Money + Art

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“Beautiful work!” Seal said to an artist who had a booth at APE.

“Yeah, but I don’t do it full-time,” he countered, “I’m not a professional yet,” he flustered. “I’m not PAID for it yet.” Seal heard the door of a heart slammed shut.

“But your work is beautiful!” She protested. “Whether you are paid for it or not, it doesn’t take away the fact that it’s still beautiful and people notice it.” (A young couple lingers around his table and drops $7 for one of his prints. I look at him in confirmation, see?

“I guess,” he said with a sigh, “but I’m still not paid the ‘big bucks’ and uh, this is a local show, once I get into a National or International gallery, then . . .  then . . . “ he shook his finger at me and trailed off. The entire convention center became very boisterous. I am left alone to my thoughts and I suddenly become very angry.

“Then . . .” WHAT? You can finally believe me? Only when you’re paid the “big bucks” or in a “big institution somewhere” then you will believe that your work is actually beautiful as people think it is? When you get paid and other institutions recognize you, THEN you can finally embrace yourself as an artist? Or “better” yet as a professional artist? You are waiting around for some big institution or high-end client to swoop down from somewhere to come “save you,” and lavish over you art, especially when art is very personal and very subjective and money and pricing proned to inflation, you are waiting and waiting for someone outside of yourself to say that you are a professional artist?

Dude, you’re living in the future that may or may not come while ignoring all the people who are stopping by your table to admire your work. Whether people pay $3 for your art of $30,000 – it is still beautiful.

Don’t discount your artwork! Just because it doesn’t readily translate to big monetary equivalent.

Money is very very subjective. At craftshows, we’ve had “rich” costumers throw their crisp $20 bucks at us for a tshirt, vs. a young boy who was clutching his only $20 allowance and after circling the entire craftshow and our booth 3-4 times, he wholeheartedly gave us his entire savings for a “Create or Die” tshirt. Even though both instances were a purchase of $20, that 20 was worth a world apart difference to us.

It took Seal a while to learn that money or big institutions will never equal to the value of one’s art.

Most everyone I know, including myself, has a money problem. Artists often have double the trouble because we equate money with recognition and value of our work. Given all the myths we’ve heard about being an artist, it’s no wonder why it’s hard to untangle: “art doesn’t make money,” “if you make money as an artist, you’re a sell out,” “art for art’s sake” (don’t pay for it?), “money is greed” “if you become too tall, they’ll cut you at the base” “starving artist” “art is superfluous” “art is selfish” etc etc. It doesn’t help to have a society that is rather unaffected or diminishing towards artists. While other occupations usually have a standard starting pay (think doctors, mechanics, etc.), an artist can be paid anywhere from nothing (a free service) to $100,000 or more for an art piece.

Of course, it’s a challenge to know your true value as an artist. But let me tell you a secret, money isn’t it. Money will never equal the value of your art.

For a long time, especially throughout art school, Seal kept hoping that a big studio would pick her up. Then . . . then . . . she would be recognized for her work. Then . . . only then . . . will people value her. It was the magic pill. Suddenly, if she worked at a big institution, everything will be solved: she would always be creative, she wouldn’t be proned to roller coaster rides of artistic blocks. She would have peer recognition and money (something she didn’t grow up with) and could buy all the reference books and canvases she wants (instead of scouring for found objects, antiques, and wood to paint on). Then, she would be paid the “big bucks” and be labeled a “professional artist.” Then . . . then . . . the prince comes in a magic pumpkin carriage . . .

But this is not reality.

Whether you work full-time, part-time, contract, intership, or as a hobby in art . . . You will still have to deal with artist blocks – it’s part of the process. Whether you are at a big studio, small studio, or in the humble corner of your apartment making art . . . you will have to deal with the day to day frustrations and existential crises of being an artist, you will always have deadlines to meet and critics to face, you will always have to feel unsure when you put your work up. You will still probably have to deal with naysayers and family members who may or may not support you. Whether you are showered with praise, some or not at all, or whether you are paid big, small, or none at all . . . at the end of the day, you will still have to face the biggest challenge – yourself. Do you value yourself as an artist? If money were non-existent and you were the only living human in the world, would you still create art? Would you have fun doing it? Is your current project challenging you as a person?  Does it makes a statement about you as a person? Are you SATISFIED? FULFILLED?

