How do some artists support themselves purely through art

Laguna Beach is an interesting location for the consideration of the various ways artists support themselves through the creation of art. Laguna Beach is the template for the California beach artist colony. Nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the high chaparral and somewhat isolated from Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, Laguna became a haven for artists, bohemians and free thinkers from the beginning of the Twentieth Century.
Today Laguna Beach has become integrated into Orange County with expensive hillside homes and trendy restaurants. However much of the artistic heritage remains; numerous art events including the Sawdust Festival, Pageant of the Masters and Festival of Arts (to name only the three largest), a highly respected art school: Laguna Beach College of Art and Design and a fine museum; the Laguna Art Museum. Downtown Laguna Beach has so many galleries that it seems that every other store front houses an art gallery, rumor is that the city will now not allow any more galleries to open as so many shoppers have the purchased art shipped home, out of California, that the city does not receive any sales tax from the sales.
So Laguna Beach offers the artists looking to make a living as an artist three ways to support themselves:

• The art gallery.
• The art fair.
• The academic artist.

The art gallery offers an artist with technical proficiency an excellent opportunity for a source of income. Although the art for sale at the Laguna galleries is not to my taste and I would not purchase, there may, in fact, be artists that gain tremendous satisfaction from paintings and sculptures of bare-breasted mermaids and frolicking whales and dolphins. There are certainly tourists desiring to purchase art of this description. These paintings and sculptures (and photographs) sell very well and the prices are very high. Naturally the gallery takes a very high commission or mark-up on all of pieces they carry. Never-the-less, the benefits to working with a gallery are great, a year around venue for display and sales, a select group of customers with the intention and the resources to purchase and a sales staff that frees the artist from sales and allows the artist to concentrate on their work. The negatives include creating market-based art rather than creating for self-expression and lower returns as the gallery absorbs a portion of the sales price.

The art fair, and the Laguna Beach Sawdust Festival is one of the finest, is an option for the artist looking to sell their art. The Laguna Beach Sawdust Festival attracts a great many people from all over Southern California, some of them come only for diversion but many come to purchase artwork for themselves. The Sawdust Festival is only for local artists and the Festival takes place twice a year, for Christmas and during the summer, and lasts for several weeks each time. The art (and crafts) available at an art festival is more diverse than in a gallery because the customers are more diverse and more likely to be interested in a wide variety of art rather than tokens of their vacation. Prices can be lower (more competitive) at an art fair with the artist actually earning more because the artist takes a greater percentage of the sales price, sometimes paying little or nothing for space. The benefits of the art fair for the artist is the greater opportunity for creative expression, creating art not forced to conform to a specific buyer, higher prices for your work and the opportunity to meet and discuss art with potential customers. The negatives are the possible need for travel, as art fairs might be week-end events in various locations, surrender of one’s week-ends to work the art fairs and time for creativity given up because of time spent in sales and in a fair booth, although depending on the nature of the work, doing art in a booth might increase the number of people interested in one’s work.

Naturally, when one thinks of making an income as an academic artist, one thinks of the living one makes at the college. What I want to discuss is the possibility of the academic artist to earn income by selling art, separately from the two examples above. The problems of the academic artist wishing to sell his art are in many ways the opposite of the artist who must conform to artistic expectations. The academic artist is expected to create “The Shock of the New” and press against the boundaries of convention. This is done to gain the opportunity to display in museum shows and gain fame (notoriety works as well) as a public artist whose work is important and important to own. This strategy is not limited to academics even though the art professor seems best positioned to follow this route. The academic works in a secure profession immersed in a milieu of students and associates all discussing and debating various schools and approaches to self-expression (or political, social and religious criticism through visual art).
The benefits of this approach are to be handsomely rewarded through social status, income and the opportunities afforded by fame, whatever those may be. This artist has the opportunity to experiment without limit and is rewarded for innovation and eccentricity. The negatives are to be found in the difficulties in creating the New. The New is the most daunting task, after this is accomplished finding opportunities, beginning with faculty shows and emphasizing self-promotion are important. The number of artists engaged in this process and conceivable in competition is unimportant, few of them will make the breakthroughs required.

This is what I considered as I looked at the Laguna Beach Art Scene, a small city that is a microcosm of the larger art universe.

New Orleans: I have been to New Orleans many times and I love walking through the French Quarter in the morning, the antique buildings are bright in a kind of sunshine that is unique to New Orleans, the buildings and steps are covered in flowers that are in well maintained planters and pots everywhere. It is little wonder that the French Quarter and New Orleans in general is home to many artists' societies and associations, there are so many extraordinary scenes, perfect for painting. The mornings are my favorite times in New Orleans. Once walking up Canal Street, I stopped into a book store and was leafing through books on the history and culture of New Orleans, a beautifully dressed Afro-American women approached me and to my surprise asked me in the kindest, softest voice "Honey, are you lost?" I looked up from my book, looked around the store and realized; I was the only Euro-American in sight. New Orleans is a wonderful city filled with wonderful people, please support them and look forward to a rebuilt New Orleans.

Read our August essay: Why students should copy the great works
Read our July essay: Hidden Clues in Works of Art
Read our June essay: The Mathematics of Art
Read our May essay: The Importance of School Art Competitions
Read our January essay : Art History and the Internet
Read our March essay: Ink Jet Printers and the Color Wheel:
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