Majority of people consider any type of art to be just a hobby and nothing more. Turning art into a business is considered risky and unstable but, some attempt to make a living out of it and others succeed. Andy Warhol once said "Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art." (Dreishpoon, 2013). A platform that allows creativity and commerce to co-exist and for art to be business and vice versa is Etsy. Etsy was created in 2005 and has over forty million members which include more than one million sellers that sell handmade or vintage items (Krugh, 2014). While Etsy is a growing platform that provides artists with a creativity outlet and an opportunity to
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This is a constant inner fight, because artists want their art to sell but sometimes their believed value is in disagreement with the buyer’s. Keeping in mind Andy Warhol’s idea that selling art is an art form in itself, pricing art encompasses many elements like the market’s demand, expenses, size, artist’s believed value and the status of the creator (O’Neil, 2008). According to Kathleen O’Neil (2008), the market’s demand plays the biggest role and the latter are secondary influences. Through research, there is no single approach to pricing art (O’Neil, 2008). Some artists have a set formula and others use the help of their surrounding community to seek out advice and opinions which O’Neil (2008) labels “pricing parties”. As a result of creativity and commerce colliding, another tension arises which is the creation of art that will attract consumers and will still contain the artist’s heart and soul. One seller had to change all her products in order to fit a trend and continue being in demand (Kuhn, & Galloway, 2015). Finding a niche and staying in it can be difficult especially in the Etsy community where sellers want to maintain their originality but at the same time can see each other’s work and easily copy (Kuhn, & Galloway, …show more content…
Artisans create a brand that includes themselves, their art and their ideas to continue being in demand (Krugh, 2014). They label their products as “handmade” in order to clearly differentiate themselves from similar products that are mass-produced and to remind consumers of the work they have put in each of their creations (Krugh, 2014). The personalisation of each item is what appeals to consumers and staying authentic is part of the brand (as cited in Krugh, 2014). Creating what the customer wants is not enough, there has to be a story involved so the product can sell and feel specials (as cited in Krugh, 2014). That is not always possible since artists cannot always create what pleases them, finances come into play which force them to create what the buyer wants just to earn some money even if they are not happy with the
This is a constant inner fight, because artists want their art to sell but sometimes their believed value is in disagreement with the buyer’s. Keeping in mind Andy Warhol’s idea that selling art is an art form in itself, pricing art encompasses many elements like the market’s demand, expenses, size, artist’s believed value and the status of the creator (O’Neil, 2008). According to Kathleen O’Neil (2008), the market’s demand plays the biggest role and the latter are secondary influences. Through research, there is no single approach to pricing art (O’Neil, 2008). Some artists have a set formula and others use the help of their surrounding community to seek out advice and opinions which O’Neil (2008) labels “pricing parties”. As a result of creativity and commerce colliding, another tension arises which is the creation of art that will attract consumers and will still contain the artist’s heart and soul. One seller had to change all her products in order to fit a trend and continue being in demand (Kuhn, & Galloway, 2015). Finding a niche and staying in it can be difficult especially in the Etsy community where sellers want to maintain their originality but at the same time can see each other’s work and easily copy (Kuhn, & Galloway, …show more content…
Artisans create a brand that includes themselves, their art and their ideas to continue being in demand (Krugh, 2014). They label their products as “handmade” in order to clearly differentiate themselves from similar products that are mass-produced and to remind consumers of the work they have put in each of their creations (Krugh, 2014). The personalisation of each item is what appeals to consumers and staying authentic is part of the brand (as cited in Krugh, 2014). Creating what the customer wants is not enough, there has to be a story involved so the product can sell and feel specials (as cited in Krugh, 2014). That is not always possible since artists cannot always create what pleases them, finances come into play which force them to create what the buyer wants just to earn some money even if they are not happy with the