Giving away art
Over the years, I’ve given away a lot of my art. This practice might, at first glance, appear to present my work in a less than serious manner—it may even seem like a kind of career suicide. But I stand by every piece that I’ve made as a gift for a friend.
My reasoning goes like this:
My friends love me and they support me. They may, at some point, have thought that my making a living as an artist was not the most pragmatic or lucrative career choice, but they still cheered me on.
Often times over the years, they’ve fed me when I was focusing my funds on art supplies instead of fuel. Still, giving them art isn’t paying them back so much as rallying their continued support.
And, in my genre especially, making art for friends can be very useful. Having my portraits in their subjects’ homes is the best kind of advertising for my work since it shows off my ability to create a likeness. So, while I don’t expect my gifts to bring me commissions, there is a business logic behind making sure my friends feel especially invested in my work.
Recently, two of my dearest friends from college got married, and I created a pair of portraits of them as a wedding gift. Though I was sorely tempted to paint Aaron’s half of the diptych from one of the sillier photos that I had from our university years (see above), I decided it was more important to represent him as he is now: all grown up and not so into the hats and accessories.
In early 2008, I did a photo shoot with both Christine and Aaron. I ended up using a photo of Christine from an earlier session…
...and picked a source image of Aaron that went with Christine’s expression. That’s how I tend to build diptychs: an image of one of the subjects calls out to me and I choose the photo of the other subject based on the first.
I worked on Christine’s portrait very much at the same time as Aaron’s.
Whatever color I mixed for one of them had to find its way into the other painting as well.
In a sense, this is how I always work, creating a funny kind of family out of all the paintings that I’m working on at the same time.
Still, the effect is more so—and more conscious—when I’m working on a diptych.
It’s important to me that the two compositions work separately…
...but also as a whole.
And a shared palette is a big part of making two paintings into one diptych.
Aaron’s shoulder (on our left) is a crucial area in this pair of paintings.
It extends off of his canvas and, if the two paintings are to be together, must continue onto hers.
In Christine’s portrait, I had the difficulty of creating an area that could be her husband’s shoulder but that didn’t look like a severed body part. In Aaron’s, I was looking for a specific kind of subtlety.
Gwenn Seemel
Aaron
2009
acrylic on canvas
20 x 20 inches
(detail below)
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CATEGORIES: - Process images - Business of art -
(2) Comments / Commentaires: Giving away art
I get where you’re coming from, and giving away art certainly has been an important way for me to grow as an artist and to learn how to better communicate.
That said, the business end of art has helped me at least as much. I would argue that making money from your work makes you a better artist.
Why do you dislike the business side of things?
Julie Drake...
I googled in giving away art and found your blog. The reason I did a google search on this subject is because I wanted answers on why us artists are supposed to be so business like and responsible and generate an income from what we produce in our studios. I love painting, drawing and printmaking but am continually frustrated that i’m so bad at not just selling my work but even just showing it to people.
This made me realise that actually all I want to really do is get people to look at my work so I feel that I am communicating in some way. So then followed on the idea that if I give my art away more people will see it and hopefully some people will get it. If some people do ‘get it’ then I will feel that I have made a difference and hopefully added value to their lives. The more art I give away, the more people will see it, the more likely someone will get it, and the more difference I would have made. Voila, instant gratification and a sense of purpose.
The only down side to this is that you cheapen your work by giving it to people who think it is terrible and then they all talk to each other and say things like “how many pictures of Julie’s have you got in your attic?”, “oh lord, too many, it’s getting embarrasing”...!
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