Art or Craft, are we splitting hair?

I have come to ask myself the question because, living in a small rural Irish village, I have used the outlet of "crafts markets", "Christmas crafts fairs", etc. to promote and sell my art.

The very first year, I attempted with paintings and limited edition prints, but one thing was clear, people were there to spend a few quid yes, but not to make an investment in an expensive art piece. In fact, in the several years I have taken part in those fairs, I have only ever sold 1 original framed painting. And although I used these outlet as a general promotional tool as much as anything else, it is still supposed to be a revenue making exercise. 

Being flexible and inventive is what I had to be.

I started hand painting miniatures that could be used as ornaments (and many more things I've tried, but with time, I realized that I needed to stay focus and not multi-task in other mediums and styles).
And now comes the question, are these Art or Craft?
I never do the same painting again on canvas, but for my little miniatures, I reproduce the same pictures (now they never really are exactly the same but close...) as many times as it will sell. Would that qualify as craft and not art...
I've looked up a few descriptions, some say Art is all about expressing emotions, while craft is a form of work with a tangible output...
Or that craft, historically anyway, is associated with the production of useful objects and art with useless ones!!
Others say that in craft, there is a planned, known outcome...

 I'm none the wiser really, and I'm not sure it matters.
The reason I've asked myself the question in the first place, was that my miniatures have evolved from simplistic little ornaments, to mini oil paintings deserving of their rightful place in a frame... and was I taking anything away from them by not giving the exclusivity of a "one-of" piece... and how should I price them then...

But really, it only comes down to what the customers are willing to pay. Would they pay a premium price for a 4" painting because it's a "one of". You may get two different types of customers in Art galleries, the investor (the clue is in the title) and the art lover who has money and buy because he loves what he sees. In the craft market, there is only the one who loves what he sees, maybe somewhat influenced by the fact that it is handmade. Those are my customers and my only concern when creating for them is to make something they will like at the price they will want to pay!

So call it crafty or arty, in my quest of becoming an artist (one who's actually making a living at it!), it all boils down to what is commercially viable, full stop!

Giving back has given me even more!

Giving time for free??? Right! And where am I suppose to find that "free" time to give it?!

I won't be preaching to you, but just share one of the experience I have had recently. You see, I believe that the old cliché is quite true: giving gives more to the giver than the receiver! And I also believe it to be even more true for artists.

   

I might be alone in this, but yet probably not, as a "trying" artist, I live with what I will call a complex of usefulness! The need to justify what I do, the need to be useful beyond providing people with nice pictures...
And it is in that frame of mind, stumbling between that selfish need and some generosity thrown in, that I started a project this summer with people awaiting to be lawfully accepted in this beautiful country that is Ireland. We painted a mural, and what a beautiful result. I hope it gave the people who took part a great escape for self-expression, made them forget a little the situation they find themselves and their family in, and simply gave them a time to enjoy...

www.jessicabaronartist.com
www.facebook.com/jessicabaronartist

Nourishment & discipline, all a piece of cake!

To continue on from my previous post on preparation: "It's all about the means and the end", once I have my work space prepared and my working head on, I'm talking nourishment. Nothing to do with a specific diet here, although always good to look after yourself, but it will include some edible details.

NOURISHMENT:

First start with yourself. Not giving a cookery or a healthy lesson here, but being hungry will only give you an excuse to escape from the grip of the blank canvas syndrome.

-Plan to start work after breakfast, or lunch.

-Bring along a cup of tea or coffee, or whatever else comforting, I do, so I won't use that as an excuse either!

Nourish the ambiance and your mind, make yourself feel good by what you're wearing, listening, looking at, etc.

-Don't just stagger out of bed into the studio. For me, to feel like it's work, I need to look like it's work. So I pay the same attention to getting ready as I would to go out to work (nearly).

-Put some good music, TIME WASTING ALERT, have playlists at the ready!

