Is anyone making any money ?

[Giotto]

Hello Everyone

After viewing the website

http://www.cordair.com/sculptures.htm

Posted by Mountshang earlier I was surprised to find the sculpture so cheap. Many bronzes under $3,000. If the gallery takes 50% and the foundry 50% of the remainder that leaves less than $750 for the sculptor...then there are mold costs, studio, insurance etc etc. So I wonder is anyone making money ? I have notices Richard MacDonald has managed to create a nice market for his work but he seem to be one out of thousands. I'll go first and say that for me sculpture has been a vow of poverty.

G

[grommet]

well, I've gotten pretty good at fives & tens and will try the twenties next. once you get the watermarks down... oh, that's probably not what you meant...
(just kiddding)

[allenring]

grommet, twentys are tough, got that color shifting ink, security thread and watermark. Ones are easy but I can't get the cost per below $2.79, always want to use quality material you know. Even if I loose $1.79 on each bill I figure I can make it up in volume. Does that make me a good artist?

[oscar]

I don't think that kitsch is worth a hundred bucks. Surely the casting is being done in China.

[Giotto]

"Can I make a living sculpting" should be the second most important question for all of us. After the question "Is there a God"

I realized I asked a unanswerable question to this board because most of you associate income with success and aren't about to cop to being broke. My guess is that the percentage of those calling themselves sculptors, earning a living only with sculpture, is small....less than 10% and those earning what say a school teacher or engineer might earn is 1-2%

Comments ?

G

[chris 71]

i haven't made a dime yet i still hope to some day.i read somewhere on here the key is to never give up. but i wonder how much is to do with where you are and who you know.

[terracotta]

Yes the people who do the profiles for coins!

[CroftonGraphics]

If I may add my 2 cents, lol.

During the last ten years I spent a lot of time making
3d short films in my spare time from my 'day job' in design. Although they got
into some festivals and I had good comments, they didnt earn me money directly. Although admitedly perhaps earned indirectly due to folio etc.

I havent yet sold sculptures as I havent put them into galleries and am taking a year or so to develop my ideas but I have made a few good sales of some city drawings. So they are a good bit of money for me between my 3d design jobs.

So far from them being yet earning me a full salary, my drawings so far help me to add to my money earned through design. Again I do not know so much about sculptures but there are quite a few painters/drawers around here who earn a good salary with what they do but they seam to market themselves a lot so its similar to business.

[Ries]

Obviously, art is a very tough field to make a living in.
And most artists dont make much.

But certainly, a lot of artists do make some money, and a few make a lot.
The ones who are successful usually get a lot of backbiting from the ones who arent.

I know quite a few artists who make a living making art. Most share one thing in common- they are not to "politically correct" about what they do. They make all kinds of things, all kinds of compromises, and dont look back.
That may mean teaching a workshop, or selling crafty stuff online, doing public art, helping other artists to build work, or other similar, "non-pure" activities.

I have not had a "real" job since 1978.
I am sure a lot of stuff I have done, like making signs for a dress shop in a mall, or benches for a condo, or fabbing work for another artist, would draw the ire of some purists.
But it has all taken place on my terms, in my studio, with no other boss than my fallible self.
And thats the way I like it.

And now, after 30 years of it, yep, I am making money. Not a fortune, but enough to live on.
General rule of thumb I have heard is it takes 20 years to get to the point where you can make money.

[Cantab]

There are two main issues here for me: one is: is your work 'marketable'? If so, then you can make money. Second: are galleries taking your work? If so, then you WILL make money.
If your'e not making money, then you are producing work that doesn't communicate. If it communicates, people will buy. How to communicate? Stand back from your work and think what others will feel about it. Forget about yourself for a minute. Will this sculpture be something someone out there will want to look at every day of their lives? Will it mean different things on different viewings, in different lights, in different situations? Does it add value to the situation? Will the whole family appreciate it? (Yes, your public will be spending money that the family owns). Does it speak to basic human needs? If your work does this, then the galleries will take it, and you make money.
There is a fine line between work that doesn't do any of this and work that does. Find the line and get on the right side of it. In the UK there is such a big market now for art, and just about anybody can afford to buy. I have galleries coming to ME and asking if I'll show my work with them now. Things have never been better for artists....

