Productivity in the Studio Part 5

How do I find shows?

I live in the midwest and get to New York usually every other year.  So, NYC is not a good bet for me.  Gallery representation is largely dependent on relationships developed over time.  A couple of days every other year is not enough time to develop these relationships.  So, I look elsewhere, while not eschewing opportunities that show up from time to time in NYC.

Knowing where your work fits is key.  My work is largely non-commercial, somewhat narrative and often installation based with a touch of performance. I have learned that it belongs in educational institutions and artist run alternative spaces.  It took time and trial and error to figure this out.  I learned from rejections and from looking at the past exhibitions of organizations I might be interested in. 

I find exhibitions through referrals, google searches and online services.  Referrals come through other artists and through my visibility locally and through social media.  Friends send me prospects! I post jpgs of new work and work-in-process obsessively.   The online listing services that I use the most are Art Opportunity Monthly and Call for Entry.  When purusing these, I search by "solo," "call for Proposals," and by media restrictions.  I also do google searches for calls for art.  Just the other day I came up with 4-5 colleges looking for proposals.

I send out a lot of proposals.  Most of the solo-show proposals do not require a fee.  They take a lot of time to perfect, but what choice do we have?  No one is going to come looking for you if you do not invite them.  I have succeeded in securing large solo shows yearly.  The market has changed over the years.  You used to be able to rely on help with shipping or an honorarium to lecture and an airline ticket to come teach.  I saw wonderful parts of the country on the academic dime.  Now, there is very little money available and higher competition for exhibition slots.  Shipping has gone sky high.  So, I have limited shipped shows to one a year.  Shows I can drive are easier.

What about group/juried shows?  Sure, I do them.  I can't resist having the art seen!  I say yes to almost all local invitations to keep my name in conversation.  I apply to group shows with jury fees when I like the theme, the juror, or the award money.  I especially  like to try out new work in these shows. If you are new to exhibiting, theses shows are a good way to begin to learn who your audience is.  Set your budget for what you can afford to spend on jury fees.  As of this week, most fees are in the $40 category.  These fees finance the costs of the exhibitions, paying jurors, the light bills, the rent, the promotion as do the percentages deducted from sales. You don't get them back, although they are deductible on federal taxes, on Schedule C.

I also, from time to time, will develop and present a show in my studio space.  My studio in on a main drag and I ran it as a commercial gallery for 9 years.  It is still a known venue in town.

Productivity in the Studio Part 4

Studio Administration is part of the process

I find administration odious.  It is not my gift.  I can do it.  I can struggle through it,  but it brings me no pleasure.

What do I consider to be administration?

finding shows

responding to email

keeping the database up to date

keeping the web pages up to date

updating the resume

writing and re-writing artists statements and bios

taking professional photographs of work

writing grants and proposals

managing the calendar

organizing the archive

YUCK!

So how do I manage it?

I try to schedule one day a week devoted to management of these things. 

When my cash flow is flush, I hire administrative help one day a week. 

When cash flow is low, I can use unpaid student interns, barter for help, trade for help with other artists or, yuck, set aside time to do it myself.  Even if I set aside only 1-2 hours a week, I can make progress on the all the administrative work. It's never caught up anyways!

Productivity in the Studio Part 3

What does it take?  The Process of Churning out work from your studio

Showing up making the art, obviously.

Documentation is part of the process:

1) photograph everything, at every step of the process for large works

2) write about each piece

3) keep track of what materials went into each piece

4) Keep some sort of inventory (I use GYST)

5) keep track of where it has been exhibited/ what collections it has gone into

6) keep your resume up to date

Writing is part of the process

1) writing proposals and grants...honest!  It really is part of the process!

2) contacting galleries, collectors, shows is part of the process.  No one is going to just discover you!

3) artists statement, bios

4) writing about the new or developing piece so you can understand it and talk about it

5) write your own press releases.

Showing is part of the process

If art is about communication, then there needs to be an audience, someone to communicate with. 

For me, an artwork is not done until it has been documented, written about, and shown, whether to a friend or a gallery.

Productivity in the Studio Part 2

Quelling Anxiety/perfectionism

 Perfectionism prevents productivity.  We get anxious about whether the work will be good enough, before we even make the first mark.  There are techniques that I use that help quell this.  Even though I am very productive, I too face the blank page or the next step with my heart in my mouth.  Here are my tricks:

1) artists pages-  I think of this as the garbage dump.  I use this technique especially when I am beginning a new, public project...when I will be called on to perform; meet lots of new people; when I feel like I am "leaping off a cliff" in  the studio.  I write 3 pages or 15 minutes, anything that comes to mind...ANYTHING!  It helps me externalize and put to bed my worries.

