Finding my voice as a critic, having a party, getting paid extra for great work… and still not covering expenses!
Best news first.
I feel like i’m actually making a contribution to the art/writing scene in Philadelphia, and on a national platform to boot. I write for Art Papers and Sculpture, both American print art magazines. I’ve been covering big group shows in museums/big grant funded gallery spaces for about 6 months for Art Papers, and just dared to pitch a review of a much smaller and more challenging show of web based art at Little Berlin. I also got my first three pitches to Sculpture accepted. Won’t reveal the later pieces, but my first is, again, writing on a small but hardworking/intelligent/daring collective space in the north of the city, Extra Extra.
Will post the reviews when they’re published later in the year. It is wonderful to have worked so hard to get my writing out there, and now to be able to showcase some of the best, under-reported work in the city. Feeling respected and like all this is worthwhile :)
More good news.
Mike and I had our housewarming party. Met some lovely people, and got to talk more with some artists, teachers, museum people and others. Beginning to feel at home here.
Getting paid (extra).
At the end of July I travelled to Brooklyn, NYC, to interview Australian photographic/mixed media artist Anna Reynolds. She’s awesome, with a vibrant practice and a fascinating life story. The article was for a small US-based print mag, Visual Overture, and the pay correspondingly modest ($50 for a 1000 word piece). Overall, it was a good experience, as Anna is a wonderful person to spend time with, and it gave me the chance to experiment with a descriptive feature write-up style, rather than the typical Q&A art mag interview style that I’m used to. I just received the payment (prompt = excellent!) with an additional $15 because the editor loved my piece so much. Despite still representing a tiny sum per word, it meant a lot that my good work was noticed and appreciated.
But…
The $65 fee barely covered my basic expenses (travel from my home to the bus station $3; return bus trip to New York $35; lunch, coffee & late night snack in the city, at least $20; plus internet, phone calls and texts to organize and edit the article with Anna). To save cash next time, I would definitely bring a packed lunch and a flask of tea!
Of course, these expenses don’t take into account the 16-hour day I spent (enjoyed!) travelling and talking with Anna, and the 6 (also fun) hours it took to write up the feature.
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I hope this post has explained a little of why writers love to meet interesting new artists, but also why we “emerging” critics need artists to make the experience as comfortable as possible for us, because, like you, we’re overworked and underpaid. In fact, I wrote an advice piece (unpaid, haha) on that topic for the lovely site We Like Artists not long ago.