As for bronzes - an expensive process, and no emerging artist can afford to go there until the prices they can secure for their work will justify the costs of the process. On the other hand, stone is cheap. I buy good Italian marble for a euro a kilo. The rest is labour, and then having a market (and a gallery that can exploit that market).

[chris 71]

i have 3 things in a local gallery. they have been there since the end of november haven't sold. a while back i thought i was going to have a show at a new gallery but it never came about. its a new place but ran into some snags and never did open..i live in a smaller city with a population of about 80 to 100 thousand people. there really is only one real gallery here. and its the one i have manged to get into.the rest are basically picture framing/gift shope type places. but there is a shop here that has beautifull wood and stone carvings from indonesia.some very nice things. from very good carvers maybe not truely artistic. but done by very skilled hands.the problem is that its so cheap. if i was to do a carving like the ones there it would take me so long i would probally make pennies per hour.i really need to somehow scratch out a living doing this . even if it means trying other aproches i ve talked to the owners of this store and they liked my things and iam sure i could put some there. so iam thinking along the lines of mold making and repoduction.there is also a stone carving sculpture show once a year that shows carvings from carvers from africa. again great stuff and this stuff does sell and for the good bucks. i called and asked if they might be willing to take on a locale carver as well. but they barely wanted even to talk to me. and sure not see my stuff. now i know its really only african carvings so i can understand my point here is just to show some of my difficallties. if i was inuit or african carver i could make a living for sure. i have strong native heratige one of my grandmothers was iroquoi and i contacted a native gallery. and again they thought my things would be marketable. but because i don't look native and there representing native art a no go. and when i have contacted some of the galleries in toronto. the closest big city to me. which is were i think i will have to go. and i haven't contacted too many yet. but they all seem very snobby. almost like how dare you contact us. but i bet if i was related to one of them our something i'd be in in a snap. which makes me think who you now could have have a real impact on succses. but anyways this is just my experince so far and iam not going to give up i gotta make it work some how i hope my blaberings here realate to this thread some way chris.

[warren01]

Chris,
Not sure who you are or how long you have been sculpting but how many pieces of art do you have available to sell right now, and total costs? No you do not need to answer but think about if you are going to make a living you need to have something to sell. Just three pieces in one gallery is not a lot of offering. You need to suffer (hate that word because we shouldn't) a while and put forth to make enough to have a good selection of work to choose from. Then promote yourself. Yes selling of your art takes about 30% of your time. This includes calls and mailings etc. If you review the website posted above it is a brokage house for the sculptors.
Here is what they say "QCFA's extensive website serves as an invaluable resource for private collectors, interior designers and landscape designers".
Notice nothing about just putting stuff in a gallery. I myself make money doing commission work and work with interior designers and such. Yes I do sell some in gallerys (surplus inventory), I enter some of those jury shows, and every three or four years do an street art fair.
Bottom line if you think your work is good then put it out for sell, not just waiting around for a gallery to sell it.

[chris 71]

thanks for the advice warren01. i have about 20 things i think are marketable. i think i will most likely need about 100 or 200. spred out as far as possiable so one sells here and there. hopefully often enough to make a living.i am trying to get a website up as well. i started carving about 5 years ago. but most of all my work has been done in the last year .as this is when i started to want to get really serious about it. so i gotta get my butt of this computor and get out in the garage and get working at those other 80 or so carvings.i was just hopeing/dreaming that maybe i could be selling as i am producing.but i geuss its better to work on a really large body of work and then turn into the sales men .so if i can do one per week it should take a couple years to have the work needed. but it would be nice if i could get selling at the same time as iam working on them chris.

