Collaborative Economy: Real Life Is Not A Competition.
Recently, at the art talk one of the members surprised me. I should preface this by saying I may have annoyed her because she opened the conversation with, My name is . . . and I was the one who asked you to come here and talk several years ago and you said “No it was too far.” Ummm . . .yeah. She wanted me to come and talk about my artwork. At that time I always believed my art should speak for itself. This time I was coming to talk about my business . . . and that’s totally different. (This was of course pre-blog. Now all I do is talk about my art.)
I burst out laughing because I’m easily amused and I tend to laugh inappropriately, but mostly because I was surprised she would think that I should feel bad about myself because some other artist was achieving some success.
Anywho, she mentioned she first saw me at an event where this other local wildlife artist was also showing. She then began telling me all about how much press this other woman was getting. I know this artist, though not as well as I know her sister, who is also an excellent wildlife artist. I listened intently as she went on about all of this artist’s honors and write-ups in newspapers and magazines. I nodded and smiled and said I was glad for her (and i was.)
And then she reached out and patted my arm and said with a you-poor-dear look on her face “But you’ve done well for yourself too.”
I burst out laughing because I’m easily amused and I tend to laugh inappropriately, but mostly because I was surprised she would think that I should feel bad about myself because some other artist was achieving some success.
I said “I know I have . . . (looking her in the eye and holding a pause) but thank you.”
The incident got me to thinking. Why is the mindset that if someone else succeeds then you lose, so prevalent? Especially in the arts? Sports I can see. You progress by being better than everyone else. As an artist though, you progress by doing continually better work and getting people to connect with it. Whether they connect with your neighbor’s work is irrelevant to your success.
Why is the mindset that if someone else succeeds then you lose, so prevalent?
Collaborative Economy
So I just agreed to a joint venture with a photographer friend who is opening a studio in a neighboring town. She wanted to offer framing but wants no part in the actual doing of it. So I’ll set her up with some samples, she works with the clients, I place the order and frame them, she delivers. It’s win win. She offers a convenient service for her customers, I get extra framing work. Plus I give her a kick-back. (um . . . I bet it’s called a commission.) At any rate I already have this sort of situation with two other locations. One is an artist and one is an interior decorator.
I have long been in the practice to offer my friends up for services I don’t provide. I take on very few portraits (and then only horses) For everything else including people who don’t want to wait or pay my prices I hand them over to someone who does the job well and in a timely manner. One of my dearest friends is an equestrian artist (Barb McGee) locally that I have sent people out my gallery door off to hers. I also have a couple of other artists who I hand their cards out, in addition to Barb’s. One of whom is Angela Finney.
I know all the frame shop owners in the area by name and have sent work to them when I couldn’t do what was needed. (mostly over-size work.)
As an artist you progress by doing continually better work and getting people to connect with it. Whether they connect with your neighbor’s work is irrelevant to your success.
Could I possibly lose these people I send on, as a customer? (Client, Patron take your pick) Yes. But to me it is more important for them to can get what they need done, than to hold onto them out of selfishness, greed or insecurity.
Okay so here’s the thing. Many of the artists (including Barb) and shops in the area, send people to me as well. And that my dears, is my definition of a collaborative economy and how because of it, we better all our chances for achieving success.
What is success anyway?
It’s completely different for everyone. Personally, success is paying my bills while doing something I really enjoy. AND (here’s the part I need to get too) having enough free time to explore my other loves like my horse and the outdoors.
If Barb becomes an unbelievably wealthy equine artist, it will have very little effect on whether I achieve my personal success goals.
I would love to hear from any of you who wants to share your personal idea of what success means to you or any incidents regarding success, competition or how you participate in a collaborative economy, Please comment.
I apologize for the length of this post but when I chopped it in two, it just didn’t make as much sense.
Tags: business
Thank you. That’s pretty much how I see it too. When I hear of a friend who’s successful either as an artist or a writer, I cheer them on wholeheartedly.
Because their success actually expands my market.
The more people take up novelwriting, the more readers there are. The more market there is for books. So while I pound my serious career and get ready to send my edited novels out to pro publishers, I’m also hanging out at Nanowrimo every year cheering on every beginner that crosses my path.
The net result is that I’m happier in life with more friends and, I think, more success in terms of selling my books than if I was fiercely competitive. When people buy art it’s because they know the artist. There are too many brilliant artists I don’t know out there for me to connect just on the painting. Most of the time it’s because I follow that artist and then they do something that’s just too tempting, while I’ve just paid up my last one.
So now I’m in the process of paying off one painting — but I read your blog and someday I’ll at least have one of your prints, maybe a commission, because I love your cats. You’ll do a big cat at a time when I’m between makiing payments on something good and wind up next in line.
Thanks for writing this post about collaborative economy in the arts. I think the idea that the pie is limited and there are only so many slices to go around is somewhat human or American human, anyway. I think it takes confidence in one’s self and a desire to be a good person, or at least an ability to reflect on one’s attitude and behavior, to overcome this idea. I think your generosity of success is rare, I do think the more people who express your thoughts about the competition as you have here, the less it will have the upper hand.
My definition of success is much the same as yours. However, as I pursued a career other than art most of my life because I did not believe or was not willing to risk failure in my ability to make a living in art, my now late start sometimes causes me to define success in art simply as making a connection with it, regardless of income. I also define it as getting better and working on regularly, whether or not a connection is made.
Thanks to both of you.
I am intrigues by this topic. I got a couple of emails regarding the post and II will wait a bit to see if anyone else has anything they want to share and will probably do a follow-up post.
Great post Mona, this topic has always been so interesting to me. There is so much abundance in this world! The way I look at it is this: someone who likes my style of painting might not like another artist’s style. We all have our preferences and there is enough variety out there for all tastes. And then just think about the total population of the US alone- even if only 0.1 percent of the population buys art - that number is so huge, there are enough customers out there for everyone. And that’s just in the US!
I also think that what comes around goes around. Everything you put out always come back to you. If you are mean &selfish & petty & jealous you are not going to get very far and will be living a pretty unhappy life and will not find success. I get great pleasure in encouraging and helping another person get ahead in life, and to reach whatever their idea of success is. Ultimately we are all in this together!
Like you I believe that someone else’s success had no bearing on my success.
Greetings Fiona,
Okay first I must say I “love” your work. Your use of border elements makes your it truly unique. I actually said “wow” when you web page opened. Stunning!
Thanks for commenting as well. I wonder how it got to be a competitive thing in the art business. I mean do dentists look at other dentists and rate themselves by the success of their peers?
Thanks again. I will be doing a follow-up in the somewhat near future. I want to survey a few of my artists friends as well.
Hi Mona,
Thank you so much for your lovely comments about my work, you are so kind! The borders are what keep me interested. I have been drawing & painting horses my entire life so they are easy for me - but the borders - ahhhh! The borders usually take more time than the subject. It’s also really fun to decide which part of the horse comes out of the border. Keeps my imagination in overdrive!
I truly do not know how this competitive thing between artists happened. One thing I always say to myself when I see a successful artist is wow how wonderful for them and silently bless them. I do this because while they could appear successful to me (because of my own personal definition of success) they could actually be very unhappy and not think they are successful by their definition!
I will be really interested in reading your follow up post. Thanks for making me think - and PS - I love your work too, your Cowgirl painting is fabulous.