The discussion is predictable. If the typical conversation is all about local gallery news, I am ignorant. If career fundamentals are solely built from formal education in art, I am over-qualified. If money is the only bottom line in this business, I am doomed to fail. School is out, and tuning my senses into markets is a permanent task.
Thinking back, if my career as an artist is all about sales, I would be a perched rock at art and craft fairs. The money seems slow, but steady. As of now, instinct has me in the market for establishing a name with a solid reputation for excellent work. In the staid and true, I believe I would be the social butterfly with intent at art associations, volunteer gigs, and museum events. Forgive me, I must be realistic. I have developed into a bit of an introvert over the past fifteen years. There must be another way. That way cannot give up on the news that falls in my lap. Somedays the tap drips, other days the juice flows.
The Street Artist
Living in a hotel and eating at the local corner gasoline shop for breakfast, lunch, and dinner was his life. Astonished at his candor, I became attentive when he told me that he traveled over a county to tell me to stop making art. As for himself, he chucked it all into crates stored in his weekly paid residence. Storing digital art is easy; a handful of jump drives stay in one bag. Meanwhile, the framed small pieces were easy to cart between the corner the bedside worktable. Still, he did say that no one is buying. I concluded that it must be the treacherous heat and safety concerns that kept buyers away.
Jealousy Ain't It
I am nothing like him, but how would he know that. I do not know why he came so far to tell me to give it all up. From his street perspective, the market has dried up. This visitation was a courtesy call from the field. Courtesy calls are not frequent through the seasons. They range from encouragements to field reports. If the underground market is slowing and streetside is becoming uninhabitable, what exists outside of the gallery system?
Hidden Market
Casual questions get me responses for advertisements in the scene. Personally speaking, I do not have the nerve or marksmanship to get me in and out of this hidden market. I heard that this market exists in several cities across the U.S. In the City of Dallas, for instance, the market sells art located far away from the cultural arts districts and the gallery scenes.
Who are the Collectors?
This market consists of drug dealers and possible human traffickers. The homeless population does most of the art. Pieces sell for a good price. Buyers sometimes have large scale collections. Where the items house, I do not know, but some owners display the work openly.
Themes
What I am hearing that stabilizes the underground markets are themes focused on auto-eroticism. (This is so much the case that 20th-century painter Egon Schiele would have found a home in the contemporary era.) The pay is significant. Many an artist, both trained and untrained, get pulled into the racket for money. What pushes the market may be a mix of health ignorance and pedophilia.
Anonymous Link to the Medical Community
I heard last year that a female doctor was paying cash for anyone painting dildos. However, her call to action was to design a dildo you would like to see manufactured. Street said she supplemented conversational sessions with canvas and paint.
Playing to the Debased
Meanwhile, there is the other portion of painters that have lost their dignity, kindness, and homes because of their practices. My source told of artists who lost everything for their dabbling in the trade. Some have shifted into the residential spiritual communities for refuge.
Outside the Main Scene
As for the underground galleries, sales, and markets, I am clueless. However, I heard about people who sell outside of the gallery scene and do well. At one point in the mid-90s, I learned about the push for giclee prints in the African American art community. The concern seemed to be to decentralize art sales to make them more accessible to the public that would rarely go to a gallery or a museum. Multilevel marketing strategies come to mind as well as taking the stance to hawk small original works. I am also told underground galleries travel. In other words, they look for artists as well as locations to sell.
A significant part of the underground art trade may exist outside of pornography and snuff films. Yet, what could be that sensitive to survive far outside of the common market? Other than graffiti, there must be types of collections outside the sex and theft mix that pull strong interest out of any community. Until I figure that out, I am tabling the question as to where to sell my wares for another night.
As ever, stay hungry and curious, ~N.A. Jones
FYI: Currently, I am in the middle of five new series and one quilt. I realize I am taking time off, but the bug hit me after a few months of rest and writing. Friends and interested parties are giving me two years to finish. By then I may have a better idea how to prepare for a show/representation/etcetera. As is my mark, the works are a combination of collage, assemblage, and mixed media. However, with a series of birds, I will be using acrylics and/or gouache.