Choices have to be made to make time to paint. Learning to make priorities and say no to many activities that distract. I have difficulty saying no to co-operative galleries, no to daily painter web-sites which exhaust me while trying to achieve every day and prevent some risk taking.
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Painting almost every day makes for my best results but not necessary for being an artist. More important is how often during every day a vision of a painting crosses the mind. Also how many ideas are incubating.
Another important aspect of being an artist is being able to access their own work’s direction towards self satisfaction or the market place. Some periods during my many years of painting I have been more concerned about selling than other times. Always felt I was an artist though marketing could have smothered my desire to try new subjects and directions. For me repeating the same old same made me feel less of an artist but some artist traditions thrive on repetition.
6 comments:
I think for me, the bigger question is not whether someone is an artist or a writer-- It's is it a hobby or a career? Hobbies can't deduct expenses from income tax returns. We run into it with our farm also. If we aren't trying to make money at it, it's considered a hobby farm, which means all expenses incurred are not deductible. I would say a writer or artist could make no money but they are doing it all for charity, giving their work away, showing it for free, and most would consider them an artist-- but not the IRS where it would it be regarded as a hobby.
Now if someone isn't interested in taxes, whether paying the income tax when something is sold or buying supplies that are part of the cost, then this doesn't matter. I personally think people can call themselves whatever they want. There is a writer, considered one of our best as she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. Who would say Harper Lee wasn't a writer though she never wrote another book until one was brought out after her death and it likely was written before her classic, which was edited to what the editor at that time decided was more marketable.
Rain,
For me paying taxes on my painting sales was unreal. Even when my sales were in the four digits, my expenses quickly added up to more than what I earned and I didn't even have to include all the deductions I could have. Every few years I needed to show a profit so I deducted less of my expenses. The result of declaring my art sales meant on some years that we paid a few dollars less on taxes and on the years I showed a profit we paid back the few dollars we got on previous years.
Keeping the records is a pain was validating. I still keep records but I no longer declare them. If I should suddenly make some sales I am prepared to declare. I nolonger consider the tax code as a measure of how much o an artist I am.
The same difficulty applies to our farm. We pay an accountant to do taxes because of the complexity of ours. Any money a person makes has to be declared to feel honest. But what is a valid deduction is something we find a professional is more able to figure out.
I should add that you have to prove you want to make money at the interest-- whatever it is-- for it to be okay to consider it a business. Keeping track of money made would probably only get someone in trouble if they were selling to someone who had it as a business and the art/writing/farm showed up. I just feel it's safer for our income interests to be aboveboard on terms of declaring what we make and then let someone else decide what's deductible. It isn't easy to keep track of laws.
I sold one painting to a family member for not much more than the cost of the materials this year. No that was last year. I have not sold anything this year. Better check my file to make absolutely sure I haven't sold anything.
I sigh with relief when I pick up my work all of which did not sell this year from LaSelles Stewart Center. Oregon State University reports sales to the IRS and sends artists tax information when you sell.
It is so freeing to consider yourself an amatuer. I paint for the love of painting.
I like to sell since we are putting that money toward the kids' college tuition, but I don't like marketing and totally understand how you feel. It's wonderful to do the work without having to get upset if someone else doesn't like it. It's freeing.
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