SO, YOU WANT TO BE AN ARTIST? The Business of Being a Professional Artist

I think 60% of what you learn in art school is with the exception of art history art history is really important because that can help you develop your work other than that there's a lot of fluff and there's a lot of professors trying to teach you to paint like them it's it's yeah I mean it can really it can really harm your work I've seen it harm work but you know go if you must do what you must some you know some of the the greatest you know well-known painters did not go to art school Leonardo da Vinci didn't then go Toulouse Lautrec you know even even Walt Disney you know did not go to art school and look what look what they did look what they became I mean Leonardo da Vinci you know we're still using his tools to carve in stone and make sculptures to replicate human beings I mean the man was a genius but he didn't go to art school that's not to say that you don't have to learn the rules but today you can learn the rules on the Internet today there are artists co-ops and artists to get together who can teach each other we have great roots in Atlanta of artists who get together and have their own little coops together you know you in my opinion you have to learn composition that's extremely important you have to learn perspective you have to learn anatomy if you're going to include figures in your work you've got to learn color color theory you've got to learn spatial relation there must they're a must even as an abstract artist they're a must you've got to learn these rules in order to break them most of my abstract artists started out as realist a nurse you know I'll use Chaya Fonseca for it for instance the small black and white piece that's down there he did all figurative and landscape work when he started out as a painter and he started to go if he called it the university he studied going to the university but his his brother told him to leave and come and study with a great painter in Italy with him and so he did he quit he has very little formal education but he did learn all the things that I speak of he knew how to do perspective he knew color theory he knew spatial relation he knew composition and moved beyond that he wanted a simpler way in which to to say what he had to say as an artist talking about the honest assessment of your talent and why you create artwork there are a lot of artists with great ideas unique ideas revolutionary ideas and there are some galleries that have incredible technical skill I am NOT a fan of photo realism I believe that photo realism is a technique I believe that photo realism that anyone can learn technique therefore it does nothing for me other people love it I mean photorealistic that artists abstract work it's you know crap and you know a lot of times they're at divisive points but for me it does not but when you can bring incredible ideas and incredible creativity an incredible revolutionary language that has not been said before together with incredible technique Wow that's when it happens you know that's what I when I jewelry shows I say that's when one line can become a masterpiece when one swipe can become a masterpiece you know there's a gallery for every artist there is there is a gallery for every artist but sometimes artists aren't necessarily great at assessing whether a certain gallery is right for them and you know so investigation has to take place on your part to look at the gallery look at the artwork that they carry the type of artwork that they carry um you know is every gallery is different and every artist is different but there is a gallery for every artist Courtship it's not with me and I'll get into networking and why that is your most important tool you know it's networking and being out in the community and meeting people and meeting gallery owners having your face seen is the most valuable tool you can have as an artist more than anything else that you do in terms of getting representation by a gallery you can either be the top artist you can be the bottom artist or you can be in between and by that I mean there are some artists that just love being the top artist in a gallery you know they're a legend in their own home town but I don't know that that necessarily long-term is going to advance your career you've got to challenge yourself you've got to take sometimes that lower platform and build to that mid platform and then move up and assessing that and being aware of that journey is really really important rotating your art artwork should be rotated on a minimum of three times per year now I'm not saying that everything has to go out and everything has to come in but I'm saying when a client comes in a collector comes in they go what's new well if I haven't seen you for three months you're not new the person who just sent me artwork it's a new thing that's come in so you need to keep that inventory fresh and you need to keep the gallery fresh for you um pricing of your artwork I have artists who come in all the time and they go well that's $11,000 my artwork is as good as that it might very well be but you haven't paid your dues this is an artist that has been painting for 20 years and is and 15 major museums your work may be as good you've got to go up the ladder just like anybody in the corporate world does and you've got to pay your dues and work up it's all part of that formula of what I'm telling you about of you've got to have your lower galleries and then at a certain point you get to a mid career and then you might want to get rid of those galleries and find better galleries in other areas it's all a very methodical business plan it's not by accident and that's what galleries do or at least that's what galleries should be doing I should say let's talk about social media and this is