Welcome to Our World
- pieces in Humanity's jigsaw
Harley Miller, Sluie Lodge, Dunphail,
Tel: (0044) 01309 611708 em: harley@harleymiller.com
Series of seven articles produced for the
Society for All Artists - "Professional Artist News Letter"
Market Place / Easel
Which sector of the Market Place are you best suited to?
MARKET PLACE / EASEL no.1
Opportunities for All?
We Artists are generally regarded as a temperamental and/or capricious lot but when compared to the often unpredictable and volatile Market Place in which we operate we could almost be seen as hardy annuals. In other words: resolutely popping up at seasonal exhibitions and reappearing year after year in local gallery displays.
For most artists ours is an easel-led business, in other words, “I like painting this and that and if it sells then so much the better”. This is a fine attitude to have if you aren’t hoping to receive a regular monthly income from the sale of your work. If you simply want to paint as the mood takes you then obviously you will have an alternative source of income already in place such as a good pension, an allowance, a job or a partner who is prepared to earn for you. If you don’t, then life could be financially precarious and you might want to consider approaching the Market Place differently from those artists who gamble and speculate with their product or sit around waiting to be discovered.
Approaching the Market Place isn’t difficult; it doesn’t require expensive advertising or consumer campaigns. I’ve meet so many artists who draw on their increasing bank overdrafts to pay for expensive advertising in directories, magazines and web pages.
When I ask them why they do it they will invariably answer:
“Because I need to advertise if my work is to sell”
“And how’s it selling?”
“It isn’t” is a normal reply.
What a waste of money and personally demoralising situation.
There are far better ways for them to sell their work – provided they aren’t living under the illusion that their elementary creative efforts are anything more than that.
So what is this magic formula?
It’s not difficult but first you need to learn the ten-word Incantation for Artists and practise saying it until it becomes automatic. It goes like this:
“Have you ever thought of having one of my paintings?”
Remembering to recite it might sound a doddle but I can assure you that few artists do remember it when someone says “My niece is turning 40 next month and I haven’t a clue what to give her”. If you’re not used to reciting the Incantation for Artists it might initially take some courage to come out with: “Have you ever thought of having one of my paintings?” But with practise you’ll gain in confidence, especially when the response to your question could be “No I haven’t, that could be a good idea”.
Reciting the Incantation for Artists in front of friends and relatives might not come easily. However the situation is quite different when talking to strangers because you can identify yourself as an Artist rather than admitting to being retired or say a Taxi Driver who paints in their spare time. When we were young we were told not to speak to any stranger. But now we are grown up and we can choose which stranger to talk to. It’s not a matter of continually promoting one’s product; it is more a case of being prepared for a whole range of opportunities for selling your painting away from the traditional outlets of the exhibition and the gallery.
The next time someone tells you they are moving house, celebrating a family occasion or knows someone who is soon to retire, recite the Incantation for Artists to them; you could surprise yourself. Invite them to visit you or select suitable items and arrange to visit them. In this area of the Market Place there is a call for both ready-made and also commissioned art so you might even consider painting something especially to fit the occasion.
The retail market for ready-made art is unpredictable and many provincial galleries struggle to remain viable. The majority stay afloat by operating a sale-or-return policy in order to keep their sales room stocked. In a sense an exhibition can be seen as a “temporary gallery” experiencing many of the problems. If it’s an income you are seeking then it makes sense to consider better alternatives than to simply painting a picture, hanging it up with a price tag in the hope that someone will eventually buy it.
Next issue we will consider how to identify the wealth of opportunities awaiting us in the Market Place.
_____________________________________________________________
MARKET PLACE / EASEL - no. 2
OPPORTUNITIES GALORE!
Last month I suggested the most useful phrase a self-employed artist could memorise is: "Have you thought of having one of my paintings?" However I admit that not everyone will want to offer their work in return for money; just because you produce pictures it doesn't follow that you need to exchange them for money in order to prove there worth.
