Art and Real Estate

[Brad Johns]

I make big elaborate things. I cant help it, small things just aren’t my bag. The problem is big elaborate things require big elaborate places and oftentimes call for complicated and expensive arrangements when it comes to moving them and showing them. Now Ill admit that in part I make said big elaborate things in jest of the complications they necessitate but the truth is my irony is aimed at a problem I see as close to damning for myself and others who make things which are far from pocket sized.

I often tell metalsmiths, or atleast those who work in small scale, that I envy their practice a little. Oh how I sometimes wish I could pack and ship my work in a cardboard box. Instead I find that shipping work for shows, for me, is an elaborate process. $80-$100 in crating materials, a day or two building a crate and then a $300 shipping bill can get old pretty fast. Of course the trouble doesn’t stop there. While I don’t want to generalize too much because there are a number of galleries and other exhibitors that specialize or support Studio Furniture particularly, I suspect that there are not more due to the inherent risk involved; namely real estate. Im not only talking about the real estate in terms of gallery footprint which of course can be significant in a small gallery paying premium rent but also real estate within their clients homes. The “where would we put this” factor. In this way it is no surprise that large wall work tends to do better than large floor work in that it sort of follows the New York City plan: when your out of land- go up…

So if you’re lucky and your work shows but does not sell an exhibitor will hold a return shipping policy to ease the pain of all of the upfront costs you have incurred but this is very often not the case. Add to this the fact that such work is inevitably costlier because on top of everything else I have to roll my logistics cost into the sale price and the waters I think become quite tepid.

The math then works out like this:
(Cost of the piece itself + crating cost + (shipping cost (x2)) + storage cost (until you have the opportunity to show this piece again)) x (number of times it takes to sell the thing)= a lot

So if you're good and lucky this circle doesn’t catch up to you with tremendous consequence. More often than not though it is a better strategy to diversify and consolidate. Diversify the amount and, for lack of a better term, buy-ability, of your work by making bread and butter items that are shippable and easily made and, if you're going to make large work, consolidate where and how you show it by seeking local venues or those which have done well to sell for you in the past.

My question, and I suppose my topic for discussion, though is does this dilute through practicality the kind of work that makers of large work feel compelled to make and show? Okay I know this inevitably leads to an art for art’s sake argument and that quagmire can get really stale but I think, in the interest of field advancement, it is important for makers to atleast sometimes make genuine and atleast mostly unrestrained things...

Is there a way around this?

[Amy Weiks]

One thing you might consider when making your work is collapsibility. If you can make your work in parts that can be assembled and disassembled with some amount of ease, it may lessen the pain of shipping - several smaller boxes instead of one large piece that requires a custom crate. I looked at your work and I can see how this method might be difficult but I believe it's something worth trying.

I have worked as a studio assistant for a variety of craft artists. One swears by collapsibility, everything she makes breaks down into smaller parts that are easily packed in boxes. Another has a rule that anything she makes has to fit inside her car. If you do limit yourself to local or regional venues then you could consider hand delivering the work.

I hope this helps or at least gets your wheels a' turnin.

I hope this helps

[2Roses]

Hi Brad,

Practical considerations influence the endeavors of every human being on the planet. At its basic level this is called the law of survival. Many feel that artists serve the public good by being fine examples of what happens when this law is ignored. We artists struggle with this, after all, because art is about breaking the rules, stretching the boundaries - coloring outside the lines!!! "Practicality is a conspiracy of bureaucracy to enforce mediocrity" they cry. Subvert from within, we say! That would be within yourself. Can the practical and impractical be compatible? We think so. When faced with an "either/or" (large scale/small scale) choice, choose both. You may feel less pure, but you'll be around long enough to get over it.

[Pam RuBert]

I totally understand this, because besides being an artist, I work in managing commercial real estate. So I think of everything as real estate -- even the top of my desk is real estate and so are my closets. I share a studio with my husband who is a sculptor and his work takes up a lot of real estate -- in the studio, in terms of tools, equipment, and materials storage.

So I decided to do the opposite -- I started making art quilts that are big and colorful, but can be rolled, stored and shipped easily. However, my work does not have the same durability and assurance that's need for public art installations, etc.

I agree with the idea of building things modularly, my husband is very good at designing things so they go together and come apart for storage, in fact he's a genius.

As for me, it was a good idea to make work I can roll up. But if I were totally practical, I would make more vertical than horizontal work -- because when a gallery asks me to ship the hanging hardware for a horizontal quilt, it costs me more than if I could roll it the other direction if I didn't have to ship that hardware.

So there you are, we are artists! We have to balance what we're driven to create with some practical solutions, but don't let it stifle your best expression -- go for it and do the best you can.