[realsculpt]

GREAT TOPIC!!

I am wondering the same thing. WOrked fulltime as an artist since i was 21. Finally at about 25 1995 started making good money for Orlando. as my own art i sold a few for good money privatly from my own website. In NY i did really well making enough to live comfortably as an medical prosthetics sculptor. Now in Seattle I am doing great, as a sculptor and moldmaker for company.

I have noticed that artists undervalue themselves and ruin the local market. Painters selling painting for material money cheapen sculptore prices, and visa versa. I urge artist to properly value thier work. Some even give thier stuff away...

For freelance and fineart I charge materials cost, if they are materials i already have from another job i still charge a replacment value then time that number by 25% to cover unseen costs, plus my hourly rate an hour depending on what the job is. If the gallery want 50% they can do the math, I would rather charge my rate and not sell, then loose money, i guess its a private decision to know what your worth, and when to lower your hourly rate or break even to get your name out there. There are some great books on business methods for artist out there. I always get a contract too, if they wont sign a contract with payment schedule its because they dont want to really pay you the agreed amount.

I just dont know is seattle has a market for my work....i guess i can always use them for door stops or bookends.

yes i am long winded but thats part of my charm

[dilida]

I make a little money from selling my bronzes, my price range is 100.00-2000.00. The small stuff sells the most because of where I show my work, pretty much the middle of nowhere as far as the "art world" goes. But it's where I live, can't move, husband can't leave his job, older parents nearby also that we don't want to leave. I sold two small ones yesterday at an outdoor art show, for 175.00. Pays for gas and food and entry fee. BUT, another artist remembered one of my pieces from when it was in a show 4 years ago, and told me how much he liked it and remembered it, I met another moldmaking woman who had to give me a hug and called me sister, and said there isn't very many of us, one of my new little ones made so many people laugh, and that feels good. Not had the nerve yet to approach a gallery in a city, but a smalltown gallery sells something about once a month. My job at the foundry pasy less than 10 bucks an hour, no insurance, we have to earn our paid days off, BUT I get to cast most of my work for nada, zilch, (do all the labor of course), and right now I'm working on two clay enlargements that are such an honor to work on because of who the artist are, and what they have accomplished. Doing these enlargements are maybe really going to pan out in the long run. If I ever have the opportuntiy to do my own large, it won't be a technical learning experience. Making money is very important to me, BUT it always seems to be balanced by these other art related experiences that you can't put a price on. I want to say more, BUT have to get ready to go back to art show and maybe make a few dollars more. Ya'll have a good day!

lisa

[SPRINGFIELD]

As Ries said it takes about 20 years to finally make good money as an artist.
That's probably why I wasn't so sucessful. After 16 years I gave up and got a job as a machinest working for a company.
The best advantage to working as an artist is how much you learn to appreciate being a wage slave. Compaired to scratching a living as an artest a regular job is godsend. I'm glad that I gave art a shot because otherwise I would always feel bad that I didn't follow my dreem and it brought me a lot of personal grouth and experiences. I'm also glad that I finaly gave it up and got a regular job. Now that I have applied for my social security I could sure have used those 16 productive years making some real money and paying into my social security fund.
This may sound like some people to be a cop out. But I have heard it mentioned that if you want to be sucessful as an artist you need to make the kind of art that people are ready to buy. If this wasn't the kind of art that I wanted to do than what's the point? Personally it would bother me far more to compromise my art just to make a meager living than to become a wage slave and work for somewone else.

[tonofelephant]

You have to either make the work people like or turn the equation around and find the people that like your work. The same thing really.

