Sunday, February 28, 2010

Art as Business Interview: Daniel Milton


Daniel Milton Gap
90x90 cm, mixed media, 2009


1. How would you describe your art?
I combine large digital collages with classic old school painting. More about my art can be read at my website.

2. Do you make a living out of your art and related practices – or do you combine it with another job?
Yes, I make a living of my art. I’ve been struggling for years while my partner has been paying most of the bills. So now it’s payback time for me.

3. How long have you been working professionally as an artist?
Professionally since I quit my day job in may 2006. Finished art school in 2005.

4. Have you had a big break? If not; any turning point?
There was definitely a turning point when I first showed the first works in my current technique in 2007. Still waiting for the big break, but there’s no hurry.

Daniel Milton Some Schuss
90x90 cm, mixed media, 2010

5. What is your primary client base?
Art galleries and private clients. I also sell quite a few prints of my paintings through Konstbar.

6. Describe your work environment. Do you work alone or with others? In a studio or at home? Does this arrangement work for you, and if not, what would your ideal work environment look like?
I work from a small studio in central Stockholm. It’s been working out just fine but it can get lonely (even though I don’t mind being by myself). My ideal work environment would be a large (private) studio in a big collective with other artists. Like the years in art school.

Daniel Milton's studio in Stockholm

7. Do you have a typical workday? How much time do you spend creating and how much on business related activities?
No, no typical workday but I spend most of the days (and evenings) in the studio. I go there in the morning (not too early though) and stay until I’m done or it’s not fun anymore. It’s a job, but I’m the boss.

I would say that business related activities takes about 50% of my time. This might seem a lot but I don’t mind that much (well, sometimes I do) because you need periods when you don’t have to be creative and just do boring things. But an assistant would be heaven.

8. Which marketing strategies have/have not been successful in advancing your career?
Very hard to say. What I learned over the years is that it’s better to say ‘no’ than to take whatever comes your way. But on the other hand, in the beginning of the ‘career’ it’s often better to take what you can get, rather than not getting anything at all. You can always cover things up in your CV as you go.

A successful way to get what you want is often to ‘just do it’ and don’t think too much. I hooked up with my Stockholm gallery at Market (the leading Nordic fair for contemporary art) this way. I mean, what’s the worst thing that can happen?


Solo Exhibition, July 2009
NEON Gallery, Brösarp, Sweden


9. Can you share any tips on business organization or financial planning that have worked well for you?
Get an accountant!

10. Do you have any advice on how to rebound emotionally from rejection or difficult client situations?
Being rejected comes with the package when you work with art. But nowadays it’s mostly me who does the rejecting (apart from scholarships though…) so it’s not that much of a problem. I never experienced any difficult clients, a few dodgy gallerists maybe, but it’s like with all things – you learn how to deal with different kind of people and after a while you quickly figure out which ones to stay away from. Sorry, not much of an advice…


11. Based on your experience, what suggestions or lessons learned would you give to someone starting out as an artist?
Never stop believing in yourself and prepare to be broke for many years. If you’re talented and prepared to work hard - success will come. Don’t be shy or hesitate to contact people you think might be helpful to you, no one will ever do anything for you if you just sit and wait. Build a good network and use it!


Daniel Milton Nobody wants reality
90x90 cm, mixed media, 2009

12. What would you like to accomplish in 2010?
Since I’m going to New York in April for a couple of months I hope good things will happen over there. I don’t have any set goals for this year, just taking everything as it comes. A solo show at a museum would be great.

13. What are your long-term career goals as an artist?
My main goal is to make a good living as an artist and travel around the world to show my work. I want books to be written about me and movies made. I want it all.
Daniel Milton Skippy Alvin
90x90 cm, mixed media, 2009

14. Finally: Can you share something inspiring?
Book: ‘Seven days in the art world’ by Sarah Thornton (maybe not so inspiring but very interesting)
Film: ‘Basquiat’ by Julian Schnabel
Artist: Matti Kallioinen
Link: The Post Family
Excursion: Wanås
Exhibition: My own of course! March 4 – April 4 at Galleri Mårtenson & Persson
Whatever: Tokyo. One of my favourite places on earth.


