Imperiums campaign setting

[Falconius]

Max, to be fair, the attitude that art is cheap permeates art schools, so why should one expect it to turn out people who know the value of their work? When I was at university no one there expected to make money with art. This is an attitude reinforced from the top. As such no skills or experience is developed as regards to the monetization of work. Those artist who are essentially giving away their artwork are a result of this attitude combined with their desire to make art even if it isn't a 'well paid' activity. Professional trades in any other field tend to be paid well or they simply walk away from the job, and then you are left with a broken toilet or a hole in your wall until you scrounge up the dough. Yeah a vicious circle is right.

I would also add that the readily available mass produced objects and art that is indeed cheap due to the nature of production certainly helps depress the prices of original work. People never reckon what it took to make the original copy or mold or whatever where the cost is covered with the ability to sell 10,000 units.

[- Max -]

Max, to be fair, the attitude that art is cheap permeates art schools, so why should one expect it to turn out people who know the value of their work?

This is what makes difference between a student, or an amateur artist and a profesionnal artist. Sell your work cheap, people will ever buy it cheap, and you'll never be able to sell it at its real value. Each one can estimate his works, his own experience/skills, the time spent to produce it and therefore a rate value for all of that.

[Falconius]

This is what makes difference between a student, or an amateur artist and a profesionnal artist. Sell your work cheap, people will ever buy it cheap, and you'll never be able to sell it at its real value. Each one can estimate his works, his own experience/skills, the time spent to produce it and therefore a rate value for all of that.

I disagree to an extent. What makes a professional is a certain ability to repeatedly turn out work that meets a certain quality. When you can do that you can charge money for it since you are aware of the factors going in. But the ability to sell is an aspect of a salesman not an artist. Indeed most of the professors (credited with being professional artists) were there because they weren't making money with their art, yet, you also get artist who I would under no circumstances credit with the honorific of "professional" who do quite well making a name for themselves and living off proceeds resulting from their "art". This is more a reflection of a cultural perception of the value involved than it is a reflection of an individuals failings.

In the school I went to we had two streams, Design and Art (illustration was in the design stream I believe BTW). The attitudes regarding monetization couldn't be more pronounced. Design stream students were raised there with the expectation of landing a professional job with a company after graduation, the art stream students generally expected to find a different job in order to pay for their art. You can't tell me that year after year of artist nurtured thus are at fault for not being able to monetize themselves effectively after leaving school, against a culture that abhors actually having to pay for the work such art entails. The skills don't differ all that much between those art and design streams, the cultural attitudes associated with each do though.