“Work for hire” is a provision of the US Copyright Act intended as a narrow exception to the general rule that the artist or author who actually creates the work owns the copyright to it.” *

Why is this important to you? Well, if you read the previous post about the contentious matter of copyright infringement, it is very important.

The right to reproduce or copy your work belongs solely to you, the artist.  And this right affords you one of the most valuable assets that you may ever own, your intellectual property.

The “work for hire” provision gives ownership to the employee or the party who commissions an artist’s work.  This provision leaves the artist with no rights whatsoever.

If there is a traditional employment situation, such as an artist who is an employee or freelancer, this arrangement may be very well justified.

But here’s the important point, this arrangement must be verified in writing and signed by both parties to be legal.

An employer can’t just throw it into the mix later.  And just because employers do, it doesn’t make it right or legal.

So here’s a word to the wise: some employers will try to assert a “work for hire” contract after the fact.  If so, hold your ground.  Understand and maintain your rights.

The problem with too many “work for hire” arrangements is that artists lose valuable resources of future income and control over their images and reputations.

Read your contracts carefully for “work for hire” provisions that attempt to circumvent copyright law.

Note, my fine art business involves exclusively commissioned based work.

My contract very clearly stipulates that I retain all rights to my intellectual property.

I also put my patrons on notice that all works will be registered with the Library of Congress so that I can exercise the right to recover the maximum damages allowed by law.

 *Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines published by the Graphic Artists Guild.

Today I had lunch with a dear friend, let’s call him Steve, who is currently mediating a dispute between two dear friends who also are also doing business together.

One friend, let’s call him Collin, is an extraordinarily talented photographer.

The other friend, let’s call him Mathew, learned photography from his naturally talented friend Collin.

Now Collin, although he’s a gifted creative talent, doesn’t exactly excel in the business and marketing departments, just yet.

Matthew on the other hand is much more of a marketing kind of guy and knows how to hustle for gigs.

So the story starts with these two friends wanting to help each other. “The path to….”

Collin teaches Matthew the craft of photography then Matthew starts getting great gigs for Collin. Cool.

Now Matthew has developed a company that has a nice stable of photography talent that he’s representing.

Unfortunately Matthew has developed this company without taking the time to gain an understanding of international copyright law and ethical business practices.

Why?  He is using the images of photographers that he represents without giving them credit and “without” a written licensing agreement that stipulates this.  Bad move.

Not only legally and ethically but personally it’s just wrong. And he is alienating his dear friend and mentor Collin.

Why?  Well, Matthew is asserting that he just wants to control his photography company’s brand.

“Look here Collin, I’ve brought you so much business.  Why are you not forever grateful?” says Matthew.

When Steve told me this story I immediately called bullshit.  Come on dude.  You want to operate a business, know the law.

Credit lines are not only standard fair practice, what control over the brand is Matthew really gaining by not giving credit where it is due?

Let’s just be real.  What Matthew is really afraid of is that clients are going to go around him and work with the photographers directly and he’ll loose his piece of the action.

This is a scarcity point of view and just because he’s representing them he is not entitled to all of their revenue.

Here’s the thing.  Copyright, the right to reproduce, belongs soley to the creator. That’s it.  If they want a credit line, fork it over.

You can no more help yourself to someone’s intellectual property than you can help yourself to the contents of someone’s purse.  You must gain permission, in writing.  It’s called a licensing agreement.

I wouldn’t care how much business someone was bringing me, if they forced this type of arrangement I’d tell them to take a flying frickin’ leap.

“If you curse the rich, you’ll never be one of them.” -Rev. Ike

I recently posted this quip from Revered Ike on the Artists Who THRIVE Face Book page and it received a bit of backlash.

That bitter backlash, typically born of feelings of failure, didn’t really surprise me. That backlash just reminded me of another one of my favorite quotes.  This quote from Oscar Wild is one that artists who curse the rich should keep in mind, “When bankers get together for dinner, they talk about art.  When artists get together for dinner, they talk about money.”

Obviously the artist and the patron have a symbiotic relationship as patrons of the arts are generally wealthy and artists, not so much.

I know that there are exceptions to every rule so please just hold your commentary.

