Art Marketing Blog

Making It: Case Studies of Successful Canadian Visual Artists, is my new book. It debuts this July at Opus and Chapters/Indigo.

My first book, Artist Survival Skills: How to Make a Living as a Canadian Visual Artist (2008), documented some business standards for Canadian visual artists. In this second book, I set out to celebrate some business practices that have significantly contributed to the development of a visual artist’s career. Each chapter may be about the entirety of a career or it may be about one aspect of a career. It is my hope that in these stories, you will find inspiration or a comfortable methodology to apply to your own practice.

The stories in Making It are not “how-to” stories, although some chapters provide specific directions. Rather, they are narratives intended to inspire and provoke you. These stories prove that the routes to success are many and varied. Each chapter is an interview with one or more artists. Making It contains interviews with twenty contemporary artists who have experience with various best practices in the visual arts. It was a wonderful and rewarding experience to meet these creative practitioners and to interview them.

I am extremely grateful to all the artists whose words are recorded in this book. Their willingness to share their professional experiences for the benefit of upcoming generations of Canadian visual artists is wondrous creative and intellectual philanthropy. If you read it, I sincerely hope that you find it as rich and insightful document as I do.