2) Exercise-  I am no athlete, but walking everyday is essential to my energy and my ability to focus clearly in the studio. Walking meditation.

3) Remember - perfectionism is an idea, not a destination.  It is, in fact, unattainable.

4) Materials are only materials-  They are not precious in themselves.  I use the mantra "It's only paper." 

5)  Rehearse expensive materials- When materials ARE expensive, there are ways to rehearse next steps.  I use photography and Photoshop to rehearse drastic changes in projects that are advanced or use more expensive materials.  I can slice and dice and recolor in Photoshop to my heart's content.

6) It's not rocket science, bridge construction or surgery-  No one is likely to die from what we do

7) But what we do IS important!  It is key to our humanity, health and happiness.

8) Be not afraid!  And if you are...do your work anyways!

9) While outcomes matter, try to let go of deadlines and dreams of masterpieces and allow yourself to PLAY and EXPLORE with your materials.

Productivity in the Studio Part 1

Welcome to  my version of Productivity in the Studio.  These are the practices that help me.  Yours may be different.  Feel free to share in the comments.  I'd love to hear from you.

PART 1

PRODUCTIVITY IN THE STUDIO

I am known as a highly productive, multimedia artist who shows a lot.  I am self-represented, showing mostly in academic settings and artist run spaces. In my 40+ year career I have exhibited in well over 200 exhibitions, with 35 solo shows, from coast to coast, with a brief foray into Mexico.  I am also a former gallery director working over 12 years in Michigan and Minnesota.

First and foremost:

SHOW UP

MAKE A MARK

MAKE ANOTHER MARK

It is not a matter of waiting for inspiration.  Inspiration will find you in the act of working.   I often say every artist needs a "mug."

What do I mean by that?  I mean that we all need something we can DO artistically when flow appears to be absent.  For a potter, that would be a mug.  For a poet, that would be a journal entry. For a painter that might be drawing.  In working and playing with our materials routinely, new ideas will pop-up.

Let there be ORDER

We all have varying needs for order.  Some of us need visual chaos to work (Think Francis Bacon!).  Some of us need ascetic, Zen-garden surroundings.  I need well labeled boxes and drawers of materials.  I need tools quickly available at the point of use.  I need a moderate amount of visual stimulation in the studio...but not too much mess.  This allows me to approach the state of flow much more quickly than if I have to search all over for the right tool or material.  However, from time to time, elves do seem to come in the night and move things.  Currently cannot find some important scissors!

Learn your needed degree of order and organization.  It will help you be productive.

Do you have a mission statement?  I usually have one, re-evaluated every couple of years.  It helps me to look at my work to see if it "belongs."   I find it useful when I feel lost or stuck in the studio. For me it is a way of providing order.

My current mission statement goes something like this:

I create objects and experiences from a variety of media on the themes of nostalgia, feminism and age.  It is my mission to gently involve all sorts of people in these discussions with the goal of helping them regard on another with empathy.

It's a little out of date, but still functions pretty well.

COMING SOON Productivity in the Studio- a 9 part series

You know, I have been asked over and over again how I get so much done.  Certainly part of it is that I work full time at my art. My only dependent is my dog, Gideon, and he is low maintenance.  And appearances can be deceiving.  I produce all kinds of "parts"  and unfinished bits that linger around the studio until I go on a "finishing jag."  Bits and pieces can linger for years before they are suddenly incorporated into finished work...seemingly all at once.

A couple of years ago, in advance of expected funding, a non-profit asked me to develop a class about taking the next steps from enthusiastic amateur to professional.  The non-profit did not receive their funding.  But I saved this 9-part series in my computer and you, dear reader, can benefit.

It will begin Monday, October 1 and continues three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, until completed.  Have fun!  And, rest assured:  I perform most of the tips SOME of the time, but none of them ALL of the time.  Perfection is an idea, not a possibility!

Despite appearances....

It is always a long, slow journey to exhibition with many, many rejections before the "yeses" come in.  I have 19 applications out there for both solo and group opportunities.   I have heard from 10:   7 rejections and 3 "yeses".  Gotta love those "yeses."  Gotta have faith in those "yeses."  They usually arrive just as you are about to give up.  There are no solo's here.  But this work will be seen.

KEEP THE FAITH, my friends.  Apply to enough opportunities, some will come through.

Interior Torus; going to the Black and White show at Gallery 311, Raleigh, NC

My Mother Myself will be featured in the Surface Design Association Exhibition in Print

My Mother's Marriage will also be featured in the Surface Design Association Exhibition in Print 

Selfie 2018 will be going to No Big Heads, University of Alaska.