I was talking to a fellow artist last week about the in’s and out’s of being an artist and in that conversation I found myself saying quit profoundly:
“Just tell me what you want me to paint and I will paint it”
This was on the heels of a discussion about how the gallery system tries to manipulate the artist voice and steer the artist in one direction or the other to make them produce work that in invariably the same but sale-able.
It is kind of a double edge sword. On the one hand we want to sell our work so then why not produce what the market wants and your sales are hence forth guaranteed… aren’t they? The gallery said they would be. But on the other hand, hum… are you copping out?
We want to paint, sculpt, print what we want to paint, sculpt, print and the dam market is suppose to come breaking down our doors to get it. But they don’t. So you compromise and paint, sculpt, print what the market wants so that you can paint, sculpt, print what the hell you want and decorate your own walls and the walls of your family and friends (hey that’s their job, to support you with their walls).
So tell me what do you think about creating what the market wants so you can create what you want?
Shipping art to the U.S. and getting it back again. It’s the getting it back that’s the tough part. I had 5 pieces in an exhibition in New York a few years ago. After the show was over and the gallery shipped it back, the work was stopped at the border. Customs would not release it until I paid a brokerage fee. I called Canada Customs and explained that I owned the work but it seems that they don’t have a way to handle this. There was a value placed on the work so there was duty. In the end I was told that the only way to avoid duty is to broker it yourself.