Daniel Milton in his studio

Note from Alexandra: Daniel also got a blog (in Swedish)

Thursday, February 25, 2010

at home looking out


Even more snow fell today. But right now it seems to be raining - can it be true?

Andrea Myers explores the space between the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

banana and blood?


This week was to be the last one of concentrated studio work before my exhibition in May. All March will be mostly teaching and starting up an art project, and in April it will be too late to make anything for the exhibition. Tuesday in the studio was great - I got several paintings going on that could lead somewhere good. Anyway I was so excited about finally getting somewhere.

... but guess what? The son got some bug from preschool again. Yes - another lesson in patience and endurance! And that nothing can be taken for granted. I will eventually become so much like a Zen Master.

If the child had been an infant I might just have gotten him an infant pillow and left him at home - and be off to work myself. The pillow is number 3 on this list - but I don't see why it is unnecessary...

real life Roy Lichtenstein girl

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

... and some thanks

my studio window today: geranium inside and icicles outside.

I'm very happy for the great feedback on the first interview in my Art as Business Series. Thank you! But I can not take all the credit... Aimee and Hector both independely came with the suggestion that I start this interview series - and without Aimee's feed-back on my questions I would never have asked so smart - and well formulated - questions.

And what would the interview have been without Gracia's honest and interesting answers?

Next interview will be presented already on Sunday!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Art as Business Interview: Gracia Haby


Gracia Haby All memory of that day sparkled bright and unchanging. 2009
Lithographic offset print made in collaboration with Louise Jennison

1. How would you describe your art?

And so I plunged in, late one morning. Headfirst? No, I will dip my toes in tentatively as I search for a way to describe to you what it is I make, I do, I feel. Okay, let us start with the physical: I make works on paper. I collage mainly, and I frequently collaborate with Louise Jennison too, a fellow aficionado of paper, together we play with all the wonder paper affords. Folded, layered, cut into, printed upon, glued together, bound in book form, of varying scale, few mediums are to me as adaptable as paper. Yes, we are paper fiends. Artists’ books, limited edition prints, small publications and zines to collage works, they all of them stem from a love of the medium.

For my own collage work, I use small sharp scissors to cut, and sometimes I use a mouse in my palm to click my way through an image digitally, collaging digital layers much as I would paper. Both yield different results, and though I prefer the feel and process of cutting with scissors, I enjoy the diversity possible when layering with digital collage. Often the two are married, and in a single print you can find elements of both intertwined.

Gracia Haby Tumble and fall (VIII) 2009
Collage featured in Tumble & Fall zine

Upon the pages of my collaged artists’ books and throughout my ongoing series of postcard collages, you will find the geography dotted with fragmented keepsakes, and many animals and birds. My tailed or feathered protagonists appear often out of place, oft too large for their present surrounds. They scale rooftops, climb cathedral spires, or perch high in treetops of a landscape I have not personally walked through. Sometimes they saunter nonchalantly past a city square. Sometimes they tiptoe or creep. All the time they afford me chance not just to play with scale and humorous, I hope, foreign juxtapositions, but to convey feelings of awkwardness and oddness. They are out of place, not just in urban environment or strange land, but also in feeling. Being of animal form, they are easier for one to relate to. Undistracted by the dissimilarities simply because there are so many; I am not covered in fur, with claws for fingertips and a tail to serve as rudder on mountain climb. I am so different that I look only at what the animal is doing in its new environment. It is on the sidelines, watching. It is looking for a safe place to curl. It is passing undetected. It is slinking through the city unseen. It, like me, feels the odd one out.

When working I am seduced by nostalgia and fiction. This has long been the case.

