To me, specifically. Which might be different from societies’ idea of success.
Let’s start with why I make art. That’s easy – I don’t have a choice, it’s part of me, it is how I express myself, how I spend my days, and making is probably the time when I feel most myself. Much like the person next door who is an avid gardener. It’s part of their DNA, as it were.
So, at least in part, I judge my success on how well I perceive I have made an object. Arbitrary, of course, because that judgement depends on how positive I feel that day.
Maybe success is incremental. Today I felt I completed a sculpture, so that’s a success. Tomorrow I start again. Maybe then I won’t be as successful…? So success is achieving something that I have been trying to do.
I can say I am fortunate enough to be represented by several galleries. They are in the business of selling art so they must calculate their risk, and I have been deemed good enough for them to show my work. Is that a measure of success? Maybe a bit.
It isn’t about money. Firstly, I am not making art with an eye on the market. I do not pander to the current trend. Secondly, I do not make a living from my art. In this, I am not alone.
Only 9% of artists work full-time solely on their creative practice in 2024 (down from 23% in 2016), with the other 91% also undertaking arts-related work and non-arts work.1
So earnings from my practice cannot, must not be taken as a measure of success. Rather this is a symptom of how society values the arts, but that’s a different story with it’s own complexities.
Is it the judgement of my peers? Well I’m not sure, I’ve never asked. I feel that they acknowledge that I am successfully making things of artistic merit. Beyond that I wouldn’t know.
I saw an interview with Robert Plant where he talked about the trap of fame. I certainly don’t have that problem (chuckle), and I do not want fame, nor do I see it as a measure of success.
Is it the response I might receive on social media? No. Social media (Instagram and Facebook) is far too complex. I post an image of a sculpture I think has merit and receive 20 or 30 likes, which in comparison to others is nothing. But maybe they understand how to work with whatever today’s iteration of the algorithm is, or use a promotional tool. Maybe they are better-known than me. Maybe they are gregarious where I am shy. I don’t understand all the convolutions, and I don’t care. I post so those who follow me can see what I am doing, and as an easily-accessed online portfolio, of a sort. So my social media reach is not a measure of success.
So what gives me a sense of success? FIIK.
An artist cannot be a success – because success is the end. The moment you believe in it, you stop. You start chasing what worked before, living in the shadow of your own publicity. But art is movement. It is risk. It is the refusal to repeat. Stay unfinished. Stay searching.
James Baldwin
Does it matter?
Ultimately, in the only way that really matters NO. If no-one ever saw my work I would still make it. Making work, as I have said, is a part of me.
So why show it? Why put it in galleries? Is publishing work part of ‘the contract’ we have as artists? Does ‘publishing’ make the process of making art complete? Is showing my work an important step, some sort of validation perhaps?
We hear of people who spend their whole lives making art and no-one knows until after they die. One example is Vivian Maier – a photographer who was active in New York and Chicago from the 1950’s to 70’s and whose work was only found shortly before her death. Was she introvert enough to be perfectly happy without any publicity?
Maybe discretion enables a pure vision, not marred by societal expectations.
I think the gallery show is a celebration that marks the achievement of finishing a body of work. And the commitment to make it happen by the deadline.
Success? I have no definitive answer. All I know is ultimately, I just need to make work. And ‘success’, whatever it is, is ephemeral.
1 https://creative.gov.au/news/media-releases/major-report-shows-economic-conditions-for-artists/#:~:text=It%20is%20now%20harder%20than%20ever%20for%20artists%20to%20make%20a%20living%3A&text=Only%209%25%20of%20artists%20work,26%25%20below%20the%20workforce%20average