This post is part of the discussion "How Do I Price My Art?" A common question for any new artist working in any medium. Often it is the last thought given to the idea of selling art. Here we are going to bring up some ideas and some ways on how an artist new to selling art can begin to price their art.

Contractors and tradesmen are familiar with the term "time and material." It is when a job is priced out based on the amount of time it took to complete along with the cost of materials involved. For many new artists this is a good place to start when thinking about pricing their art.

Let’s cover materials first. Because you always want to make sure your materials are covered. This applies even to artist who really don’t like the idea of making money with their art. (I know your out there.) Even if your not seeking a profit you want to make enough to buy more materials to continue in your work. This requires paying attention or recording your expenses and how much went into the work you want to sell. Think about how much that canvas, clay, or photo paper cost. That will give you a foundation for your pricing. It is the beginning of making your work sustainable.

Time is a bit more tricky. Because you must determine how much your time is worth. How much is an hour of your working time worth? The more experience you have the more valuable your time is. If you are just beginning as an artist, or have never sold art and you are new to a market, you have not built up value yet. So even though you may have spent hours working on a piece you will have a difficult time demanding a high price for it.

Think of it as your internship into the art world. Your gaining experience and your meeting people but your not getting paid very well. This can be hard for an artist that is stepping into the world of selling their art. You see the dollar amount other work has next to it and you want the same. When you starting it is more important to get the sale.

A sale will do so much for you as a new artist. First it begins to hush that little voice in your head that is telling you you have no business selling art. Second it just feels good. It is a nice feeling when someone likes something that you created enough to pay you for it. And practically it means you have money to buy more materials to create more art..

This is how it starts. Small. Like so many things in life. But as you start to sell you can also start to raise you prices. You can do this because you have more experience. And if you selling that means you have demand, and demand equals value.

Keep in mind these are not rules. These are ideas. No two artists are the same. And this discussion is not for artists working with a gallery. A good gallery will help you with your pricing.

I believe when your starting out it is important to cover the cost of your supplies and to get the sale. Everything else will grow from that.

What do you believe?

I came across this movie while I was reading Juxtapoz’s RSS feeds and I had to drop everything and help spread the word. Because the subject of said film is very exciting to me.

New Brow The Rise Of Underground Art is the title of the film. And this is a bit of what their web site states about the movie:

Pop Surrealism or Outsider Art is a wide spread populist art movement with origins in Low Brow art, underground comix, punk music, hotrod street culture, Kustum culture, Street Art, Graffiti, Graphic Design, Tattoo, Surf Culture, Tiki Culture and other California sub-cultures.

This is not a current version of Modern Pop Art. This a new movement, a new thinking in the art world. These are the artists that will inspire a new generation.

And here is a trailer:

New Brow Movie Trailer

Check out the movie’s web site right here.

You have been making your art for some time now but you have never displayed it anywhere. Then one day while grabbing a latte you see art up in your local coffee shop. On a whim you ask the manager how an artist goes about getting their art displayed in the shop. To your surprise she says next month she has a need for new art and offers you the chance to hang your stuff. In a moment of excitement you say you’d love to hang your art in the coffee shop.

Then as your getting ready for your first public display of art you realize you have to come up with a price for your art. The some strange and weird feeling creeps over you as you think about pricing your work. You’ve never had to put a price on your art and the thought of it is a bit scary. Relax. Through the process of asking yourself some questions and giving yourself some honest answers it is not that hard for an artist that is just getting started to price their art.

• What is the amount of time you have spent developing your art?
• What is the amount of time you invest in a given piece?
• Where will your art be sold?
• Who is your potential buyer?
• Why are you selling your art?
• When are you selling your art?

When an artist begins to sell their art they must become an entrepreneur. And as much as most artists hate to admit it, art is business. And to be successful at business you need to always be asking the right questions.

Sit down and take some time to think about these questions. Be honest with yourself even if it is not comfortable. Then be sure to come back to Art Palaver because we will be discussing these questions and what the answers mean to you.

Until then live to create,

What do you think?

Is it art?

Is it crime?

Personally I think yes and sometimes. And I must admit the quality of said graffiti can have an effect on my opinion. When I am painting over bad graffiti on the side of the building I manage I can be pretty grumpy. But when the train passes by there can be some pretty amazing graffiti on the side of those ugly drab cars. Some very creative work with layers and depth. Work that is a lot more interesting than ads on the side of buses. I can’t help but ponder who painted it and under what conditions.

