If you're reading this and you're an artist then you probably do too!
This web site is about finding out better ways to live and work as an artist. Join me here regularly to share our collective knowledge. The sum is greater than the parts! Together as a Tribe we can make a positive difference for each other - we urgently need to.From my own experience and from discussing this with other artists, the old ways don't work for over 99% of us. They certainly don't work for me. How about you? They not only don't work, trying to make the old ways work is like flogging a dead horse.
You can waste years of your life and blame yourself for not succeeding, causing enormous frustration and broken dreams. I think it doesn't have to be that way.
My background is in what I call applied arts - graphic design, illustration and commercial photography. I also provided web development and programming services from 1992, the beginning of the emergence of the Internet. After running my own Design Studio for well over two decades, six years ago I decided to become a full time artist.
For me the daily work and the process of being an artist is just wonderful! What's not so wonderful is the archaic, dysfunctional ways in which artists are supposed to sell their art. It harkens back to a previous bygone age of indifferent 'sale or return' galleries and/or finding a rich patron.
Another more modern variation is to be an academic artist. Here the idea is the thing, thus securing the patronage of the circuit of state funded centre/galleries and museums. In this arena knowing the jargon, being qualified, having a 'concept' and chalking up previous hits on the in-circuit is the name of the game. It's the usual Catch-22. To get in you need a scoresheet, to get a scoresheet you need in.
So where does all of this leave you and I, the artists who turn up day after day for the love of their work? The ones who refuse the Galleries sale or return 50% mark-up (or more), and lack of proper support through serious marketing? The ones who find the academic route to be a closed circle or perhaps just unintelligible nonsense?
This can leave us either in a state of constant poverty or frustration or both.
Don't get me wrong there are good Galleries and interesting worthwhile state funded Centres but they are so few and far between, and given the number of artists, they are not a dependable realistic option for most of us.
The bottom line is, with most conventional Galleries and Art Institutes, they are outmoded Gatekeepers. They think they control access to a public, which unbeknown to them, has largely grown indifferent to their roles. In a wired world as an art lover and buyer, I can view artists work from any continent. I can find work which exactly fits my aesthetic. I can read up on the artist and contact them directly. I am not confined to the choice of the local gallery owner or curator with their own naturally biased and relatively tiny selection of artists or limited display space.
So where does this leave us as artists?
We have to find ways to flow past these Gatekeepers. Like water around an obstacle, we have to discover better ways to network and communicate, fresh ideas and new possibilities which bypass the old.
Re-invent, adapt, learn, innovate, evolve, get creative not only with our work but with our whole approach to being an artist!
Just in the same way we're creative through our art, we need to become creative through discovering, testing and fine tuning new ideas and using freely available technology. It's no longer an option.
We are not isolated, our voices can be heard, our work is important, we matter, we are part of the Global Tribe of Artists.
This is about learning what works and what doesn't. As artists there are ways and means open to us now never before available! The old Gatekeepers are like gates standing in an open space. This is about keeping what works, junking what doesn't and learning new ways that serve us better.
Learn, adapt, and evolve - we do it with our Art now let's do it with our approach to making our lives work as artists. It doesn't matter what age you are, your current circumstances, your race, creed, nationality - if you're an artist you're a member of the Tribe!
This web site is about sharing my own adventures and discoveries. It's my wish you'll join me here regularly to share our collective knowledge. The sum is greater than the parts! Together as a Tribe we can make a difference - for sure we urgently need to.
Barry McCullough - August 2009