The Cost of Being an Artist
It seems the only thing we’re hearing about in the news lately are updates on the economy and how bad it is, or is going to get, or has become, or will become and when it will get better, if it gets better, etc, etc, etc. I know the last thing you probably want to read at the moment is another article about money, but this is an article with some value to those of us who are artists. It’s all about the actual monetary cost of being an artist, and it’ll hold interest for those of you who dabble in fine art and those of you who are hardcore for it.
I recently had a painting accepted into a juried group show at the Limner Gallery in New York state. I was surprised by Tim Slowinski’s choice of paintings to feature. This is one of my more racy paintings entitled “Things That Should Not be Inside Eggs: All the Things we Love to Hate to Love” and features the theme of misogyny in religion. For those of you who don’t know what misogyny is, to clarify, it is the direct hatred of women.
As enlightened as we like to think we are, there is still a lot of misogyny floating around in our society. Since modern day society is cultured from an historical version of society, and that version of society was concocted by whichever religion was in power at the time, I believe it’s fair to say that a lot of the ideals that are still adhered to in our society were created by Religion’s direct influence.
Some ideals are good, such as ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ I can get behind that. I don’t wish to kill or be killed. Sounds fine to me. Other ideals, ones which were once widely held as being truthful and correct but are in actuality detrimental to segments of our society, need to be eradicated; I believe misogyny is one of those ideals. Everyone deserves to be treated with equal respect and dignity and women should not be left out from under that umbrella. With that in mind, I decided to go straight to the source and let Religion know just what I thought about its legacy of misogyny and how it is no longer needed.
But I digress… This post is about the cost of being an artist–the monetary cost (in Canadian Dollars)–so I’m going to relate to you all the costs associated with this painting from its production to its placement in the ‘Emerging Artists 2009′ show at the Limner Gallery, Hudson, NY and then the support it got when Cath and I went to visit it…
THE PAINTING
Every painting starts off as a heap of raw materials, like most commodities in our society. To get started, a painting needs the basics: canvas, primer, paint and brushes. The canvas needs to be stretched around a stretcher frame. I make my own out of clear pine and quarter round stripping. They’re sturdier than the store bought stretcher bars, I never have to worry about pushing the canvas back against the stretcher frame and I can make them any size I like. That means adding nails, screws, wood glue and heavy duty staples on top of the wood.
After tabulation, the raw materials to create and paint ’…All the Things we Love to Hate to Love’ cost about $100(CDN).
THE APPLICATION
After the painting was finished, I looked for a venue to host it. This entailed a bit of cruising on the Internet until I found an opportunity that looked promising. This took the form of the ‘Emerging Artist 2009′ show at the Limner Gallery. Printing off the application form took at least one piece of paper and the ink to print it; and I needed more paper to make a Support Materials List. Some applications also call for a C.V. or artist statement.
It used to be that slides were required to finish off an application. With the advent of technology and digital imaging formats, slides have become obsolete but you still have to send images to support the application. This required the addition of at least one blank CD or DVD on which to burn the images. Last but not least, the coup de grace of any application is the application fee. The fee for the Limner Gallery was $35(US).
All told, putting together the application cost $50(CDN).
DELIVERY
When the application was finally together it needed to be delivered to the gallery. This required at least an envelope and basic postage. Splurging for a bubble mailer may be prudent to keep an image CD safe. You could also choose to priority mail it to the gallery. I didn’t–this time.
After waiting for a few weeks, the results were in. Limner wanted ‘…All the Things we Love to Hate to Love’ for the show. Now came the next cost associated with the piece, shipping it to the gallery.
I prefer to protect my own work rather than relying on a second party to package it, which again meant I needed some materials: bubble-wrap (purchased at Staples), tape, cardboard (free from the Price Chopper), brown mailing paper and hot glue. After wrapping my painting in successive layers of bubble wrap, I constructed a cardboard box to snuggle it gently in. Taped and covered, I wrapped the parcel in brown mailing paper, addressed it and headed to the UPS store.
The cost of raw materials for shipping, $10(CDN).
There are a lot of costs that can be incurred at this time due to shipping. When I shipped my piece to Limner, I stated that the worth of the work in the package was $50 and due to this minimal value, purchasing insurance was unnecessary. Why did I do this? Because shipping across borders always has the spectre of ‘duties’ hanging over it.
