The 6 expenses of the Artist

The main purpose of an Artist, when he's creating, is to express himself, to share what is inside him in order to reach his audience.

The main purpose of entertainment is to generate a maximum of profit.

In other words, if you choose the noble way of Art, I suggest you to remind one golden rule :

" Money must be a MEANS and never an END ".

To avoid being influenced by greed when you’re creating, consider money as a tool, a middle which is going to help you to achieve your « Artist Mission ».

The points of this article present the main ways to use your money in order to serve your creation work :

#1 : Essential needs

Until shown proof to the contrary, Artists couldn’t be more human. In this idea, they have the same physiological needs than their peers : drink, feed, sleep sufficiently, medicine…

Therefore, and as a dead Artist is unable to create anything, your absolute priority is, logically, to stay alive by spending your money to meet these vital needs !

By essential needs, I mean :

Housing : it is certainly not in the street you will be the most comfortable to create. You need a home to sleep, to protect your pieces of work and be secure. First expense : the rent.
Food : be sure you have a balanced and healthy diet. Not only it will maintain you in a good energy you will spend in your creations but also it will make you spare money you would spent in medicine, because of a bad diet.
Health : Catching a tracheitis when you are a singer or letting a conjuctivitis spread when you have to finish a paint is not a good plan. Your money must be used to maintain you in a state where you’re able to work, but also to keep illness away. Health is sacred !

The Owlie’s word : « It may seem you absurd but it appears that some people would think Artists have a plantation of greenbacks trees in their garden or are actually some kind of ultra sophisticated self-sustaining androids. The reality is a bit less funny… »

#2. The material

In every creation process, from the direction of a movie to the writing of a poem, you are automatically using equipment or raw materials.

Whether it is classic pen and paper or professional camera, this equipment has a cost. This is necessary for you to have a budget for this material without which your masterpiece will never see the light of day.

Before engaging a project, make a list of the material required and, once your essential expenses are spent, invest in this list.

The Owlie’s word : "Too many times, some people don’t realize the huge amount of money some Artists invest in materials or the number of hours, days, years they spend on a piece of work…. These people sometimes have the gall to make a non-negotiable offer that does not even cover this investment. Such things get me down… :( "

#3. Creation place

Some Artists are able to create wherever they are on the planet, whatever the space they have… The little blighters !

But for the overwhelming majority of Artists, their artistic discipline requires some necessary conditions for the creation process.

Some of them will need a soundproof place (musicians, singers…), others will need a large space (sculptors, painters, dancers), others won’t be able to create if they are not in a certain place like the terrace of a coffee or near a waterway in a forest (writers)…

In conclusion, each Artist has his hints and tips to stimulate his inspiration or simply improve himself in his discipline by training in adequate conditions. So this is more than crucial to invest your money in arrangement of your space of work or the rent of an adequate location (studio, workshop, dance studio…).

# 4. Build a team

In most of artistic disciplines, this is extremely hard for an Artist to realize and sell his work just by himself. He will have to surround himself with people who will do specific tasks, at specific levels.

The Creation process :

We can’t imagine a movie director holding the camera, playing every character, catching the sound, dealing with the lights, putting his make up on, editing the movie, acting as scripted… in the same time ! Unless he is able to clone himself and has studied all the film professions, of course !

He will have to surround himself with a film crew.

The case of the movie director is the most evocative because a film crew can amount several thousands people (for productions as « The Lord of the rings » for example), but we also have the model for the photographer or painter, the dancers for the choreographer, the actors for a stage director, the musicians for a songwriter…

Those people will have to be recruited by the Artist and logically (in the best case), paid or, at least, defrayed (transport, food…)

It can quickly amount to a lot of money.

The sale offering :

Once the piece of work finished, it’s time to reap what we sowed for days, weeks, months and, in some cases, years…

The problem : an Artist who is trying to sell his own work has unfortunately not any credibility. He has no hindsight on his work and the potential customer in front of him will know that his arguments will be totally subjective.

I warmly recommend you to offer yourself the services of a professional who will be in charge of communication, prospection and sale of your creations.

The best would be that one of them spontaneously approaches you and believe enough in your work to provide his services against commissions (it means you pay him only once you’ve made a sale or a contract. He earns a percentage of your gains).

The advantage to have someone to represent yourself is that the customer will have to deal with an external person who believes in you and already like your work (the fact is that managers and other communication services providers are trained as traders. Even if they don’t like what you create, if they are competent, they’ll make anybody believes that they actually do like your job and will act in order to make the customer think the same. I know… It’s murky. But this is business. Normal, we’re talking about money. Another good reason to stay away from this kind of stuff).

On the other side, the customer will never know if you pay this person or if he came up to you by admiration for your work and took the risk to work for nothing.

The Owlie’s word : "The best piece of advice Owlie could hoot to your ear is to surround yourself the most with people you trust in and with who you get along. In the best case, surround yourself with a team that is nearly as devoted as you in the realization of your piece of work and professionals who have an artistic sense and are sensitive to your work for its sale. "

#5. The cultural background

Once every precedent expenses done, if you have some money left, that means you are on an excellent way and you can be proud to be able to « live with your Art ». Only few people achieve that and many dream of it.

However, you haven’t spent any money yet for outings, hobbies, vacation or anything else… So it is time to combine the pleasant and the useful. The two last expenses won’t be only for opportunities to have fun and relax but also to invest in your Artist’s work.

Enrich your cultural background will allow you to feed your « internal hard drive » in which you unconsciously collect your most brilliant ideas.

Ideas of activities to enrich your personal cultural background :

Shows
Concerts
Exhibitions
Samplings
Theatre plays
Cinema
Operas
Festivals
Novels
Comics
Ballets
Fairs
Circus
Museum
…

The Owlie’s word : « We have one life ! And in one life (even in 1000), it is impossible to discover the one-hundredth of all masterpieces that have been created since the appearance of Human. So, enjoy yourself, turn to what appeals to you. But don’t forget to let you get surprised sometimes by testing new things which, at first sight, attract you less. Strike the balance. Don’t deny your pleasure but stay curious ! »

#6. Change of scenery

At last, we achieved the « Holy Grail » of the Artist. The so expected moment : « vacation » ! Evasion ! Relaxation ! Greening !…

… However, as being Artist is actually a « lifestyle », a state of mind, the sense of observation and the assimilation of new things proper to the nature of the Artist never take a break, even on holidays. The internal machine is still working as soon as new informations come up.

In this sense, travelling is also an investment because the discovery of a new country, a new culture, new landscapes, new environment, new tastes… contribute massively to feed your internal hard drive.

When you have the great privilege to allow you some vacation, would it be for just a couple of days or two months, choose preferably new destinations. It will optimize your investment at 100% by offering a maximum of new elements to your hard drive that will be used, as soon as you’re back home, in your new projects !