Carl

[andycov]

As I live in Australia it is very hard to make money out of art but being a small population does have some advantage of making a name for yourself.Though really miss the intelect, quality,and inspiration of overseas sculpure.
Due to health reasons I had to use my art to make a living so I make moulds for other artists and designers , cast bronze on a small level and do alot of work for with resin bonded agrigates and such.For me I do not consider this "un pure" but more an advantage in that I am not doing the not so related 9 to 5 job.But still there is the loss of time to commit to my own sculpture and once started its so hard to stop and put your attention to something else.
To me it is all part of the passion and the love of creation and beauty.The determination and commitment from not allways just oneself but friends and family also.It is a dedication to life and not just time and even maybe the journey that can raise conciousness.
So to make money or make a living? I say yes.

[Landseer]

I make decent money on my art, the economy hasn't affected my sales at all, if anything they have increased.
I get up this morning and there's an email from the system telling me one sold while I slept, and then at lunch time I rec'd the check a client said she was mailing for NINE concrete keystones for her new brick house going up, and then I check my email again just now and another item sold and paid.

Glad to get the credit card paid way down, and next week paid OFF.
But I'm going to be buying an $1800 kiln this summer and no doubt I'll need another pallet of hydrocal which is probably going to be around that much too.

[ssculptor]

As an artist I have always been a non-profit organization. I did not meant it to be that way, that's just how it worked out.:)
When I had that moment in life where I realized that I was an artist I then asked myself how do I make a living? Then I thought that I will teach art and that will be a job that will enable me to make a living and support both my sculpture and my family. My naivety was understandable as I was young (22) and single. At no time did I ever envisage being able to make a living with my sculpture.
I did hope to become rich and famous as an artist. Hey, I was only 22, I was still a child.
So I went on for a Masters in sculpture so I could teach in a college somewhere. But I also wanted to live in or near New York City, the Mecca for artists. Lessee now, there must be 10,000 Master of Art degree holders who want to teach in New York City. With maybe a dozen college type schools in the place that makes competitoin just a bit fierce.
I ended up with a teaching job in an adult training branch of the State U in Brooklyn but I was teaching drafting. Then I switched to teaching math and then computer drafting at the school. I taught there for 37 years. All the while I was trying to show my artwork in Manhattan galleries.
Gradually I learned and then accepted the fact that to get "known" in Manhattan one has to live there. Like all human activities, its who you know that means anything. To make the necessary contacts one has to live there and mingle with the right people in the art world. I hate even walking through giant cities like NY so I settled in Connecticut and commuted to work.
I have had one man shows in Manhattan, I have been in numerous group shows there. I maintain my membership in a co-op gallery in Lower Manhattan. My work does not sell. I even had an agent for a few years. He finally gave up. He said the only way to sell work would be for me to have a studio there where he could take clients who want to buy the work of NY artists. To most monied collectors of art you are not a real artist unless you have a studio in New York. I could not afford a studio in NY and a home in Connecticut. Not even a small fake studio.
Now, after 45+ years as an unsold but often shown sculptor I still make my art and I show my work. I had and raised a family which is one of the things I wanted to do in life. I retired from teaching but I still make money as a free-lance draftsman.
What can I say, that's life.

[sculptorsam]

Thanks for your story, ssculptor and welcome to the site. I look forward to seeing some examples of your work.

[oscar]

Hey ssssculptor, I know what ya mean of not realizing the young dream of being rich and famous. I had several professors in college tell me if I wanted to make it in the arts, to not get married or have kids. It's tough looking back wondering if you made the right decisions. Has my 20 years of barely getting by as a fulltime fine artist been worth not having kids or a wife? Had I gone to a private college would they have been more sympathetic to my bipolar and not throw me out thus allowing me to graduate and teach?

I still want to be rich and famous. You should also! It's time to look back at everything you did and pick out the great things. Look back at your best work. Grab all those key elements that made that work good. Compile them. Sleep on them. Put them all in that mental blender that rests on your shoulders. Then mold the best work you have ever done. It's never to late to become rich and famous! Go get 'em!

[fritchie]

Ssculptor, I replied elsewhere to your slightly earlier post, so I'll mostly say again here, thanks for joining, and please do show some of your work.