If you curse the relationship between the artist and the patron, I can guarantee you that you’ll jack up your prospects of being an artist who successfully sells their work.

If you embrace wealthy patrons, like I have, I know that you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  Why?

Because the fact is that over 95% of the wealth earned in this country was produced by self-made folk who come from middle class upbringings.

Luxury Marketing surveys and my experience confirms:

• that these wealthy folks are generally rooted in their middle class values
• they’re pretty grounded and down to earth so they have a finely tuned BS meter
• and they are charitable not only with their money but also with their time

Revered Ike and Oscar Wild speak the truth.  Don’t be a hater.  Let the truth set you free.

“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. “Which road do I take?” she asked. “Where do you want to go?” was his response. “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”" — Lewis Carroll

Coming across this quote was very timely.  I had just received a message from a young artist that I coached.  I met her at an Artists Who THRIVE seminar in Berkeley sponsored by the Small Business Development Center.

She was struggling.  She had artistic talent and drive but she had no direction.  My counsel to her was that she must know what she wants so that she could decide what direction to take her life.

We had to start with where she was.  She knew she wanted to celebrate her culture and that she wanted to express and refine her artistic talent.  But that knowing was too vague to provide her with direction.  She had to commit to a SMART goal and take action.  She did.  And here was her message to me.  But it may be a message to you.

Dear Ann,

I’d like to thank you for helping me create one of the best years of my adult life.

If you recall, you coached me for six months at the beginning of this year in which I went through ups and downs, I learned to create a dream map, a SMART goal, and an action plan….

Well the action plan didn’t fully happen as planned, and my SMART goal changed, but I stayed true to myself and did what I could to realize my ambitions.

I just returned from a five-month journey through Eastern Europe, (mostly Ukraine) and brought back a new set of skills, amazing experiences, new relationships, inspiration, and my best work yet!

I can honestly say that I had the best time on my life!

Not only because I got to travel and paint for 9 to 16 hrs a day, but also because some of the images on my dream map actually came to life.

Yet perhaps the biggest reward is the feeling of freedom and empowerment after I learned to pursue art projects that were true to me and yet at the same time they were beyond myself, projects that would bring value not only to me, but to my potential clients, my community, and my cultures.

Thank you for teaching me to dream big and for warning me that failure is inevitable.

I failed many times toward and during this journey, but now as I reflect back, lessons from failures and disappointment led to new opportunities and pathways.

I am excited to be back, to continue to clarify my dreams and goals, to fail and to continue creating my own path of creative freedom while inspiring others to live fully and pursue their own dreams.

Below are a few photos from my journey. Thank you again and I look forward to staying in touch with you in the upcoming years.

All the very best!

Nataliya Tyaglo
Independent Artist

I rarely tip toe into discussions about the quality of an artist’s work.  There are plenty of talented art teachers whose full time job it is to do just that.

I never offer to critique an artist’s work. Even though I’m asked allllll the damn time.

Why do striving artists ask me?  Because they want me to assure them that there is a market for their work and I can’t tell them that.

Because even if there is a market for their work, there is no way of knowing that they’ll be willing and able to develop it.

I’d really need to critique the artist’s business and marketing plans.  And typically they don’t have those.

The only way to know if there is a market for an artist’s work is to know that they can produce it AND that they are willing to pursue that market like a rabid crazed entrepreneur.

If I were to critique an artist’s work I would look at three elements.

1. Do they have serious talent?
2. Is their work original or just a copy of someone else’s style?
3. Is their art clearly identifiable and consistent and easy to differentiate from other art?

Think of the music you dig.  Doesn’t a successful musician’s music possess these three elements?

Here’s the part where I set you free.  Come on now.  You can dig deep and answer these questions.  You know if you have serious talent. You can see it.  You can feel it.
We’ve all been influenced by other artists but are you making original work not just making copies?

• Have you found your voice?
• Do you have a message you are clearly communicating and therefore your style stands out?
• Are you consistent?
• Can you produce or do you have just a handful of work?

Well then.  If the answer is yes to 1-3 and the bullets above, then establish or pursue your market.

If the answer to the above is no, then don’t quit your day job. It’s cool to, and completely respectable to, make art for art’s sake.

