Art as a viable career

What does it mean to be a ‘successful’ artist? Aristotle says, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”

Art is supposed to have its own inherent value to the one making it. Making art purely as a form of economic product, consumed by elites, is a form of self-contempt. Jean Michel Basquiat, one of the most famous and best-selling artists in the United States, created works initially to critique an existing status quo. When he did end up creating works for purely profitability, Basquiat “…slashed his canvases down to rags, and then, as if to make sure they could never be resurrected as salable art, he doused them with a bucket of white paint”(Metcalf 12). Working for purely monetary value without any fulfillment in your work, is no doubt an inevitable fall to spiritual misery.

The idea of doing something for oneself and creating success, happiness, from failure can be found in other industries as well. In her TedX talk, Simone Giertz (a renowned Youtuber who creates “useless” robots) describes her struggle with perfectionism and insecurity as a child but how creating robots which are meant to fail or be embarrassing took this weight off of her shoulders, and became the foundation of her entertainment career. “…building stupid things was actually quite smart, because as I kept on learning about hardware, for the first time in my life, I did not have to deal with my performance anxiety. And as soon as I removed all pressure and expectations from myself, that pressure quickly got replaced by enthusiasm, and it allowed me to just play.” (Giertz). More than money, or an audience, Giertz was able to get a sort of freedom from anxiety by creating robots made to fail; creating had an intrinsic value to her.

Radio host Julie Burstein recounts speaking with sculptor Richard Serra, who, “…went and saw this painting by a guy who’d been dead for 300 years, and realized, “I can’t do that,” and so Richard Serra went back to his studio in Florence, picked up all of his work up to that point, and threw it in a river. Richard Serra let go of painting at that moment, but he didn’t let go of art” (Burstein). He ended up creating a work which makes viewers part of the piece, and is now in the Museum of Modern Art… “Richard Serra had to let go of painting in order to embark on this playful exploration that led him to the work that he’s known for today: huge curves of steel that require our time and motion to experience. In sculpture, Richard Serra is able to do what he couldn’t do in painting” (Burstein). Understanding one’s own limits, and overcoming them, embracing them, caused Serra to launch his career.

Most important of all to success in an artistic career is a unique voice. Art style, or personal voice, is inherently an important part of the creative process. The significance of personal voice is so great in art, one may call the two parts of a singular process. Drawing, as according to renowned illustrator Andrew Loomis, is “…individual vision, tied up with individual perception, interest, observation, character, philosophy, and a host of other qualities all coming from one source” (Loomis 11).

The search for a definitive personal voice, a unique art style, is often elusive. It is easy to see what one likes, but to find one’s own foothold based on these appealing traits is more than just a hard task.

Art style is a culmination of an innumerous elements. Prior to the research on this subject, I hypothesized the factors which impact art style in order of significance: income status (which often determines education and lifestyle), personal identity (including cultural and ethnic background), and subconscious external input, namely digital media and print media.

While literature can provide a very thorough explanation of the development of art and visual expression, personal anecdotes can bring about a more individual, unique perspective. Keeping this in mind, I created a survey which had a mixture of several different types of questions, and asked one hundred artists about their experiences. There were several questions asking of the range of agreement on a statement, essay questions, and questions about more general, personal information. Survey respondents were told to answer as much as possible.

The primary objective of this survey was to gain insight on what artists themselves believed helped them find their personal voice, and tips for future artists. For example, many art students in college often express an issue with burnout. Being a common problem, I wanted to see what these professionals did to beat such difficulties. Moreover, I wanted to see what the demographics of successful professional artists were. Did their economic status, geographic location, or education affect their style?

Respondents were chosen from a variety of areas in the visual arts field. This ranged from video game artists, concept artists, background painters, freelance illustrators, designers, storyboard artists, and art directors for magazines and games.

When I initially did this study, I expected artists to be young and living on the coast in big cities, where there are large markets for art. I also thought I contacted more women than men or non-binary people (people who identify as neither men nor women).

