Transcription
A gallery asked me to do a solo show with this sculpture as the highlight. That sounded awesome, but then I ran the numbers and things got complicated.
Say I make 10 sculptures in 6 months for these wood sculptures. That's a tight schedule. But let's say I pull it off and sell all of them at $10,000 each. That's $100,000, right? Well, not so fast. Galleries take 50% leaving $50,000. International shipping and insurance is $1,000 each. That's $10,000. Studio rent and utilities $10,000. Materials $20,000. Travel to the opening $5,000. I'm down to $5,000. That's before taxes, paying myself or paying anyone to help in the studio.
This is the math that even very well-known artists quietly face. A lot of artists treat this as the cost of exposure. For them, it's a legitimate trade. But that entry price slowly starts to define what gets made. The alternative is to invest it into research and development forms that shouldn't be possible in wood. Outdoor sculptures built to last generations. Remarkable things are what earn exposure now.
So this sculpture isn't going to a show. It's right here in your feed.