I've met artists who can afford to paint away to their hearts' content and have no reason to market the result. They tell me that to offer my painting on the open market is being ungracious to the muse that inspired and helped me paint it. At the opposite end of the spectrum are those poverty-stricken artists who produce paintings with little or no commercial appeal whilst living in the hope that someone/anyone will buy one.
As a self-employed artist I need to produce a steady income from my work if I am to afford my life-style therefore I can't take too many risks such as producing speculative work or competing with my fellow artists for commissions. My way is to target occasions and opportunities as I find them and create niche-markets for my work and services. It is not as difficult as it sounds.
There appears to be no shortage of attractive opportunities for self-employed artists, if you keep your eyes and ears open you'll see them everyday everywhere; be it the
If there are plans to refurbish or furnish property and if you have a studio full of unsold artwork then that is the moment to make contact and recite "have you thought of having one of my paintings?" When people are celebrating births, marriages, retirement, home moving, new projects, birthdays, contract completions, anniversaries, prize winning, graduation, sporting achievements then this would be an excellent opportunity for a commissioned artist to come forward with: "have you thought about commissioning a painting to fit the occasion?"
If you belong to a common interest groups such as a work team, sports and leisure club, religious and spiritual movement, parenting group, pet or gardening club, if you are a musician, gourmet or traveller, then you will have a link to that specific world and speak the jargon. Through your contact with other members you will already be close to a range of opportunities related to celebrations, anniversaries and events.
How to come forward with the suggestion that your friend, colleague, group member or fellow traveller consider buying or commissioning a painting is up to the individual but I find the most effective and direct method, especially when delivered sensitively, is the "Have you ever thought of ……….?" approach.
Ready made original or reproduced artwork is invariably called for when buildings are being built or renovated. There could even be a purchasing budget in place for such items under the heading "decoration and furnishing". An announcement that "The Old Bell Hotel is under new ownership and is to have a face lift" offers an excellent opportunity for an artist to offer the studio product as does a new office development, visitors centre and so on.
This way of doing the business requires practise and self-belief and you'll find this method of approach is an important part of most other successful self-employed businesses. If you are lacking in self-confidence then why not sign up for a local course in confidence-building? It might be the best investment you could make at this time.
The art retail trade offers a range of opportunities because it spends its time buying and selling and the successful retailer depends heavily upon the supply of saleable items. The artist who breezes in with a "have you ever thought of having one of my paintings?" could elicit a negative response, not always but often. A far better marketing strategy for this first approach might be "What are you thinking of?" This is because the successful retailer will already have a good grasp on the needs and lifestyle of their customers and how they wish to serve this need. They might also have other long-standing suppliers firmly in place and initially have no wish to extend their list of suppliers.
Inviting a retailer to identify what type of subjects, styles, formats, sizes or presentations they are on the look out for could offer the artist a potential doorway into the gallery or shop rather than presenting the retailer with the uncompromising bulging portfolio accompanied by a tentative: "this is what I've produced and do you want some?" The "what are you thinking of?" strategy offers the artist time to either produce something to meet a specific need or rummage through their studio for something suitable to take along to the next meeting.
Over the years this direct method of targeting opportunities and promoting my product has proved both financially satisfying and reliable. In front of a client or retailer I have the opportunity to brainstorm ideas, sketch out and discuss thoughts and dreams in a far better way than any intermediary can do. I regard a sales agent as an intermediary. Although the majority of agents are good at their job, I realised long ago that success in business is all to do with establishing good working relationships with others. Having an agent do my chat up lines with potential clients or retailers whilst I stand at my easel pathetically waiting for the affair to begin is a really dreadful idea.
In the next issue we will consider the subjects of "confidence building and making effective agreements".
_____________________________________________________________
Market Place / Easel continued - no.3
Having the Confidence
Good face-to-face communication is a learned art and essential in the development of self-confidence. It is present when both parties are feeling acknowledged and valued. It is particularly good when dialogue is accompanied by visual expression, especially when information is being passed from one person to another. The use of diagrams and rough sketches provide an excellent means for illustrating the interaction.
