What success really feels like?

[Araich]

As I've doubtless mentioned, I have a show opening 4000km away in Perth this coming Thursday. The work has all arrived in good condition, and the reaction has been overwhelming. With 70% of the show reserved a week out from opening.
Reading the media release, it would seem I am a great success. A real talent, on the path to greatness, blah, blah.

This lovelly rainy Sydney morning I will have to max-out my credit card to buy a cheap battery for my rusting 19yr old car, which is currently broken down conveniently positioned miles accross town, as far from a shop selling car batteries as you could get without heading into the outback. This I will need to do quickly, in order to return to printing my own show catalogues, one page at a time, and finish updating some websites in hopes of paying for my week long trip West.

In years to come, with luck, I will have a NEW second hand car, and the phone number of a printer. The sun will shine down and I will sit out the days before an opening in leisure.

I will fret and stress with nothing to do but worry, and I will look back at today as a halcyon day.

Now, where did I put my umbrella... http://www.artwise.com.au/images/upsidedown.gif

[amsierra]

You sound like my husband!

I congratulate you and know that while the road to success is Very difficult for artists, that you are continuously redefining what success is for the rest of us.

We live in a material world. No doubt. But material wealth does not define how successful we are or are not.

Ana

[Araich]

Woe is me - nah, only kidding! The car started easily with it's new low budget $49 battery, and I even managed to avoid spilling acid on myself prying the old one out (it had entered into some freakish chemical bond with the car body).

The rain stopped, I do not lie, for the time it took me to perform the operation.

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes regarding the exhibition. I fly out this morning for a week long adventure, and boy do I need it. I've been in the workshop so long I have trouble focusing further than about 10 feet ;)

What has surprised me about this show, is just how much I have had to learn along the way, from dealing with freight (oh joy) to long distance decision making with a gallery I have never seen.

Just when you feel your an 'old hand', something will come up. You gotta love that about sculpure.

[redrajah]

bravo rh, enjoy the ride...

[ArbitraryDesign]

A few years back, after struggling for years in complete obscurity, I came home to find 2 calls from Columbia Motion Pictures on my caller ID.

Thinking this was something like "Buy 3 DVDs for only a penny!", I ingnored it and went about my business.
When I was contacted by them a few days later, it was to inquire about having me design some work for a John Carpenter film.

I was ecstatic and though "My ship has come in!".
They asked me to provide 3 drawings in a weeks time.

24 hours later, I faxed them 12 drawings (after pulling an all-nighter). I figured I would send them more than they needed, faster than they needed them, in order to impress them.
They were suitably impressed and I got the gig.

In the end I designed 4 mobiles for the film John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (not exactly Schindler's List...lol) and I was sure this was my ticket out of obscurity.

After I had shipped my work to the set, the set dresser who had hired me told me everyone was blown away by my work and my ability to work around their ever-changing needs, within their budget and on schedule.
The director, John Carpenter, sent me an autographed photo and apparently even retained one of my pieces after filming to take home with him.
I was assured by the set dresser that I would be working with him again in the future, and he even suggested that next time he would try to get me a film credit, and maybe even some on-set work.

When the film was released I went to opening night at a local theatre.
I have got to admit, I got quite a trill out of seeing my work on the silver screen, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much screen time my pieces got (perhaps 45 seconds total..lol).

So I sat back and waited for the next film gig to come in.
I was sure that my association with one film would lead to future film commissions, or at the least, would increase the perceived value of my work.

3 years and counting...not a word from anyone in the film industry.
And in that time, my sales have plummeted and I am in worse financial shape than I was before the film gig. I can barely give my work away these days!

I am not trying to discourage anyone with my tale... just pointing out that the art market is fickle. One day you are on top, the next day nobody knows your name.

The moral of this story:
Success is not determined by financial success or recognition. Both are fleeting, and only the joy of creation remains.
This, in my opinion, is the only true measure of success.

Having said all that... I am really happy that your show did so well and you should enjoy your moment to the fullest!

Robert

[Araich]

Not another cautionary tale!

No wonder I now keep my mouth shut.

Fortunately I'm most at home at the workbench and least comfortable admiring myself. This, and only this, will see me through yet another piece-of-crap car, and the imminent nose dive my future apparantly holds.

:)

[goes off to find Ghost's of Mars]

[ArbitraryDesign]

Originally posted by Araich
Not another cautionary tale!

No wonder I now keep my mouth shut.




AAaaaarrrghhh!!!
No, I should have kept my mouth shut.

Robert.

ps.
I would spare you the torment of watching the movie Ghosts of Mars. It was godawful..lol

[obseq]

"I am not trying to discourage anyone with my tale... just pointing out that the art market is fickle. One day you are on top, the next day nobody knows your name.

The moral of this story:
Success is not determined by financial success or recognition. Both are fleeting, and only the joy of creation remains.
This, in my opinion, is the only true measure of success.

Having said all that... I am really happy that your show did so well and you should enjoy your moment to the fullest!"



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If the majority of us are aware of such subversion that keeps talented people "maxing their credit cards," or finding themselves in "the worst financial shape," why do we, as a lucid group of people, allow this sort of nonsense to continue?


Granted, my perspective is naiive but my inclination is to wonder why the collective "we" have yet to seize greater control in some manner, rather than allowing uneducated individuals dictate our "success...?"





:confused:

[ALH]

"Success is not determined by financial success or recognition. Both are fleeting, and only the joy of creation remains.."

This all reminds me of the joke about how to tell the group of artists, at a coffee shop, from a group of accountants.... the artists are always talking about money.

When the bank calls I like to think of King Xerxes general who marveled at the Spartans, men who would struggle for honour alone, not money. You can substitute whatever you want for 'honour'.

It's one of the harsh realities that art, with so much out of your control, is often more like judged figure skating than the hundred metre dash. Another discussion I've noticed here is the one comparing one type of sculpture to another with regards to the favour they receive for shows, commissions etc. You rarely find out why you were or were not chosen for anything so it’s hard not to get puffed up with success and, conversely, paranoid and bitter during slow periods. Alcohol may help….

The more difficult it is the more it means, ultimately. RH had a great show and Robert put a piece on Mars, nobody can take that away from you guys.