And thank you, oh promiscuous one, for that nudge.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Flux = A Brain In Psychic Peril:
One thing that really got to me was the realization that I really don't want to make art for galleries and collectors because I hate galleries, I almost never derive enjoyment from that sort of thing,
I dunno, i quite enjoy a good gallery show, i think sometimes that amount of financial backing is necessary to make good stuff on a big scale. BUT - it is a totally shit system, particularly with commercial galleries and collectors. i've been in a few (well 3 - and only one of them was a worthwhile experience) gallery shows, and the fact that if I were a customer I'd never be able to afford my own work is just absolutely ridiculous and irritating. On the other hand, if I've spent a couple of hundred hours on a painting i'm not going to let it go for fifty quid. mind you, if i didn't have to pay 50% commision on sales I'd be able to give much more reasonable prices. Also, I don't go to gallery shows that much, and sometimes only because I think i should, so if my work is up in those sorts of environments, how are people like me, or you, ever going to see or give a shit about it? Me and a mate (the only other person i met in college who consistently agreed that what we were taught was bullshit) are going to show some work in a skanky bar in spring, and for that one I'm not going to sell anything that i wouldn't be prepared to pay for and could afford.
They certainly aren't the audience I would want, and I just don't want to jump through hoops for people that I despise when I don't need to.
Too right - at my degree show a gallery owner approached me wanting to show a few of my paintings (if you look at my profile and click the 'my picture' link you'll see one - i should add that it's over a year old, so not really representative of what i'm doing now, plus the school office managed to scan my slide back to front and out of focus), i thought 'yeah might as well', it turned out to be in a swanky part of west london, selling to the kind of people who buy art in the same way that they buy restored antique furniture. needless to say nobody bought my fuck-up stoner pictures; after the show was over the owner gave me some "really helpful" advice. "my clients might buy something like that for the nursery, but they don't really like all of this weirdness in the bottom half. why don't you do a series of pastel drawings of the castle in the background and tone down the colours a bit?" 
I have been lucky enough so far to just make whatever the fuck i want and find somebody prepared to put it on display, but it ain't no solution........
Where did you go to school?
At the Slade, central London
Mostly folks who would only start spouting the art babble when they were in a situation in which they were forced to..
Sounds refreshing! at the Slade they couldn't get enough of it. I didn't really know what pretentiousness was until i heard people making "jokes" about Conceptualism, or whatever 
All of the artists I care most about aren't gallery types. Look at what I write in the music, film/tv, and comics forums. That's what makes me excited.
That's kind of why I deliberately only listed so-called 'fine' artists, and made a point of the fact that i hadn't included any comic artists or whatever, to highlight the fact that they're only one aspect of what turns me on.
Jesus, what a rant. I guess i'd better do some work now. I'll check out the link you posted on my lunch break.
 |
so if you have any feedback for me post it here (unless it's the "YOU SUCK!!!" variety, in which case PM me.)
) Struggling with what direction to actually go myself - or more like, struggling to find a way to support myself with my art. Seems like a bit of a dream, but I can't imagine aiming for anything else. 