-Hang some stuff on the walls. I opt for my own stuff, keep me in the right direction, a white board not overloaded with to-dos, a big calendar, and some inspiring quotes. Change it around now and again.

DISCIPLINE:

If you want to make it work, treat it like work. Coming and going as you please sounds great... for a hobby, it doesn't work with a career.

-Set days and times, sticking to them helps as well!

-Have set break times, leave nothing to time wasting temptation

-Turn off the evil that are social media

-Plan your day from the start: To-do list don't are proven to be ineffective by the simple fact that they are overwhelmingly disorganized. Without being too strict, using a timed diary is brilliant. Allocating approximate time to different tasks to be done will put you under a light pressure and get your productive juice flowing. I fit in phone calls, email and other internet bits and bobs at the start of the day and have a clear finishing time on it as it has potential to spiral out of control.

What are your own tips? Share them with me below I'd love to hear them!

www.facebook.com/jessicabaronartist

www.jessicabaronartist.com

It's all about the means and the end

Sat down in front of a blank canvas, going cross-eyed, tortured in the realization that inspiration does not come from a divine intervention... We've all been there!

Putting on some well chosen music, feeling a little uplifted, it's a good start, but it probably won't be enough and we know it. I've known it for a long time yet I still sometimes forget that creation needs preparation, nourishment and a certain amount of discipline. I thought I would share a few tips which help me, might help you and will put us all back on the right track!

PREPARATION:

From preparing your work space to preparing your work subjects, there is a lot that can be done to avoid wasting precious time and become more productive.
I personally find that if my studio is cluttered and in a bigger mess than usual (lets be honest here, it's never that tidy in there), I need to sort the mess out before I get to work and even often get distracted in the process. The solution? Well to keep it tidy in the first place would help, as for the rest of the house, but as we all have lives to live.
-Incorporate a tidy up of the studio in the general housework time instead of eating on precious creative time.
 -Fit in, once a month, a bigger clear out, keep the regular tidying up simple using files and boxes that can be sorted out once a month.
For me, it also corresponds with my monthly inventory of stock and material, which means I kill two birds with one stone, and that I have a clear head and a clear work space at least for one day every month!
Preparing the actual work subject is equally if not more important to be efficient. Many a time I have gone up to the studio and started rummaging through hundreds of images in search of the one I would like to paint... after a few hours, I might have deleted a few pictures, but I am no closer to finding a subject for painting and obliged to abandon the day's session having wasted too much time.
-Sort out pics as they come out of the camera!
If you are very organized that will work best, dealing with a small amount of pictures every time.
-Have a "TO PAINT NEXT" folder on your computer desktop, limit the number of pics to less than 10 in this folder. If like me you are of the indecisive type, limiting your options will always work best!
-Be ruthless in your selection. With experience we know what will not make for a good painting, DELETE!
-Have different size canvas prepared. I prime my canvas and boards with acrylic, often bold colors. I like to have a few prepared in advance, again saving time not watching paint dry!
-Have sketches made of your "TO PAINT NEXT" pictures. If you have already worked out your composition, sketching the canvas will be a piece of cake.


NEXT: Nourishment and discipline

Make or break, or the artistic prostitution

Your options are: make it work or wait for the big break

The odds are definitely unfavorable when you wait for a big break in the Art world. I don't have a number for you here, but I would certainly not bet on it. Stacking against you even more if you haven't gone the traditional education way and have to call yourself Self-thought (I have to).

You can go with the flow, I did for years, selling a couple of paintings here and there, not having the credentials to get into galleries, not getting the credentials for failing to get into galleries. I could have gone on tipping away, banging on closing doors in the hope one would open, and even then, there was no guaranty a success would happen and last.

Then someone said "why don't you paint the landscape and sell it to the tourists"

But I don't do landscapes, I thought, this would go COMPLETELY against my integrity as an artist, that would be like, like... artistic prostitution!!
Now, I wasn't all that offended really, I just had never envisaged doing Art for what the customer would be looking for and my ego may have rebelled slightly against the fact that it made perfect sense (how had I not thought of that myself!!)