probably one of the best and greatest pieces of information I can share with you once you start getting a collector base it's just like interviewing for a job you know when I've just hired my administrator I got over 700 applications in 24 hours and I had to have a way to weed those out even if your settings are set to private there's still a way to access your information I eliminated that down to 25 just by looking at their social media pages their politics what kind of human being they were what they do you're interviewing for a job and your collectors will do the same thing because eventually your collectors will friend you on facebook or friend you on Instagram and they look at that now I'm very passionate about my politics but I don't air them on social media but you need to think about the business of art an art dealer has the lowest profit margin of any business in the world needless markup my name for Neiman Marcus a shirt is made in India with the taxes and the tariffs it comes in to the United States it costs them $6 they have a 20 time markup on it they sell it for a hundred and twenty dollars sometimes more we're talking about 50/50 here and we're talking about having to pay rent we're talking about having to pay for openings because in our business it is the law you must have an opening every eight weeks I don't know who made up this law but it's the law and every opening cost me $10,000 think about that invitations may be the only gallery left on the earth that still sends out paper invitations but invitations advertising the party itself any advertising we may do they do the postage alone is you know over $1,000 and we don't take that from our artists we take it out of our 50% I'm also very unique in the way I handle my clientele discounting I could scream at galleries whoever started discounting artwork you know for me and I explain it to collectors when they come in or clients and clients when they come in and they go well selling so it gives me 20% and I go oh really didn't your mama ever tell you don't get something for nothing where do you think that 20% coming from and if you get 20% on that piece of artwork right there you devalue that piece of artwork for everyone else that's bought it do you really want to devalue what you're buying and do you want to devalue everyone else's artwork what I do is I have a VIP collector repeat allowance once a collector spend $50,000 with me I give them five percent for life once a collector sends $100,000 with me I give them ten percent for life and once a collector sends 150 thousand dollars with me they get 15% for life that's an incentive program it's not a discount and that program does not come out of the artist park so let's put me down at a starting of 35 percent profit which puts me lower than the lowest light profit margin and everything else has to come out of that these required seven to eight and the walls and the employees that I have and we don't live beyond our means with employees you know when the recession hit I had eight employees I've learned how to operate with two and a half I can build a crate I can sweep a floor I don't need to be grander than grand I don't need to sit behind my desk and point little fingers if you read about us on the internet you'll see our reviews they're the most friendly staff the owner always comes out and speaks to me we try to make it not this hortie torti unattainable experience we try to make it a welcoming experience so that people feel comfortable because when they come into an art gallery to begin with a lot of them have never even been in an art gallery we have people that open our door and say what's the admission they don't know the difference between us and a museum so we have to make them feel at home we have to make them accessible you know my greatest experience was what became the CEO of American Express at another gallery that I worked at early on was looking at an abstract painting and he was like I really liked this but I don't know what it means and I said why does it have to mean something how does it make you feel and we continue to talk and continue to talk and I found out he was a bass fisherman so I found an area of the painting that looked like a bass and I said I said you see that bass being pulled out of that water there and it's like yes I'm pretty good at sales and he called me about three months later and he said Alan thank you so much and I said for what and he said this has been the greatest experience of my life and he said people come in my office you know very important people and they go what is it what does it mean he's like how does it make you feel and he said I've had so much fun with this you've opened my eyes to a new type of artwork I no longer have to have forest hunt scenes on my wall and and it's the things like that in your career that just you know that really make it make it worthwhile to sign with a dealer or not um that's a good question there are lots of venues out there now the Internet has opened it up you've got eat see you've got Pinterest you've got tumblr you've got Facebook there are lots of avenues out there to market and promote yourself and I get back to that really depends on what type of career you want in order to become an artist with the exception of one that I know of in the world but I think that Empire of shale to fall eventually um it does take the hand the work and the approval of the brick and mortar still I think I don't think that the brick and mortar will ever go away I do think that the brick and mortar decorative works will go away because decorative galleries will go away because that is a lot of what you see on eat see and what you see on the internet I get back to you are who you associate with and I tell my artists this all the time but it's certainly