scribblings !
The online journal of a passionate artist, writer and educator.
December 31, 2008
Looking Back at Art and Writing in 2008
Tomorrow, I want to look ahead to the art and writing market in 2009, but in order to give the discussion some context, I believe it's important to review the changes 2008 brought.
This year hammered the art market around the world and in my own back yard. Yes, I'll say it: Art sales are down. Prices are down. Volume is down. Purchasing art on speculation is over. Every artist I personally know has experienced a drop in sales. Some art shows have suspended operations. Galleries are closing.
Art sales declined across the board. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we've seen gallery closings as artists have been hit. Fernando Reyes in the San Francisco Bay area says his sales dropped 80% this year.
Art auction houses face the realization that excessive speculation in this market ceased in 2008. Need an example? The article provides several like the self-portrait by Francis Bacon previously selling for $86 million in May didn't make its reserve of $25 million six months later.
Museums and art endowments took a hit. Sponsors have been lost, Lehman Brothers being the most notable example. MOMA instituted a hiring freeze.
The art licensing market is a bear. Artists work harder doing more work on spec and find the lines they produced cut at the last moment. They've worked evenings, weekends and holidays for a pittance this year. Staff layoffs and changes in the licensing companies left art directors and the artists under them facing massive pressure from management for more work on less of a budget with faster turn around times.
Writing? Well, advances for new authors fell dramatically. Book sales are down. Newspapers are dinosaurs on the verge of total extinction. Magazine subscriptions have fallen WAAAAYYYY down. Bookstores are closing. The print-on-demand industry, the internet and Amazon forever changed the publishing landscape.
It's tough in the writing and art community right now.
Tomorrow, let's begin to think ahead. I want to honestly consider the scenarios we may face in light of the current and impending economic climate and our options as creative individuals in the various scenarios.
December 29, 2008
2009 Resolutions
Here we stand, peering into the fog that represents the year to come. Every year I evaluate the last, then make new resolutions, recycle old resolutions, and, sometimes, dump goals because of changes in life directions
This morning I reread the goals and resolutions I publicly stated over the last two years on this blog. Confession: While I’ve largely succeeded with most of 2006’s resolutions, 2007’s goals were a bust. I went 0 for 3.
First, I was going to keep all of my financial records straight and up to date in Quick Books. Let me just say that I’m a cram-the-receipts-into-a-box-and-figure-it-out-at-tax-time kind of person. That just isn’t going to change, so I’m dumping that one.
The art videos I planned to have on the market this year took a backseat to writing, publishing and family weddings. I can live with that.
Organizing my art space and keeping it that way is a fantasy I continue to entertain. It remains laughable, but on the list.
So, I start 2009 with the following list determined to succeed to the best of my ability.
I resolve to…
1. …invest in the lives of others, remembering that people are more important than things. That means mentoring young talent, being a cheerleader for others in their artistic endeavors, encouraging others through challenging times, and helping as I have the means.
2. …take pleasure in the tasks set before me great and small.
3. … aim at a 10 on the WOW-o-meter in every one of my own creative endeavors from painting to printing, from marketing to teaching, from gardening to cooking.
4. …take steps to become more organized in my life, giving away what I don’t need, and putting away what I have. (Ever the optimist)
December 22, 2008
More on the Art Market
Interested in the impacts of the current financial crisis on the art market? See the following articles from the Financial Times. The first and most recent discusses the goings-on at Christies. The second talks about trouble in the art market auction sales last month.
December 22, 2008
Times They Are a Changin'
The economic predictions for the coming year are enough to frighten anything with a pulse. I ran across a great quote that speaks to the changes that await us all:
“Without
change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.” Frank Herbert
It rings true in my life. Change awakens me to realities, difficulties and possibilities. It lets me see deeper into my own soul and into the lives and hurts of others.
My prayer for us all this Christmas and throughout the new year: May these difficult times drive us to greater compassion rather than greed and self-protectionism. May we use our creative gifts in service to others in our lives.