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”-- Stephen King

These quips of wisdom are nothing that most of us don’t already fully realize.

It’s just useful to be reminded every now and then so that we can consider whether or not we are running our lives according to this wisdom.

So yes talent is important but without hard work it means little.

But there is a vital third component that they don’t even bother to teach you in art school.  It is not only vital to an artist’s success, it is vital to an artist’s very survival. What’s that?  A market.  It’s talent, hard work, and a market.

Art schools argue that they are not business schools and so at best they glance or skip over this subject.

At worst, condescending art professors degrade the very notion that an artist even needs a market and label pursuing one as “selling out.”  Whatever the heck that means!

This leaves the majority of art students completely disoriented and later disillusioned.

Here’s what’s real.  It’s incredibly expensive to attend the top rated art schools.  My alma mater, The Cleveland Institute of Art, is currently charging over $50,000 a year. Yet only 20% of experienced professional artists will be lucky to make $20,000 from their art.

The admissions application should disclose that somewhere around seven years after graduation 90% of fine art majors aren’t even making any art anymore, never mind selling it.

So even though artists just spent a serious fat wad of money on tuition, or their hopeful parents did, and they may have tremendous student loan debt that they’ll never escape, 9 times out of 10 their art career is totally screwed within 7 years of graduation.

I can hear it now.  But I don’t know how to define a market for my art work.  I know! I didn’t either but I learned and that’s why I started Artists Who THRIVE.

Because not only did I get tired of hearing artist’s frustrations about establishing a market, I frankly tired of the general perception that artists can’t possibly wrap their pretty little heads around all this business mumbo jumbo.  F that!  Yes you can!

And guess what, you should.  Why?  Because people are still buying art.  Yes.  I know.  It’s a fact that we are just grasping for air from a major economic recession and all categories of luxury have declined significantly.

Except one.  Which one?  You guessed it. Fine art.  The “market” for fine art sales actually increased during the recent recession.

So wipe your tears and get crackin’.   Take charge.  Learn everything you can.  Gather positive and intelligent influences around you and drop the rest.  You can’t afford to be around nay sayers.

Apply yourself to the business of art as you did to mastering painting or drawing.

Reality TV shows like American Idol or Scouted about models gaining instant fame, feed an unrealistic fantasy that an artist’s success could be offered in one instant.

In fact, we all know that success will be earned over time with as many opportunities as you can cultivate and satisfy.

When I coach or consult with creatives I always tell them, “No one is coming to save you, no one is going to discover you. So get very clear on your SMART goal and then build and maintain an Action Plan to get there.”

I know.  I’ve been featured in the national media.  And although it can give one some street cred it doesn’t necessarily result in a wind fall of sales.

I also know how to get things done, that have not been done before, within a certain time frame.

My last straight job, seven years ago, was as a project management consultant.

This is one transferable skill that comes in very handy from my years dwelling in a corporate cubicle.

A SMART goal may be, “I’m so happy that in 2012 my art sales exceeded $80,000.”

What is required of successful artists is the faith and the fortitude to claim and then create what they want by taking constant action.

However big or small it may seem, stretch and heed the Greek sage Epictetus “First say to yourself what you would be; then do what you have to do.”

Fame comes from a lot of  media exposure.  And Public Relations is an important marketing strategy for all small businesses, but you really can’t control it.  You can only control planned and measured efforts towards a SMART goal.

Epictetus taught us that suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power.  So what I can control, what is within my power, is keeping a list of potential media opportunities and contacting so many every week.  My SMART goal is to, have 3 or more favorable national press spots in 2012.

By striving consistently, it eventually pays off.  This is the key lesson.  Success is incremental.

“No one is coming to save you, no one is going to discover you.”

We all know of the artist who is the wife of a rich man or the kept creative of someone or another.

There’s a common myth that if you are going to be a successful artist you’ll need a sugar daddy or mama to keep you going financially as your build your list of collectors.

Well, my sugar daddy never showed up. Not that I was ever looking for him or that I would have even wanted him if he did arrive.  I wanted to create art and create a profitable business.  They are both vital expressions of my creative self.

