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After Rites
By: Jon Bowen
The children have both started at school, giving me hours of creative time a week; the computer business I started, to make ends meet, now makes a reliable profit; many of my friends have forgotten that I was ever an artist ... but I'm now coming up to my first show for 9 years. What happens now?
Jon Bowen
With a degree in Natural Science, and a doctorate in Psychology, and a practice that spans writing, improvised music and visual art, I've felt a bit of an outsider in the Visual Arts world for the last 20 years. However, after 9 years prioritising my partner and children, I think now is the moment to take another risk ...
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Jon Bowen & Son, 'Satanic Device', Photo, 2009. Photo: My Son. One of the routers which has been persecuting me. On bad days, sometimes I think they're laughing at me ...
# 21 [9 June 2009]
“Dad! Turn the music down! I’m trying to get to sleep!”. I’m lying on the sofa clutching a bottle of red wine, with Pink Floyd’s “One of these days I’m going to tear you into little pieces” playing LOUD … It’s the only way of erasing the day’s activities – 8 solid hours of configuring and testing firewalls on network routers. My son’s pleading forces my conscience, and I put headphones on, but it’s not the same without the floor shaking with the bass.
Loud Rock at home is a luxury: My parents loved opera and ‘the singing of the moorland streams’, beautiful, but not something you can headbang to. University was all diligent students in cramped halls of residence. Then I married a lady who was lovely in many ways, but had very sensitive hearing. After she’d had enough, I lived next to a predatory gay man, who took any loud noise as an excuse to come round, complain, and try to force himself upon me. Next, 3 years on a boat with no mains, so loud music meant doing without lights for a week. Finally I lived in a place in the country with no near neighbours, and had the bliss of excessive volume whenever I wanted for 3 Loud Years … before the children arrived.
Music has always been core to my life: Beyond mind-numbing Heavy Rock, I find music essential for getting from one space into another – relaxation, housework, catharsis, or simply a good bop. I also find great inspiration when I’m deeply absorbed in music, it reminds me I’m human and alive, and as long as these remain true, there’s still the possibility of pursuing my creative vision.
I’m fascinated by the process of making music. My parents owned a piano, and as a child I spent hours trying to work out what notes liked each other. The consequence was 6 years of crushing classical lessons, after which I merely achieved an elementary certificate. But the theory side of things gave me some interesting answers to what notes might get along together … enough to start improvising, which for me continues to be a process of experimentation.
This was not something appreciated immediately by others. “Stop that bloody racket” was a common response when, bored in a pub, I would sit down at the piano and try out something more interesting.
When I was helping nurse my terminally ill grandmother, I agreed to forego the pleasure of improvised music for 6 months, to allow her a peaceful death. Half an hour after she died, I played an improvised lament, and oddly enough nobody has ever asked me to stop playing since.
But where do I go next with this? There is great potential combining music with ritual, some of which I have explored … but it’s too easy to fall into the simplistic arena of chants, hymns and community singing … the possibilities are so much more expansive, but do I have the imagination to expand?
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Do art degrees run marketing modules? Given that "Making It" as a creative artist is about as likely as winning the lottery, why do so many young artists pursue selling work as a serious career prospect? OK, there is a thriving gallery sector, but those running galleries, and those exhibiting in them, are generally lucky enough not to need to work - as are many of those buying the work. It's just a cosy little club.
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Jon Bowen, Acrylic on Canvas. Photo: My son. A pair of my paintings decorating the venue for my ex-wife's wedding. The best bits (the dome and paving) were done by the happy couple themselves. There may be a market in hiring these kinds of paintings for special occasions, but people who have unusual weddings don't normally have much stacked up in the bank. Any ideas on where to advertise such a service would be most welcome!!
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Jon Bowen, 'Garden of Eternity', Acrylic, Canvas, Hazel, Willow, June 2009. Photo: My son. The immediate answer to "What Next?": What to give one's ex-wife on her wedding day? Something portending duration seems appropriate. Thanks to both of you for a great party. Sorry you're left with a crumpled pile of canvas wrapped round a bundle of twigs in exchange ... !
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Lovely Colours, though, especially in the dark ...
# 22 [22 June 2009]
“What are you reading, Dad?”.
“It’s called ‘Get Clients Now!’, it’s about marketing.”
“What’s ‘Marketing’?”
“It’s about selling things”
“What are you selling, will we be rich?”.
Er …No. My daughter’s optimism is charming, but misplaced.
What am I selling? The book urges me to focus on this. A painter obviously sells paintings, and when I started out 20 years ago, that’s what I tried to do.
When I lived in Sheffield, I knew some artists who lived on the dole. They offered for sale painted grim grey cityscapes, and were convinced that fame, and fortune, lay just around the corner … but always the next corner.
When I moved to Oxford, I claimed the dole and started painting. Oxford’s prices are twice Sheffield’s, and it was hard managing. I sought out other artists on low incomes, particularly those who lived from their creative work. How did they do it?
I was surprised at their reluctance to share their secrets of economic self-reliance. But gradually I solved the enigma.
Some had managed to get onto the long-term sick, for mental illness. The extra £25 per week isn’t much, but when you’re living on £50, it pays for materials, evenings out and holidays.
Others benefitted from regular handouts from “Family Trusts”, inheritances carefully guarded by discretionary trust law or shady offshore arrangements.
Others lived rent-free, either in a family Second, or even Third home, or in their own inherited house.
Some were married, and bankrolled by spouses.
And there were those who, even in their forties, went cap-in-hand to parents regularly, with another hard-luck story, or with the continued promise of imminent success.
I got Arts Council funding to bring over an artist from abroad for an event. We chose a successful Canadian artist. Here was a man who really did live from his art. While he was here I picked his brains.
He was greatly talented, far moreso than I. He had a long history of commercial success. How does it work? Winter, making applications all around the world. Summer, a whirlwind of international commissions. I pressed him further, and he outlined his accounts, showing a pitiful profit. “OK”, I said, “I can see how that pays food and bills, but are rents in Canada really cheap?”. “No” he replied “I live with my mother”. Not something I’m prepared to do at 47.
The NAA reported, 10 years ago, that 95% of “Professional” artists, don’t live from their "made" work. Most of the above reckoned themselves in the 5% that did … so the true figure must be closer to 99.9%. Oddly, people who own a house outright don’t see it as income … but the rest of us can see clearly it’s an income equivalent to our rents.
So don’t bother selling pictures … it’s a waste of time, and often money too. Make the pictures, installations, sculptures, for the love of it, and treat your exhibitions as publicity – marketing creative-related services such as teaching, art therapy or grant-funded activities.
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Thanks, Andrew, I appreciate you taking time to comment **is it a depressing outlook, no, it’s your view, your opinion, you’ve chosen that view, all i can do is agree or disagree.** I think it's my experience, though it's often hard to say where experience ends and opinion begins!! **it’s difficult for me to work out what you are being negative about any way** Yes, I appreciate that. I think it was the despair about generating cash from art. It would be so good to be able to do it, like it would be good to be able flap my arms and fly up to the treetops!** . i feel you are of an age that knows who thatcher is, her legacy divided the peoples of this country very neatly and the media has further divided those groups and set people against people.**Thatcher was indeed a scourge on the nation, but she did pay for my degree, which Blair & Brown wouldn't do now.**if you want to make work with critical rigour, make sure you can pay bills by doing something menial.** I think that's what I find hard to accept** despite everything, keep making.** YES!! ** if you are an artist, you won’t need to plead that you’ve made no work because you don’t have money for materials.** That sounds like a good definition of a professional artist: someone who always finds materials and workspace somewhere, come what may!!
posted on 2009-07-01 by Jon Bowen
hi jon, thank you for posting: Hi Andrew - I've just made a fairly negative post on my blog "After Rites" about making and selling work, and would appreciate your perspective ... is it relevant to you? Is it a depressing outlook, or does it inspire you to prove me wrong? Or does it reflect your experience? etc. is it a depressing outlook, no, it’s your view, your opinion, you’ve chosen that view, all i can do is agree or disagree. it’s difficult for me to work out what you are being negative about any way. i feel you are of an age that knows who thatcher is, her legacy divided the peoples of this country very neatly and the media has further divided those groups and set people against people. my view is that for an artist to have work accepted for display or sale, that artist needs to be in contact with a person or persons who get what the artist is doing. frankly there are a lot of artists going around at the moment, and also a lot of curators and buyers, if an artist makes a buyer feel good, chances are a sale will occur. ok, stopping there, as that was becoming an anecdotal rant, not much point in having those. real world time from me: if you don’t start a commercial company don’t expect commercial success. if you want to make work with critical rigour, make sure you can pay bills by doing something menial. despite everything, keep making. if you are an artist, you won’t need to plead that you’ve made no work because you don’t have money for materials. i’m faced with all this stuff, having graduated in the worst economic slump since the 30’s. optimism is the way forward, with a sense of humour and being prepared to stick 2 fingers up to anybody that gives you a hard time. endeavour will be rewarded. good luck out there young man.
posted on 2009-07-01 by andrew martyn sugars
Jon, thanks for inviting me to comment, not sure I've got anything useful to add...I kind of agreed with what Rob said in that I don't look for an outlet through which to sell works. I paint because I want to and they take me ages to finish. But I haven't thought to pursue an outlet for them. I have been fortunate in the past to get commissions or been invited to show at very low-key places. I received Arts Council Funding during 2006 for a project that was interdisciplinary and involved socially engaged practices within a collaborative artist residency at the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture. That year approx 33% of my income was from making work. I worked really hard during 2006/07 to source other funders and collaborators for the project and the most important thing was to invest and build on the experience of receiving funding, so that the works presented could be presented in the best possible way for present and future audiences. Currently I am making money from teaching and the 'day-job' whilst looking for sites that will support a particular dialogue within my work. I know at some point I will want to find an audience but I am not thinking of that because I want to make money. I am poor!
posted on 2009-06-24 by Barbara Dean
Jon, If there is a stick to be grasped, my expertise is at the wrong end. I have rambled a bit around the selling of work . I’ve got a shed full of the stuff, and I’d love to show and sell it! (You clearly separate selling and showing.) But first I have to find a gallery willing to take it, and that’s where I am at a loss. The desire to sell work involves a little bit of ego, or (and) possibly a huge lack of judgement, and diminishing space in the shed. I have a lot of ego, but I’m compelled to modesty when it comes to judgement. Selling implicitly validates the work, depending on the motives of the buyer. I all but stopped making images during my teaching career. My subsequent little forays into the wider world have been a shocking eye-opener in terms of the sheer numbers and varieties of people and works ‘out there.’ When I was at Art school, the commercial side of what Emily Speed calls ‘the industry’ was not considered. Indeed, the idea of an industry would have been anathema to our Pre-Thatcherite innocence. Turns out it was naivety. (My commercial incompetence I suspect is built a little on what might be described as a snobby elitism.) I feel uneasy with the notion of an art ‘industry’ and its implications of commodification. There is too the feeling of art ‘tidied up’ by managerial concepts. There is a whole category of artists known as ‘emerging……..’ whose future status, and by implication that of gallery and curator, is guaranteed in such descriptions. I cannot encounter the term ‘emerging artist’ without seeing the smiling face of the as yet undiscovered and a cosy/exploitative market. The question that your statement raises concerns the relationship between artist and commerce. And if I sold my work, I could buy lots more materials!!
posted on 2009-06-24 by David Minton
Hi Jon, I am not really sure what your asking me to comment on? I do not sell work. I dont make/paint stuff and then try and find an outlet to sell it through, like a trade fair or a gallery. I do think that the training of artists is orientated to this model. I have recently failed to complete an MA degree 20 something years after my BA degree. I was surprised to find the training of artists was still exactly the same following this model, which in my opinion is outmoded and unfit for equiping artists to bring their skills into useful employment whilst contributing to society in more general terms. Having said that I think artists are made, and not taught, which may be a result of our attitude to what an artist is?
posted on 2009-06-24 by Rob Turner
Emily has previously on her blog made a really good point about valuing yourself (and your work) in order that other people value you (your work) more. NAA survey was a tiny sample and is now v old, as is the data on iincome for artists in Scotland from a Scottish Arts Council survey. 55% of AIR members are making 25% of their income from art and 16% make 50% of their income from it. Abbings' Why are artists poor? is an illuminating discourse but does not give answers to dealing with the exploitation of artists that is inherent in the arts - including the reliance on volunteering, unpaid and similar 'career opportuntities.
posted on 2009-06-24 by Susan Jones
I hardly ever sell work, partly because my work doesn't lend itself to houses/lasting very long, also because I'm not very interested in that route as an artist. I am slowly getting a better income, largely through saying no to opportunities that will cost me money, applying carefully for funding and residencies(i.e. wasting less time being unsuccessful), selling my artists' books and also though teaching/visiting artists work and education workshops. I think it's really important for everyone to figure out what is best for them according to their practice. I look to artists whose careers I admire and furckle round their cvs seeing what/why/where got them to the point they are now. Often there are things you can't replicate, like an RCA degree, but there are residencies and opportunities you might find there that are perfect for your work. Also, there will be unexpected things that may spark new ideas. Sounds quite clinical I know, but I started doing this just out of interest and realised how much information was stored in people's history. Interesting that the artists you spoke to were reticent to share their knowledge - this is one thing we really need to get over if the industry is to improve! The more we know, the less likely we are to repeat each others mistakes..
posted on 2009-06-24 by Emily Speed
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'Last Rites'. A rather different venue from the Wolfson College exhibition rooms .. but a lot more people saw, and apparently liked, the pics at the Tavistock Centre.