Gracia Haby I found myself suddenly alone. 2008
Postcard collage

2. Do you make a living out of your art and related practices – or do you combine it with another job?

Any money made from the sale of artwork seems earmarked for another piece or artists’ book. The sale of works from a recent show with Louise, A key to help make your own world visible at Craft Victoria, will go towards paying for the printing and making of our next body of work. The sale of my collaged pieces will go towards the procuring of more raw imagery to twist the narrative of, and to new story give. Part may go towards the gas bill in reality, but in my mind, it goes towards the making of more artwork, always. This income source, naturally, is combined with several other jobs held, all of which are largely freelance or done from home. I teach oil painting to students who study through distance education (through RMIT university), and have been doing so for ten or so years now. I also build websites for others and take on commercial design work, designing invitations and catalogues for galleries, and, as with the majority of my artwork, Louise and I work collaboratively in this field. I am more at home with html code and editing, and Louise with InDesign, Photoshop and print management. Sometimes illustrative work is also picked up, such as pieces created especially for The World of Interiors. From this somehow a livelihood is eked out and a balance between own work and work for others found.

3. How long have you been working professionally as an artist?

For over ten years now, I would say, though such things are hard to determine. I graduated from RMIT in 1997, and have continued ever since.

4. Have you had a big break? If not; any turning point?

No big break, as such. It feels more like a series of many small steps in a direction I like. Many things have occurred that from the outside might appear to resemble luck and good fortune, but it is quite a climb at steady pace. Stamina is required for the setbacks and a level head to keep the ego in check when good things arrive. Along the way we have worked, through our collaborative endeavors, with many kind and talented souls whom, you could say, have given us “a big break”. Friends, family and peers to the galleries we have shown with have all in own way made it possible to stick at what can at times be a hard path.

Through a successful grant application (Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists), travel to Switzerland to study bookbinding in early 2002 was made possible. It served as a turning point, an awakening to possibilities and the world of bookbinding.

Gracia Haby A key to help make your own world visible (installation view,) 2009
Exhibition at Craft Victoria with Louise Jennison

Gracia Haby Looking only for you. (detail, installation view) 2009
Artists’ book exhibited as part of A key to help make your own world visible

5. What is your primary client base?

Friends, initially, beautiful and supportive friends (of which naturally included blogging friends) and family. This has since grown to include a handsome swell of private collectors. Lately, through exhibitions held, many people purchase my work and the collaborative pieces with Louise whom neither of us knows. All of which is thrilling. Prints and artists’ books have been acquired by various collections for state libraries and art galleries.

6. Describe your work environment. Do you work alone or with others? In a studio or at home? Does this arrangement work for you, and if not, what would your ideal work environment look like?

I work from home and it suits my reclusive nature. It suits my temperament. I do not wear a watch at home, or any jewellery. I work pretty much undisturbed, governed by own rules: coffee when needed, something to eat when needed. It is sometimes wholly self-indulgent. It is sometimes flexible; I can work for a long stretch of time. In such periods, time of day or night does not come into play. Conversely, it sometimes follows a pattern, and I find myself doing the same things at the same time each day. The reality is it varies day-to-day and week-to-week and that is why I love it so when it is going well and grumble when it is not. Were it a sea it would be choppy for a period then calm, choppy then calm. It is never, as expression goes, smooth sailing.

Gracia Haby Studio view (detail) 2008

7. Do you have a typical workday? How much time do you spend creating and how much on business related activities?

No typical day, as such and some days, I do not make nor do anything remotely creative. Some days I do not read. Some days I work solely on design jobs for other people. Some days I do not feel like doing anything other than napping at length and enjoying a rich lunch. A good workday for me would be to rise in own time, with an idea in my mind. I work best in the morning, lately, before I have spoken or bothered my mind with things that have nothing to do with making. It is spell-like, trancelike, this state. As soon as I engage in email or dishes to wash, my mind lurches into the humdrumness of day-to-day and I think silly thoughts. The neighbours converse loudly, the floor needs to be mopped, things crash in and take over and I let them.

