sansseraph

so i'm poking at these thoughts i have of finding a way to make money doing art work and generally live off my wits. simply being an artist and making art to sell is no longer viable in a long term situation. my uncle owns a gallery and is extremely well known in art show type circles. (he sits on pannels for accepting art to major shows and what not) many many of his long standing art friends , people who have been living off the sale of their art work for 20 to 40 years, have been telling him they are about to close up shop and go bankrupt.

NOT GOOD...

unless we find a way NOW to keep the door open for new artists, it will very soon be impossible for a single artist to compete against the mass market reproductions getting shipped here from asia. we can't compete with the costs they offer. i was recently offered a job coming up with cheap art gimicks to be made by me then shipped to various parts of the world into mass assembly places where people would do nothing but cheaply reproduce the widgets and ship it back here to sell for pennies on the dollar of my actual cost in time and materials.

i turned it down because it would kill me to make my living devalueing the art of other people, but other people will not turn away...

this is but one factor that is making it hard to do art work. the economy, america's consumer mentality, are a few more. i know full well that i am not yet good enough to make a liveing doing art but i hope that by the time i am skilled enough there will still be a place for me to do it.

i have ideas for a mutually supportive society/company/association but i need more input, more people with skills, business savvy, money, all kinds of things.

this is not something i can do on my own...

there has to be a way to make art self supporting again.

help me...

gabriel