It is amazing how a rough sketch or diagram can quickly highlight confusion or misunderstanding and help to clarify the information passing between speaker and listener. To quickly sketch out the ideas for the final piece of artwork in front of the Client can assist in the building mutual confidence. Firstly it acknowledges both parties and secondly the outline of an idea is easier to develop once it has been anchored onto paper. I call this sketch dialoguing.
Example: My Client had the idea for a painted reconstruction of a forgotten local scene set in the mid fifties. There were no photographs available but fortunately one or two local people from that period were still around. I asked Doug, an elderly retired railwayman, to describe what he remembered and from his stories it was obvious that his long-term memory was still active.
He suddenly said "You must include the Rabbit Man in your picture"
"What's the Rabbit Man?"
"In the fifties we used to send Cornish rabbits up to
his hut opposite the station and the kids called him the Rabbit Man"
I did a quick sketch of what I imagined the hut would have looked like.
"No, you've got that wrong" said Doug, "the roof went the other way"
I rectified the sketch and then added an imagined Rabbit Man.
As I added a door in the middle plus seated figure beside it.
"The door was on one end and George always wore a brown bowler hat"
I altered the sketch to suit.
"The kids used to come down after school; he always had a sweet or a story for them"
I added a group of kids
"Don't forget the rabbits" said Doug
I began to sketch some boxes
"No, not in boxes, he would hang them up all round the eaves"
This form of sketch dialoguing is visually recovering memory. The final painting includes this archive narrative. Without Doug and the sketching this memory could have been lost forever.
Receiving instructions for a commission has all the ingredients necessary for the creation of misunderstandings, assumed agreements and confusion.
Example:
Client offers Artist a painting commission.
Artist: "What sort of thing are you looking for?"
Client: "Something bright to jolly up this dull room"
Artist: "I like painting large and bright, my work always reflects this"
Client: "I like
Artist: "I prefer to paint in a loose style and not to have too many fixed ideas before I begin"
Client: "Well I'll leave it to you to come up with something"
Artist: "I'll give it some thought; if you don't like the result then you can always say "No"
Result: The Artist produces large bright painting, the Client says "No" and the consequence is a lose/lose situation.
So where did the Client and the Artist go wrong? I believe the Client wasn't at fault because they answered the Artist's first question clearly and innocently enough. It was the Artist who swiftly established his/her position and didn't encourage the Client to explore their ideas for the painting any further. Far from seeing them as their co-creative partner the Artist saw their Client simply as a purchaser. What a wasted opportunity!
It took 200 words for me to describe the above scenario– here it is again as a rough sketch.
It is obvious that the Artist did nothing to bridge the mind gap between them. The Artist needed to take control of the meeting, drawing the Client into the creative process rather than maintaining the wall between them. Assumptions and misunderstandings could have been quickly identified and swiftly resolved.
Misunderstandings are to be expected as a normal part of the process of minds attempting to meet each other. But they can and should also be eliminated as quickly as possible. Misunderstandings usually come about when words are the only means employed in explaining exactly what one is thinking. Trying to communicate in words can separate people whilst pictures are understood by those with eyes to see and in any case are an international language. It serves all artists to learn how to visually dialogue with others particularly when ephemeral ideas are being thrown around. Sketch dialoguing can very quickly illustrate information whilst streams of words can stifle the brain and the ability to hear. If self-confidence is simply an attitude of mind then developing the ability to illustrate attitudes can only be for the good.
The above diagram also includes the money symbol. The Artist has a fat fee in mind whilst the Client has a fixed budget in mind but neither has the confidence to admit to it. This particular Artist is reluctant to mention the word "fee" and chooses to delay airing the subject until the moment is right, which might coincide with the delivery of the painting .