8. Which marketing strategies have/have not been successful in advancing your career?

I do not think I am very good at that side of things. In addition, I am no good at pricing my own work. I can promote my doings on my blog though, and having built our website, if that can be seen as strategy. I meet deadlines set by galleries and the like in advance, if I can, and I try to be thorough. Perhaps that, too, could be a strategy.

9. Can you share any tips on business organization or financial planning that have worked well for you?

In 2000, Louise and I jointly received an Australia Council for the Arts (New Work, Emerging Artist) grant. Our application successful, with it we made our first six limited edition artists’ books. Without said grant, the artists’ books in question would have looked considerably different. It enabled us to have the books bound by a bookbinder until we could polish our skill. It enabled us to imagine things possible.

In terms of financial planning, we try to be as economic with materials as possible. Book sizes are governed by proportions of the paper, prints by the cost of the plate. If there is any space remaining, one of us will fill it with a small work. Resourceful is something we all need to be in our practice. Sometimes things are printed in single-colour as opposed to full in order to be done, in order to come to fruition. Other ways are sought when there is a hole in the pocket. Zines made on the copier machine are for this reason double the fun for they cost so little. No financial planning required. Bliss.

10. Do you have any advice on how to rebound emotionally from rejection or difficult client situations?

Lick the wounds and wallow before swiftly moving on with your best “I didn’t need them anyway” swagger. Take comfort in the fact that you are not alone, I guess.

Gracia Haby The passage home was long. 2009
Postcard collage

11. Based on your experience, what suggestions or lessons learned would you give to someone starting out as an artist?

Stick at it. Keep going. Make work because you like it, enjoy it. Make work that is yours.

12. What would you like to accomplish in 2010?

I have no set idea in mind; I’ll have to see what comes. That said I hope I will make the most of a group show Louise and I have been invited to take part in later in the year (August through September). I hope to not let A skulk of foxes and a husk of hares languish. In addition, I hope it is a good year full of promise. I hope it is full of ideas.

I would dearly love to see my postcard collages printed in glorious colour and bound in a book. I could not fund such a thing so perhaps I will take steps this year to bring it a little closer into being.

13. What are your long-term career goals as an artist?

To be making artwork for my own enjoyment, own sake, when I am older. To be wiser, too, that wouldn’t hurt.

14. Finally: Can you share something inspiring?

Having spent my January days largely devoted to reading, I can recommend Herta Müller’s The Land of Green Plums. Its circular pattern, her use of repetition, looping back and forth, with symbols reoccurring, this book has stayed long in my mind’s eye. I can also recommend Hermann Hesse's Der Steppenwolf and Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence too. Of tremendous influence and in my opinion, in similar vein, let’s add Dostoevsky for a revisit or new acquaintance formed, Svetlana Boym, Doris Lessing, Iris Murdoch, Milan Kundera, Andreï Makine, Stevie Smith, Barbara Kingsolver, Italo Calvino and end with Chekhov. Books purchased, books borrowed, books read; there is something in their embrace that is comforting. This is true, for me, of film also. Film festivals, if money permits, I live for. As a rule to be guided by, inspiration is best grabbed with both hands when found for it can be elusive.


GRACIA & LOUISE
HIGH UP IN THE TREES

Gracia Haby Making a circle, almost. 2008
Collage on photograph

Friday, February 19, 2010

Surviving February


My father's aunt Nanny always said "if you survive February you will live for another year". So hold on just a few more days and you will make it.

I've been writing about Nanny before; here and here.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

I'm longing for spring

(This is a photo from the metal workshop at KKV - I don't know who the artist is...)

to go out without three layers of clothes
to wake up to daylight and bird songs
to see the green grass again

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

first man in years


I'm in my studio painting and painting these days. The other day I got this impulse to paint a man - I haven't for many years... (Yes, she's laughing at him - it is to be a diptych)

Today was a lousy day - everything I painted sucked and I kicked out a big bucket of water and Indian ink on the floor and on my paintings (not on purpose!). When I was to go home I learned that my bike had been under a drip all day - and everything was frozen and full of icicles: chain, gear, lock etc. I had to take the tram instead.... Now I'm tired, grumpy and feel totally unmotivated to do the 3 hours of voluntary work on the computer that I had scheduled for tonight.

