Art + Work

A friend of mine once described making a living as an artist as a two part process. The first part is called (capital A) Art. This is the creative part: playing, exploring, following your curiosity, looking for something in which you can immerse yourself and lose track of time. If you’re lucky, and stay true to yourself, you might even make some work that you like, and learn something along the way.

The second part is called Work. This is the business part: producing, documenting, sharing, marketing, discussing, selling, delivering and installing the work. If you’re really (really) lucky, you have not only made work that you like, and learned something along the way, but you’ve created something that someone else actually wants to buy.

Art + Work = Artwork

It’s a symbiotic relationship, where one cannot exist without the other. It’s not that hard to just do the Art part. But if you want to make a living as an artist, you can’t get around the Work part. Because the Work is what allows you to make more Art.

For me, the Art part has always come naturally, while the Work part has always been challenging. I don’t want to think about selling when I can be thinking about making. These two mindsets seem to be in opposition — creating something requires looking inward, while selling requires looking outward.

So, I keep telling myself that I need to be better at the Work part. And I keep trying, but I can’t seem to get where I want to be. Maybe I’ll never actually get there, wherever “there” is. Or maybe it’s time to just trust that if I focus my energy on the Art part, and just do the best I can with the Work, maybe things will just work out.