# 23 [30 June 2009]
In 1999, after 10 years of reading Arts Council strategy statements, priority statements, policy statements and statement statements, I finally made a successful application - 20k for a collaborative millennium celebration.
Initially I felt flattered, flushed with success. But as the millennium celebrations proceeded it became clear that there were simply not enough artists to fulfill the government’s pledges for millennial festivities. Barrels were being scraped, and I was one of the scrapings.
If I had spent all those hours earning instead of fundraising, and saved £5 from each hour, I could have saved the value of the grant myself over the ten years. Over the two years of the project I earned about £3 per hour, totalling what I now earn part time in 3 months.
The arts economy doesn’t make sense. It’s a hotch-potch of bad ideas thrown together by a series of do-gooding culture ministers, only continuing to stand on its shaky foundations because of the illusion of free money ... sell your paintings , publish your work, get a grant for research-practice development-go see-lecture, win a prize ... but few artists seem to account for the true cost of the money. Nobody needing to earn money would entertain such a business model for a moment.
Occaionally I see a grant, exhibition opportunity, commission, whatever, and think “I stand a chance at that …”, and against my better judgement I make the application. Fool that I am. It’s the promise of free money. But when the rejection email arrives, I look at the hours I spent on the application: There’s another £500 I didn’t earn while making an application for a grant of £1000 which I have a 1 in 10 chance of getting. £500 traded in for £100. It’s madness.
On Saturday I had the pleasure of teaching Dream Interpretation to a group of volunteer counsellors in Derby. What a great day! Genuine people making a real difference to their world, only intellectualising to the extent that it actually helps them work, helps their world. And because it counts as healthcare, and healthcare rates of pay are as exaggerated as arts rates of pay are diminished ... I made decent money from the venture.
Tomorrow, the Rites exhibition at the Tavistock Centre comes down, and the paintings return to their dark and dusty garage.
And what now (After Rites)?
I’m quite clear, my priority is to get out of the computer business, and ART really isn’t going to facilitate that.
Teaching therapeutic psychology is a realistic alternative. I really enjoy it, it’s well paid, there’s a good market, and I’ll be able to do it part time. The rest of the time I’ll be able to do what I want – call it ART, call it THERAPY, call it mainstream, fringe or outsider, call it modern, postmodern, conceptual, history or contemporary… I just don’t care. I just want to spread a little kindness (Shock Horror), look after my kids, and have some fun with my friends.
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You're right, Andrew, people are *so* important. And although I moan about the computer business, it's a heck of a lot better than washing up in cafes, or even managing art projects ... things have been steadily going the right way over the years! But please don't patronise me by referring to my blog as a sad story! In terms of production and presentation, I'm doing better than most artists I know, though not as well as many of our co-bloggers. I shared your view that one should be chilled about money, until I was 16 when my father died. We coped as a family, but it wasn't a happy experience, and after I left University travelling from Sheffield to Devon to visit Mum, fix the garden fence, gate, TV aerial, or whatever else had blown down ... I needed money for that. When my grandmother became terminally ill, the demands were greater, although my resources were less. this is not a sob-story - my involvement with all these things *was* a choice and I'm very proud that I've met head-on the challenges that life has thrown at me - other people have other priorities, and thus find it easier to hold down a full time job, while avoiding the burden of expense. So yes, I did prioritise people, and I sleep well at night as a result. But the most unwelcome side-effect was crushing poverty narrowly avoiding homelessness, which I have no intention of returning to ... No money in the bank, and nowhere to borrow it from, brings its own nightmares. The point I'm trying to make here is that often prioritising people means, actually, prioritising money, or at the very least thinking long and carefully about how one makes and spends money. I'm clear, I'm prioritising my kids, and I'm not much use to them if, together with my partner, we don't house, feed and clothe them. So - Kids first, that means money high priority, art low priority. That doesn't mean no art, it just means it's bonkers for me to try and earn money from it.
posted on 2009-07-01 by Jon Bowen
now this was negative. jon, get a grip, get happy and lessen the grip on how important money is. people are more inportant than money. if you don't like the computer business, please stop it. peeps what revolve in art circles certainly don't have the time to consider sad stories.
posted on 2009-07-01 by andrew martyn sugars
# 24 [1 July 2009]
This is my last post for this blog. I thought the question of what to do next would require endless soul-searching, but writing the blog, and participating in other blogs has really clarified my issues, priorities and expectations.