Tomorrow should be better, right? (I must be in for a real breakthrough)

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

bigger and better?


Sunday, February 14, 2010

Art as Business: Interview Series


I wonder all the time how other artists manage: how they make ends meet, what are their goals, if they just take the day as it comes - or if they work in a very determined way? I have so far been sharing my own thoughts and strategies here on my blog - and I will continue with it - but now I will also try to find out how others think and if they have any strategies or advices!

I will present a series of Art as Business Interviews starting next Sunday. First out will be Gracia Haby who very generously, and in her distinctive and poetic way, shares how she manages her Art as Business. So don't miss next Sunday's post!

I plan to present at least one interview per month with Fine Art artists and will in between continue writing my own posts about Art as Business.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Thursday, February 11, 2010

food fun in the studio


Today I was so into the painting that I couldn't take a proper break for lunch. I used the painting as a table and sat on the floor. And of course I couldn't help playing a bit with the food...

Then Cecilia came to visit - she might get the studio next to mine (cross your fingers!).


Jonathan Josefsson works with both paintings and tufted rugs (which he makes at KKV)

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

not a good studio day


I sucked big time in the studio today. I don't know what I was trying to achieve - but the painting was not only not good - it was really bad. No talent, no skills ... have I just been lucky the other times?

So I post a sketch made for a playful project instead.

Monday, February 08, 2010

Monsieur Jean-Jacques


I'm making some idea sketches for a fun project.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Art as Business: Time Management II

- Do you play chess?
I don’t. Or rather – I can start playing a game of chess and stay focused and concentrated for like 7 minutes. Then I just make a bold surprise attack without really thinking about the consequences. The other player looks at me surprised – thinks – and will of course win the game. Being a general in real life a surprise attack could work … but in chess? No.
I don’t like loosing.

Time management is like chess – and I am more of a poker player. I can be patient and strategic if I know I can be allowed to bluff and take risks. Poker involves that … but can I time manage like that? Deadline surfing could be like taking risks… but it’s just plain stupid when you have a child who might have to stay at home with a fever at any given moment – especially when something important has to be done. So I’ve decided I will have to play chess when it comes to time planning – and play poker in the studio instead. One important thing for me to remember is to not play too much chess - then I’ll just go crazy and do something totally surprising with my administration and time…


As I am a poker girl my chess players are a bit handicapped – they have really poor eyesight and need to use three aids: normal glasses, magnifying glass and binoculars



Normal glasses(6 -12 months into the future)

These last years I’ve had so many parallel projects going on – and I’ve had such a hard time remembering when to do what that I’ve sometimes missed important things (like applying for grants, making follow-up calls or even missing meetings).

But now I’ve solved it! Since last spring I use the calendar on my computer (iCal). I have more or less detailed planned what to do until the end of April – and I’ve backtracked things that need to be prepared.

For example: I will give a screen-printing workshop in March. When I planned it In December I wrote down in the calendar: when to promote the workshop, when to mail the participants (twice), when to order materials, when to send a nice e-mail after the workshops etc. So now I don’t have to think about it! I look at my calendar every night – and if I’m home doing administration in the morning as well.

I have this great overview of the whole year. I have managed to concentrate some workshops and projects to March, I’ve reserved April for making the enamels, May will be a mix (project, screen printing, enamels) and I’ve planned June for concentrated work in the studio. I’m going to try to get autumn organized in a similar way, but with more studio time (I have two exhibitions late autumn).