I don’t think I know any graffiti artists. But I bet if I did I would have a better understanding and probably a little more appreciation for graffiti. Enter the new movie Bomb It!.

BOMB IT is the explosive new documentary from award-winning director Jon Reiss investigating the most subversive and controversial art form currently shaping international youth culture: graffiti.

Through interviews and guerilla footage of graffiti writers in action on 5 continents, BOMB IT tells the story of graffiti from its origins in prehistoric cave paintings thru its notorious explosion in New York City during the 70’s and 80’s, then follows the flames as they paint the globe. Featuring old school legends and current favorites such as Taki 183, Cornbread, Stay High 149, T-Kid, Cope 2, Zephyr, Revs, Os Gemeos, KET, Chino, Shepard Fairey, Revok, and Mear One. This cutting edge documentary tracks down today’s most innovative and pervasive street artists as they battle for control over the urban visual landscape. You’ll never look at public space the same way again.

BOMB IT has shot in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tijuana, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, Berlin, Cape Town, São Paulo, and Tokyo.

That blurb was taken from the movie’s web site which you can find here. The site also lists the artists interviewed and there are too many names to count. I would venture a guess that it is close to a 100 or more. They all have names cooler than yours and many even have links to personal web sites.

The movie looks interesting to me because it would allow me to gain some knowledge on an art form that I am pretty ignorant on. And as you know I am a sucker for artists being interviewed. I may just have to set aside $29.95 and buy it because I doubt I am going to find it at my local Redbox. If your interested you can buy it here.

I’ll leave you with this trailer:

The web site www.sitepoint.com is offering a little of that help. For a limited The Photoshop Anthology is available for free download. The ebook is a tutorial on Photoshop for web designers but even if your not a web designing Photoshop user the book is worth the price for any Photoshop user.

According to Sitepoint we have 99designs to thank for the book.

So "Thank You" 99designs.

As you may have noticed the posts have slowed down a bit as of late. It is about time I told you about that. I’ve been working hard under the hood of Art Palaver and also ZAF622. It is taking more time and effort than I expected. I hope in the end though both endeavors are better.

First let us talk about Art Palaver. Art Palaver grew out of my ZAF622 Project which is a webzine dedicated to the artists and art of Fort Collins Colorado. And I have kept the primary focus of Art Palaver on Fort Collins and art close to home. Based on my audience I have decided to change the focus of Art Palaver.

This blog will no longer be focused solely on Fort Collins Colorado. Art Palaver will now be taking aim at what it means to be an artist living in the 21st Century. How does an artist do what they do living in the Internet Age? How does new technology and social trends effect artists? How can artists use these new tools for self promotion and career growth? How can artists connect and learn from other artists these days? Questions like these will be asked from here on out in the posts of Art Palaver.

My goal is in the very title of this blog. I want to have a discussion about art. I want to build a community of artists around this site. I want to connect people. I want to help artists. That is the bottom line.

But I am not abandoning my beloved Fort Collins. ZAF622 will be the place that I continue my focus on the art in the community I live in. That site is undergoing a complete rebuild as well. The mission for ZAF622 is the same though, to meet artists and tell their story.

Thank you everyone who has supported Art Palaver and ZAF622. It is very much appreciated. And very much needed.

I’ll see you in the future,

An artist in today’s world faces a variety of challenges that may or may not have been present before. Our goals have changed, our desires to share our imagery and visualization have taken on a whole new set of guidelines and rules. After all, artists have become just as divided as religions with the many facets they are labeled with. When it comes down to it though, we all bleed red, despite the medium we choose to use, and starving or not, we need to create art and make a living simultaneously.

Granted we have programs in place now that allow us to support a livelihood and our desire to create art, but not every artist will be a part of this luxury. It can almost be a full time job just seeking funding, art supplies, applying to residencies, and publishers. The reality is, we don’t have time to go work our day jobs, pay the bills, do art, and seek a valid presence in the art world, but by all means we do make such attempts.

No longer is an artist required to carry their portfolio around to every gallery they can reach locally. With the glory of the internet, land is no longer a boundary. We no longer need to open up a brick and mortar gallery as we have these things called virtual galleries that allows the entire world to visit our domain, browse our collections, and purchase our art. No more heavy commissions that have to be mustered from our already sunken in pockets. No more gallery rental fees have to be paid. For now we have web hosting and the freedom of a 24 hours a day gallery that shows 365 days a year.

