Art to the next level: people thinks its good enough to have value. There are good and bad in both doing Art for money and not. I'll explain.

In making Art just for a hobby, it usually means you are neither dependent on Art to sustain itself which means you can mess up and have the freedom to create whatever you want without the pressure to sell that idea to anyone but yourself. Its great breath of fresh air to be able to do it and not worry about where's your next meal is coming from. Artists who choose this path usually are independently wealthy or have a side job somewhere else. While this is great freedom, it doesn't push you any further than what you think is possible.

Money can be a Pressure (and stress) factor to push anyone to do anything. For an Artist its a push factor to elevate your skills not just as an Artist but also squeeze out extra skills you didn't know you have like this list below:

Marketing skills: Finding new ways and using your artist's creativity to solve problem and increase desire in your products.
Salesmanship: This set of skills to find innovative way and sales channels to sell your product
Customer Service: To satisfy our customers needs and giving them better product support for the things you made in case of breakage, damage etc.
Professionalism as a businessman: Etiquette and service mentality to increase return of your customers.
Improving your product to make it presentable: This means making your Art or product sell-able and structurally stable which means it don't fall apart

Last but not least: A Better Artist who understands the business world.

This is what I've learned in my college of 4 years back in New York where I've attended Fashion Institute of Technology. I didn't just learn about anatomy, composition and color theory but also how to get money for it. My major in Art was Illustration in the tradition of the famous illustrators like Andrew Wyeth, Normal Rockwell who sold countless Art to newspapers, magazines and books. These were working and thriving Artists. They got money for their skills, in turn pay for their bills. But these Artists understood how to get money for their art. Even though eventually they had Artist agents to represent them and negotiate fees, before they were successful they did everything themselves and handled all the business side of things. The other was presenting their Art in a professional manner where people could properly see their ideas with a consistent Artistic style which can be a niche in the market. This just means they occupy a certain part of the $$ pie in the market where there are consumers who like that style of art and willing to part dollars for it.

Its usually the Artists who sell their Art, no matter how crappy or great it is, are very Professional in their execution. I've seen some mediocre Art in some random gallery yesterday and it was crap and sold for $16,000 each piece and it was just abstract blades of grass but in different color combinations. Even though the style was crap they way it was presented and how neat the canvasses was made was very professional. Brushstrokes was consistent in all the 10-20 pieces hanging and there was a consistent theme and idea going. So my point?

It doesn't matter what style of Art it is as long as you can do something professional looking people will pay for it. You can take any idea no matter how simple in execution present in a professional manner and with the right influence and connections backing your up, you may just be the next professional working artist.  But most important is the understanding of the Artist that what he/she needs to do to make a living from it. If there are people backing you up, means your art is worth money to be invested in and give returns to those backing you up.

Creating Art is not cheap nor its something easily done even though some of us make it look like we just snapped our fingers and poof! comes the art. We may seem like gods but we are not.

We are not God who can create Art out of thin air.

We are humans. We need to eat, pay bills and most of all pay for the materials.  We need to be realistic folks. We can't just create great art from nothing. We need money to support it. Even Van Gogh who actually did art for the purity of it had funding and money from his brother Theo who ran a  gallery business. His older brother gave him paint supplies and even tried to sell his Art and didn't get anywhere. It wasn't until centuries later Van Gogh's art become more appreciated and now museums are profiting off it in billions $.

While its an admirable trait to do Art for the purity of it, its often unrealistic in this age. Unless you are super rich and have endless funding like some oil tycoon, you can't really do Art without incurring some cost. And another thing is you can't do GOOD Art. Any Artist that has gone thru the suffering like creating desirable or even "commercial art" which means many people are willing to pay for that landscape or flower painting even though they don't like it, have achieved certain business and Artistic skills I've mention above. But to most hobby or non-professional artists this is already an advanced level of professionalism that you will never understand unless you've been through the trials of fire.

The pressure to make Desirable Art makes you a better Artist. It pushes your aesthetic and technical creativity to the next level. "How can I make this so kick ass where people want it?"

So try to understand the professionals who do it for a living. Don't knock them down until you walk a day in their path.

Finally if you can do Art and make people pay money for it (without holding a gun in your hand) then I respect you. You are the shizznit even if I hate your art. I bow down to you because you have found a desire for your art which is very difficult. No one can read minds or hearts of people's desires but either by accident or true skills and hard work, you have customers who part hard earned cash for it you have achieved a level of professionalism and Artistic Nirvana. Even though u got paid 1 dollar for it, it still qualifies you as a professional!

This is what makes a Great Artist according to me. Everyone has their ideas/thoughts/ beliefs this is mine. You may think I'm some money grubbing greedy whatever, but your wrong. I don't do stocks or any kind of smart investment which makes me smart and money centered person I am not.

I am a purist at heart who believes he can sell Art for a living.

Good Luck to all Artists professional or not.