And so I painted my first landscape in many years...

And another...

I was strangely surprise that my style could still translates in landscapes, I made them into limited edition prints and off I went to the shops and the rest of that part of the story is history...

But then I kind of lost myself, painting after painting, I didn't realized that I was taming more and more, becoming "generic", unrecognizable and to my eyes, well ordinary...

I put this painting up reluctantly, not because it is particularly ugly but only because despite my signature, this is not my painting, it is not me.

It is one thing to tweak art to suit the demand but if it's not you than is it worth trying to break with it?

I revisited the same subject, to make a point, I am stubborn like that... It is still in the drying room but I will show it soon, to make a point.

The lesson to be learned here is you can do the city streets (painting that it), you can do the country lane, dress it in red, dress it in blue, the only thing that matters is that skin deep it is all you!

Apologies, that's quite terrible as rhymes go, but you get the point right, cause that's all that counts, that I made my point!

Putting some money on it!

You have researched your subject and inspiration for hours, maybe days. You've been out here and there, trying to capture something special on a camera, something that would just be the starting point... Then you've pondered, and sketched, and pondered again (over several cups of tea), to finally put down on canvas. And you will spend hours, again maybe days, occasionally weeks, working to achieve a perfect masterpiece, which too often it isn't, but you start again anyway. 

And somewhere along this repeated, long process you accumulate and choose some worthy pieces, the ones you would be proud to show and hopeful to sell!

But how do you put a price on that?

It certainly not an hourly rate. And if you go too cheap, you're out of a really good potential market, one that is difficult to enter but could mean making a living out of your art. If you go too high and don't get your big break, you've priced yourself out of a wider, certainly less active but excessively more accessible market! Talk about Catch 22.

I've adopted the slow pace small steps approach personally. I was not in a position financially to wait for the big break, it had to sell and it had to sell NOW!! So I started with small paintings, smaller prices. Some other artists commented at my very first show that my paintings were too cheap but in reality, as I pointed out to them, they were more expensive than theirs proportionally and more importantly: they were selling. To balance it out, I always had a bigger painting on show, proportionally priced again, clearly showing that my paintings were not cheap... they were only small!

As the time go on, I put the prices up slightly every year and I also increase the size by a few inches. And I intend to keep the same strategy as long as it sells.

Some might say that to sell in galleries, the prices have to be higher, it still works my way though; galleries want big paintings anyway!

The once-a-year diary

Oh dear, yes let's hear it, it has been a shameful 8 months+ since my last entry. Apologies, personal life has got in the way and it will probably happen again, but hey, let's enjoy the moment where I remembered I had a blog without making me feel too guilty.

Still a wanna be artist, yes, still excellent at procrastination, absolutely!
At the end of 2015 I was faced with a dilemma that tormented me (ok that might be a slight exaggeration, I don't torment easily), let's just say that I flirted with the idea of going solo. And what I mean by that is I contemplated the possibility of leaving behind the part-time work and putting all I have into the Art business.
I pondered for some months, I did, especially being between contracts, it would have been an easy transition (but I'm sure a rough ride) It is only a couple of weeks ago that, having a job offer I couldn't refuse, thinking of my young children still not in full time school, and also being a bit chicken Maybe!.. Well, I chose the status quo. Suits me for now. I know the same dilemma with visit me at the end 2016, but one thing at a time and I'll paint that bridge once I reach the river.

In the meantime, I have reasonably set my resolutions for this year at only 3:
1-Enjoy every moment with my young ones (so, so cliché. I do love a good cliché)
2-Paint, paint, and paint again.

And most importantly:
3-Weekly entry on the blog, Facebook and webpage! It's all under control, I have it written down in my diary (not this one, well yea this one but also my other diary (very well chosen Christmas present), the one I consult and follow everyday. almost.

À bientôt!!