Sunday 21 November 2010

Making More Money From Your Creativity

This coming Tuesday I shall be attending a day session at Southend University entitled Making More Money From Your Creativity. I have attached the ink below to the blurb on the day, and am kind-of looking forward to it.
http://creativearts23nov.eventbrite.com/?utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=event_reminder&utm_term=event_title
I have been a self-employed potter, or designer/maker, or artist for 29 years, so in thoery I already know all there is to know.....or do I? I have successfully survived through at least three recessions and done the things people with 'proper jobs' do, like buy a house and raise a family. However it always feels a bit precarious, in the sense of not knowing where the next opportunity or customer is going to appear from. In a way that is a good thing because I am extremely adaptable to sudden requests and able to take advantage of immediate opportunities that come along.
I am interested to see what blindingly obvious strategies I have missed in all this time, and expect to find some. That is why I am writing this before the event.
I see highly successful artists as people who schmooze incessantly (not something I ever felt comfortable with) or have great contacts, or just have an amazing bit of luck. I am a hard working potter, who loves what he does, and is far more interested in exploring a current idea, and getting today's batch of pots just right, than someone who makes for a market with financial forecasts and profit maximization in mind. This isn't stupid at all, it is a case of getting the work right! If it is good enough to please me, then it will almost certainly intrigue and please someone who sees it. In that sense I feel myself to be fortunate and successful.

3 comments:

  1. I think you will find you should be running the course Rich- there cannot be anything you dont know about maximising your creativity.
    Respect to you for managing to make a good living from potting - you were braver than us by just getting on with it- your work is amazing and you are true to yourself by not schmoozing ( dont think they ran a course on that at Loughborough ?) It makes me angry that most of the art and craft world is run by schmoozers who talk the talk.....and dont appear to be that good.......
    sally croucher x

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think you summed it up well there. What we do always walks the fine line between expressing ourselves and 'proper job'. In my own work I think as you do - primarily I am exploring ideas that interest me and hope that the work that is produced as a result will interest someone enough to commit to living with it. If I change style/subject/whatever because I think I'll make more money then it becomes 'a proper job'. That's not to say that 'marketing' the work isn't important, I just don't think you can second guess what people want. The luck element is just that and measured purely in financial terms. The right person sees the work at the right time etc... I'll be interested to hear what the fellas at the college have to say...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well Richard ?? How did it go ?? Did you know it all ??

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to leave some feedback, and give me your contact details too. Thanks.