I realise I'm in a very different life phase from most people writing AN blogs: many have either achieved a significant measure of financial success with their work, or are young enough for this still to be a realistic (?) possibility.
I must concede my work is going to remain forever on the fringes - I don't think I've ever felt further from the mainstream than I do now - and being responsible for my kids, I have to earn money, something which wasn't a problem 20 years ago.
I'm now half way through my working life, and considering retirement. I already need specs, get puffed out when cycling to work, my knees ache when I'm hill-walking ... the spectre of old age is looming. And I really don't want to end up in a council house in the bum-end of Oxford surviving on income support for the last 20 years of my life.
Money, and how to earn it is definitely my Big Issue. I feel quite content with my art practice, I don't feel the need to reflect on it endlessly ... ye gods know I've spent enough time doing that ... but I wish I knew more artists who worked in similar ways, or in similar circumstances.
Reading through my blog, I'm wondering what, if any, contribution I've made to the wider community of artists and art professionals.
I've probably put everyone off the idea of having children.
I've worked to death the old chestnuts of financial success and survival, themes which everyone is probably already bored with.
I've made a foray into an argument about intellectualisation, and come out thinking that a bit is good and too much or too little is annoying ... no big philosophical breakthrough there.
I've made contact with 2 or 3 writers with whom I intend to continue contact.
I have enjoyed seeing my own work on the internet, another contribution to the exciting diversity and range of work published on these blogs.
But I continue to be unable to grasp what most artists are talking about when reviewing their own work. It all seems to happen in a language that has no meaning.
Whether this makes me history, an amateur or dilettante, or a hopeless mystic I don't know.
But I still cling to the notion that great art, or any art that's worth making, must be addressing the question of "What is beauty?" ... not "What is interesting for a small band of intellectuals?", or "What will make a good investment for a small group of wealthy patrons?".
When I first saw Picasso's work when I was 7, I was entranced, fascinated: "Mum, what's that about?". My Mum wasn't able to say much, but I've now been answering that question for myself for 40 years.
Wouldn't it be truly Great if our work could do that for tomorrow's children?
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hi jon, i'm originally from ipswich so history about derby i'm not that hot on. big screen, well it's a big screen. other than that derby is lovely really and everyone i know here is really positive. i'm going through some post degree unheaval, so longer comments elude me as i begin my first six months of independent anti insecurity. there's so much going on, i'm overwhelmed by opportunity.
posted on 2009-07-13 by andrew martyn sugars
Jon, I just want to thank you and celebrate what has evolved from this blog network, something I think which was probably never anticipated when it was launched. Something really challenging and potentially significant has begun to grow through these interchanges as for once visual artists practising within the contemporary gallery field are in real dialogue with those artists who through circumstance, age, context of work or whatever may never access that arena. It appears to have an organic life of itself and I am really interested in where this takes us. Thank you for your honest contributions.
posted on 2009-07-12 by Susan Francis
Actually, David, you're one of the bloggers that I feel I do understand ...
posted on 2009-07-01 by Jon Bowen
Jon, My experience of the ‘debates’ via these blogs is similar to yours. I feel that there are too few questions and too many points of view. The direction from which Andrew Bryant writes is full of potential, but remains unexplored. I have tried to follow up some of his references to modern philosophers offline and via the web; without some theoretical understanding it is difficult to have a sense of direction and to arrive at a place which is different to one’s starting point. The question of ‘masculinity’ for example is important. I have struggled with the overwhelming feeling that what I do is almost silly in the context of much contemporary work –this is aside from any qualitative considerations. (I also feel that a lot of meaningless discourse is dressed in the King’s New Clothes and goes unchallenged.) This has been very difficult for me, but I feel that my only way out of the hole is the reverse of conventional wisdom; I can only keep digging and see where it leads. It is psychologically difficult, but beneficial in that I have had to examine my preconceptions as objectively as possible. Statements and opinions need to be challenged not with others’ points of view and defending one’s own position, but by teasing out what is meant through questions. The debates can only be the richer for it. If for example you refer to my contribution when you state that you ‘cannot grasp what they a re talking about…’ some communication along those lines might be profitably revealing for me. A somewhat dangerous pathperhaps. Someone who thinks my work bad, in any or all of the ways in which the term can be applied, might have some difficulty letting me know in manner which is not destructive. There has however to be some risk involved if what happens on these blogs is not simply to be a carnival of one kind or another of self indulgence. I am even now uncertain that what I am trying to say has been said unequivocally, and it does not apply to the blogs as a
posted on 2009-07-01 by David Minton