On your other points, one of the things I have learned here is that many of your comments on Manhattan are correct. However, persistence, with exposure increasing in scale from local to regional and then possibly larger, do seem to have lead to fine careers and sales elsewhere for some of our members. Many can tell similar stories about effort and drive. The important thing, in my mind, is to be satisfied yourself with what you have done.

[Musicman92130]

As I read through these posts I read a lot of self-limiting beliefs. I believe your beliefs become your reality. One of the most powerful books I read was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It says if you want to succeed you make a solid committment and failure is not an option, you will do whatever it takes. An anology is if you sail off to war and once you reach the shore you burn the boat.

I have only been sculpting for four years but I have been working toward the goal of quitting my job to sculpt full time. I have a 1 year, 5 year, and 10 year goals. I have a business and marketing plan and have made a budget of how much I will invest before I start making money. Failure is not an option.

And I know a lot of sculptors who do very well, my own aunt lives very comfortably as a sculptor in Santa Fe and I have met others who do the same. I have no doubt I will succeed because I will never give up. I remember what Lincoln Fox told me about the business "You can become rich doing this or go broke, it is up to you"

Mark

[Tired Iron]

It is self employment, and like all self employed people ,if you don't put in 18 hours a day.........then there is that old line, Location, location, location.

[evaldart]

Been supporting myself and a family for many, many years. Sold ALOT of sculpture. Did it myself, the NY galleries have done very little for me. I know plenty of people who do well in NYC galleries and live everywhere else. But I suppose if "rich and famous" is your goal then you must rub the right elbows on a daily basis. The best thing about this art thing..."rich and famous" is always a possibility, some unplanned turn of events could change everything. The important thing, though, is to keep making the work you want to make, even if you KNOW it will not sell (because you're wrong about that sometimes).
NYC has chewed me up and spit me out many times already...But I keep coming back. I know how to make a decent living in this game...but maybe there is more...we'll see.

[Aaron Schroeder]

My problem is that I'm too generous, even to those who can afford to pay, why do I do that ? Here in Ohio, the art lovers are so far and few between.......that I feel like I must reward everyone of them with a special deal. I'm definitely holding myself back.

I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to making money, I shoot myself in the foot every time. I'll pay top dollar for basic services and then under sell myself like I'm a general laborer. I need an attitude adjustment. More spine to say the least.

[willbfamus]

This has been an interesting topic and some interesting stories here. My own is also quite strange. I'm a dentist from Africa. I graduated from a school in NYC in 1996 and rushed home to do my thing found myself frustrated by the corruption and shabby state of the health care system I quit dentistry and took out my scultping tools I brought from NY. I did a couple of pieces ( I was slow at it and never finished) Parents and family put a lot of pressure on me to return to dentistry but I vowed not to practice in Kenya so I left for Zimbabwe which was a decent coutry at the time.

Anyone who knows about sculpting in Africa knows Zimbabwe is a powerhouse in that tradition. I learned a lot and continued my hobby. I mad money in dentistry. Anyway the country went to the dogs and I decided to return to the US for a masters in a discipline of dentistry. Before that I lugged my Zimbabwe pieces back to Kenya and finished my work in Kenya, exhibited at two galleries. I received a lot of compliments and my work sold pretty quick ( most African sculptors are doing what is called touristy "coca cola" art and really lack imagination) which really encouraged me because my parents were really disparaging about my work even though I know I'm good at it. In any case I have hardly been doing anything since I returned in 2001 completed my masters and begun working.

But now having failed to get the green card and with the economic downturn the dollar going down -- its just not worth being in the country anymore and I want to return and register to practice in Uganda with intentions to sell my artwork across theborder in Kenya. I will be leaving in a month and I'm terrified of the future because dentistry does not make much money until one is 15 years established but excited to get back to sculpting.