With this new found freedom, we are given new responsibilities and challenges. Now that we have alleviated our local gallery owners from creating postcards of our art and sending out invites to their mailing lists, we have also taken on another hat of being an artist. For now, we are marketing representatives seeking a market for our work that is nestled in our homes or hanging in a frame somewhere. No longer are we just creators. Now we are marketers, customer service representatives, and for some of us even web designers. We will be in charge of press, in charge of our production, and in charge of our creating even better new pieces of work.

Some of us will pay an institution for this heavy title ‘artist’ and others will acquire this gift at birth and seek no educational facility to disprove our talent. Regardless our goal is to be an ‘artist’ full-time, however due to modern day inconveniences such as rent, gas prices, food, and other amenities, we still have to keep our day job. In fact we may have several day jobs that have nothing to do with being an artist, but everything to do with supporting ourselves and even family.

We await for the day when we can gain gallery representation, or our print editions become sought after by collectors all over the world. We await the day when we can hit the snooze button on our alarm clocks, put on our comfy clothes and get out of bed only to greet a fresh canvas calling for our visions. For we want nothing more than to be that which we love… an artist.

Meilena Hauslendale

Founder of Silence Speaks for Artists & Authors, http://silencespeaks.com

Inspirational Artist, http://www.meilena.com

The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web’s infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities.

The Webby Awards presents two honors in every category — The Webby Award and The People’s Voice Award — in each of its four entry types: Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile. Members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences select the nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the winners of the Webby Awards. However, you, the online community, determine the winners of The People’s Voice by voting for the nominated work that you believe to be the best in each category. Each year, the People’s Voice Awards garners hundreds of thousands of votes from the Web community all over the world.

The Webby awards are like the Academy Awards for the internet. They have been around for 12 years now, which is ancient in the life of the internet. There are nearly 70 categories. Including Art, Automotive, Bill Paying, Politics, Podcasts, Radio, and even Personal Websites just to name a few. The sites that win theses awards should be the best of the internet. Let’s take a look at some.

That is just a small sample. The rest can be found here. What do you think artists? Is your web site worthy of a Webby? Is it a worthy goal? If your interested in marketing yourself via the internet I think it is a worthy goal. All the sites that are Webby Nominees are good places to go when researching what people look for in a website. What features and content get people to visit your website and more importantly what gets them coming back for more?

Maybe next season Art Palaver can find itself being nominated for a Webby. If that is to be the case I have a lot of work do and a tough journey ahead of me. Want to join me?

Live to Create,

This is the vision statement:

To identify Fort Collins as a uniquely creative community and destination for the arts, culture, and science that enriches the lives of our citizens and visitors, and serves as an economic engine.

The plan lists 6 goals it has in order to make that vision real:

1. Employ arts, culture, and participatory science to strengthen the Fort Collins’ economy, increase tourism, and improve quality of life.

2. Develop the right mix of cultural facilities to meet the needs of the community and to make Fort Collins a destination attraction.

3. Develop and fund an Arts Council to promote and support the business of the arts.

4. Build Fort Collins’ identity as a cultural center and destination by increasing the visibility of the arts, culture, and science activities in Fort Collins.

5. Develop sustainable funding, public and private, to support arts, culture, and science programs.

6. Ensure availability of arts education programing to our youth through future community arts centers, collaborations between schools and arts groups, training and resources for teachers, and funding.

That is the bare bones of the 30 pages. I spent some time looking online for a PDF version but failed to find one. Nor did I find any information on the Fort Collins Cultural Services. The document itself does not list any contact information either. So I am not sure where to go if you want to get your hands on this document or if you want to give feedback.

If I find out I’ll be sure to pass it on.

www.zaf622.com

And to be fair I did a search for "McCain art." That yielded zero results relating to anything artistic in the realm of the candidate McCain. Near the top of the results page was a story though about how he voted for the Helms Amendment. Some of you may remember that one. It limits government funding to art that is deemed offensive.

So is Obama the artists choice? Or just the internet artist choice?

What do you think?

On that note I’ll leave you with this fun little video:

Have a good weekend,

www.zaf622.com