Friday Tips for Artists: The “Guilt” of Selling Your Work


Rodin in His Studio (after the starvation years)

Throughout the course of my book tour, whether speaking in New York, Seattle or Oxford, Mississippi, one common refrain ran true: I constantly met artists who felt guilty about attempting to market, and sell, their work. Where on earth does the guilt come from? Invariably they tell me that it was formed in college, partly from their fellow-students, but mostly from certain professors.

If this wasn’t so tragic I’d find it amusing: tenured art professors advising their students on why they shouldn’t sell their work. Of course those professors–who are in the minority among profs as a whole–have secure positions, so it doesn’t matter if they sell or not. But the vast majority of artists will never gain a university position; they lead lives of risk that those few misguided profs know nothing about. However dealers like me encounter those artists on a regular basis–especially after they’ve reached their 30s or 40s, are broke, emotionally exhausted, and feeling like a failure on all fronts–even if their work is great. That is indeed tragic.

Listen: there’s nothing wrong with marketing and selling your work, as long as it is done with integrity. This doesn’t degrade you, it doesn’t demean your work, and it doesn’t make you less of an artist. All you are doing is allowing society to financially express appreciation for what you do, just as society does with teachers, legislators, farmers, and everyone else. As artists, the function you perform is essential to the growth and evolution of any society. By God you ought to be paid for it. If a few profs disagree–and most do not, being well aware of the realities of an artist’s life–ask them to forego their salaries for ten years, then resume the discussion. I suspect you’ll find their attitude changed.

Of course there are artists who have no intention of ever selling, and for whom the very thought is anathema to the process of creation. For them, that’s likely the right choice. As for the rest of you, once you become accustomed to the process of receiving income for what you create–and define the rules by how you’ll do it–I think you’ll find it relieves a great deal of stress, allows you to focus better, and to give more generously to others. I’d say that’s a pretty fine way to live: where the heart takes precedence over avarice.

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