I found a Blogger who interviewed 100 artists and share her story and insights on social media. Then I tried to contact her and ask some advice. Alought she refused my request for an interview online, I still found some information valuable in her blog.
One point she mentioned make sense:
A lot of artists are shy and not good at talking about money, thinking that focus on creation is more pure. But every artist has the right to know where his work has gone and who has collected it. You should not be afraid to communicate with collectors, and ask galleries and partner institutions for the list of collections. It’s not necessary but it shouldn’t be avoided. Both galleries and artists are mobile and two-way. Both parties should cooperate professionally and protect yourselves.
Sophia said
What she said inspired me to design the test about communication ability. I design the quiz like this:
Q: Suppose you commission a gallery/institution to sell your work and they tell you that five copies were sold last week, you will…..
A. Feel happy and keep working on it.
B. Ask the gallery for a list of buyers.
C. Ask the gallery for a list of buyers, and try to contact them when appropriate.
correct answer: C
So, if they chose C, which means they have good communication abilities, and vice versa.
Last Tuesday, I talked about my project with dragons in 2 mins. I think it’s an excellent opportunity to test whether I understand my project and express it clearly. However, I remember I am too nervous about speaking at a suitable speed. When I reflect on the process, I think I need to strengthen my communication ability, especially with experts and predecessors.
They approved the gap that I identified and gave me some good suggestions. For example, Clare mentioned business ability and advertising ability, and Marie suggested that I consider physical ability, such as the ability to decompress. Artists and designers, especially freelancers, will face more pressure because of the instability of the job and so on.
In addition, in the bookable tutorial with Cai, she suggested I think about this model’s position. For example, before/during/ after the University education.
Conclusion: after I talk to this expert and did some research, I decided to combine her opinions and my original opinions to iterate my career model. Both of our opinions are right in their own way. But it also shows that each of us has our own positionality. So I think combining these two is a better way since this model is neither perfect nor the end, but a reference for my audiences, like giving the light in the dark, and an inspiration for them to think about their own personalized models.
Apart from that, she mentioned the ability to appreciate others, and be interested in others work and be kind. I think that is a great point, especially for art students, most of them are too confident and need to be humble. So I’ll iterate my career model by adding it.
I sent this email to ten UAL Fine Art staff and I received three replies. Although the quantity is not very large, I think the quality is good. Because two of the responses are the Fine Art course leaders. And I also had a deeper conversation with Patricia.
The result of the average rating is:
Organized ability: 5 stars
Communication ability: 5 stars
Cooperative ability: 4.3 stars
Business ability: 3 stars
After I got the questionnaire results and did research about those three artists, I am thinking about my definition of business ability.
Before art students graduate, they can freely pursue their own painting styles and favourite theme in universities studio. But when they need to face the problem of supporting themselves after graduation, maybe their personality style can’t make money quickly. So I think they need to have the ability to produce profitable commercial work which they may not like. But at the same time, art graduates can continue to pursue what they are really interested in.
It might work for some art graduates. But they need to be careful to balance the critical practice and commercial practices.
Like what Patricia said, 1. Artists should always focus on making their work in a way that is most interesting for them. If you’re trying to appeal to the market for the sake of making money your practice likely won’t get very far (and you’ll lose interest). 2. The market is hard to predict and trying to please someone else is no way to live.
I don’t mean to throw out my original definition, I think it’s worth being. At least it could give some art graduates new thought when they face problematic employment. But Patricia’s opinion also makes sense. I will combine it together and evaluate my model.
In addition, I also noticed her positionality.
Those who can pursue their art regardless of financial considerations, and those who are extremely talented enough to wear several hats and combine their artistic pursuits with other work, are a minority.
But her opinion also makes sense. When the path of art is narrow, art graduates need to be able to deal with multiple identities. And, how to balance those different identities really depends on different individuals.
‘Tom Ellis is a painter. When he was starting out he used to support himself by making furniture. And then he started to show his furniture with his paintings. His furniture is now considered as sculpture and is an important part of his practice.’Patricia said.
Tom’s combination of painting and furniture activates a striking duality. ‘The fact that they are object types of such a different order allows me to move freely between ostensibly art and non-art activities,’ he says. ‘The furniture serves in part to “depressurise” the painting practice by creating a more culturally blurred setting for its display – a painting above a sofa is a very different proposition to a painting isolated on a pristine gallery wall.’ Tom says he feels that The Wallace Collection brings art closer to the ‘unruly multiplicity of real life, and here we have life in all of its wild and wonderful facets. (Nast, 2016)
In order to improve my career model, I contacted the Fine art teachers of UAL. The following are the two teachers who have replied so far. One is the course leader of Chelsea Fine Arts, and the other is the course leader of CSM Fine Arts.
The survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-KD7QLYD29/
Patricia’s opinion
1)I’ve rated Business ability as 1 — because the definition is a bit confusing: Artists should always focus on making their work in a way that is most interesting for them. If you’re trying to appeal to the market for the sake of making money your practice likely won’t get very far (and you’ll lose interest). This is because it shows more about your understanding of the market (which might not be an expert) than your commitment to your practice. And trying to please someone else is no way to live — in art or for anything else… And also if the market was possible to predict we would all be very rich! There isn’t one market — there are many and they are in constant motion. Instead, it’s about making connections and finding like-minded people who connect with your ideas and work. Collectors + institutions invest in work that is critically important — so it should be every artist’s priority, to make work that is genuinely critically interesting. It’s important to be aware of current trends in art — but also culture at large and how your work contributes to progressing these. Artists do however need ‘business sense’ — but not really in relation to the market. By the time your career gets to the stage where you are making reasonable money, you will likely have gained enough personal experience to effectively deal with your situation, and have assistance from people who are more expert. When you’re starting out, you will likely be earning small amounts of money periodically — and will likely make some small money mistakes! But these usually don’t have serious consequences, and you learn from your mistakes so you are able to confidently deal with larger money situations when they eventually happen. It is far more important to be good with money — ie. know how to make savings, when to invest in your practice for important opportunities, and how to manage the budgets for the projects you are working on. 2) YES!!! Communication is super-important! 3) Cooperative ability, I didn’t understand the definition so rated it as 3 for the part I agreed with: YES — to cooperating with institutions etc. (5) NO — “The ability to create works that fit the theme of exhibitions even if you’re not interested.” (0) You should only ever do things that you find interesting. And work with like-minded people who you find interesting. This is where Cooperation is extremely important: you need to make connections with people who have similar interests and ambitions and help each other to accomplish your goals. Cooperation is super important so should be 5+ — but perhaps consider the definition? 4) Organisation — I’ve rated this 5, but perhaps should be more than 5! Being organised is extremely important. But not just in doing one thing — most artists have many different projects or activities running simultaneously. So you need to be organised to balance and accomplish many things at the same time! It is extremely important to finish projects as this is what develops your portfolio, and to always meet your commitments to prove you are reliable — your reputation is your “track record”. Attention to detail is also extremely important. Also, there are a few other things that are perhaps as or even more important than the categories listed: Self-Confidence Commitment Self-Motivation Self-Reliance Agility— Life as an artist can be very unpredictable — you need to be very flexible and agile to manage your continuous practice — to recognise opportunities when they happen and make opportunities for yourself if they don’t. Being Helpful + Friendly — Help other people as much as possible and people, in turn, will help you. Also if you are a nice and kind person, people will enjoy working with you! This sounds really basic, but a lot of artists don’t think about this. And most important: BE INTERESTED IN OTHER PEOPLE!!! Take a genuine interest in what other people are doing, and they will likely take interest in you. You have to be interested to be interesting!
My reply:
Then she replied to me again and share her opinions and experiences. She also recommends me some artists to me.
Another expert’s reply
I would like to say that this is not quite positive feedback. But I realized that it could be a misunderstanding since I didn’t mention clearly each ability’s definition. It is also because this is a very early stage of the model. Again, reflect it to my model, I need to improve my communication ability, especially when I reach out to experts and predecessors. In addition, I also realized that I need to point out the differences between my model and the existing model. Both my model and the existing model should not be the only ones, it all needs to be iterated.
I communicated with an expert. She graduated with a master’s degree in music therapy from the State University of New York and is now engaged in music education.
I showed her this picture and asked whether these instruments have anything in common from a musical and psychological ?
She said except Cymbals, others have something in common.
‘In the classical period, the oboe, contrabass and cello were all wooden instruments. The oboe was later improved into metal. Wooden musical instruments have a long history and generally feel simple and close to nature.’she said.
To a certain extent, this is consistent with what this painting wants to express.
2. There may be no direct connection between buying behavior and resonance
From intervention 2 to intervention 3, all participants said they have stronger resonance with the art work.However, when I ask whether they will buy the art work, no one said yes.
3. For my next intervention, I need think about other ways to increase the resonance of the audience, and thus generate buying behavior.
Kyle, an UAL career centre staff, gave me some advices. He shared with me a workshop slides which help student set up an account on LinkedIn. He also recommend me two links which is about how to manage IG portfolio.
From my own view, LinkedIn is different from other social media platforms. LinkedIn is more professional and is mainly for find a job. However, IG needs you to show your own characteristics and personality.
Through the slides Kyle shared with me, I found the linkInIn learning platform, which is free for students. I searched a bit and found a course on personal branding. This may be useful and relevant information for my project, and Chelsea Krost (the teacher of this course) might be my potential dragon.
