Angie Wojak - Starting Your Career as an Artist: A Guide for Painters, Sculptors, Photographers, and Other Visual Artists

More Praise for Starting

Your Career as an Artist

Who says there is no clear path to becoming a successful artist? Starting Your Career as an Artist is an invaluable resource that demystifies the steps artists should take when starting out. Elegantly and straightforwardly written, Angie Wojak and Stacy Miller have left nothing outgoal setting, the myriad options for exhibiting work, effective networking, legal and safety issues, fundraising, earning income, and so much more. Along with an impressive group of top art world contributors, this book provides information and resources that can help any artist start or maintain a successful practice. This effective career planning guide will be highly recommended to the students and alumni I work with.

Laura Daroca,
Director of Career Services,
Otis College of Art and Design

An inspiring and empowering resource for emerging artists. Angie Wojak and Stacy Miller have dispelled the myth of the lonely, suffering artist who is waiting to be discovered, once and for all. From setting up and maintaining a studio practice to career planning and job search, they present strategies for artists across disciplines to develop and sustain fulfilling careers and be successful on their own terms.

Katharine Schutta,
Assistant Dean and Director of Career Services,
School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Starting

Your Career

as an

Artist

ANGIE WOJAK

AND

STACY MILLER

Starting

Your Career

as an

Artist

A GUIDE FOR
PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, PHOTOGRAPHERS,
AND OTHER VISUAL ARTISTS

2011 by Angie Wojak and Stacy Miller

All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan American Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Allworth Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Allworth Press books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fundraising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Allworth Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

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Published by Allworth Press, Inc.
an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Allworth Press is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

www.allworth.com

Cover concept by Stephen Viksjo
Cover design by Mary Belibasakis

ISBN: 978-1-58115-853-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wojak, Angie.
Starting your career as an artist / by Angie Wojak and Stacy Miller.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-58115-853-3 (alk. paper)
1. Art--Vocational guidance--United States. I. Miller, Stacy. II. Title.
N6505.W644 2011
702.3--dc22

2011011628

Printed in the United States of America

Dedicated

with love

to the memory of

Kevin Massey

and to our wonderful husbands,

Scott Seaboldt

and Joe Wojak

Acknowledgments

W e wish to express our deep appreciation to the artists, career counselors, colleagues, educators, entrepreneurs, family, friends, and gallerists who supported our work and generously gave us their time in the process of researching and writing this book. We would like to thank them for their ideas and enthusiasm, but mostly for their inspiration and shared desire to help guide the careers and lives of emerging artists.

We want thank our husbands, Scott Seaboldt and Joe Wojak, for their love and support throughout this process. Your patience, technical expertise, and encouragement made this book possible!

Our deepest appreciation goes to Don Porcaro, an artist and a gentleman, for his early and steadfast support of this book and the generous time he gave us.

Thank you to Melissa Potter, for being a real role model, a woman of courage and perseverance, who even in a time of great challenge, gave generously of her time and expertise.

We cannot thank the Guerrilla Girls and Kathe Kollwitz enough for their inspiration, words of wisdom, encouragement, and for sharing their story, all of which played an essential part in the early stages of this project.

Thanks to Alexander Kohst for inspiring us to look outside the box for ways in which artists can truly live a life in the arts and for showing us that success is not about financial rewards alone.

We are grateful to Ted Berger, who continues to push us to think in new and different ways about our field with unceasing clarity and rigor.

For their guidance and support, we are grateful to Tad Crawford and Bob Porter.

We want to express our gratitude to the following people who said YES without hesitation to our request for their words of wisdom, which were invaluable in the writing of this book:

Tim Gunn, Claudine K. Brown, Thomas Wojak, Marsha Tonkins, Jean Mitsunaga, Misty L.Youmans, Jennifer Phillips, Robert Thill, Nate Fredenburg, Dennis Kaiser, Jeff Elliott, Jessica Murphy, Helene Lauer, Asha De Costa, Bill Barrett, Jason Goodman, Jerry Saltz, James Ramer, Simone Douglas, Craig Nutt, Carol Warner, David Terry, Kat Griefen, Sue Schear, Alyson Pou, Elizabeth Heskin, Erin Berkery, Angela Tsuei-Strause, Rod Berg, Brynna Tucker, Judy Nylen, Sharon M. Louden, Alexi Rutsch, Maryellen Schroeder, Olivia Martinez-Stewart, Monona Rossol, Laura Daroca, Radhika Subramaniam, Angela Ringo, Erin Donnelly, Carol Overby, Rhonda Schaller, Kay Takeda, Mia Villanueva, Pam Klein, Andrew Horton and Kate Evanishyn, Steve Viksjo, Angela Yeh, Jann Nunn, Noah Davis, Lester and Charlene Pannell, Troy Pannell, Eric Pannell, Alva Hazell, and all of our AICAD Career Services colleagues!

Contents

PART I

Self-Assessment and Developing a Career Plan

Myths about Artists

T here are many preconceived notions and myths of what it is to be an artist. These ideas, which have grown into well-established myths, can inspire emerging artists, but they can also create psychological roadblocks that prevent you from taking charge of your career. In the following section, consider which myths apply to you and how these ideas may be stopping you from taking action to improve your creative life. All artists at one time or another in their careers grapple with these myths, and we all have aspects of these legends residing inside us to varying degrees. We are interested in the aspect of the myth that keeps you from moving forward and accomplishing your goals.

In this chapter, we invite you to take some time and explore artists myths weve identified, each with both positive and negative ramifications. Weve also included some counterpoints, which may help you to adjust any negative mind-set you may have regarding your life as an artist.

Myth #1: Artists need to suffer to make good art.

This is one of the most common and enduring of all myths about artists: that of the romantic, idealistic, isolated, starving artist on a mission to make great art. The idea is that the artist is pure, concerned only with the creation of his or her art.