Magnifying glass (to do list for the day, the week etc)
  • Less than 2 minutes-rule. I’ve started applying the rule that if something will take less than 2 minutes to do: Do it now, Don’t postpone it! For example: answer the e-mail straight away, put the date into the calendar, and pay the bill. Ok, I’m not perfect on this .. but I’m getting there slowly and I can see improvement (less paper on my desk)
  • To do lists. I love to do lists. But I have this tendency to put too many things on them and then just feel a kind of despair when I just manage to do half of it. But thanks to using iCal and it’s very little space per day (I write down the things I have to do at night for a week or two) I can only put a few “to dos”. And I do them (ok ... I move some boring ones around a bit!). These tasks are complements to the long term planning (like with the workshops above). It can be: updating my website, do my bookkeeping (YES! I’ve finally started doing it on a regular basis instead of desperately a week before it’s time to do my tax declaration) or writing a follow-up mail.

binoculars (1-5 years)
but … where are they?
Shit – I must have misplaced them. I’ll try to find them until next week (i.e. I have to start using them)… a problem to try to fix. How can I work better on keeping my long term goals in front of me? What do you suggest?

Friday, February 05, 2010

learn how to screen print

Anyone on the Swedish West coast just dying to learn how to screen print? You are in luck: I'm giving two screen printing workshops at KKV in March! If you fulfill the requirements to take the workshop - and if you don't screw up totally - you will be able to apply for membership at KKV afterwards.

For further details see: weekday workshop or weekend workshop

För att kunna gå kursen bör man vara yrkesverksam konstnär, konsthantverkare, designer, illustratör el dyl (KKV:s regler) - om du är osäker på om du kan gå kursen så fråga mig! Det finns övernattningsrum på KKV för 50 kr/natten om man behöver sova över.

Temptation


Being home with sick son and playing gets a bit frustrating after some time ... and I start making little creative exercises while painting and drawing with him.

This one is for you Kitty Killain (who has a new website and blog)!

Thursday, February 04, 2010

10 meters to start

to start my intense painting period I decided to use my role of 10 meter rice paper: just go crazy, no rules, no need to accomplish anything. And be really fast doing it.





What's good painting on rice paper is that it is harder to overwork (it will brake) and that the colour is bleeding like crazy (less control). And as I only use watercolour and Indian ink I can role the paintings (easier to store!) I've been home with sick kid today and yesterday, but have anyway only one meter left to paint! Ok - I said no rules - but I put a theme: superheroes and super-villains (for my exhibition in November).

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

solving storage problems

So - I have this storing problem in my studio with my big paintings on paper. Determined to solve the problem I went to talk to the carpenter who is my landlord (he has his workshop just next to my studio) and asked if he could help me buying this big mdf board - as he's got a truck. "how big do you want?" he asked "3 x 4 meters (118 x 157 inches)?" I was tempted, but settled for 1,22 x 2,44 m (48 x 96 inches).


Two days later I got the board - and mounted even bigger paper on it! I don't know why; I just got nuts and instead of solving the problem I increased it. Luckily I restrained myself and didn't ask for the biggest size of board...



but eventually I will have to solve this problem - or maybe I should just do as Aimee suggested: store my paintings on gallery walls!

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

cold and studio problems


We've had such a cold and snowy winter this year. The sea has frozen out to the islands and the last time that happened was in the mid 80's! I walked across the bridge to the studio yesterday as I thought it might be too slippery to bike. I took some photos - to me it looked like Northern Norway.


Walking is good for thinking. I've had this problem in my studio: my painting have gotten too big to keep in any drawers or folder (I built myself an extra big one two years ago). And as I also paint acrylics on the papers rolling them isn't an option (the paint can crack). How do you think I solved it? (no, you won't get it right!)

unhappy hipsters - thanks for the tip, Nathalie! Just my sense of humour.

Monday, February 01, 2010

Art as Business: Progress Report IV

First progress report 2010 – here we go!

It has been almost two months since I gave my last report. Not much happened during December - as anticipated. January has mostly been spent planning my schedule for spring (iCal is great!) and the last week has been studio time. But some things have happened.

