May 2, 2004
How to Make a Living As an Artist, part 1

Canadian painter, Robert Genn wrote about a dealer who visited the artist's studio to pick up paintings for a client. He compared the work of contemporary artists to pre-industrial cottage-based workers:

A lot of what we artists do is a flashback to the earlier cottage days.  There are some advantages.  Cottage work gets us off the streets and out of the towers and factories.  We may choose to live a more rural and quiet life where work can be done at our own speed.  We have the joy of producing personal and relatively expensive goods that are either picked up or shipped.  While we are not in the front line of commerce, there’s the satisfaction of a connection with those whose talent is to share with others.  
Go to HERE on Robert Genn's "Painters Keys" to see the whole text

I used to live in a very rural part of upstate New York. Many people there have seasonal jobs and live a lifestyle very much like the one pursued by urban artists. We do a little of this and a little of that to get by. Some of us paint signs, do illustrations, teach art classes or take private students. Sometimes we do temporary non-art-related jobs like dog-walking, house-sitting, web design, holiday retail or manual labor. Whatever it takes to get the rent paid, the pantry filled or the car fixed. Then we go back to painting again, for as long as possible.

(In the days of the WPA,1935 - 1943, painters like Alice Neel received $26.88 per week to support their continued work. According to the Inflation Calculator, that would be equal to $347.64 per week, today. But those days are unlikely to to return.)

Some of the occasional jobs that artists do are so peculiar that they can't be summed up in one or two words, so I thought I'd describe a few of them. For instance, last weekend I went down to Santa Cruz to demonstrate how to use art materials at a "Demo Day." The way it works, more-or-less, is like this: The art supply retailer provides the space for a show and does the promotion. The art supply manufacturer offers special deals on the product and sends sales reps to staff the booths. And the sales reps hire artists to sit there all day using the company paint, brushes, canvas, or whatever. The artists bring some of their own work to hang in the booth - it dresses up the place and occasionally a hobby painter who also collects will buy some work. But that's not why we do it. I do demos every once in a while because I get paid good money to sit and do what I would be doing in my studio anyway. The difference is, at the demo there is a parade of people walking by, stopping to ask, "How do you do that?" If you can talk and paint at the same time, and stay reasonably friendly for a whole day of it, then you can go home at the end of the day with some cash and free art supplies. Those are two big "ifs" and I have to admit that after a couple of hours it's a strain, which is why I only do it once a year or so. But I know some artists who make a part time job of doing demos.

This is me (center, w/ granny glasses) painting watercolor on Claybord© panels at the Palace Art Demo Day in Santa Cruz, May 1, 2004. The two "torso" paintings at upper right are by Heather Robinson. The mixed media panels below them are by L. Maude Kirk.

June 15, 2004 -
Painting Prototypes - how to make a living as an artist, part 2
A month ago I mentioned that artists do all kinds of arty odd jobs to keep the bills paid during those long dry stretches when we wonder if we're ever going to sell a painting again. I described art supply demos as one example of that kind of work. Another example is painting prototypes for inventors and entrepreneurs. They have an idea for something they want to mass-produce, but first they need a single example to show the money people, and it has to look perfect. These guys (so far, they've always been men) find me through my website. One guy wanted me to paint a face on a robot. Recently I was asked to translate a photographic image into the pixilated format of a needlework canvas. My rates are pretty high and, whenever I ask them why they want a fine art realist painter for what seems to me to be a simple craft job, they say want someone who can render accurately. They seem to feel that if I can paint anything and make it look "real" I should be able to make their project look exactly the way they want it. And they're right.