December 21, 2008
Meaningful for Christmas
This year we are giving meaningful gifts for Christmas. Meaningful takes more time than handing over cash for a thing... a LOT more time.
Each gift springs from joyous events this past year, lots of laughter, and fond memories. Filled with love, they spring from creative and grateful hearts. We can't wait for Christmas morning!
For inspiration on other meaningful gifts this year, watch this.
December 15, 2008
Creative Disasters
I’m really a good and creative cook. Really, I am. Most days. Saturday was the exception.
Early Saturday afternoon I decided to make my famous chocolate cake to take to a special event we were to attend on Sunday afternoon. I whipped up a batch, poured it into two springform pans and popped them into the oven. Some time later, I realized one of the bottoms of one of the pans had seated incorrectly allowing the batter to flow out.
One huge mess and a quarter-inch thick layer later, I started batch number two. Number two turned out beautifully and was placed on top of the stove to cool. Some time later, the smell of burnt chocolate wafted into the living room. It seems number two rested on a burner than hadn’t been turned off from melting the butter.
On to batch number three. By ten-thirty in the evening, number three was perfect, but outside the snow and temperatures fell
Our special event on Sunday? Cancelled… but, we’re enjoying cake.
November 20, 2008
Turbulent Art Environment
Market conditions can no longer be ignored. Take this message via email this morning from a company that sells art supplies: "During this turbulent time, I thought we'd gather some words of wisdom for the artists who feel unsure or nervous about continuing their professions..."
Not to be flippant, but economic turmoil comes and goes. I suppose my age (no, I'm not telling how many-- but a lot) reminds me of the time in the 80's when 200 men were lined up for the same job as my husband. Economic downturns cycle along with the rest of life and living as an artist is really no different than living as anything else... except for the few very wealthy who needn't worry about finances.
In tough times, we all become more frugal. We find ways to cut costs and bring in new income. If that means taking on another job, so be it. We maximize the results of our advertising dollar in any way we can. And, though it may break our heart, we forego the fancy new brush and add it to our Christmas wish list.
I don't know about the writer of the email quote above, but as an artist, there is no question as to whether I will continue my profession. I cannot do otherwise because it is WHO I am. My clients, income, methods and means may change, but the art, writing and teaching will not.
My question for you-- Who are you on the inside? What were you created to be? Don't let that change, even if you must relegate it to the wee hours of the morning.
November 19, 2008
New Ontario Art Museum
For an interesting glimpse into a old-turned-new art museum in Toronto, Ontario, go here and click through to the photos. The upgrade--some $276 million worth-- reopened November 14th.
November 14, 2008
Art, Insanity and Society
I teach many art workshops and some precocious students one day a week in a special private school setting, so it behooves me to stay informed. Occasionally, informing myself leaves me sick. Today is one of those days.
Recently I became acquainted with the work of Damien Hirst. I wondered who would paint multicolored dots and receive $700,000 for the effort, so I looked him up. Multicolored dots are his good points. (pun intended)
According to Julian Stallabrass, Hirst once said, “I can’t wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it.” Well, folks, he succeeded. His Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living features a dead shark in formaldahyde. In fact, he has produced an entire dead animal series--sheep, cows, sharks--sometimes dissected.
The man's controversial work nets him both coveted favor and serious censure. A pioneer in the British art movement and praised for his originality, the Struckist art group wrote about Hirst, "The fact that Hirst's work does mirror society is not its strength but its weakness - and the reason it is guaranteed to decline artistically (and financially) as current social modes become outmoded."
In Hirst's own words, "Ordinary things are frightening. It's like, a shoe is intended to get you from one place to another. The moment you beat your girlfriend's head in with it, it becomes something insane. The change of function is what's frightening... That's what art is."
I take exception to Hirst's definition of art.
And insanity is insanity, regardless of where it is found.