When Seal takes away the myth of getting paid the big bucks and being in a big institution, she finds that she is just very happy to be creating art. She works on an independent film set with inspiring and creative people. Her voice is heard by the director and she can make positive contributions on the project and the people around her. At night, she explores her paintings further. Her limitations on money actually help her to be more creative, as she is forced to find alternative surfaces and new ways to approach a painting. She finds rare antique wood and unthinkable items to incorporate into her art and has expanded beyond the canvas. And people actually like her works on wood better than on canvas as they all have unique grain and texture. She is learning multiple ways to tell stories, to make art, and find her inner voice. She paints and creates comics as she wants. And she’s surrounded by warm encouraging friends who are excited for her and her art. She is in the journey towards knowing herself. She no longer lives in the future, but at the present moment enjoying her life and art-making.

Because the artist at APE is still waiting around for his “big chance,” when it actually comes in the form of people complimenting and buying art from his table, he didn’t notice that he is currently living his dreams, making art and being PAID for it. It was as if he was living on the ground breathing his dreams of being an artist, but still looking hopefully at the sky for something else. He’s waiting around for someone, something outside of himself to ordain him as a professionally paid artist. In the end, it’s not really money or big institution he wants. What he actually wants is someone, something “out there” to shut the critics in his brain and answer the burning question, “am I good enough as an artist?”

And no amount of money or outside recognition will ever fill up that hole, but yourself.

You are enough. You can begin it now. As you are.

Don’t wait for your life to start, to value yourself as an artist. Don’t give power to something outside of yourself to make or break your artistic endeavors. Don’t wait for the big bucks or the big institutions. Because at the end of the day, do you want to create or not? Are you having fun or not? Do you respect yourself as an artist or not?

Sure, having money is nice. And working in a big institution – if it fosters you and is aligned with your values and priorities – is nice too! It’s more than ok to want money or full time work as an artist. And you should definitely be paid for work that you do. And if you live on this earth with other people, you cannot avoid acquiring and spending money on something. We all need shelter, food, and ways to make our art, and even indulgences. But money or big institution should never be the measuring stick for satisfaction, and can never substitute the longing for the final verdict of  “I am a worthy artist.”

If you are living and breathing, you are worthy already. If you are creating, you are worthy already. So start now. Begin and live in the present moment. And create. Live your life because you are a million bucks already.

A.P.E Fun and Show Planning

Thank you everyone! We had an awesome time at A.P.E. Thank you to everyone who came out to support us, stopped by our booth, and or otherwise were with us in spirit. We really couldn't have done it without you. We met new friends and caught up with old friends alike. Found new inspiring artists to follow, picked up some DIY stuff (we wanted to buy it all, but alas rent comes first). All in all, it was super fun and we wish we can do this all the time!

At the end of every show, Monkey and Seal always reflect on it to see what they can improve on next time. This is a good skill and habit to have for anytime you finish a project. After packing up the show by 7pm Sunday night and unloading their load, they congratulated themselves with comfort-food dinner.

Then while it's still fresh in our memories, we proceeded to do what is called "a brain-drain." We list everything in terms of three categories: 1) What we did well 2) What could be done better/ needs change and 3) Misc. notes/ future projects/ or "what's next?"

Like always, Monkey and Seal would like to share with you what they've learned, some highlights, and a slice-of-life of what it was like:

Friday Night, Night Before Showtime

Friday night, we had trouble printing our shirts. The bulb inside the darkroom blew out so Monkey was registering the designs in the dark! By 12 midnight, we were dealing with two broken emulsion, mis-aligned screens, and no t shirt. Seal almost gave up, but Monkey pushed on. We had publicized on the APE guidebook and on our website that we would have the new t shirt designs printed. No matter the obstacle, we couldn't go back on our promises. That is a principle we uphold towards our friends and customers. So we pressed on. Seal learned how to print the t shirts, while Monkey problem-solved the screens. By the 25th t shirt, Seal has a new respect for screen-printing and Monkey's knowledge of troubleshooting. With screen printing, everything is a factor: weather, timing, amount of ink, drying time, etc. 1 second off and it completely changes the t shirt design. Seal went home around 3am to get the rest of the products ready, while Monkey continued to print, fighting off 9 more broken emulsions. By 7:30am we showered, picked up the Zipcar, loaded our stuff, and arrived at the Concourse around 9am.

