My aim is that this piece will create a sense of community ownership, whether amused, grateful bewildered or confronted, most will appreciate that the towns engineers and planners have made a serious effort, to install artwork between a major thoroughfare and an inner city community.
Similarly I am sure the local community will appreciate the artwork as its own by the very nature of its proximity to it and relate to its artistic and environmental message.
John Dahlsen’s work provides a vivid illustration of the way Australians view the temporary nature of materials and the effect their behaviour has on the environment. Culturally Australians tend to see themselves as beach lovers, yet continue to waste and discard into the seas and waterways, this harks to the central theme in Ecologic, that actions we take have an effect.
Is there any environmental issue in particular that concerns you?
I think I have a very generalised view of what’s going on with the environment at the moment and I guess that has political ramifications as well. I, like most of the people on the planet – unless they’re particularly blind, just see that the planet is in acute ecological crisis at the moment and we as a human race could be going either way with this. It may be just way too late to save this fragile ecology we’ve got.
Were you picking up plastic with the intention of using it, or was it initially just to get it off the beach?
At the beginning, I was just going to take it to the local recycling centre at the tip. Then after I’d collected maybe five or ten of these jumbo bags I realised I could imagine using this stuff in some way that was artistic.
A good example of stretching your abilities as an artist can be found by experiencing my life drawing classes. In these classes which I’ve run over many years now, I ask the students to begin to draw for a certain amount of time a still life set up that I put into the centre of the room.
It’s amazing how often I have found that the reason why people don’t have confidence is simply because they’re not willing to take the risk to learn something new. And learning something new can come about simply through learning from the most obvious of accidents that are happening in your studio in your normal process of working.
As such you can never find a simple formula to building confidence in your artwork. You can be aware of being too careful in your approach. Watch how you draw, watch how you apply paint, watch how you choose whatever material it is that you’re working with and how you then go about working with those materials.
If you have never written out a marketing plan, the task most likely sounds daunting. A sound marketing plan however, is a great way to increase the success of your business and helps you to make informed decisions around purchases, networking, events, and promotions throughout the year.
You’ve run the numbers, and hopefully removed any lingering fog around your money. Now it’s time to decide if you’re making enough of it. If you think your bank account could use a boost, set aside a few hours to ask yourself some serious questions.
No business operates well without a budget. Your budget should be a realistic set of spending parameters. The more control over and security around your finances, the freer you’ll feel when it’s time to be creative.
Part I: Funding your practice.
Supporting your practice can produce emotional fits. Money is a delicate subject no matter what field you are in.
How do artists negotiate deals with corporations?
A corporation wants to me to reproduce one of my paintings as a series of limited edition prints for their various office locations. How do I negotiate this deal?
What do I need to know about contracts?
Legal issues will arise during your career. You might face disputes with curators who may have agreed to cover expenses for an installation but who later remembers that conversation differently.
Your creative work is immediately copyrighted the moment you make it. Any author of an original work owns the copyright to that work. Only you have the right to derive works, such as prints, from your own work. This right remains with you even after your work is sold. The new owner has bought your work but not its copyright, unless you have transferred it via contract.
The web has been known for issues of infringement related to images on social networking sites, the most common example of which is the use of images taken from these sites in advertisements, without permission.
In order to show at notable gallery you and your art have to be a total match. The quality of your art is only one step in the process. There’s also your resume, your reputation, your profile and standing in the art community, how you are to work with, your previous sales history, the quality of critical reviews of your past shows and much more.
I just graduated from art school. How do I break into galleries?
As I any profession, you have to begin at the beginning, and in the art world that means showing your art pretty much anywhere anyone will have you.
Should I make limited edition inkjet prints of my art?
Generally no, unless you’ve got significant name recognition and your art is in such demand that you can’t make enough fast enough to satisfy buyers – or that your originals have gotten so expensive, hardly anybody can afford them.
When consumer confidence is down, so are art sales. Even people who aren’t that impacted by the soft economy are hesitant to spend because they aren’t sure what lurks in the future.
Whether at a private studio, in a gallery or in a museum, voyeurs and buyers alike want to hear and read about the artist they’re interested in. Information that buyers commonly seek may include:
