I recently posted this article on my site at www.ArtsyShark.com, and am getting a lot of comments from artists:
It shares my own experience with overburdening myself with fairs and festivals. I ended up doing something I've never done before.
Naturally, I thought of this community as a great place to ask:
Have you gotten burned out? What did you do about it?
Replies
Good subject....
Since I now qualify as an art show old timer..both because of my advanced age of 71 and having been in the show circuit since 1979, I may have some suggestions on how to deal with burnout and how to perhaps prevent it.
I was a stoneware potter from 1979 until 2002. I attended on the average 45 shows per year. I also made my own vessels, though I did have studio help. I should not have to elaborate on the insane amount of work and effort that took...an average work week was 80 hours and I did not take a day off for 17 years straight....when I look back on this...it amazes me that I am not currently the permanent resident of a straight jacket.
The strange thing is that I did not realize I was burned out...probably because during that time, massive amounts of income were to be had...and I was thus encouraged to make hay while the sun was up. Then my body gave out...tendentious to the max. Could not lift a toothbrush to my mouth...So I was forced to stop and reevaluate. I also had to take time off to heal.....and that is when the realization hit that I was burned out in many ways.
Physically, having thrown over a ton of clay per month for 25 years had taken its toll. Emotionally, I was drained, tired of the extreme effort, the pressure of producing, and forcing myself into my RV with trailer attached, insanely driving all over the country.....so I sat down and recalculated my entire life.
Step one…..The biggest change which had to be made was the focus on earning. Previously, I thought I had to work hard which would produce copious amounts of income, which would validate me as a wage earner. What a bunch of crap. So I reversed the equation. I sat down with the computer and calculated how much money I needed to live. I immediately eliminated things that could be eliminated. I spent time finding out the best buys, and calculated how much I needed to save and spend on non essentials....I came up with a figure and then sat down and began to determine how I was going to create that money.
Step two...I knew I possessed creative talents in reserve, and that my life as a potter was a thing of the past. So I sat down and determined how I was going to use these talents to create something that would appease me as an artist, win the hearts of the judges, and sell well to the art show public. In doing so, I realized I had to reeducate myself...expand my knowledge...and use the talents I already had in new ways that required less physical energy...And I did...
In doing so, I learned things that I could sell to others in the way of services...and that expanded my earning potential...and at the same time, lessened my need to attend so many shows...
I immediately cut my shows 50%, and because I have found new outlets for my art work and services, I have been able to again cut my show attendance another 50%. I even found time to take 2 years off and go live in a foreign country...which really changed my perspective and gave me time to reinvent myself even further.
I am a very young 71 years old. I still work a 40 hour work week, but now I have a very relaxed style, make more money that ever per hour, create new work good enough to consistently win awards, and I do well selling my work. And because I live in Florida, I now only do Florida shows..which means no shows from the middle of May till the first of October. I still work in the summer, but now at home with an occasional gallery opening up north which I can fly to...no more crazy long distant travel.
Burn Out is now a thing of the past. I determine when I want to work...and if I don't feel like it, I don't.
And mixing up my art shows with other work (which is very closely related to my artwork) is helpful in preventing burnout or even common exhaustion. I consistently re-evaluate my financial needs and wants and how I am going to meet those needs and I consistently make changes to maximize my effort and earnings. I know that does not appeal to many artists, but I look at it as another part of the creative process, and I try to have fun doing it.
So I recommend constant reevaluation and reinvention as a means of preventing burnout and healing it too. We are all good at creating….so recreating ourselves and our processes should be a no brainer….Make it a fun thing to do…because I know that artists have to enjoy what they do….that is a part of who we are.
I have not experienced a long term burn out like some of you have. I have done arts and crafts shows for just under 2 years so I don't have the long term burn out. At the end of an 8-9 week run that has 6 shows in it, I feel tired but not burned out. I feel for those who are working most weekends after working a regular job during the week.
We have limited how far we go due to dh still working our other business full time. We also have to limit shows in November to the first 3 weekends. December is out unless I can do an indoor show. Dh is at our other business which is usually very busy during the Christmas buying season.
The spring and September - the 3rd weekend of November are our preferred times to travel. The summer is just too brutal here for outdoor shows, though we have more time to do shows. I have 6 shows lined up between the end of September and Nov. 8 with one weekend off. I will probably be feeling bunout by the time it's done. Half are 2 day shows.
I'm in a festival/fair/funk myself. After the last 2 shows, my husband [the consistent breadwinner in the family] told me to stop torturing myself and start looking for additional gallery representation. And, I am considering finding other ways to promote my work.
