Making It!

Making It! Case Studies of Successful Canadian Visual Artists is my new book. It debuts this month at Opus. The official launch party will be held at Opus Granville Island on July 28th. I hope you will join me to celebrate.

My first book, Artist Survival Skills: How to Make a Living as a Canadian Visual Artist (2008), documented some business standards for Canadian visual artists. In this second book, I set out to celebrate some business practices that have significantly contributed to the development of a visual artist’s career. Each chapter may be about the entirety of a career or it may be about one aspect of a career. It is my hope that in these stories, you will find inspiration or a comfortable methodology to apply to your own practice.

The stories in Making It are not “how-to” stories, although some chapters provide specific directions. Rather, each chapter is a conversation with one or more artists who have experience with various best practices in the visual arts. It was a wonderful and rewarding experience to meet these creative practitioners and to interview them. The collective experiences of the artists whose stories are told in this book add up to centuries of experience that inform and inspire.

I was amazed by the stories of artists, but what truly amazed and moved me was the generosity of everyone with whom I spoke and their willingness to share insights into their experience. Marina Bychkova excels in niche marketing; Ross Penhall, by changing media, dramatically increased his creative efficiency and his income. Richard Tetrault’s career is a perfect exemplar of community involvement and the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that social interaction can bring to an artist’s career.

Joyce Kamikura has an interesting story to tell about licensing her work for reproduction. It earned her considerable income, but the experience was not what she
expected so she has valuable advice to share. Jude Griebel’s success with artist residencies has provided him with a rich source of inspiration and professional development. His story provides an excellent model for the emerging artist intent on a life-long professional career and for mid-career artists needing rejuvenation.
Because mailing list management and effective commercial communication are vital skills you must have, there is a chapter of discussion with Rachael Ashe and Kristine Paton about Mail Chimp and Constant Contact – two incredibly practical websites. And Shawn O’Hagan has excelled with Internet sales through Etsy.com. Their stories can save you hundreds of hours of online learning about these fabulous web-based resources as can the two important chapters that deal with direct selling and gallery representation.

Direct artist-to-customer sales dominate the activities of many contemporary visual artists, and because the past decade has seen incredible technological advancements in networking websites, software and hardware to support direct sales, all artists should learn how to maximize their yield from their every interaction. To provide readers with insight, I interviewed five artists who have had success with direct sales and their insights are invaluable.

And because of the amount of competition and the popularity of the subject, I convened a panel of four artists with considerable exhibition history in commercial art galleries to discuss their experiences. According to Hill Strategy Research Inc. (Canada),
the three Canadian cities with the highest concentrations of artists are in British Columbia. Their report says that Vancouver has the highest concentration of artists among large Canadian cities (2.35%), a level that is three times the Canadian average
(0.77%). Victoria has the second-highest concentration of artists (1.87%) and North Vancouver District has an artistic concentration of 1.61%. For Canadian artists everywhere, there is a lot of competition for the limited amount of commercial
galleries, so the voices of experience in my new book provide valuable insights.
I am extremely grateful to all the artists whose words are recorded in this book. Their willingness to share their professional experiences for the benefit of upcoming generations of Canadian visual artists is wondrous creative and intellectual
philanthropy.

If you read Making It, I sincerely hope that you find it as rich and insightful a document as I do.