My good friend Tamar Gellar, famed dog trainer to the celebrities, and NYT best-selling author, often quotes her mentor Tony Robins who says, “You don’t have to be rich, you just have to be resourceful.”  This is soooo very true.

This January will mark the start of my sixth year in business. Six years ago this month, I moved to San Francisco to start painting full time.  This place is one of the most, if not the most, expensive cities in the nation.  A zany move. I know.

Tamar’s reminder about resourcefulness made me recall some of the ways I intially secured resources.

First, this artist took care of her body.

I ran on the beach in front of my live/work studio every day.  I was stressed with the effort required to shape a profitable business painting.  So I knew that I could either let that build up in my body or channel the energy in a healthy way while breathing in clean ocean air.

Then she took care of her mind.

I audited a class for free in biofeedback at San Francisco State University and later practiced neuro-feedback.  Why?  Because I learned that star athletes and performing artists used this to gain states of optimal performance.  I knew that to succeed I needed to be on my A game and be prolific in order to be profitable.

So that I could take care of business.

I tapped all of the resources that I could at the Small Business Development Center.  They offer free or low cost support to small businesses.  Although I created my Blue Ocean Strategy, with the help of a good friend, the SBDC helped me learn more about operating a profitable business.

Note, none of the above cost anything.  I wasn’t rich.  I was just resourceful.  And I was very clear on my SMART goal.

You are chasing an aimless target if you are trying to appeal to the masses.  Successful artists appeal to a specific target.

There are no musicians famous for both their classical and country performances.

You know, the bull’s eye in the middle of the target.  Try to hit the whole thing and you’ll hit nothing.

Successful artists create a consistent body of work, and have a unique voice that offers a value to a target market.  Once they have gained a reputation in a specific space they can broaden their efforts.  This is marketing 101.

I first established a reputation as the “Wine Country It Girl” by creating strategic partnerships with prominent wineries.  I created several series of vineyard paintings.

Since then I’ve branched out and painted the aspens in snow, private gardens, and ranches.  With each of these new series my artistic approach remains the same, it’s only the demographic market profile that has changed.

Before I made these shifts into other markets, I first had to establish a reputation and gain recognition in one space.  This was a deliberate and targeted effort.

So if you think your art must appeal to the masses, think again.  And ask yourself, on what authority did your receive this information?  Who are the “masses?”

The good news is that you should first please yourself.  Then you are much more likely to please a few others.

You can’t and you don’t want to please everyone.  Be true to thyself, create with passion, heart, and authenticity.  This will increase your chance of success.

Remember, the work of copycats is dead on arrival.  Even if a copycat artist’s work is superb it will first compared to the more creative artist’s previous success.

To quote Comedian Bill Cosby “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

As I go about my daily life in business as an artist, I encounter a number of myths.  These common mis-perceptions about artists are so pervasive that I thought they deserved their own series of posts.

I thought it would be particularly instructive to share these myths on Artists Who THRIVE because a lot of these false legends come from artists themselves.

So let’s address the first myth,“artists must suffer for their art.”

Are you kidding?  Really?  Suffering is optional.

Now, I get it.  If you are struggling financially and or creatively, you will suffer.  I know.  I’ve been there.  I didn’t paint or draw a single thing for over seven long years.  During this time I developed severe anxiety and chronic clinical depression.  Notice.  I wasn’t an artist then.  I wasn’t expressing myself and that was one of the main reasons why I was suffering.

The depths of those feelings certainly inform my painting today.  And that is the silver lining in the very dark cloud I lived in for years.  But had I not focused my full attention and energy on improving emotional health and finding my artistic voice, I would certainly have continued to suffer.

Just ask yourself.  How would suffering support you in any way to be a thriving artist and entrepreneur?  Really.

Art is no doubt about feeling.  It is emotive, not literal.  Suffering transformed can inspire.  But there are healthy boundaries between your creative focus and your business enterprise.

The successful artists that I know are certainly not suffering nor are they horribly dysfunctional. I meet a lot of successful entrepreneurs.  Most of my collectors are self-made.  The successful artists that I know are just as, if not more, enterprising.

These successful artists are marketing savvy. These artists are also keen on maintaining a healthy life work balance and I find them to be generous and highly intelligent.  Is that a profile of the mythical suffering artist?  I think not.