I'll be looking at the subject of setting commission fees and pricing paintings in the next instalment of "Market Place / Easel".
MARKET PLACE / EASEL continued / no. 4
Who's Paying for This?
There was no shortage of wine at the preview evening of our local art society's summer exhibition. On show were over a hundred and fifty paintings and all for sale.
Although I attended as an invited guest and even a potential purchaser I was also there to produce a report on the occasion for a local newspaper.
Differentiating between visitors and exhibitors wasn't easy because artists are notoriously diffident when it comes to wearing a badge, standing alongside their painting and answering questions. I targeted one lady who looked as if she could wield a paint brush to good effect.
"Have you any work on show?"
"Oh dear" she replied nervously "Well I do have a couple of pieces somewhere over there"
I pushed a way through the party towing her behind me. We stood looking at her small oil painting of a field with a horse looking over a fence in the middle distance; it was priced at £48.
"Would you like to tell me about it?"
She thought for a moment and then said "It's simply a horse looking over a fence"
"Yes, but why did you paint it? Is it your horse?
The lady coloured a little and then impatiently said "No, I just liked the look of it"
"Is it oil or acrylic?"
"Oil, I don't like acrylic".
That was it. I had been looking forward to a conversation about her enthusiasm for the subject, the medium or what turned her on as an artist. Instead of which it was a one-way dialogue which effectively removed me as a potential purchaser of her work. If she had taken the trouble to connect me with her work then perhaps our conversation might have ended with her asking me "Would you like to buy it?" and me replying "Yes please". When an artist demonstrates little or no enthusiasm for their work then perhaps £48 including frame is the right price.
ENTHUSIASM has to go hand in hand with PRICE if the painting is to have public appeal and produce proper money. This is especially true at gallery or exhibition previews. Artists should never surround themselves with friends and acquaintances with who they can meet at any other time, nor make themselves difficult to access. A preview is the artist's communication opportunity and the better people understand your art the more they will be inclined to buy. Setting the sale price for the artwork can be rather hit and miss though.
There can be a huge difference between the fee charged for commissioned as against ready-made artwork. It's similar to an Architect who designs a house for a CLIENT and a Developer who sells a speculative house to a PURCHASER. The difference is reflected in the price of each. It's the speculative, ready-made artwork we will be considering here.
Let's assume that you are on the lower rungs of the ladder and have little experience of showing or selling your work. In the space of a couple of minutes you produce a coloured impression on a piece of paper and consider it as a significant creative moment in your career as an artist. You enthusiastically slap on a price tag of £10,000 because you deem it an important piece of work. In spite of your enthusiasm you might have some difficulty in convincing others of it's worth because you have little or no evidence of successful shows, critical reviews or proof that you are "collectable".
The majority of local artists who regularly supply ready-made work to local exhibitions or galleries find themselves bracketed into the "below £500" price range; this is true for internet sales too. Sales of over £2,000 remain relatively uncommon. This indicates that the speculative artist who is aiming at financial success is well advised to climb the ladder step by step rather than attempting one giant leap and falling flat on his or her face.
Setting the level of your annual financial expectation based on your needs is a good starting point for assessing your rate of output, price structure and marketing area. It should always take account of local social conditions and buying practises and the fluctuations in consumer climate. If your level of lifestyle requires an annual income of £15,000 which equals £300 per week then you will need to develop a market for your work and spread your marketing area to suit. If you need to earn double that annual income then you need to increase your production rate and/or expand your marketing area further.
The ready-made art Market Place is a highly competitive one so in order to maintain your position do make sure your prices are similar or perhaps a little less than you competitors in the same Market Place. Compare your prices with other artist's work that sells well rather to work which doesn't. For example if your comparison is with a similar artists whose price range is between £150 and £5,000 with the majority of sales seldom exceeding £900 then you can interpret this as a ceiling for your work for the time being.
