Discoveries, Delights and Deals # 1

I found a great book for artists!

It is not one of the art books I usually purchase, with lots of colour photos of inspirational artists' work. These books usually contain so many pieces of work that you suspect the featured artist must have found a tear in the time/space continuum and has access to much more time than other less fortunate mortals... Lots of colour, lots of shiny pictures, right brain porn books.

The book I want to draw your attention to is not like that. It will make your left brain and your concerned relatives happy. It is about the business side of art, and contains lots of great information that was never mentioned in the Pure-and-Unsullied Halls of Art School. The book, “Artist Survival Skills” is by Chris Tyrell, whose editorials are featured in the newsletters of Opus Art Supplies. The subtitle, “How to Make a Living as a Canadian Visual Artist” tells you that the copyright and taxation information may not be of use to you if you reside elsewhere on this big planet. However there is much information in this book that would be of interest to many earthling artists.

Now I am in the lucky position of knowing nothing about the business of business so almost everything in this book is a shining revelation to me. An example of information that was worth the price of admission:

For artists trying to figure out what price to sell their work for, Tyrell suggests a “Pricing Bee”, where a group of artists get together to make anonymous suggestions to each other on what they would be willing to buy various pieces of artwork for. (good suggestions on how to conduct this on page 28)
He suggests several other methods for pricing artwork that seem rational and stress free.

Check out the website: artistsurvivalskills.com