Shakespeare
wasn’t a successful artist, by all the accounts that I’ve read. Though he
managed to sell some of his plays for meager sums and earned a small amount as
an actor, William Shakespeare never had a thriving business. No one who knew
him considered him a successful artist, but did he feel that way? What we can
assume is that his writing was dependant on more than his success at writing,
because as we all know, he kept at it.
Elizabeth
Gilbert, the author of novels such as Committed,
The Signature of All Things and the little-known Eat, Pray, Love, says that irrespective of great success or great
failure, success for her means continuing to write. She refers to the place
where an artist creates as the “artist’s normal”. This is the place where the
artist lives and where the artist should fight to remain whether many or few
people receive the artwork well.
Who is a
successful artist? Is successful art only a success when someone else has
attached a value to it, or is the creation already a success because it has
been created? Who defines the success of art? And what happens when an artist
achieves great monetary success with one piece and absolutely none with another
– is that artist successful or not?
The
internet is filled with links advising artists how to market and sell their
work in order to achieve success. Bruce Allen, president of an artist
management firm in Vancouver, says that “the big vote is the cash register.” An
artist is successful if they sell. But, how many songs, words, landscapes, or
sonnets does an artist need to sell to be successful? Does the manager, agent
or Billboard decide when an artist is successful?
Kim
Thiessen has a different view of success. Thiessen, a Canadian best-selling
recording artist who some of you have heard of explains “that our success is so often tied to the people we are
next to. Success at the expense of someone else is utter failure in my
mind. Success in community, partnership, relationship...that's pretty
amazing.” She says that success, even after raising hundreds of
thousands of dollars for the AIDS awareness project as part of the non-profit
organization Mennonite Central Committee, is achieved when others benefit and
community is enhanced.
The visual
artist, Paul Klein, who owns and operates a thriving gallery in Chicago, also
believes that success comes not from a certain arbitrary number of pieces sold,
but from relationships. Many artists are more interested in just getting their
work out into the public; sharing it with others who might be impacted by it in
small or big ways.
Is it naïve
to tell myself that it doesn’t matter if someone buys my work; that it only
matters that I write? Maybe. Do I need to be able to support myself to be a
successful writer? Possibly. But, if I’m thrilled to survive on Kraft Dinner,
living in a tent in a shabby, roadside campground because I have only sold one
short story and have endless time to write, am I successful? Surely.
Bruce Allen
eventually flips on his vehement idea that success is registered by the number
of dings of the cash register, admitting “who am I to say how much money earned
is success.” The artist determines their level of satisfaction and success.
Unfortunately, the most predominant measure of mainstream success is determined
by the number of opening weekend tickets, debut downloads, and books sold. Some
artists fight back against these strong yardsticks, bending ideas and targets,
such as Autumn Hays. She says, “I do think there
is a clear way to know if you are a successful artist. That after all the
pressure, aversions, and struggles, you still keep making art. The continuation and advancement of your artwork and practice
itself is the mark of a truly successful artist.”
As one artist, whose words
have stood the test of critics and time, once said, “to thine own self be
true.” That is success.
Works Cited:
Allen, B. (2006,
May). What makes an artist successful? (Video file).
Retrieved from http://www.artistshousemusic.org/videos/what+makes+an+artist+successful
Gilbert, E.
(2014, March). Success, failure and the drive to keep creating (Video file).
Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_success_
failure_and_the_drive_to_keep_creating
Hays, A.
(2014, January 24). Becoming the successful artist. (Web log post).
Retrieved
from http://badatsports.com/2014/becoming-the-successful-artist
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