You should aim to have sold at least half of what you produce within a six month period. So long as your rate of sale is maintained then your success might warrant an annual increase of between 10 to 25%. But the bottom line is always for the work to stand out for its quality rather than its price.
Do whatever you can to make it possible for people who like your work to afford it. These people are your biggest fans; your collector base; the ones who will stand by you throughout your career. In the world of ready-made art, the artist needs as many fans as possible. Things are different for the commissioned artist which we will deal with in the next issue.
_____________________________________________________________
MARKET PLACE / EASEL continued / no. 5
You'll Pay for That
In the last Advice issue the producers of "ready-made art" were asked the question "Who's Paying for This?" I suggested that the Market-Place for this category of Art could be compared with the domestic housing sector where the price of speculative housing needs to be competitive. It is generally accepted that speculative off-the shelf housing is a cheaper option than an individually designed house - the product of a detailed co-creative process between an Architect and Client. The resulting products might look similar but whilst the owner of the speculative house might say "I bought this" it is the owner of the architect-designed house who can say "we built this". The relationship between a speculatively-produced painting and a commissioned painting is similar; the former is purchased off the picture hook whilst the latter is the result of a co-creative venture and a predetermined agreement. It's the extent to which the creative process is shared by the Artist and the Client that decides if the amount paid is a "price" or a "fee". For this reason a price is usually lower than a fee unless, that is, the Artist is a Super Star in which case the price might be elevated into the realms of "silly money".
The Artist's fee has to cover the costs of visiting, listening, dialoguing, sketch designing and negotiating followed by the execution and completion of the art work. Sometimes it might even include aspects of personal counselling as a Client struggles with new ideas and concepts. If they are to remain in business then the Artist needs to receive a reasonable income from their work although only he or she knows what, for them, is a "reasonable income". For commissioned Artists there can be no standard fee for all, simply because there is no standard lifestyle for all.
The fee for a commissioned piece of artwork is the result of a personal agreement between the Artist and the Client. It is most unusual to find a prospective Client shopping around for the cheapest Artist unless, that is, the commission is the result of an advertised competition where there will be a number of Artists bidding for the opportunity. It is more usual to find a private or corporate Client placing greater emphasise on having a good rapport with, and confidence in, the Artist. The last thing they want is an uncomfortable feeling that the Artist is not up to the job and will produce shoddy work.
For the Artist there is nothing worse than having an uncomfortable and insecure Client. Large boring portfolios presented at the first meeting can quickly make a Client feel uncomfortable. At such times the discussion should be focussed on their ideas, their budget and expectations so as to avoid nasty surprises later on. My advice to the commissioned Artist is to always avoid nasty surprises by being upfront with the expectations.
By it's very nature commissioned artwork is unique with no competitor and seen from this perspective, is priceless. This is not to imply that the fee is unimportant; it is very important and should be agreed as early as possible and certainly before the actual painting is begun. If the word "fee" is put on hold then it can soon become a subject far too delicate to mention and that is when an unspoken uncomfortable and insecure feeling can begin to interfere with the process.
How do you cost a piece of commissioned artwork in advance of its execution? Your personal lifestyle and the income required to support it provides a reliable starting point from which to design a fee scale. Everyone will have their own idea of what a satisfactory life-style might look like and the level of income required to support it. What's yours?
As a Commissioned Artist you could find that, with all of the huff and puff of full-time self-employment, only 13 hours of a 40 hour working week is spent at the easel with the remaining 27 hours fully occupied with research, meetings, promotion and administration. This time quota means that the average total of commissioned paintings emerging from my studio each year is no more than 20 or around 12,000 sq. ins. As my fee scale relates to the finished painting size and my annual income expectations are obvious to me, it is not too difficult to work out how much my painting needs to earn per square inch.
