Cash Crunch

Ok, maybe this has more to do with the fact that I'm now just one year shy of forty than anything else, but I'm finding myself more and more in a bit of a  panic over what my future fate might be.
 

Artistically, last year has been my best year yet, with published work and a solo show to end the year.  Unfortunately, to make last year possible I basically had to break the budget, leaving me way in the red.  I have no regrets with my choices for the last year.  It finally feels like I'm making some head way, but I'm now stuck with the question, where do I go from here?

 It's been my experience that people have a huge enthusiasm for art, but they also have a huge reluctance to buy original artwork.   There could be any number of reasons why this is, personally I think it's a side effect of mass consumer culture, but who knows.

Anyway in an attempt to recoup some of my time and money I decided to offer up some of my work in the form of cards and such.  There's a link over on the sidebar there that will take you directly to my online shop.You can also find the site here.  The sale of these items will help support my future artistic activities.  I've had a number of people ask for this.  Personally I'd rather be selling my originals, but if people feel more comfortable giving their support with the purchase of a pack of postcards, who am I to argue.  I'm still setting the shop up and will be adding more items over the next few days.  Enjoy!  

Comments

[Elise]

It's ironic Howard, that as your work gets better you're financial situation is getting worse...while my financial situation is improving (due to a raise at my day job) I find my work is getting worse...or maybe I'm just less "hungry"...less motivated to work because I'm not struggling from pay check to pay check as much anymore. I can totally and completely relate to how that feels though.

Right now I'm trying to get out of debt and pay for a wedding at the same time, I never thought I'd want to be the girl in the big white dress but it turns out...I do. I fully plan to save for one of your originals after this is all paid for.

[Howard]

Thanks Elise, Personally, I've never bought the "hunger as motivator" idea, at least not when it comes to art making. The starving artist is really a romantic myth. My rent comes before art supplies, Groceries before paint. Struggling artist today means expanding debt, except instead of a big pile of shiny consumer goods I've got an ever increasing pile of art work. Money allows for more diversions, a tight budget requires a lot more focus and going with out a lot of the extras.

I recently read an article on how most people go through depression in their mid forties as life's expectations fail to pan out. I think I might be experiencing a bit of that. It's also a winter thing. Things always look better in the spring.

As for buying one of my originals. I might have a solution of sorts coming up shortly, stay tuned!

[Elise]

What you say is true about "shiny consumer goods", that is the real link between an increase in income equating a decrease in artistic productiviy...as more hours are spent playing with toys once out of ones' reach. The other thing though, is that in the old days, selling a painting for $400 was a big deal. It meant I could afford to buy paint and canvas. If someone wanted to commission me to do a painting (in my style of course) I'd hop right on it, making a sale was very exciting. Now, I find I'm less motivated to sell because I can afford to buy paint without selling anything. And this is not necessarily a good thing because I think I'm getting lazy.

It's funny you mention the article about people in their forties getting depressed because I read that same article awhile ago and wrote about it on my blog actually : http://www.elisetomlinson.com/blog/archives/00000911.html

I think that it is for sure a trend, but not one that we have to buy into. I read another article I'm going to write about on my blog tomorrow, called "Have an average day" from the Utne Reader. It talks about how our expectations of granduer in life lead to unhappiness...and talks about all we can accomplish by shooting for average!