ART/WORK - a practical reference book for both artists and photographers who are starting out
Just wanted to recommend a wonderful resource book to fellow artists who already know they love art and love creating art but still have about a hundred thousand questions about how literally everything ELSE works. I’ve been in your shoes (in fact, I’m still in your shoes, I just know a little more now, I hope). I’ve read through many, many informational books that are either just too vague or are too narrow in scope. So after having waded through all that rigmarole I thought I’d save everyone some time and recommend one book that I think would be a great place to start: Art/Work: Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Art Career by Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber.
It gives both a through survey of the art world as a whole, including what you need to do if you’re interested in pursuing a certain avenue, as well as some practical and actionable advice as far as staying organized, keeping good records, pricing, resume/CV, how to package your works to mail off, etc. etc. etc.
Of course, it does not cover everything under the art world’s great big sun (nothing does or ever will), but it’s a darn good road map and a darn good starting point. So instead of standing in a thick fog, not being able to see beyond your own ten fingers, at least you can now see various roads laid out ahead of you, including all the bumps and pot hole. And hopefully it can help you to make a better decision as to which directions you might be interested in exploring more.
Photographers, I know you’re probably wondering if this book would be any good for you since it isn’t specifically about photography: ABSOLUTELY. I know we still get the side-eye sometimes, but photographers ARE artists. It covers so much basic and practical information of what being an artist involves and what the greater art world is like, that it automatically will be of value to anyone that’s creating art. With that being said, however, there is a bonus book that I’d like to recommend to photographers: Crusade for Your Art: Best Practices for Fine Art Photographers by Jennifer Schwartz. Many practical and good advice for photographers in the book, unfortunately, there are also still some gaps of knowledge in there. Luckily, reading ART/WORK should fill in most of them.
Hopefully this will be helpful to someone, somewhere, out there. Good luck!
Great resource for artists!
Great resource for photographers :)