Only 18% of the contacted artists responded, 41% identifying as women, 29% identifying as men, and around 24% identifying as non-binary. Their professional experience ranged from 3 months to 30 years, possibly due to misinterpretation of the definition of “professional experience”. Because artists were contacted through email, which was found through social media platforms such as Instagram or Twitter, the age demographic averaged to about 25 years old, the youngest being 20, and the oldest being 53. It seems that the usage of social media to find contact information also narrowed the range to more new, contemporary artists.

The respondents lived in a variety of places: the East Coast, many in California and the West Coast, the Midwest, Tokyo, Sweden, Southeast Asia, North America in general. It seems that my initial hypothesis was relatively correct, but there are appeals when it comes to living cost for more isolated areas.

And as expected, when identifying artistic features they personally believed stood out in their work, they identified a range from color, lines, characters, subject, emotions, and detail. Their inspirations they listed often held commonalities with their own work, either in style or subject.

However, one artist noted that their artistic influence often relies on their individual projects as opposed to artistic style. Being a rather prestigious and well-established artist, it does prompt questions as to whether this is simply because of the level of experience this artist has and their confidence in their voice or if this is simply a matter of coincidental personal choice. There is a chance that after getting a solid idea of what one’s artistic style is, there is less of a need to look at others’ work.

Speaking of influence, artists were not only inspired by media, such as movies and books, as I initially believed, but many cited their life experience, nature, and the world around them, the drive to create a story, as well as less visual and more audible media like radios/podcasts and music. I find it a bit surprising to see that many respondents loved audible forms of media as opposed to expected visual media.

When it did come to visual inspiration, many artists do not seem to use a form of organization, one admitting that a “chaotic mess” is just preferable to them to process; however, the few who did relied mostly on recent technology such as websites and applications, such as OneNote, Pinterest boards, bookmarking and file organization, Tumblr tags, and even personal Discord servers.

Then, I asked about the impact of social issues on artwork, and received many interesting responses. To be honest, being a variety of artists not necessarily focusing on big political issues (most created art for editorials, games, or shows), such as Banksy (the famous anonymous graffiti and street artists whose art practically exists to make fun of the status quo or society standards), I wasn’t sure what to expect.

What I got was interesting. One artist explained, “Artists, regardless of what field you work in or style, are influenced by the time and world we live in. Even if the artists are not known as political or socially aware. So, yes. We all are, and we should be. If not, then I am not moved by their art, because they don’t live the experience of being present now.”

And it seemed this sentiment was shared across the board, with issues ranging from small to big, socioeconomic pressure, biodiversity loss within the United States, car infrastructure, body image issues, socio-political acceptance of the Asian American identity, environmental factors, and the current state of the world.

But one artist, an outlier, commented that they did not think they could contribute to socio-political conversations with their artwork, which was somewhat surprising to hear. This particular respondent also commented that they were not sure about whether they could viably continue to pursue their career. This perhaps highlights how important an artist’s perception of the meaningfulness of their own work strongly affects their own idea of success or failure, and even motivation.

Speaking of motivation, having a relatively young demographic of artists led to a limited range of advice regarding art block. With a quick google search, or even a scan of popular instagram artists, some very common antidotes against art-block can be easily found. Most people recommend either drawing through it or simply taking a break. So unsurprisingly, many artists attested to these same actions.

Some new tips they gave was expressing yourself in some other way, such as music or film, and then coming back to art. They also recommended reevaluating why they wanted to create art in the first place, going back to “the roots”. And a couple mentioned drawing mindlessly, such as doing doodles or creating observational works of art.

Many said they had never experienced artists’ block, which may either be because of their level of passion for their craft, or the relatively young age of most respondents.