GALLERY REPORT
  • Today it was confirmed that I will exhibit at Mimers Konsthall in Kungälv in November. It is an Art Gallery run by the municipal of Kungälv (outside Gothenburg) - and spacious. As it is non-commercial I’ve already started planning some fun and huge things.
  • Not a gallery, but anyway: I’ll exhibit at the City Council’s Art Club here in Gothenburg in April. They contacted me.
[= 2010 I will have 3 separate exhibitions at galleries and one exhibition at an Art Club]

PUBLIC COMMISSIONS
  • I presented my suggestion to the Tenant Owner’s Association and they will be back to me within a month. I got the impression that they will give me the commission.
  • I will start the Public Art Project at Sandeklevskolan =school (wrote about it in my last report) in March. I will give several workshops to generate ideas - and then we will paint murals.
  • I have gotten a Public Art Project at another school. Two full days under “Creative School” (Skapande Skola) – we will probably make a mural here too. This will also happen in March.
  • I went to a portfolio presentation at VSBK (an organization mediating public commissions – I’m a member) and got great feedback. I changed some photos and wrote additional text after the meeting. The consultants got very interested when I told them about the Public Art Projects I’m doing – as many schools want art pieces that the schoolchildren made themselves together with an artists. Evidently not many of the artists at VSBK have the experience of making art together with children. Or they just don’t want to do that! I promised to document my projects by taking fantastic photos.
one of my students making a watercolour

TIME MANAGEMENT
I'm trying to learn how to say NO!
  • I said NO to participate in a printmaking group exhibition at a museum in the end of January. It was with very short notice, the exhibition deal wasn't great (unless you're in the beginning of your career and desperate to exhibit), it won't add anything extra to my CV, I don't think I would make much profit (epecially considering the time invested) - and I really didn't have the time!
  • I said NO to two other group exhibitions (gallery/museum) because of lack of time - and because I don't think they will lead anywhere.
  • I said NO to teach any more watercolour classes, but one weekend class, at Medborgarskolan. The students are lovely, but the pay isn't good and the schedule makes it impossible to do much else those days.
  • I said NO to be on the board of KKV (they keep asking me every year) and head of the screen printing workshops. But I will of course continue writing the Annual Reports for KKV and the applications for funding. I love KKV. (KKV is 12 artist run workshops)
  • I said NO (or actually resigned from) to be in the Exhibition group at Grafik i Väst (a printmaking organization with a gallery and large collection of contemporary prints). I said also NO to particiapate in two other projects at Grafik i Väst. But I will still use the cutting plotter at KKV to make texts for the exhibition group.
a black and white still life from the watercolour class I taught last weekend

BUT ...
  • I said YES to be the administrator and editor of a blog for Equality within Art. (from KRO Väst - the National Swedish Artist Organisation, Western Sweden). I will also be part of some other related projects - but tried to make it clear that I have very little time to spare and that I would rather concentrate on one thing and do it properly. (but I'm already lagging behind because of a week of illness)
  • I said YES to participate in two "blog projects" as I call them. I'll let you in on them later on. Very exciting!
I think that even though I said YES to some things ... the saying NO should anyway outbalance the new commitments. But I have a tendency to not totally stop doing things. And not being part of the board or any project groups at KKV or Grafik i Väst and still doing things - does mean that I don't get any "official credits"... or that I can write it in my CV.

NEW TASKS (to report back about on February 28)
  • visit art galleries 2-3 times per month
  • make bookkeeping every month (I bought a new software!)
  • make new art (I have now my concentrated studio time until March) and update my website with it.
  • prepare for screen printing in March
  • write a list of possible places to apply for exhibitions for 2012 (with deadlines)
  • Contact Galleri Jeanette Ölund (follow-up)
Next week's Art as Business will be Time Management (part 2). I don't think I'm the only one with problems there....or am I?

Next progress Report will be February 28.