We were now running on 24 hours of without sleep.

Location, Setup, and Visual Merchandising

One of the key things to a successful show is having the right location, setup, and visual merchandising. Location can make or break your show. In generality, you want to be placed where there is a good flow of traffic from multiple directions. You should avoid anything that is a extra step or obstacle for the customer to find you, for example, the second floor of the Concourse received less foot-traffic, simply because people didn't want to climb the stairs. Anywhere where there was a U shape, people avoided because they didn't want to feel trapped.

Setup and visual merchandising is also key, even if you receive a "bad or not-so good location," you can probably save it and or maximize your location, just by how you arrange your table and products. Monkey and Seal were lucky that we were in a place that was easy to find, also, we recently had a banner made with our big heads on it, so we were also easily identifiable. In terms of visual merchandising, we're lucky to have had honed in our experience by working for retail. Seal has worked at Disneyland, Starbucks, Barnes&Noble, a high end Japanese store (she got really good at wrapping presents during Christmas time!) But because of this, they know how to arrange the table, feature a product, organize by color/shape/ type of product, etc. When someone looks at your table, in a quick second, they should understand "the categories" or how things work. For example, our t shirt and ties are together because they're clothing apparel. We also learned that we needed to separate our comics from our zines, because if people picked up our zine, they assumed all our work was text-based. If people picked up our comics, they assumed that we worked mainly with images.

Some of the things we learned, either by ourselves or by watching other vendors

1. Stand when greeting a customer. Many booths will provide you chairs, but use them only when you are on break. Remember that you represent your art, if you are slouching in your chair, your don't inspire confidence for people to buy your art. There were many talented booths, but as soon as Seal approached the artists, they looked so bored and unengaged that it was enough of a turn off not to inquire further.
   
2. Along with number 1, we should be able to see the artist! The artist is part of the art package. Seal saw one talented artist, she has surrounded herself with her art, made a towering pillar showcasing her art on either side of the table, all that was left was a tiny window no bigger than an 8.5" x 11" paper for her little face to peek out from. Her art was beautiful. But damn, it looked like a prison in there!
3. Make notes throughout the show, about what you observe, friends or customers to follow up on. Some of next best ideas, come during the moment when you are surrounded and inspired by other artists and your environment. Write it down!
   
4. Take a chance and talk to people! At these events, people come from all over the place. We met people from Canada, Seattle, San Diego, Europe, Australia, etc. Some of the best suggestions for future shows, come from our neighbors whom we shared a table with. Or who knows, maybe your next projects comes from an inspiration from another person!
   

All in all, it was a very fun experience for us. It was a successful financial and creative show. We had fun talking to everyone and catching up with friends. Thanks for stopping by!

We will definitely be growing more for next year. We have our holiday shows to look forward and plan for. We will also be uploading our products into our online store, hopefully by next Monday. We also would like to share some resources in terms of show planning, such as time line or checklist on what to bring. These will be uploaded as well this week.

In the meantime, keep rocking your art! Keep growing!

Quote of the day: "So long as a person is capable of self-renewal they are a living being." -Henri-Frederic Amiel

Monkey = APE?

This weekend, Monkey + Seal will be showing at the Alternative Press Expo (aka APE) at booth 532 (see map below)!!! We'll be showing alongside other SF Zine Fest co-organizers Family Style (booth 207) and Two Fine Chaps (booth 305) and Goteblud (booth 428).


There will be plenty of other awesome exhibitors as well, and the workshops this year will be all focused on creating comics! Monkey will definitely be trying to sneak away to go check some of those out!