Many respondents agreed that art is not a sustainable nor a reliable job when compared to other more typical options of employment. However, many say that their passion for the medium and art itself helps them push through whatever struggles they go through. A few have saved up money or created a safety net for themselves so that they can pursue their careers, and one particularly pessimistic participant explained that they may not continue their career unless their income increases. However, another artist pointed out that becoming a hobbyist artist was not bad; what matters is what you want. If you need financial stability to accompany your art, then picking another career is not a shameful choice. “The bottom line is, it is a career you pursue because it is your passion, and doing this makes you happier than doing anything else. If it is, then you can tolerate certain sacrifices, like, at some point, most probably in early point of your career you are not making enough money, and may have to take on day jobs, you are constantly working, because we are. But you still do it, because you have [a] passion for it.”

As the final question asked to this group of professional artists, I asked what advice they would give for students and others who were hoping to be a part of the art industry.

There were three important answers.

One respondent explained that success is not always merited purely from artistic ability, but marketing instead. “Make sure to study marketing. You can be an amazing artist, but if you don’t know how to reach anyone, pursuing a career through social media will not work. Contacts and reach is everything these days and some of the most popular artists are not the absolute most technically skilled. It’s a sad truth!”. Moreover, this response further emphasized the importance of creating connections, something many artists attribute their success to. Phil Hale, a painter known for his paintings for Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, and his portrait of Tony Blair connects his success with his strange trail of connections. He made art for DC, Playboy, and then “painted a doctor — a psychiatrist — and he entered it into the National Portrait Gallery annual competition, and it came third, and suddenly the National Portrait Gallery was taking my[his] work and showing it to people, it was close on having them as an agent”, which directly led to his portrait of the former prime minister (Meadows 6). Trying new things, continuing to work despite difficult circumstances until people kept giving work was what ultimately helped Hale survive as a painter.

Another replied about the difference between creating purely for yourself, and for a living. “…I think you should realize that if you want to pursue a career in art, it won’t be just a hobby you do for fun anymore; you must think about your work in a[n] objective way to some extent (high level goals of what the project must accomplish, rather than your own personal desires). Must learn to work in a team + decide what criticism/advice to take/reject. Have a personal project or something you do aside from work that keeps you grounded.”

And another explained “Love what you do. It’s not easy being a freelance artist. But at least, loving it more than anything would[will] get you through the toughest of times. Don’t worry about style. Be passionate about your art, but be passionate about things that are NOT art. Because at the end of the day, making interesting (looking) art depends on how interesting YOU are. Your art is [a] reflection of yourself. Long time teaching, and I can guarantee, those who make interesting memorable art are those who are interesting themselves. Get out of the small box that contains you, and experience life. It’s never the skilled and talented who make the best art, it’s the one who experience[s] life in their own unique way. Good luck.” This same respondent explained their disuse of other artists as inspiration earlier. Their message is clear: the best art, success comes from being the most unique self you can be, and loving what you do.

Art is a viable career under specific conditions, one being competency in both artistic voice, skill, and social balance, the other being able to market oneself and forge connections for financial stability, and the most important of all, loving your craft.

“If your main goal is to make [a] good living, and make good money, there are plenty of other options that guarantees you good income…Art, or any freelance career is unpredictable…The bottom line is, it is a career you pursue because it is your passion, and doing this makes you happier than doing anything else.”

Works Cited

Loomis, Andrew. Successful Drawing. Titan Books, 2012.

Related posts:

Then why not set our hearts at rest, ceasing to trouble whether we remain or go? What boots it to wear out the soul with anxious thoughts? Absorbed in our own interests and desires, we fail in our…

The day you have been waiting for has arrived. NKN has won the Binance Community Coin Vote. Thank you all for believing in and voting for NKN, we are truly humbled and grateful! This is a good proof…

Yayasan Youth Break the Boundaries (YBB) kembali menghadirkan Istanbul Youth Summit 2022 pada 14–17 Februari silam. Konferensi ini merupakan gelaran tahunan yang bertujuan untuk mengasah semangat…