Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

You can't afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected

cdahmedeh.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 273 posts

Re: You can't afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected

#11

Post by polotics »

it_was_cool wrote: post #5
falcolas wrote: post #4

I saw a great commentary from an art gallery owner on Tiktok about the "inherent value" of art. The inherent value of art is zero. That is, the art itself has no inherent value. The actual value of a piece of art is whatever you can convince someone to pay for it. One thing that can help is having receipts of what you've sold an artists work for in the past, since you can use that to inflate that amount a current pie…

Not trying to be a dick, but it's "inherent".

I was totally reading "Inherit value" as meaning the value of a piece of art that's not based on any quality, but only because it got enough public traction to let you hope your kids will be able to resell it at a profit...

Re: You can't afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected

#12

Post by Mathnerd314 »

There have been a few Spotify-clone studies that showed 70-80% of musical success was attributable to "quality" but the ranking of the top 10-20% was essentially random ("luck" to use the author's word). Now consider Dall-E and other art-making tools. If it becomes easier to make quality art, then the luck factor gets much more important, because the baseline quality is higher. So one can ask whether e.g. the Mona Lisa got famous because it was one of the few quality works of its time. I expect that if someone made a similar-quality painting today they would probably have to sell it on the street. The trend is that art's value goes down but at the same time quality art becomes much more prevalent. Meanwhile economic success becomes even more random.

Re: You can't afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected

#13

Post by kradeelav »

This piece touches on the inherent tension between originality and selling out (or selling to the masses) that I've definitely seen in comic circles. So many aspiring indie artists/comic creators who think Patreon is their easy ticket to a passive and liveable income when the stark reality is much different.

It's why my first piece of advice to any creative is to have a dayjob that maximizes their free time to create freely without financial strings. Even if burnout or predatory publishers don't get you, following the whims of trends is a slow creative death that's far more insidious than the other two.

Re: You can't afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected

#14

Post by andrewclunn »

This is assuming that people make art as a career. I just released my first music album this week (NOT going to post a link here). I did it for me (well other than the lullaby, which I wrote for my daughter). Art as passion project is still alive and well, and I'm totally fine with chasing the long tail, and going full word of mouth and obscure stumble upon style suggestions to find new things. Certainly works better than listening to marketing.

Re: You can't afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected

#16

Post by fsloth »

egypturnash wrote: post #3
anigbrowl wrote: post #2

Underrated piece. In many creative or specialized subfields, some of the best work is being done for peanuts or being given away. Prices are generally thought of as ruled by supply. demand, and product quality, but inferring the latter from the first two really only works in terms of commodities that are relatively fungible. Preferential attachment is a large and underappreciated (by most) factor. You could do experi…

This strategy kinda selects for "great at SEO and promotion", not "great at art".

Reciprocally, historically this is nothing new. Fame begets adoration. Mona Lisa became famous painting and hence valuable only by the publicity created due to it’s theft. Without the publicity it would be exactly the same painting, only not as valuable.

There are several effects at play affecting an art pieces ”market worth” and ”quality and skill of the art” is only one component.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa

Re: You can't afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected

#17

Post by anigbrowl »

falcolas wrote: post #4

I saw a great commentary from an art gallery owner on Tiktok about the "inherent value" of art. The inherent value of art is zero. That is, the art itself has no inherent value. The actual value of a piece of art is whatever you can convince someone to pay for it. One thing that can help is having receipts of what you've sold an artists work for in the past, since you can use that to inflate that amount a current pie…

True. I enjoy documentaries about art forgers, who have followed this logic to its inevitable conclusion. They combine enormous technical ability with an antiquarian's exactitude and a dramatist's understanding of social dynamics to create the illusion of discovery for a market in which perverse incentives abound.

Re: You can't afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected

#18

Post by [deleted] »

falcolas wrote: post #4

I saw a great commentary from an art gallery owner on Tiktok about the "inherent value" of art. The inherent value of art is zero. That is, the art itself has no inherent value. The actual value of a piece of art is whatever you can convince someone to pay for it. One thing that can help is having receipts of what you've sold an artists work for in the past, since you can use that to inflate that amount a current pie…

[deleted]

Re: You can't afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected

#19

Post by pizzathyme »

kradeelav wrote: post #13

This piece touches on the inherent tension between originality and selling out (or selling to the masses) that I've definitely seen in comic circles. So many aspiring indie artists/comic creators who think Patreon is their easy ticket to a passive and liveable income when the stark reality is much different. It's why my first piece of advice to any creative is to have a dayjob that maximizes their free time to create…

I used to work in the games industry, which was me trying to feed my family and pursue an art passion at the same time. It wasn’t great at either: pay is low and the art you get to make not so fulfilling.

I switched a few years ago to splitting these apart: I (1) got a non art tech job that I love (which is key) and that pays great, and (2) I started doing pure artistic games on the side as a hobby, no need for money from them.

I am much, much happier. I think many people, my past self included, cause themselves a lot of pain by trying to lump everything together. If someone loves baking pie no one says “When are you going to quit your job and open a bakery?!” It’s just fun! Why does it need to pay the bills?

Re: You can't afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected

#20

Post by emptyfile »

falcolas wrote: post #4

I saw a great commentary from an art gallery owner on Tiktok about the "inherent value" of art. The inherent value of art is zero. That is, the art itself has no inherent value. The actual value of a piece of art is whatever you can convince someone to pay for it. One thing that can help is having receipts of what you've sold an artists work for in the past, since you can use that to inflate that amount a current pie…

Not terribly insightful. You could say the same for dog haircuts.
Post reply on HN