Let's suppose your present lifestyle requires an annual income of £27,000 p.a. and that your average output is close to mine i.e. 12,000 sq. ins of painting a year. Divide the annual income requirement by 12,000 sq. ins and you'll arrive at £2.25 per sq. ins. This provides you with a midway point for a fee scale; for example a 20ins x 30 ins. painting (600 sq. ins.) for a fee of £1,350 (600 sq. ins x £2.25). From this central position the scale extends upwards and downwards according to size. You might want to increase this £2.25 figure for smaller painting sizes to reflect the comparative increase in effort per sq. ins. as the painting decreases in size. For larger paintings you might want to decrease the sum per sq. ins. step-by-step to reflect the comparative decrease in effort as the painting size increases.
Your fee scale may need some adjustments as it settles in and as you gain in confidence. It is a "swings and roundabouts" system; there'll be commissions which go really well and others which are series of hiccups from start to finish. But it is a very workable system which has, over my long career, proved itself to be the most satisfactorily methods for fee setting. It offers you the opportunity to build the lifestyle you may feel you deserve but however grand, your ambitions should always match the qualities of your skill and confidence. Like I say, it's always best to avoid presenting one's Client with nasty surprises and this goes for the quality of the artwork in addition to the size of the bill.
Market-Place / Easel continued no.6
Nasty Surprises
We're told that Adam and Eve got a nasty surprise when they received their notice to quit. But they made the best of it and went off and started our family. This early demonstration that life wasn't a doddle from beginning to end suggests nasty surprises should be expected to pop up in everyone's life from time to time - including the lives of Artists.
On one occasion I invited a high profile client to my studio to view his half-completed painting. He took one look at it and said "It's the wrong way up". Having previously discussed in some detail the size and orientation of the painting and agreed 4ft vertical x 3ft horizontal, his comment was perplexing. I dug out a copy of my letter to him confirming the proportion but he wouldn't be moved. Evidently his understanding of the meaning of "vertical" and "horizontally" were different from mine, and the rest of the world for that matter. We sat looking at the painting while he came out with statements such as "No, that won't do" and "I can't accept that" and "What are you going to do about it?" I resolved the situation by saying "No problem, I'll start again", which I did. I also completed the half finished work and soon had it sold off to a local gallery for good money.
My client happily received the finished painting but he still couldn't resist a sly dig at "the artist's mistake". On such occasions it always serves to remember the advice given to me by the marketing director of a large commercial enterprise: "When your client is opinionated and stubborn, simply grit 'your teeth, smile and defer". A satisfied and happy client is your best promotional agent.
No matter how efficiently one ties one's camel there is always the chance that the unexpected will fall on it. In June 2001 I received an email from someone in
"Never place all your eggs in one basket" This might be one way for guarding against nasty surprises. When the
I have the AAA system for immediately transforming "nasty surprises" into "unexpected surprises". These three As stand for Acceptance / Affirmation / Action (occasionally Acceptance might be preceded by "bloody hell"). First I need to accept the situation and force myself to face its challenging aspects. Then I remind myself that I've probably handled worse situations in the past and survived. Finally I do something about resolving the situation by taking positive action, for example: making a supreme effort to have the situation resolve in such a way that nobody is left feeling aggrieved and unhappy.
There is a fourth A if all else fails namely Arbitration which means appointing someone impartial, who both parties can trust, to listen to both sides of the argument and then help in finding some common ground for reconciliation. This is a far better alternative than having an aggrieved old client putting the word about that you are less wonderful than you think you are.
Unfortunately there are occasions when all attempts at reconciliation fail. You've told your side of the story, you've offered compromises, you feel that you are being treated unfairly and say so, but nothing changes and it's become a dark blot on your otherwise bright landscape. It might be the right moment to draw a line under the sorry affair and move on to better things and this is where applied ART comes in useful. In this instance applied ART stands for A = Acceptance / R = Release / T = Transformation.
If you can draw a line under un-reconcilable situations and move on it can open a space in your life for better things to arrive. Holding onto grudges and sad experiences can cloud your vision so much that you fail to recognise a wonderful new opportunity when it passes between you and your easel. This is why I would never advise an Artist to seek reparation or compensation through the courts. Lose the case and the emotional effect could come back to haunt you through the rest of your life; if you win your case then you'll immediately gain a reputation for being "litigious", one which I would imagine no self respecting artist would want to earn.