A good friend and Festival maven told me the whole Art Festival paradigm has shifted - from [many years ago] a venue for collectors to view excellent art, meet the artists and make purchases - to destination events in themselves... Festivals that happen to feature artists. And kettlecorn. At this point, friend only participates in small, local events $35 booth fees. http://www.artisanmarketsaz.com/general-info.php and sleeps at home. Sure, it's a tourist town, so there is always new traffic. Yeah, he doesn't make THOUSANDS of dollars every weekend, but probably hits 1K without a lot of expenses.
Artists that haven't figured out a way to create items that fit the lowest common denominator... art that is appealing to every Tom, Dick & Harry -are gonna suffer.That's not saying it isn't still worthwhile work...you either appeal to a small number of disciminating collectors - or you appeal to the general masses [that's who's at these events] if the latter - good for you - you've probably just honed in on the existing target market.
There are way too many shows, too many manufactured items, too many buy/sell vendors, too many sponsor booths and so many other factors that have changed the very dynamic of the industry. We have families with infants and dogs walking an "art show." How do we ever turn back the clock?
There are probably a select few shows that really promote the art and artists. Those are probably very difficult to jury into - but most of the shows these days are a crap shoot. I know the promoters can't control the weather, can't possible make the patrons buy art, can't change the fact that set up and tear down can be a nightmare, etc.
I think we're fooling ourselves week after week. Lately, the booths that seem to do best have inexpensive jewelry, hats or clothing, photo giclees of wine bottles, tropical beaches or doors, and of course, jewelry.
If things have really changed forever, maybe we need to shift our own paradigm to remain relevant and successful - which is artistic suicide...but perhaps we take a lesson from the snake oil salesmen who haunt the venues where we try to compete with their products.
Wow. Sandhi, I think that your post is spot on- I did not think that I fit into the burnout thing until reading this.
I had a need to print off and look at my booth shot, shot around 2008-2009. It really hit me in the face.
I am still making close to the same amount of money at shows, but my inventory has completely changed. It's no longer full of art pots. Lots of smaller items, and my focus has been on continuing to make small items. Made me realize why I'm so tired at the shows- packing, labeling, selling, three pots at $100 each, - or 20 pots at $15 each- for the same amount of dollar sales-it's harder!
Multiply that by 70% of the booth inventory!
I will be starting another thread eventually.
I totally get the feeling....after 14 years of art fairs, even the best years are sometimes difficult. I think the main thing is to make sure you give yourself enough of a break...take a month or two off, if you can manage it. I do shows from May through December. I go to Tucson in February and then work my art until the cycle repeats.
I just had the worst show in history this past weekend. No traffic, no sales, extreme heat and a really bad set up by the arts organization's committee. The setting was a small park with a large center grass field, around which were trees. They set up the tents in the grass facing the middle. If they had just turned the orientation of those of us in the middle to face the trees, there would've been shade all day for everyone. However, they didn't even think of that....and, even worse, the volunteers all seemed to vanish when the heat index rose to 99 degrees. No offers of water, potty break, or help. Our canopies were saunas! I did the most unprofessional thing I've done in 14 years and I packed up on Saturday afternoon and left. It took 4 trips to my car and 2 hours, during which time, not one person seemed to notice; not committee, not volunteers...no one. Other artists said they envied me for having the guts to leave, which was the only saving grace....I would've had severe heat stroke if I'd stayed on Sunday. Oh well, I guess that was my bomb for the season....
I am completely Burned Out from trying to sell in Michigan. I am now moving on to the Chicagoland area where people are willing to buy. Michigan is still struggling and the people there are still looking for cheap items or just browsing around. This is too bad for me since I live in the Detroit area and now have to travel to another state. I chose Chicago because my daughter lives there and she has seen a significant difference in her sales there from Michigan.
Jacqueline,
This very thread has become a place for me to recover from my burn-out! So, often we feel alone and that we are the only ones feeling what we are feeling. We feel that everyone else seems to understand the market and it is only ourselves that are lost in the fog. I am so glad that Carolyn Edlund started this discussion. I've been following it since March and it almost seems like we are all in some phase of burnout or recovery to one extent or another. Your post about Michigan is ON THE MONEY! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm? Maybe I should think about the Chicago area. But then ....well .... uh ... I see Chicago people posting about their concerns, too. I did 12 shows last year. The year before, I think I did 15. This year I only applied to 3 shows and have not yet gotten excitied about those. I am coming out of the fog and getting ideas again and being creative again ... so there is hope yet. My first show of the season isn't until July 30th -- how is that for a slow recovery from burnout.
