I am an artist who has been selling and showing work slowly but steadily over the last ten years since I got out of graduate school. Because I have had a teaching job during that time, I've had to juggle my teaching and art business activitities. I sold my house in AZ and moved back to my hometown in SC. I have a theory that, while moving to culturally active urban areas used to be the thing to do if you were starting out as an artist, this is no longer the case. I think that in order to survive in this debased fractured post-modern art market, small town America may be a better option for me. The cost of living is the main thing. I have many friends who have moved to larger urban areas and racked up considerable debt without really making much money selling their work. Can I manage and expand my art career from this remote location? I have a larger studio for less money and a much larger house than I had in AZ. I have a big chunk of money from selling my house in az with which I can promote my career. Will this work? David
Monday, September 04, 2006
Art relocation
I am an artist who has been selling and showing work slowly but steadily over the last ten years since I got out of graduate school. Because I have had a teaching job during that time, I've had to juggle my teaching and art business activitities. I sold my house in AZ and moved back to my hometown in SC. I have a theory that, while moving to culturally active urban areas used to be the thing to do if you were starting out as an artist, this is no longer the case. I think that in order to survive in this debased fractured post-modern art market, small town America may be a better option for me. The cost of living is the main thing. I have many friends who have moved to larger urban areas and racked up considerable debt without really making much money selling their work. Can I manage and expand my art career from this remote location? I have a larger studio for less money and a much larger house than I had in AZ. I have a big chunk of money from selling my house in az with which I can promote my career. Will this work? David
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2 comments:
as a seventeen year old artist, i've done some thinking about this: what conditions might be best for my artistic development. for now, i've settled on big cities (san francisco in particular), but i can see some advantages to living in a small-town environment. although they're not nearly as culturally rich as cities, i think living in a small town might help artistic development because of the isolation. when you're isolated (by choice), it amplifies some aspects of yourself that you might not find when surrounded by the distractions of the city. being alone gives you more time and space to reflect. but with the financial part (which, honestly, i haven't thought much about) this becomes a dilemna.
As a photographer who lives in Richmond, Virginia, I experience both the close-to-big-city-DC as well as the immersed-in-much-smaller-Richmond perspectives, and I prefer the latter. I enjoy reactions to my art in smaller settings. In a more intimate setting, I have found that people tend to be more relaxed and will react with more candor and in more detail to my art. I also serve as artistic director of a theatre company in Richmond, and am happy that my venue is a very intimate setting of only 120 seats. My experience in over 25 years of professional theatre is that live performances in intimate settings garner a much more satisfying response than live performances in very large spaces. And I agree with what Catherine said: being isolated amplifies aspects of yourself.
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