Duties are a silent killer and can leave you with a bigger dent in your wallet than you’d hoped for. If I’d listed the actual price of my painting on the shipping form as $3000(US), I probably would have had to pay a large tariff in order to ship it across to the US. I would also have purchased insurance if I’d listed the correct value of the package. That way I would be assured of receiving some remuneration if anything untoward happened, such as the painting getting damaged or lost. But, because I listed the value of the package as $50, had the package disappeared, $50 is probably all I’d see in recompense. It’s a risk, I’ll admit, but it’s one I was willing to take at the time.
After weighing and measuring my package, the gentleman charged me approximately $26(CDN) to ship it to Hudson, NY. The parcel was on its way!
TRAVEL
Because this show was not extravagently far away from us (about a 7 hour drive), Cath and I decided to go to the opening. We have a car, which was in good working order after some recent repairs. We reserved a night’s stay at the Quality Inn in Leeds, NY, just across the river from Hudson, printed some maps off of mapquest (more paper and ink), gassed up the Pontiac, stocked it with a few bottles of water and snacks for the drive and we were off to see some art.
Total car prep (without recent car repairs–they needed to be done anyway) $40(CDN).
The Pontiac performed admirably. We only had to stop for gas twice on the trip. That was $45(US) for gasoline. On top of that, we stopped for breakfast once, sandwiches once and coffee along the way. Total for travel food was $30(US).
After converting the currency, the total travel cost was $135(CDN).
TOLLS
Now, we don’t do a lot of travelling, at least not across the border, and we were surprised (not pleasantly) to find out that there are tolls associated with just about everything in the US. The New York thruway costs no matter where you get on or get off. From Buffalo, NY to the Leeds, NY exit, it cost $13.50(US). Not bad really when you see how far that really is but it was an expense we didn’t expect to incur. We also had to pay that twice, once on the way there, once on the way back. On top of that, there was a toll to cross the Rip Van Winkle bridge which spans the Hudson River taking us from Leeds to Hudson $1(US) and one final toll on the Peace Bridge that brought us back in from Buffalo to Canada $3.75(CDN).
After totaling up the tolls, the cost was $40(CDN)
HOTEL
When we arrive in Leeds, the gentleman at the hotel was very nice to let us check-in early without charging us an early check-in fee. That brought the total of our one night stay at the Quality Inn to $120(US). Their bed was crap. I woke up with a sore back.
In Canadian, that’s $150 smackers.
HUDSON
Hudson is a quaint little place with a weird dichotomy going on between upscale antique shops and galleries intermixed with empty, derilect stores and rough looking townies. The only thing we purchased while we were in town was food. After the gallery opening, we had a nice sit down dinner at an Italian restaurant called Vico. Cath had the linguini with salmon, I had the wild-boar lasagna. After tipping and taxes, the total for a dinner out in Hudson came to $60(US).
Add another $77(CDN) to the total.
THE FINAL COUNT
It’s amazing how following an event from beginning to end reveals just how much work goes into bringing it to fruition.
From the production of the painting to shipping it and going to the gallery to support it, the final tally for this little painting is:
Production: $100
Application: $50
Delivery: $36
Travel: $135
Tolls: $40
Hotel: $150
Dinner Out: $77
Grand Total: $588(CDN)
Yowza! That figure seems just a little heavy, doesn’t it? At the moment, I’m severely in the red and there’s no guarantee of a sale and I’ll incur the cost of having it shipped back to me if it doesn’t sell.
For the sake of argument, lets say that ‘…All the Things we Love to Hate to Love’ does sell for the asking price of $3000(US). I’m going to lose 30% of that to the gallery for making the sale. Then, I’ll lose approximately 25% of what I earn to the government of Canada in the form of income tax. After converting what’s left to Canadian and subtracting the $588 total cost for producing the piece, I’m left with approximately $1400(CDN) net. That’s really not a lot of money for all the work that went into producing the painting.
The silver lining to all of the costs listed here is that they are a tax write-off. Even the commission taken by the gallery can be considered a cost. I treat my artwork as a business and it’s registered as such. That makes this a business trip. I won’t see every penny of it back, but a portion of it will go towards relieving my tax burden. Perhaps I’ll even get a tax return. Wouldn’t that be nice?
It has been my goal with this post to show you just how difficult it can be to be an artist, at least, monetarily. After looking at how much money it takes to make a painting and see that it receives its 15 minutes of fame, you can see just how expensive it can be. We’re not starving because of our ideals. We’re starving because we’re broke!
Alas, in the end Art is a labour of love. Money procured through its production is just an added benefit. While it may get expensive, I’ll never stop doing it. The cost of not creating Art would be far greater.
For now, that is all. Goodnight.
