To gain a better understanding of what my future could entail, I have chosen to look at how artists in established careers have gotten to such places. Madonna sold doughnuts, Morrissey was an office clerk, Freddie Mercury worked on a market stall and Björk worked in a fish factory. Of course these artists are all incredible successful now, but it is comforting to know they were in a similar position to myself once, and that the crap day jobs won’t last forever.
Joy Gregory is a British visual artist who graduated a BA degree in 1984 from Manchester Polytechnic and a MA degree in 1986 from the Royal College of Art. She has spent most of her career as an independent artist (not sponsored by a gallery).
Gregory has worked in various arts-based jobs including at council-funded arts spaces and arts education. By working within the arts to support her career, it can be assumed that there was some benefit to Gregory’s career through these jobs. By working in arts education, Gregory can engage with early career artists which may provide her with a new perspective. By working within community art spaces, Gregory a new meaning and purpose may be added to her work.
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When researching ideas for artist revenue streams online I came across a blog by an artist called Alex Goddard. Her work isn’t what I would usually be interested in or research as she is a pet portrait artist (not really my thing!) but the blog detailing how she makes money was really helpful.
The blog goes into detail about different streams of revenue:
- Adsense: this is through posting on social media and earning through the amounts of views.
- Affiliate marketing: this is also related to social media as it earns money via viewers clicking on linked products and buying them
- Selling work: this is fairly self explanatory, she makes a product and sells it.
- Teaching (via Skillshare): for this she has identified that some of her skills are remotely teachable (such as oil painting) and so has made a set of classes that people can purchase and follow at home in there own time. In the blog she states she earns £100 a month from this.
This has highlighted a different method of earning to Gregory as it is more consumer focused rather than community focused. Goddards income streams work well together as she creates content about art. Through social media she has two sources of income, this is something that is applicable to sound art as social media content can be made about literally anything. Social media also allows Goddard to promote her over sources of income such as promoting her Skillshare classes or products for sale. As Goddard’s work is very physical and tangible, selling originals or prints is a reliable way to make money. Due to the nature of my work (sound and installation) I don’t think selling works is particularly possible. I think that Skillshare is definitely a good idea as a way to make money as an artist, but I do feel underqualified to do so, I’m not sure what skill I currently have that would be worth teaching for money.