possible but I think that serious collectors want that hand and that approval of someone who has studied art who's been a beautiful a long time to advise them and give them there are certain things you can buy on the wall on you know on the internet but it's pretty much going to be for beach houses and for you know and for decorative spaces I feel that way passionately and I'm not saying that because I'm a dealer I just see that that's the way that it is and but there are certainly options you know out there finding the right dealer um first of all get to know them you need to make sure that your personality is aligned and your vision aligned contracts why they exist contracts exist for a reason contracts exist because someone's been burned contracts exists because a mistake has been made they're not they exist for a reason you know I used to have a handshake you know I can think of my artist David Braley to passed away and who was a very good friend of ours back in the day he would come into Allen I need to get four paintings and send to a gallery in North Carolina like concomitant get them because I can get them eating all he would go there was no signing of paperwork um it was on an honor system but then when he died suddenly his executor became interested in his art career never had been interested before Alan where are these four paintings David took them like six months ago where did they go I have no idea somewhere in North Carolina a week later the papers arrived I was being sued because four paintings were not accounted for I learned a very good lesson at that point first of all the longer in business the more NBS people are going to become the more lawsuits you're going to see it just happens in business I've had four in my lifetime as a gallerist all of them completely unfounded all of them completely should not have happened we don't have tort reform in the state anyone can sue you for anything you know they can not like your nose and say you know I'm going to sue you and it's up to you to defend yourself in court you got to pay you got to pay to defend yourself and so off we went to arbitration my attorney said Alan do you want to pay them eighteen thousand dollars for those four paintings or do you want to pay me three hundred thousand dollars to fight this oh my mother always told me defend for your rights fight fight fight Alan do you want to pay them eighteen thousand dollars or do you want to pay me three hundred thousand dollars to defend this write the check so I wrote the check two months later the gallery in North Carolina called me and said hey I've got to David Fraley that's for David frail friendly attendants what do you want me to send them I said send unto me I own them contracts they exist for a reason and that started my path down contract land everything that happened the other three losses that happen clarity and my contracts became clearer because of those things happening do I like them no I don't like contracts but you need to remember as an artist you are in control the gallery is not in control if there is something you don't like in the contract challenge it if there is something that you don't understand in the contract ask the questions don't just sign it ask why does this provision exist what what happens if what are you you know this is not outlined and I want it outlined you know I want the insurance coverage outlined I want the shipping back and forth outlined I want how payment disbursements are being done outlined I want to know in writing when I'm going to get paid something that is very important for all artists to understand I never know why the district attorney for the state of Georgia and the city of Atlanta would not enforce it there exists a Georgia consignment Act law on the books I helped write it I got together with the individual artist coalition and took it before state Senate it's on the books and that law states that a that a gallery holds the artists money in escrow for the artist you're not supposed to pay your light bill you're not supposed to pay yourself you're not supposed to pay anything else it is your money pick that up off the internet google it find it read it know what your rights are before you go and approach a gallery the law exists on the books the difficulty with the law in the United States is it is only as good as you can afford to enforce it and that is why artists who don't have a lot of money get taken advantage of so much all of these artists with the lawsuit that I'm talking about there was a game about a hundred and seventy thousand dollars let's let it leak out because if you go to the Georgia lawyers for the Arts or if you go to a private attorney and you say help me you can take this money and we'll do it on a contingent basis and you can take part of it they'll go it's going to cost me three hundred thousand dollars you just keep that in your mind a lawsuits three hundred thousand dollars it just it is it's going to drag on for years do you really want to let that fester in your gut for three years and deal with it most of the artists we're told walk away just walk away thank you very much for coming [Music] you [Music] [Music]

Channel: Alan Avery Art Company

Views: 207,692

Rating: 4.729445 out of 5

Keywords: Business lecture, artist lecture, artist talk, business talk, challenge yourself talk, rotating artwork, be true to yourself talk, stand up for yourself talk, business of art, gallery representation, being an artist, marketing yourself, artist, gallery, gallery owner, Alan Avery, Alan Avery Art Company, Art gallery in Atlanta, Atlanta art gallery, Art in Atlanta, Atlanta Artists, Art students, Art school, art community, Atlanta Art community

Id: B-0GJCowxck

Length: 24min 22sec (1462 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 27 2017