Nature and Landscape and the Nature of Marketing
I’ve been reading the book “The $7 million Shark: The curious economics of contemporary art,” by Don Thompson, and trying not to despair. It’s a well written and enlightening book about the high end world of the top tier artists, galleries, auction houses, collectors and the supreme gamesmanship of marketing and branding. The ideals of the artists that I know and revere are primarily focused on how they can best reveal how they perceive the world and how they can make their perceptions more transparent and communicated to their audience through their work rather than focusing on making themselves the next American Idol candidate. This does not mean that most artists that I know wouldn’t be delighted to have their work sought after fetching high fees in compensation, quite the contrary. But when in the studio, most artists just work, focused on what they are doing, responding to the object in front of them while staying connected to their inner core inside of them. The process of making a thing has nothing to do with the marketing after the fact. As a Landscape/Nature painter whose subject matter has been focused on the most fluid and elusive elements, water, considering “branding” is way down the river when entering the waters.
May 27th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Im currently making my website which is daunting because it takes away from my painting so I take breaks, looking for other artists I respect for their art as well as their ideas. I found you today and want to say that I’ve never responded to anything like this before but I really connected with your work and find it inspiring and beautiful and totally agree with this (5-25-10) blog of yours, though I havn’t read Don Thompson.
May 30th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
I read that book too and am delighted to read another artist’s point of view on Don Thompson’s book. I agree that most artists I know are more focused on producing the best, most soul-filled art rather then attempting to be a contrived super star. I often wonder how the few so called “blue chip” artists get the promotion and the art system behind them, knowing that will never land on my doorstep. I guess I am naive but I can honestly say I am content to keep working in my studio and showing occasionally when the opportunity arises. My work is entwined with how I understand the way my own world spins. My work has a lot to do with what it means to be a living, thinking, feeling human being. “Making it” doesn’t mean the same thing it used to.