I've always thought it would be cool to get paid to make the things I want to make. I've had very limited success in selling things I make, especially the movies. I sold some (like 10) at the zinefest, but that's all. And even though I make most of the things in my movies out of trash or cheap things from thrift stores, the expenses still add up. I think I spent $4 (and 4 months) on making Snowfakes, but just buying and developing the film for Dreamboat cost probably $200. Maybe more. With travel expenses and craft supplies added up, this golden retriever movie is bound to be the most expensive yet. So obviously I can't expect my friends to support these movie-making ventures by buying a dvd for $7, because it's not happening. Not that I expect all of you to buy one. I totally understand that everyone is broke and unemployed. I too am broke and unemployed (although I start my job on Friday) and wouldn't really want to spend $7 on anything. I'm glad that people enjoy my movies even if they don't want to give me money for them. And even though I've gotten recognition from galleries and even a museum and have been honored to show my work at such places, I haven't made any money off of it. (Unless you count $2.50, which was made at a fundraising event. Round trip bus fare is $3.) But, unfortunately, money is something I need in order to make movies. So... maybe I can get a grant?
My art isn't about social issues or women with cancer or multi-culturalism. It's just about making people happy. If there are grants that want to fund things like that, I have yet to find them. It does seem like there should be such things within the thousands of grants that exist, so maybe I just need to spend more time investigating lists of 19,000 grant opportunities to find them.
I'm also having a problem, as someone who has essentially never been paid for or spent much money on my artwork, with the idea of requesting what seem like huge sums of money. When you're seeking funding, you have to include "artist's fees" in the amount you request. Which is really cool, because it means you get paid for the time you spend making art and that you get to pay the people who help you. That's what I want. I understand that my time is valuable, but it's the kind of thing I don't know how to put a price on. One bag of stuffing and a yard of velcro, $7. One dvd, $7. One joke book about sea creatures, $1. Those are easy. Three days spent painting a cigar box to look like a black lacquer box with golden bone details? I have no idea.
Another difficult aspect of applying for funding is the timing. I enjoy making plans. I wrote down almost the entire sequence of Snowfakes before I took a single photo. But then I started taking photos the next day. After applying for a grant it generally take 6 months to hear whether they've decided to fund you or not. Knowing generally what I'm going to do before I start work is not such a big deal, but making a plan and getting all excited about it and then waiting six months before working on it seems almost excruciating.
But obviously, I'm going to try it. Because maybe I can get $10,000 and make the best movie ever!
2 comments:
Right on. I use free paper and pens that someone once gave me a very large quantity of but still, special materials do add up and I make virtually no money... not to mention I hate having to consider awkward practicalities such as pricing. Which is why now I defer all inquiries to my unpaid de facto manager, my husband. It's certainly not about making piles of money, obviously, but it would be nice not to have to work a stultifying desk / waitressing job in order to fund what really interests and engages us (not to mention living expenses). I applied for a grant once and got rejected and because I'm extremely easily discouraged I haven't tried again... I just feel that there aren't really grants for people like us, who work on a literally quite small scale. I don't wanna make no corporate public sculpture...
I get discouraged really easily, too. And then Channing lectures me about how I'm good at doing things and people like me and it makes me want to try again.
I think it's important to remember that there are tons of organizations giving out grants, and they're pretty much all looking for different things, so if you don't qualify for one it doesn't mean you'll never get a grant. And even if the place you applied to thought your work was terrible (which is unlikely) everyone has different taste, so there's likely to be someone else who would give you a pile of cash for it. I also learned that it can be really valuable to call and talk to the grant officer if you get rejected, to get feedback on what they were looking for that you didn't have, which can help you in the future.
And, in my small amount of research so far, I've definitely seen grants awarded for gallery shows, which maybe just pay for getting frames and advertising. And that's pretty small-scale, but would also be immensely helpful to someone like me who couldn't otherwise afford to buy a frame except from a thrift store.
So, I think you should try again.
Post a Comment