Hayley is a freelance illustrator, she manage her business account on social media for years. Now she has more than 3,000 followers following her account. She also manage her online store to sell some relative artwork to support herself. We discussed about this topic and she said that it has taken a lot of trial and error to find a system that works for her and helps her to build her audience. Having more information and advice at her disposal earlier on in her career would have been extremely helpful!
Her answer made me more confident about the question I was studying, and I think the topic I studied is a valuable thing.
When I ask her : Could share some of your opinions about how to use social media (like Instagram) to operate an account and get benefits?
I summarize her answers as follow:
Post your work consistently
I think one of the main things to consider when using social media as an artist or designer is to post consistently. If we take a site such as Instagram, due to the algorithms it’s important to post content when your followers are going to expect you to, so keeping a schedule that you stick to will mean that your followers will see your posts. For example, you might post a new artwork 2 or 3 times per week on the same days and at the same time, which means that your post is more likely to be seen and interacted with by your followers, which in turn helps boost your engagement and makes your profile more visible.
Asking more engagement
The more engagement you receive (likes, comments, shares etc.) tells the algorithm that your content is interesting, so your post will be shown to more users. If you break that consistency and stop posting for a week or two, your engagement will drop and the next time you post, you’ll receive fewer interactions.
Communicate with your followers
It’s also important to make sure to communicate with your followers! Make sure that you reply to comments on your posts. You could also use this to further understand who your audience is, and from there you can tailor your content to suit whoever that may be. For example, if your specialist field is children’s book illustration, the audience that you are trying to appeal to could be parents/guardians of young children, as well as authors and publishers, so do your research and try to make sure that your feed speaks to these types of users.
Using appropriate hashtags
You could use appropriate hashtags to increase the chances of these types of Instagram users seeing your posts. It’s also useful to have a short yet informative bio that quickly tells people who you are and what you do, but is still punchy and memorable, that way any potential clients or customers can immediately see what type of artist you are and what your specialist field is.
Make your ‘grid’ appealing
You may want to add a link to a website, portfolio or email address so that you can be easily contacted. I would also recommend taking an overall look at your social media page; does your Instagram “grid” look appealing? Does it draw the viewers in and make them want to see more of your work? I’ve found that alternating between posting finalised drawings and photographs works well and makes my “grid” look attractive! It’s important overall to ensure that your social media pages are professional, but that they also feel approachable and look aesthetically pleasing.
I decided to make a booklet that contains the main tips on how to manage business accounts, which is my early intervention.
CROSS, P.G., CATTELL, R.B. and BUTCHER, H.J. (1967). The Personality Pattern of Creative Artists. British Journal of Educational Psychology, [online] 37(3), pp.292–299. Available at: https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1967.tb01944.x [Accessed 22 Apr. 2021].
The general area and keywords of my question so far are: Art students, Subject choice, Employment, and Future development.
In discussion with the dragon group on Wednesday, Dominic recommended a book named the way of integrity. In the introduction part, the author said that but how I, and other people, could create lives we actually enjoyed. It also reminded me of my previous investigation: Only 4% of my earlier classmates are doing art-related jobs now, while others change their careers. Then I found that although they didn’t choose the art-related job, they did find jobs. It makes me think of a question: should we do what we like or like what we do?
In addition, art students are a more sensitive group： Sixty‐three visual artists and twenty‐eight craft students were compared with a matched control group. Significant differences in mean scores between artists and controls were found on twelve factors of the 16PF test. On eleven of these twelve factors, the scores of the craft students were intermediate between those of the artists and the controls. Especially salient features of the artists’ personality pattern were A – (reserved, schizothyme tendency), E+ (assertiveness, dominance), Q2+ (self sufficiency), G – (low emotional stability), Q3 – (low self‐integration, casualness), M+ (autistic or bohemian tendency) and G – (low superego strength). They also differed from the control group in being more suspicious (L+), more apprehensive or guilt‐prone (O+), and more tense or overwrought (Q4+). In terms of the second order factors, the artists are assessed as being slightly introverted though there is evidence of some contradiction, strongly anxious, experimenting, non‐moralistic, and slightly sensitive (CROSS, CATTELL and BUTCHER, 1967).
Two directions of my question :
One is to help to reduce a ‘psychological gap’. How can I reduce Art students’ psychological gap when they face employment problems. This direction is more about how to tell students not to fantasize too much about an unrealistic future. (not everyone can become a famous, self-supporting artist)
The other direction is to help art students start their own businesses. I prefer to study the direction of creating personal IP.
How can I help art students build personal IP in the Internet era? This direction is mainly for those students who want to be freelance artists, illustrators, designers etc.