[marblecutter]

It is Only Paper

[chris 71]

ha ha ha thats a good one marblecutter:D

[ssculptor]

I wasn't aware that I was supposed to be making money from my sculpture.
I have been making my sculpture for almost 50 years and haven't make any money yet.
My work is make to express my self. That is all. The images I create are interesting but quite often a bit disturbing. That puts people off at times.
I expect to be paid good money for my work. That restricts sales.
When I had that monent of epifany and discovered that I was a sculptor (artist) the next thought that popped into my head was how will I make a living? Since I was finishing up my B.S. degree work (Industrial Design) I figured that I would go for my Masters in sculpture and spend the rest of my life teaching it to make a liying.
After getting my Masters I left Chicago and I taught Sculpture, Design and Art History for a year at EKU in Kentucky.
Didn't work out quite the way I had planned as the next year I went to New York City and ended up teaching at an adult training center of the S.U. of N.Y. in Brooklyn, NY. I moved to New York because that is Mecca for artists who want to be "discovered". That was 40 years ago.
What we plan and what happens is often two different things. I ended up living in Connecticut (I detest the big cities) and I started by teaching Drafting at the collellge in Brooklyn for a few years. Then I switched to teaching Math and became head of the department. When Computer Aided Drafting came in I switched again and ended up teaching that at the same school.
I continued making my sculpture the way I wanted and showed at various group shows in New York City. I have had two one man shows in NYC and had an agent for a few years. No sales at all.
The agent finally said that every gallery has one or two artists whose work simply does not sell. Thats me.

I do not regret having to spend so much of my time teaching and doing computer drafting. I greatly enjoyed both activities. I have been lucky in that I have found work that I liked doing. I have been able to afford the life style I grew up in and therefor was most comfortable with. Sort of a cross between middle class suburban and redneck. We have two children who are now adults.
So I will not become famous through my art. OK. I can live with that.
I am retired from teaching but I am still making my sculpture and making money doing drafting (part time).

Such is life.

[malakiblunt]

i think if you put the hours in and have some skills, art is a viable self employed business as any ther, i think the realy hard part is not makeing money but to carry on makeing your art when you start makeing money, i see so many who end up as manufactures of the work that first started selling, but its realy hard to stop makeing the stuff people are bying to make new work.

i do my own casting but if i sell through gallerys i esentialy only get paind for the casting work im still giveing the art away for free.

[tim taylor]

Yeah I just had one of the "Gesso Forms" sold from a gallery in Italy to a writer who works at the Denmark Parlaiment. I had the proceeds donated to the Arte Club for wine and bread. But in an article I wrote for the Journal "la parola" (Italy) I think that being an artist in America means becoming skilled at negotiating poverty, unless you wanna work for the "machine". It is a labor of love. I'm certain that most good sculptors here could make alot of money if money making was their goal. But we make art, and we are still alive. A better question is "Is anyone making art?", and that we do! I make money, and squander it on art supplies and fellowship times, sufficient to have any New York Shrink try to make money on me, curing my hedonism, narcissism, and impulsive, unstable ways! And the shrinks think they know it all. They teach that if you make money at it, it must therefor be a worthwhile thing! Hell with making money. Lotta rich assholes can't even color with crayons, and they have to hire people to buy their "art".

[Blacksun]

Yes.:)

[evaldart]

It is only the Artist (a real one) that can get a breath of fresh air. Below him always lies the muck to which he will yet have to return for his bodily sustenance. Unfortunate necessities such as food, money, socialization, and frivolous joys are all down there with the busybodies - who dont even know that the fresh air exists. They are too busy cruching numbers, plowing fields, making sneakers, solving equations, cutting into each other's bellys and generally antagonizing each other with (an often impressive) determination and vigor. The more money you want the more you gotta play with them and breathe the muck. An Artist, being quite above them all in potential, can decide exactly how much money he wants to make...and make it; knowing full well, though, that it affects directly the frequency of the breathing-in of that potent and wonderful "fresh air".

