Hold on Hope

Over the past few years, I’ve been pretty aggressive with the social media as a tool of promotion. Being one of the early adopters, I’ve seen it change from landing opportunities to landing a lot of freaking spam. A lot of it. The shift seemed to occur around the 3rd or 4th-ish year of myspace’s existence. Now I’m not so sure what the hell you do with social media. Debating whether or not I need to create an artist’s page on facebook.

The email is a frothy mix of illustration and art annual competitions, agents, websites acting like agents, galleries and or art festivals. Within that big cup o’ crazy, is a thimble of legit offers. Scripts come down, art directors contact and a couple of galleries I’m friendly with throw some opportunities my way.

What sparked this whole post is a recent email I received from a gallery overseas. This email was from a gallery rep who wanted me to think about showing at their gallery. Awesome. Actually double awesome (a) being overseas & b) it’d be my first solo show ever) …. but then it goes downhill from there. The next day I google them up. My good vibes immediately sank as soon as I clicked on the website. They charge for you to show in their gallery. Rent it out. Rent the services out. It’s a whole package deal. Something I give them credit for, they spell it out plainly on their site. Okay… not showing there. I click on other related links (it gets worse)- on top of this fee, they charge a commission per each piece sold. It’s a flipping vanity gallery.

For any aspiring artists or designers, please note this-

If a gallery, shop, publisher or promotional organization likes your work, you shouldn’t have to pay anything up front. They should be paying you. Paying you a fair sum under limited terms of time. They can take a commission to cover expenses. (A very small commission preferably but be a little flexible.) That’s cool. If it’s an agent, 30% or less. Publishers usually do 50/50 or in some cases a fairer split if there’s more hands in the pie. A gallery, well it should be 40% but I’ve heard some go as high as 60%. A gallery or retail shop’s cut is an easy fix, just decide what you want to make then mark it up according to whatever their percentage is. I honestly question anybody’s confidence as an agent, if they can’t make it on a fair percentage of 30% or lower. Why would I or anyone else go with you in a world where payments sometimes take six months to show up in my checking account? We’re not talking David Choe money here.

Absolutely, under no circumstances, do not do spec or stock art. They should always pay you something up front. Be aggressive with the kill fee. They should pay you something for your time. God forbid, if you do a freebie, lie about it if someone questions you and keep it to one or two jobs for the entire year. Or five years.

In a retail setting, it’s optimal to sell them the merch outright at what ever discount they’d like. I stopped doing consignment a long time ago. You try to manage 10 plus shops that do consignment and see how you hold on to your sanity.