Hey so the topic of commodification of art, mainly anti-commercial sentiment, has been popping up a lot in my internet bubble recently in the form of “Art shouldn’t be commodified it’s meant to be enjoyed not sold for money.” or “You just want money.” etc. This is a topic I care about a lot and have a broad width of experience creating art on the spectrum of fully commercial to not at all so wanted to throw some of my thoughts on this out there. This is a big topic and I’m just going to be scratching the surface.
Before I begin, Hi I’m Sean, I work as a professional artist doing work for a bunch of big studios as well as making my own fully indie projects - me work
I’ve generally reserved thoughts and opinions on just about everything to conversations with friends or in person as places like twitter have never felt like the right vehicle for productive discourse to me. But for whatever reason atm I feel compelled to share some of my experience and at least give it a shot so I’ll try my best not to ramble and lets see how this goes.
So, how do art and money fit together if at all? Is art done or sold for money inherently bad or worse than art done purely for the joy of ones self or others? (For clarification: Art to me is any creative endeavour, be it painting, music, dancing etc.)
For the Love
My experience with art purely for it’s own sake (apart from drawing as a kid like everyone) goes back to 2007 when I was a 14yr old lad. I discovered the sport and art form of Tricking -
(if you’re thinking whys he talking about flips stick with me I’m going somewhere with this I promise.)
So back when I first got involved in the Tricking community it was a janky little group of guys doing flips in their back yards and sharing it with each other on an internet forum. Pretty much everyone was bad and the community was small enough you could know just about everybody by name. Needless to say there was zero money to be made by anybody in any meaningful sense. Everyone involved was doing it purely for the love of the sport and the culture and everyone was cool with that.
For 10 years I made zero money from Tricking and had no intention of doing so. I was purely in it for the love of it. I moved countries to live and train with other dedicated trickers. I paid for flights around the world, tickets to events and regular gym sessions all to pursue my love of this beautiful art. All the while tricking was steadily growing in size and popularity as well as the athletes were becoming world class and breaking barriers of human potential.
In 2017 my housemates at the time and I had the opportunity to go on a 2 month roadtrip across the USA, attending every major Tricking event of the summer season. We would cross paths with just about every iconic member of the community and be submerged deep into the heart of the culture. I had a light bulb moment that this was an absolutely perfect opportunity to make a documentary on Tricking that showcased it as authentically as possible and show the world the culture and artform that had given me so much. It had not even crossed my mind to make money from this, I just saw an amazing opportunity and wanted to seize this moment in time to make something special. After 2 months of Roadtrip and 4 months of STRAIGHT fevered editing. My first feature length project, BIG, was complete. A project to this day that is still one of my proudest and most meaningful achievements artistically and personally. One that has inspired more people than any huge commercial project I’ve been part of. I was also 100% broke by the end of it. 😅
When I started making this I was living off my art but wasn’t comfortable by any means, I was living cheap and always concerned about whether there would be a next job. During these 6 months I was fully devoted to the making of BIG. About half way through the making of I realised I would have to charge for this project just to not wreck my life. So after the initial screening of the doc to a packed out room at Hooked, the biggest Tricking event of the year (thank you eternally to everyone that attended and made that moment so special.) I put it up for sale online at £2.99 to rent. (less than one coffee). 99% of the community showed overwhelming support and I was able to break even on this colossal passion project. To me this showed that a project created out of pure love can also be successfully commercialised without losing its vision or integrity. t
(for anyone interested you can find it here - BIG - Tricking documentary)
For Commerce
My first attempt at making money with art was pretty rough, doing indie boardgame illustrations for $20 a piece when I was 17 (ye don’t do that.) To give you a taste, I did a boardgame cover for “The Hogfather” A dark brooding mafia game, but everyones pigs... I didn’t know any better ok.
I ended up working all the time, for basically free, on a bunch of janky stuff I had no interest in, burning out and having no time to focus on studying and improving. I learned very quickly that not all jobs are worth it and you can get in a real shitty situation doing bad jobs for bad money. Now to be fair I sucked and I wouldn’t have hired me. So I spent the next few years laser focused on improving before trying to sell my work again.
These days the vast majority of my income comes from being a freelance artist and selling my time to companies to solve their artistic problems.
I’ve been lucky to reach a point where folks reach out for my work specifically. I now have the privilege to pick and choose jobs that align with my artistic values enough I can get excited about in some way. Although it’s still work, I can make money in a way that I often enjoy which is pretty cool. But most importantly the money I get from this commercial employment grants me the FREEDOM to explore my ridiculous and most authentic personal endeavours.
Because to me, money is freedom. And for now, commercial work is my “freedom buffer”. And the freedom buffer means if I want to take 6 months off to make a niche documentary about an alternative movement subculture I can and I will.
The romanticised idea of the poor starving artist is whack. The artist most likely starves before he gets to make much art that anyone can enjoy. It’s fundamentally unsustainable. If we want art from artists, they need to have the means to do so.
Somewhere in between
In recent years I’ve released a full length comedy sketch show pilot for free on youtube as well as a bunch of other totally unmonetised content. I was free to pursue these projects completely without thinking about money because of the freedom my commercial work had granted me. And I can’t tell you how much priceless artistic growth and joy my personal projects have given me over the years.
My love of art and tricks started long before any concerns for bills or financial freedom but without respecting the years of dedication I’ve put into my craft and charging fairly for it, I wouldn’t have the freedom to pursue any of the most meaningful projects I’ve done.
Now I’m not saying this is perfect, final form, job done. For now this balance of commercial and personal work has granted me a level of freedom I can work with.
Ultimately I’d like to fund my personal endeavours from a community that cares to experience them like I did with BIG and be able to put less time into my commercial freedom buffer and more time into my own escapades.
Like I said there is not one way to find this balance of commerce and art and new exciting ways are currently emerging.
Art and communities take many forms and the people that make art are also very different and have to find the way that’s right for them.
But what’s 100% clear to me is without money there would be a lot less freedom for artists to explore meaningful art that enriches lives, builds culture or make art at all. And to demonize the commercialisation of art may be restricting the freedom of artists to do the very thing you wish to see more of. In a world of poor starving artists there is not much art.
I personally have been empowered greatly in my freedom of pursuing more genuine artistic pursuits by commercialising some of my art. Freedom to explore, to fail, to champion the niche and weird, to be myself. And in my experience that’s where the good stuff is.
Alrighty have a nice day now.