{"id":34308,"date":"2003-05-11T16:14:25","date_gmt":"2003-05-11T22:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=34308"},"modified":"2016-07-04T11:58:44","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T17:58:44","slug":"reality-check-the-cost-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/reality-check-the-cost-of-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Reality Check: The Cost of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

(this summer we’re going back through some of our archived material, cleaning it up and making sure it is all on this site; we came across this article, published in the May 2003 edition of 15 Bytes; it’s fairly simplistic and would need to be updated for 2016, but the point of the article is still fairly striking)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

“Why is art so damn expensive?!”<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Apart from the obvious answer \u2014 that artists are the most important tier of society, providing the community the lens with which to look upon their souls, and should be appropriately compensated for their all-important work \u2014 we decided to examine this proverbial question and see if we couldn’t find an answer or two.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

WHAT AN ARTIST MAKES <\/b>
\nWe’ve tried to create a scenario to describe an average Utah artist attempting to make a modest living, selling at conservative prices. \u00a0With what they ask for their work, are they really starving?<\/p>\n

Let’s assume that our artist \u2014 let’s name him Pablo Kinkade \u2014 has the aim of making a net income, before taxes, of $35,000 a year. \u00a0Livable, but by no means extravagant.<\/p>\n

Pablo works full time producing his work, which means he sells through a gallery rather than self-promotion. The gallery takes a 50% commission on his work. They sell his work at the rate of $1,000 for a 24″ x 30″ oil on canvas (a price we think you’ll find about average for a local artist).<\/p>\n

For each 24″ x 30″ painting, Pablo earns $500.<\/p>\n

Our question: At this rate, how many paintings must Pablo produce and sell in a year to be able to earn $35,000 before taxes? <\/i><\/p>\n

Pablo works at least 40 hours a week for an average of 11 months, taking into consideration vacation and sick time. He is principally a studio artist, and thus does not have great costs for travel. He produces original artwork only. He buys standard rather than expensive materials. He does not frame his artwork.<\/p>\n

Pablo’s costs<\/b>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Studio rent\/expenses<\/span><\/td>\n\n
$300\/month $3600\/year<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Frederix gallerywrap canvas 24″ x 30<\/span>“<\/td>\n\n
$18.00\/each x 100 = $1,800 <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lukas studio oil colors
\n200 ml tubes <\/span><\/td>\n		\n
$12 x 20\u00a0 = $240 <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brushes<\/span><\/td>\n\n
$100 <\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
Linseed oil, varnish turpenoid, etc <\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
$95<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sketch pad, pencils, charcoal, etc<\/span><\/td>\n\n
$65<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
Private Health Insurance<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
$300\/month $3600\/year<\/span> <\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Misc expenses<\/span><\/td>\n\n
$500<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total costs:<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/td>\n		\n
$10,000 <\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


\nTo net $35,000 before taxes, Pablo must make $45,000 in sales from art work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pablo receives $50<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is art so damn expensive?!”<\/p>\n

Apart from the obvious answer — that artists are the most important tier of society, providing the community the lens with which to look upon their souls, and should be appropriately compensated for their all-important work — we decided to examine this proverbiaal question and see if we couldn’t find an answer or two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,2671,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-15-bytes","category-personal-essay","category-visual_arts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/05\/Screen-shot-2016-06-29-at-4.29.06-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-15 18:07:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34308"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34363,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34308\/revisions\/34363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}