Conversations

Apologies for the potentially lengthy post .... but here's some thoughts I've had since my recent group tutorial and Interim Crit... 

Nick questioned me around the pricing of my cards; if a bespoke, handmade card was to take me a full day or more - as my Russian Doll birthday card did - how would I go about charging the client for my work? As advised by the Arts Council, it wouldn't be frowned upon to charge at least £180 for a days work as a freelance art graduate. Putting this into perspective, it seems mad that I could charge so much for just a small card, which initially, I said I'd probably charge about £6 for considering the making time in comparison to my usual little cake-themed textiles pieces. But when I then take into account the brief; to design and make a card with a theme of Russian Dolls; it's something I've not done yet, therefore I needed to research designs, styles and ideas for inspiration, possibly make some samples, gather a range of materials and eventually design my card and produce it from scratch.
Nick suggested if this happened in future when completing costs for clients, I could offer a discounted rate if the client were happy for me to reuse the design I had created, saving me time for future familiar projects; or alternatively offer a completely unique and personal design purely for the single use of the clients brief, but only for a higher rate than the previous.

This all started to make more sense to me, but Hayley understandably said she wouldn’t buy a card for as much as £100, and couldn't imagine that anyone else would either. This, I think gives perfect reason for me to pursue my interests in ceramics and bespoke, handmade pieces, as much as my smaller handmade cards and simpler designs for other clients. It gives me a good balance to realistically consider a sustainable professional practice during/following my degree.
This query also made me question if people can appreciate my work for what it is, and how much time, skill and effort really goes into it. So, by pushing my practice and considering applying my style to other materials and in effect, ‘branching out’ from my cards to ceramics, house hold items, upholstery, I can hopefully show what I'm capable of and justify that my skills don't just hold to sewing and card making.

This in turn made me worry that I have no point of contact for others to get in touch with me or see my range of work. I need some means of promotion or recognition of my work, not just through this blog. I feel ideally, I need to produce a website that covers the scale of my work, includes a CV and some information about how and why I work the way I do. This will be difficult to complete before the close of the AVC project, and if I don't manage to progress with it, then it's on the top of my list for the FMP.

The main question that came about my work and professional practice in the Interim Crit was for me to understand whether Art therapy is the right path to follow, or if I hold more of an interest in community art/educational workshops. A general question posed to everyone over the morning was to be clear on our 'intentions' as practitioners - where can we see ourselves in ? months time... and what is therefore necessary now for us to reach these goals. My lack of a full understanding between community art and art therapy, and the crossovers between the two areas proves that I need to gain as much first hand experience as possible to help overcome this. Again, as the end of the brief draws near, this is something that I feel is a consistent background area of research that will continue through my FMP and help in my decisions for life after VisCom.

Finally, Rachel, an art teacher from Wakefield High Security Prison, gave a really great insightful talk about education in such a difference circumstance this morning. Most significantly for me, she brought about ideas of psychology/psychiatry/education/art and links into her work. Rachel touched upon her reading into Art Therapy and realising it wasn't a really a relevant link for art education in the prison, and so she decided against an art therapy course. This first hand understanding of the different reasoning behind therapy and education reflected the questions that came about in my crit, and pushes me further to try to understand where I stand in the therapy and/or community art area.