Monkey will be showing off his new crude/rude/crazy comic "The New Tweeb Bible of Sensitive Emotional Feelings about Sensitive Feelings, or, Wholesome Parables to Live Your Life By, also known as (A.K.A.) The Nu Mortality (on Sexy-time with Animals), a Collection of Comics by Rick Kitagawa," which possibly has the longest title for a mini-comic ever (and actually has nothing to do with bestiality). He'll also be selling some new postcards of his art, and of course we'll have our screenprinted shirts and ties, and Seal's fine art prints.

Sneak Peek - Postcards

While live painting as this week's featured artists over at the Blue Macaw via Market SF, we have developed a whole new line of postcard-sized art! Seal came up with the theme of "Steampunk animals," and we really took that concept and ran with it!

These images are parts of two of the new postcards that we'll be featuring at the SF Zine Fest on September 4+5th! Woo, it's coming up soon, so mark your calendars for a whole new line of postcards for sale at the Zine Fest!
We are hard at work trying to work on a bunch of new and exciting projects as we have also confirmed a booth at the Alternative Press Expo this coming October 16+17th, so we want to really step up our game and have some great stuff for you to check out. We appreciate your support and patronage, and we hope to keep producing art and products that you'll enjoy.

Submitting to Art Shows, Not Submitting to Fear

Monkey is especially proud of that headline. So on Sunday, Monkey + Seal prepped their artwork and submitted it to the Academy of Art's Spring Show under the Illustration and Animation schools. Monkey is actually going to finish submitting today (since the Fine Art department's submission process has a later due date), but we wanted to talk a bit about submitting to shows.

The thing that we never could understand is why more people don't submit to the Spring Show. It's free (so it doesn't cost much, just the cost of the mounting materials), so why not? We know that it is really competitive, but regardless of how low your chances are, your chances can't be lower than zero, which is what your chances are if you never turn anything in.

This year, Monkey + Seal have faced some rejection - we didn't get into Renegade Craft Fair, nor were any of our pieces juried into Spectrum 17. But we realize that rejection is part of being an artist (and of life in general). Unfortunately, most people in life don't get everything they try for, but if you never try for anything, you won't get anything at all.


You cannot submit to the fear of rejection. You have to go into each competition with your eye on the gold - aim for the sun and hit the highest peak sort of thinking, you know? Monkey, who has never been selected for the Spring Show always says "Let someone else tell you that you're not good enough." If you can't bring yourself to believe in your work, then why should anyone else? Like we have said in past blog posts - it is all about finding your audience. Sure, you shouldn't submit a painting of a dragon to a landscape competition (or a landscape to a dragon competition) but you have to just power through your fear of rejection and keep moving forward, keep submitting, and keep getting your work out there.

Additionally, Monkey + Seal prefer not to dwell on the negative - sure we didn't get into Renegade or Spectrum, but there's always next year, we already had one successful gallery show this year, and now we're doing a gallery show in collaboration with Hyphen magazine, we just released our first e-book, Monkey is pushing himself to create and post a piece of art every day, and Seal has a freelance project for an upcoming animation studio. We're also helping to organize the SF Zine Fest and have applied to the Alternative Press Expo.

All in all, it isn't about comparing the good to the bad and weighing out your year - it's about choosing to focus on the positives, the accomplishments and accolades, and learning from all the missteps and failings. Finding this balance is definitely not easy (as we both can attest to), but it is what we strive for, and what keeps us going at all hours of the night. No fear, dear artists, no fear!

Back to school and a work in progress

Hello! Monkey and Seal just started their fall semester at art school last week. Thanks to the many generous acts of kindness from friends, family, strangers, Martha, and Monkey, Seal is able to attend her much needed senior portfolio classes. She has been busy juggling daytime work, school, and nighttime art. She is very excited about this semester and is learning a lot. Seal is working hard to come up with new illustrations and paintings for APE (the Alternative Press Expo) in October. Although they are number 44 on the waitlist, both Monkey and Seal are very hopeful. They also recently bought a new Epson printer that can print archival large poster size!

On another news, Monkey is hard at work meeting with other artists in San Francisco to create more venues to showcase everyone's work. If you are an artist interested in selling your art, please contact Monkeyandseal@gmail.com.

Now it's back to art time! Here's a quick sneak peek at some of Seal's newest concept art!