The Art & Commerce Dilemma
It is the classic artist’s dilemma. How to deliver something that the audience expects or wants, yet remain true to myself as an artist?
Artists will often get pigeonholed. Those first few paintings of crumbling landmarks were wildly popular, sold out instantly. Now all these people are willing to pay silly money for crumbling landmark pictures, yet the artist is sick to death of painting them and wants to evolve artistically. The new paintings don’t sell nearly as well, though. A few past buyers are re-selling their crumbling landmark paintings at a huge mark-up.
Now, the artist must decide. Should he or she go back to painting the crumble, feeling trapped and amassing buckets of money? At least for now. That and listening to the whispers of sophisticated art-buyers who smell a sell-out or fear success paralysis. Or, should the artist stay true to his or her artistic impulse and scrape together a living with another job?
Tackling The Dilemma
If the answers were easy, artists wouldn’t still be struggling with this centuries-old dilemma. It can help the artists to step back and seriously consider their motives…
A. Why are you or why would you like to be an artist entrepreneur? Which of these 4 key motives drive your creative efforts most: control, freedom, impact or wealth? Summarize your results here and how they are particularly relevant to you as an artist entrepreneur…
https://blogs.ubc.ca/e101/entrepreneurial-motives/
B. And try the 10/10/10 test. What will this ‘give em what they want’ artistic decision feel like 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years from now? How do you think you would feel at these at these 3 points if you were compromising yourself artistically?
C. How does or might this Art v Commerce dilemma rear its head specifically in your venture?