In ‘Measuring Success’, Weintraub considers how success as an artist might be felt or measured. She acknowledges that it could mean quite different things to different people, dependant on their aspirations and possibly also the intentions in their work. She highlights that whilst we often associate success with positive outcomes, success of one sort may bring with it some negative aspects- ‘success can be a constant challenge to integrity’. She also points out that perhaps whilst our culture has adopted rulers of what it means to be successful- ‘wealth, power, and eminence’, it is within the power of the individual to ‘construct their own professional destinations’.
It has been useful to read this now as I approach the time to look back over the unit and consider my outcomes; I can see that there is a balance to be struck. It has been interesting that since my exhibition when I have spoken to people about it I have heard the enquiry, ‘How many did you sell?’ It is as if this is the ‘accepted’ measure of how successful it was. When I have tried to say that wasn’t the main purpose of the exhibition, I have been met with puzzled looks, as if to say ‘why else would you do it’. Having said that, I did sell some pieces and it did make me feel good and enhance the sense of worth in my work.
What was important for me was the feedback I received about the integrity of the work, but it becomes apparent that to keep making work and pursue the road of a professional artist, you do need to work out a means (financial or otherwise) to make it happen. I can see that what ever success might be, it is likely to be different things at different stages of your career. Weintrub lists possible measures of success- it’s definitely not ‘dinner at the white house’ or ‘the size of my bank account’, but I must admit to becoming a little obsessed with checking the ‘hits on my website’ via the stats tool and really excited by the results-
The best day on my blog had 143 hits, with 349 during the first week of my exhibition, and the best day on my website had 218 hits, with 514 hits during the first week of the exhibition. Overall the website has had more than 2000 hits, which in terms of people seeing my work feels huge.
As I start to review my progression through all 5 parts of this unit I shall try to bear in mind the many ways of considering success.
Weintraub, L (2003) Making contemporary Art: How Todays Artists Think and Work. Thames and Hudson, London (p352 – 401)
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