Economy schmonomy...we can produce something, seemingly out of thin air, that they must have, they sense this from deep withing their genes...they will give us money. No problem.

So its left for us to decide, and it aint easy, how much of it we want.

[Ironlady]

Read this book!
I've sold pieces but in no way made money. And the money that i do get for my work i reinvest in my shop, by maintining my tools and purchasing new toys and materials. i've found it important to think of my life in terms of occupation (sculptress) and job (receptionist) just because i do not (for now) make a living off my work. this does not mean that i am any less of a sculptress PLUS it makes it possible for me to tolerate my job knowing i can go home and work in my shop.

[cooljamesx1]

It is Only Paper

so is a divorce...

[spikegomez]

Self employment is in... how many ours in a day? on in a week?


_________________
A cool idea from Busby SEO Test (http://pinayspeak.com/pinaytest/)

[rusted_art]

Just arrived here. Very helpful forum. My first post.

If it is for sale i can generate the enthusiasm, professional attitude and hopefully ideas to make the art. If it is not going to be put out there with a price on it i am too damn lazy to make anything worth anything. My previous occupations were gold prospector and musician, both for 30 odd years overlapping for a few years. Most of the time i was working on some boring job to finance these long shot gambles, always aiming for a eureka moment. I had some high times but most of what i got from it was how to deal with poverty and failure. So i dont need to do that any more. I am already an expert at that. I have been given the gift of desperation and i am prepared to go to any length to let go of the things about myself that hold me back. So yes my work needs to be worthwhile so i can believe in it and sell it. But it is not all about me. i am just lucky enough to be making it. The only thing i learned of use to me in 4 years at art school was that i need to join in the mob looking at my art and look as hard as anyone else is. Fearless and thorough and then run on my own opinion of what i need to do to improve it or find new directions. But they have to be for sale or i aint making them. If they sell that is a bonus. I am still a learner so maybe this is all horsemanure but it is motivating me at the moment. victor cj pearson

[tobias]

I can say that I am supporting my self and have been for almost a year. I know that is not very long in comparison to some but I can not imagine going back now. I do not use galleries i sell privately through word of mouth and advertising at shows.

[evaldart]

I can say that I am supporting my self and have been for almost a year. I know that is not very long in comparison to some but I can not imagine going back now. I do not use galleries i sell privately through word of mouth and advertising at shows.

Yep T, once you get a taste of that kind of independence and self-determination they'll never be able to pull you back into the rat-race...no matter how much money is involved.

[I.Chonov]

... once you get a taste of that kind of independence and self-determination they'll never be able to pull you back into the rat-race...no matter how much money is involved.

life's full of funny twists, Eval...here's my two cents(EURO cents, of course:D)- I started a woodcarving shop/studio some years ago- architectural woodcarving, interior decoration...that sort of thing.Wrong place , wrong time , and the shop somehow got a life of it's own, and a direction I did'nt like at all- I started getting more comissions that were plain carpenter's work , with less and less carving, I needed more industrial kind tools to get the job done, wich were more expensive and you can't pay for them with carving...To cut the long story short , I was taking a road that led to (if I were sucsessful) building a furniture-making company in say , 20 years - and all I wanted was fine carving and sculpture.Besides , the business was shaky , so I closed it before it was to late, and got a full-time job in( isn't it ironic!)-cabinet making, wich is my trade, and a place I can kick some ass.Now it's the first time I really have some time to make sculpture, and create things I allways wanted to- but never had the time.

...and -yes! I miss the independence and the adventure of not knowing what the tomorrow would bring, every minute of every day, and when I decide I have enough works to show, I'll start talking with the galeries, and try the self employment again - only this time I'm gonna win:cool::D

Ivan

[tobias]

Eval I dont know if I would even have the right frame of mind any more. I go to the shop and work when I want to. I get new and interesting commissions every month. No biggies yet but that will come in time I am sure.

