Sunday 23 September 2012

Making Commissioned Pieces for Clients

Feathers in the making...


I am presently working on a piece for a very good friend overseas. As I’m working on this, I cannot help but think of the surprising discomfort I find when I speak to artists about doing commissioned work.

Most artists seem so adamant about not doing any commissions at all or doing them only under great duress. I don’t believe I’ve heard anyone ever say they enjoy doing this kind of work. This gives me pause.

Why is this the case? The main reason seems to be the discomfort of the client having input into the work being done. The artist will usually not have total control over the projected work. This can go to the extreme, for if the client has a place they wish a painting for example, to hang,  they might ask that it be a certain colour to match the surroundings, possibly even demanding what the subject matter should be. This would be a completely custom type of work. In the end, the work could go back and forth till all is just right, probably degenerating into a huge level of frustration, and a range of negative emotions for the artist. This then complicates the relationship with the client and also, due to the negativity, affects the joy and the quality of work by the artist on the piece being created.

Long before it gets to the levels I’m suggesting the artist may conclude they don’t want to complete the piece with their name on it, for, in their opinion, for any variety of reasons it no longer represents them well as an artist.

So, in the end it becomes a bad experience for both the artist and the client.

Obviously, it seems there needs to be a lot of care taken by both parties in matching the right artist with the right client, their wishes and the project in mind. There needs to be an understanding by each of the other. I’m thinking, it’s a little like a marriage. Can we get along? What are our feelings about this and that? What do we have in common? How do we each handle money?

There has to be a period of “dating” to see if this will work. We have to get to know each other, and in the final end answer the question about, how many kids do we want? Who or how do we discipline them? What religion do we ascribe too? How do we dress them? And so on.

I am delighted to be making this piece for my friend. We know each other from a way back and both of us understand the arts. The dating period is over and a piece is in the making. I am very excited and pleased with the relationship and I am humbled that he has asked this of me. In the end it will be a gift for him, but it is also a gift “of the making” for me.

The scary part will be the shipping!

“Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.”
Ecclesiastes 4:9

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