Art For My Rent | Can I pay my rent by selling my art for one year?

Some got lucky. Some got a bargain. Some got a once in a lifetime opportunity.

If you’ve seen the intro video then you know that this project was mainly intended as a studio cleanout for works that I had sitting around the studio. I like to learn, and I like to always keep moving forward. I try new styles, and I try many. This means that I had many paintings in the studio that were in a different style and did not fit into a particular body of work, or exhibition. They are the forgotten paintings that I put on the specials.Some were large, some were medium and some were precious smaller works. Now, they’re gone (dramatic music here).

So I’m making new work!

In order to standardize the specials, I’ve made the decision to work in a set size. This will be 30.5 x 30.5 cm. I normally sell these for $400, and will be discounting to $360 for the weekly rent special. As my prices go up every year, this is still a great special.

Just wanted to let you all know what’s going on, and give you a rule book.

On a different none… If you have a fish and it swims on an angle, is that normal? It’s not a trick question. It’s for real.

x
evangeline

I don’t know how to write this blog post without cursing, because honestly that’s all i’ve been doing for the last week. Maybe even longer.

Most people are aware of this to a certain extent, but let me tell you in no uncertain terms that trying to live off your art is not only difficult, but nearly impossible. Especially when I have worked for 6 months on an art exhibition and ended up selling $200 worth of work (for which I am very grateful). If somebody were to ask me at this very moment how the art thing is going, I would have to say “tough”. So tough that I’m contemplating going back to work. This is not a light decision. It’s one that I don’t want to be forced into making, but seeing as though rent is becoming increasingly difficult to cover, I see no alternative.

This week I’ve received a handfull of bills including electricity, car insurance, registration, phone, internet plus the costs of putting together an exhibition. Throw on top of that a melted head gasket from last week which will run me $1500 plus the cost of renting a car for the week… and you have yourself one empty bank account.

Don’t think for a second that this is a call for a pity party. I said from the beginning that I wanted to be open about the ups and downs of trying to make it. There are a lot of impressionable young people out there reading this blog. Nobody in art school is going to tell them about the difficulties of trying to earn a living with art. In fact, art schools have no place in their curriculum for any talk about money. It’s considered almost a sacrilege on the holy institution of art. As a result, I’m not a business person. I’m no good with numbers, and I certainly don’t have a head on my shoulders for business sense. I love art, and I love design, and I’m lucky enough to be able to make websites.

I’m giving you a heads up that as of  this week, I’m looking for design work. My eczema is flaring like crazy, which can only mean that I’ve given my body about as much stress as it can handle.

There are a lot of art projects on the horizon. Artist by artist is happening tomorrow at the Noosa J. After that, it’s travelling to the Gold Coast and will end up displaying for two days at the state library of Queensland. That’s pretty awesome! I’m putting some art into Incub8er Gallery in the Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. Also, I’m talking to a gallery in Sydney about a show next June, and in the process of organizing representation. I have travelling exhibitions, competitions, T-shirt launches, website launches, a new Etsy store, red bubble shop, countless blog interviews, collaborations, you name is I’m doing it.  So things are happening. It’s just that there is mo money happening.

yet.

I’ve been talking to other artists who have the same story. This seems to be plaguing the industry at the moment. It’s not a good time to be giving it a proper go. I knew this going into it, and I sure as hell know it now. Don’t even start to tell me that it’s bad times in Australia because I don’t believe it. But that’s another blog post.

x
evangeline