Julian Spaulding, founder of the Modern Art Museum in Glasgow, in his article entitled Why It's Okay to Not Like Modern Art, said, "It is all too obvious to anyone not in the art world (though always denied by those within it) that a rift has opened between the art being promoted in contemporary galleries and the art that people like to hang on their walls at home."
Though I can't find the reference on the source, it is said that The Daily Mail ran the following headline:
" For 1,000 years art has been one of our great civilizing forces. Today, pickled sheep and soiled beds threaten to make barbarians of us all."
November 13, 2008
Artwork on the Auction Block
Or
Do You Know Where Your Artwork Is?
Remember Lehman Brothers, the financial investment firm that failed a while back and woke many from their slumber on the financial crisis? Well, Lehman's headquarters was purchased by Barklays (British bank) which has its own liquidity crisis at the moment.
Lehman's massive art collection worth approximately $8 million by current accounts sits in warehouses in New York and Paris. Of significant concern is Lehman's $20,000 unpaid bills to art handlers who show the works to prospective purchasers. Under the law, agent's claims grant them the right to seize the artworks for debt satisfaction.
While the courts scramble to settle that dispute, it should be noted that Barklays has the first right of refusal to purchase the artwork in the former headquarters of Barklays.
Why bring up all this convoluted legal mumbo-jumbo with artworks? If you are an artist and are showing your work at a gallery or other business that goes bankrupt, have you considered the fate of your artwork? Look into it now. Get some legal advice.
November 12, 2008
Canada's National Portrait Gallery
Another art project cut from the budget.
On the upside, Baroque Flemish painter van Dyke is getting his first ever Paris solo exhibition. Too bad he didn't live to see the day. Since the article's title belittles his paintings with "prettied up merchants, bankers" and mentions that scholars consider him a lightweight when compared to Rubens and Rembrandt, perhaps it's for the better.
Why the snobbery? While I personally enjoy Rembrandt's style more, van Dyke masterfully painted the tradesmen around him in a way that pleased his clients. Bravo, van Dyke. May we all do as well.
November 7, 2008
Drawing the Blues Away
Investigating dreary art market news is becoming a bit of a sport for me. Bad economic news just keeps coming.
Today's report Art Market Rout at FinancialTimes.com reveals October as a devastating month for art auctions. Contemporary art sales in London barely managed to net half of their pre-sales estimates. Christie's and Southerby's in New York likewise faired badly. Over the past year, stock market shares of Southerby's have dropped 85% in value.
Okay, people aren't dumping huge wads of disposable income into contemporary art and old masters for the moment. Perhaps some of the money not going into that market is going to ease the suffering of the many hungry people in the world... maybe even to a few starving artists...
Meanwhile, it's raining in the Pacific Northwest. Of course, it is, it's October. The lack of sunshine keeps me from the weeds in my garden, but I'm having great fun drawing!
November 5, 2008
Art in Recession
"Works by van Gogh, Cezanne, Matisse, Monet and Modigliani all failed to sell." So says the London Telegraph in an article entitled Financial crisis: Art world hit by economic downturn as paintings fail to hit reserve. It's a story repeated throughout the art world as art sales and prices slump.
Why would I, an artist who sells my artwork on this very site, say such a thing publicly? I'm certain to be admonished by fellow artists hoping to prop up prices of their own work and hold the public to an illusion that art is an investment.
The answer is simple. Art isn't an investment. People who purchase art with investment in mind are looking to lose their wallets. Art remains an emotional purchase. People purchase art because it makes them feel better.
In this brief time of financial crisis, fear reigns as the overriding emotion. Fear of job losses. Fear of a stock market crash. Fear of who-knows-what. But fear, a reactionary fight or flight mechanism, passes once the crisis recedes and is replaced with other emotions.
Art speaks on an emotional level. It communicates to the heart and mind through affirming the beauty of creation, the wonder of humanity, the sadness of the fallen world, the need of the perishing, the joy of celebration. Art is emotional.
If you make art, saturate it with your passion. If you buy art, purchase it because it speaks to something within you.
|