Let me know how you do in the Chicago area.
Lois
I think a lot of people are. I was boothed across from one artists who had beautiful work. I was hoping to have a good show so I could go buy one of his pieces. I went and talked to him and he was definitely frustrated with the current market and about ready to give up. He wanted $175 for the piece he wanted but I had made next to nothing on the show and just couldn't justify buying his piece for more than I had made in profit. It's too bad because I met a number of artists who had the same worn out persona as he did. It seems artists don't have that same draw as we did before and everyone can just take a snapshot and recreate our work.....
I read your article about leaving the show-that is too funny!
Around 1982 or so, I had been to a few bad shows, and when I pulled up, also a show in PA, I saw what looked like another bum show- I turned around and left!
I did two shows and hit my burnout. My first show was in the foothills just east of Los Angeles in one of the wealthy neighborhoods. I got excited as I got off the freeway and drove up the street past million dollar homes to the park where the show was. Didn't make a single sale the first day and I didn't see many people buying from anybody, my friend stopped by and walked through the show and said the same thing. I came back the next day when "everybody would be buying" and sold 2 $35 prints. The crowds were minimal all weekend and I made $62 profit and spent $275 on booth fees, $32 on gas and worked a 30 hour weekend for a loss of $8 an hour, so I made negative minimum wage!!!
My second show was the next weekend in the wealthiest part of Huntington Beach so I was looking forward to it. I show up and I've got a booth space in between artists selling sarongs and hats, right at the very end of the show. I wasn't too thrilled about the location. This show was really busy, nonstop crowds both days. After cutting my prices in half and even letting a very nice 20x30 standout mounted print go for $100, I made 10 sales total for $400. After booth fees and gas I made $1 per hour for another 30 hour weekend. To top it off, it was so windy that a lot of artists had work damaged, including me. I lost 2 20x30's because they got blown over and ruined. I felt really bad for the glass artists.
I had a show up in the Bay Area scheduled for the next weekend that I didn't even show up to. There was no way I could justify additional hours plus hotel, gas and car rental with the way the first two shows were.
I had a show scheduled in Ojai for Memorial Day weekend and decided to just go visit my parents for the weekend instead as I was so disenchanted from the whole experience of the other shows. So I blew that one off too.
Unfortunately I have also been accepted into a show this coming weekend in Hermosa Beach. I was thinking of bailing on this one too, so I asked my girlfriend if she wanted to go check it out for fun, but she didn't want to. So it looks like I will have to show up to this one.
I have a show in September in Marin County which I am going to go to since Marin in the wealthiest part of San Francisco, but who knows how it will do. I haven't even thought about applying to any other shows, I may, but I am going to be incredibly selective from now on.
I understand that its "all about the show" and some are good and some are bad, but this is a complete joke. I work a 40 hour week to go spend my hard earned money working a 30 hour weekend art show. What a waste of resources.
Long story short, I realized this wasn't going to be the way to get that extra $1,000-$2,000 of income each month like I thought it was. I got myself into the fire academy so I can finish out my degree in fire science and get a real job...
What disappointed me the most was people's perception of the work. I got asked dozens of times, "are these photos altered. Did it really look like that?" My focus is completely natural... I don't overdo my work in Photoshop, in fact I rarely use Photoshop. I have one image that is what I consider to be overdone. The rest are lightly edited to enhance contrast and recreate accurate colors. I consider my work to be a finished, professional image that is worthy of selling. It seemed like most people thought they could just go get the picture themselves on their iPhone and it would be just as good if they did it up in Photoshop like "I did."
Another thing I don't understand is why people at the beach ONLY wanted beach art. I live at the beach and when I want to see it I drive 10 minutes. I look around my walls and I have art and my photography from all over. I have Venice canals, downtown LA, the Golden Gate Bridge, Yosemite, Mammoth, an Ansel Adams in the Redwoods, beach art and some other stuff.
It's definitely frustrating how cheap everyone has become. I just had a call for business headshots this morning and I said $150. He says, "Thats more than I wanted to pay." Great, since you don't care about your professional image, go hire that $100 photographer or have your wife do it on her iPhone.... And this is Orange County where we have a 5% unemployment rate and the median home price is $640,000. Anybody know how to pay that mortgage on $100 headshot gigs or art shows making $2 an hour? Me neither...
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 5 Next