So if your Garden of Eden occasionally delivers a bad apple then my advice would be to discard your protective fig leaves, appreciate your endowments and take a step towards become even more creative.
_____________________________________________________________
Market-Place / Easel continued no.7
Because You're Worth It!
"The only thing I have on my easel at the moment is an Inland Revenue bill". This was Howard's response to the question we had put to our two-day seminar group - "what are you working on at the moment?" I asked him if it was serious. He said "Ten thousand quid Old Boy - bit of a bugger when you're 85". As the average age of our "Painting for Your Living" course participants is normally half that I thought that he might have left it somewhat late in the day to anchor any ambition for making a proper living from his art. In fact he had told us that he had already been retired for fifteen years as Head of Fine Art at a high profile establishment. He completed his personal introduction with "So I'm looking forward to you advising me on how I can raise the wind on my attic-full of painting". Howard's statement challenged our teaching that 'any would-be fulltime professional should never produce work unless they have someone already in place to pay for it', although it felt far too ungracious to suggest that he might have chosen the wrong seminar. During a tea break I asked him about his painting and he showed me three small photos of some confident figurative work which certainly confirmed him as an accomplished artist. The next day he returned to the seminar with a small album containing a variety of images. "I've got two or three hundred of these dating back to 1948 when I began teaching". I could see the progression of his definitive style evolving down the years, the vernacular of each decade showing clearly in his choice of subjects and style. It was a visual observation of our society's evolution through five decades - city reconstruction, campaigning, protest, fashion, people relationships, the drug scene and so on. I saw it as an exciting, perhaps valuable, collection which shouldn't be broken up and sold off piece-meal. Howard said he was at a loss to know how to start disposing of it.
As our course was being held in Hampshire I tentatively asked Howard if, before we left the area, he would like me to sound out
The idea that unsold artwork is a financial nest-egg for one's nearest and dearest is something I frequently hear said by aging artists; unfortunately these well-meant legacies can turn into burdensome responsibilities for one's heirs. There might well be wealthy people with huge wallets waiting around for approaches from ambitious artists but I have yet to meet one however I do meet plenty on the other end of the line - "If only I had the money I could really establish and promote my work and become collectable and famous". "If only I had the money I could sit back and paint all day to my heart's content" and so on.
It surprising how often perceived needs can be met far more effectively and lastingly in ways other than simply throwing money at them, although it might require willingness to let go of preconceived notions and make compromises in order to achieve them.
I know of an artist who wanted to build a centre - a place for teaching fine art and staging exhibitions and with studio spaces for hire. It was a brave but expensive ambition but he assured me that there was plenty of money around for such ventures. He had confidently approached his Arts Council who told him that they would be open to receiving a proposal if he were an already established organisation or charity although any grant would be limited to £18,000 spread over three years, which left him to find the remaining £282,000 from other sources. He approached his local enterprise agency who became very excited by the idea and offered him a free business start-up course. He met with his bank manager and received an offer to increase his already substantial overdraft by £2,000. A year later nothing had progressed; and although everyone had been encouraging and no one had actually turned him down, he was still without the substantial capital needed towards the acquisision and development of a suitable property. Then he met Paul who was owner of an old disused watermill. "I've been wondering what to do with the mill and an arts centre sounds right - let's do it" and that's when the scheme began to take shape.
In
I find that Money linked to Creativity can produce a false sense of worth whereas Innovation and Inspiration in partnership can work wonders. Drop me a line if you feel your need and inspiration would benefit from an airing.
If you would like to sound me out on any ideas, problems and initiatives then I would be delighted to hear from you.
HARLEY MILLER
Sluie Lodge, Dunphail
Moray IV36 2QG
Tel: (0044) 01309 611708