[fshnrod]

I work very hard!! That means in the studio, the foundry, and at marketing.
Probably equal on all three. I went to art school, struggled to pay my student loans, worked as a fishing guide for part of the year, then focused on doing good art the rest of the time. It took time(ten years), but eventually made the transition to full time artist! I am represented by 10 galleries across the country. I never gave up, never compromised my integrity, and most importantly, never listened to anyone that said I could not do it.
I have a folder full of rejection letters. To this day, I still nurture my relationships with galleries and collectors. They are the reason I get to do exactly what I want, everyday! It's a lifestyle, a passion, and a love. I would break the law to do it. And yes, I make money. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, but the bottom line is not in my bank account, but my soul.

[rebelveal]

Two roads diverged and I took the one that had the best job security, doing software graphic and user interface design for the corporate world. Now twenty-five years later - the kids are all nearly through college, the economy has tanked, and I am laid off from my supposed secure career. Time to pick up the torch again and resume my earlier vision for creating a unique genre of sculpture. So far, it appears to be coming together. Yet, there is this thing with the business model. I'm still fifguring that out.

[marblecutter]

It is Only Paper

They burn it for warmth in China
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDwBP6eKodk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0gzaeE0A9w

[Glacierspirits]

My Mayan Shaman descendant wife said the lore of 2012 is upon us and coming quickly. We shall indeed enter a new era where cash and monitary gain takes a back seat to spiritual aspects of life. Your life, as well as mine is about to change, ready or not, like it or not. So far we seem to be getting let down easily, but I fear, or aniticpate the other rock is about to fall from the skies above.

"THIS IS THE BIG ONE."

[evaldart]

Everydays another damned big one...to the point it gets tiresome. Prophecy is the job of shysters. Go ahead Universe, do your worst...it cant be too terrible as you've not even got yourself a perception yet...flailing,churning, cooling and burning in unintentioned thrashing. The grass grows, a black hole swallows a planet, the price of the Whopper just went up 25 cents because of the price of diesel fuel. It all must be endured just the same...like the weather.

[Chalice]

Yes...

[StevenW]

Making great money, the government just keeps stealing it all.

[Keropian]

As a sculptor for over a hundred years, I always strive for the grand commissions, the projects that keep you in the studio for months on end and give you the opportunity and inspiration to create, design and possibly fabricate with fellow artisans. I can only anticipate the commissions rolling in like thunder and the waves of popularity splashing me in the face. The visual is stimulating as one steps back to get a glance of this fantasia. It's only a matter of time before the first of many people get a spark of inspiration and then go on and inspire millions.

[Dries]

I got married at the age of 23 and always knew that I wanted to be an artist, hopefully rich and successful. Soon kids followed and my dreams were put aside because I wanted to provide for my family and a 9-5 job was doing just that.

Some 10 years ago I discussed my dreams with my wife and we agreed to give sculpting a try, paid a fortune to bronze 1 pc and took it to some local galleries to sell. My work was not of a good standard and the needless to say the piece is still with me. I knew then that I would not be able to give my family the best in life if I tried to make a living as a sculptor.

My kids will be finished with school in the next 4years and financially we are strong so decided to take up sculpting again as a hobby. If I sell some sculptures in the future it will be a bonus but it will not be my drive. If I read what most of you have to say and if I look at my family today then me giving up sculpting for some time was a small price to pay.

[The Forge]

I graduated college with the idea of teaching sculpture and creating my art on the side. That was a big disappointment. Luckily, my father had introduced me to a trade, Plastic Injection Moldmaking, when I was 16. Luckily, I continued my apprenticeship part time with him as I was attending college and finished it in two years after college. It is that trade that supported my family for the next 50 yrs. I retired two years ago and started creating my Welded Steel Sculptures again. Since I do not have to depend on it for my living, any money that I make is used to add new equipment to my studio. :D