A Good Thing to do With your Art

#286: open for a sneak peek of my upcoming book, a good idea, and a good podcast chat.

Dear reader,

Today’s post is a less common question I sometimes get from workshop participants. Less common but of enormous significance.

Hey Sneaky, what should I do with my art?

Maybe you draw or paint to satisfy your soul, feed a creative instinct, or pass idle time. If you are not trying to be a professional artist, selling art may not be a priority for you. So what can you do with all the art you make? Can it, and should it, have a destination?

My favorite answer to this question is something I love doing despite being in the business of selling art.

Hey person, you should give your art away.

In today’s post, why. Plus, a sneak-peek into my upcoming book, Make (Sneaky) Art.

When I first began to sell art, I was living in the town of Eau Claire, in Wisconsin (USA). Every Saturday morning of summer, I would set up a tent beside the local farmer’s market, from 6 am until noon. It was an experiment of sorts, because I had never sold art before. I wanted to know if I could sell my art, if the art could sell itself, and if anyone cared to buy them. I invited people to check out the prints, to pick up my sketchbooks, and flip through the pages. I wanted to see what would happen.

I learned that how people seek a connection with art, and that connection has little to do with the technical skill of the work, the quality of the product, or the name of the artist. I was offering cheaply produced prints of quick drawings for $5 to customers who told me, sometimes teary-eyed, how they had never thought of their park, their street, its lamp-posts, as being worthy of art. Until now.

As a fresh immigrant in that part of the world, these Saturday morning pop-ups helped me make friends, get my first commissions, and hear the stories of hundreds of people who had just come out to buy some cheese and vegetables.

You could say $5 is only $5, but the fact that those drawings have a place in someone else’s home, for months and maybe years to come, is an immeasurable honour and privilege.

Time for a quick sketch at the SneakyArt Stall of Phoenix Park Farmer’s Market (Eau Claire, WI) in the summer of 2018.

***

After moving to Vancouver, building a new base of clients became an important task. While I enjoyed making art of my new environment, the pressure of selling and thinking constantly about marketing took its toll on me. Social media added to this burden. Every time I went out to draw, I confronted two questions: If I draw this, will it sell? If I draw this, will it gets lots of likes?

I was disgusted because both questions pulled me away from myself. They demanded centre stage for formless, anonymous other people who would have the right to dictate my actions. Looking for a way out, for the first time in my life, I gave away a drawing.

I sat at a bench in late April, looking at a street intersection in the Kerrisdale neighbourhood of Vancouver, made a drawing, and behind it wrote - “Dear stranger, this drawing is for you.” I left it behind the bench, propped against a stone wall. I kept looking back at the drawing as I walked across the street, waited for my bus, boarded, and began to leave the intersection. I wondered who would find it. I wondered where it would go. Maybe it would get rained upon. Maybe no one would notice it. Maybe a dog would pee on it. Maybe it would go into the trash. There was so much I would never find out. The drawing was out there, in the chaos of the infinite universe. I had put everything into it for the duration of that half-hour and then let it go.

Renunciation is key to the Jain idea of nirvana. The drawing was free of me and I was free of it.

The first time I left a drawing for a stranger to find, April 2022.

***

So, here are two reasons to give your art away:

(1) Money is not the sole determinator of value. The value of art has little to do with how much it costs. It is good to remember this.

(2) You are not a slave to your own work, not even to your best work. Freedom is essential.

Sneak Peek

Whenever I get a new book, I like to flip through the pages from back to front. It is a habit since childhood, scavenging Reader’s Digest magazines every month for the jokes. So, when I thought about what would make a good sneak peek into my upcoming book, I thought of someone like me flipping the pages back to front.

Here are some pages from the last chapter of Make (Sneaky) Art, titled: What’s Next?

In Chapter 1, I explain what sneaky art is, how it began, and why it might be good to be sneaky in the pursuit of art.

If you like my art & words, and if you like having this newsletter in your inbox, you will love this book too. Tap the button for ways to preorder.

🎙️ [Listen] I spoke with David Speed on Creative Rebels about my winding journey to art, and how adulthood is a con.

💻 [Watch] I am doing a FREE webinar next week to demo techniques from my course - Draw the Tiny People of your World. If you are curious about this course and my drawing style, sign up!

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The SneakyArt Post is a newsletter of secretly drawn art of the world. Every week, I share the latest drawings from my sketchbook and the best ideas from my journey as an artist and writer.

Thank you for reading!