Empowered by Scrap

Artists are natural entrepreneurs. In general, they are innovative, enthusiastic, hard-working, highly intelligent, and resourceful. That last attribute is the subject of this post…resourcefulness.

Entrepreneurs come up with a great idea, then go out and find the resources or develop the capabilities to “make it happen.” Or, they look at what they already have available and find creative ways to use those resources/capabilities for some profitable end.

Let’s translate that into making art.

Fictitious Examples:

Idea > Resource - DIY Dancer falls asleep one night and dreams up a very innovative, but very expensive ballet. He wakes and decides it is paramount that he sees this ballet realized on stage. The only issue is he is broke, struggles to pay his rent as a coffee shop guy, has no prestigious experience or training, and just moved to a new city. He spends five years developing relevant resources and capabilities (e.g. experience working with ballet companies, training at a top notch school, building a strong network in the dance world, and finding accessible capital through grants) before he even sees the work-in-progress version of the ballet on stage.

Resources>Idea - DIY Sculptor says, “Okay, I would love to work in bronze ($3.00 per pound), but it is so expensive. Wood is cheap, but its a little too cheap for the type of sculpture I want to do. Stone is cool, but somewhat expensive ($2.25 per pound) and Isuck at carving stone. What do I have at my disposal? (Aha moment) Disposal! That’s it. I live in a pretty industrial area. What kind of metal is disposed of by these companies? ”

DIY Sculptor does a little research and finds that there are three manufactures that work with metal in her city. She asks the factory managers about their left over scrap metal. She doesn’t find anything too inspiring at the first two plants, but the third…bingo! Custom Tools Inc. melts metal and pours it into molds to make custom tools. As a consequence, they often spill liquid metal on the ground, which hardens in these amazing smooth, puddle-like shapes. They either discard the spilt metal or bulk-sell it for $.10 per pound. DIY Sculptor asks if she can come once a week and choose from the spilt metal before they sell or discard it, for the same price. The manager says, “H*ll, what do I care” (Resource). In art school, DIY Sculptor learned how to chemically alter the color of metal, chisel design, and solder (Capability). She starts to combine this found resource and her metal working capabilities to create some really interesting, creative and striking sculptures.

Great! What resources and capabilities does she have available to:

· make an important social statement with this work;

· get some visibility in the art world;

· and attract buyers and curators?

Well, after playing with the placement of the sculptures, she finds they are best displayed on the ground. They almost look like stepping-stones when laid out. Interestingly, they also look like still puddles, almost like hardened water. She meditates on stepping-stones and puddles for a long while, when she remembers her poet friend in college, who often referenced his family’s experience as captives of a Japanese internment camp in the 1940’s. Her friend said there were stepping-stones that led into the camp that symbolized the path to captivity for his family, and that his mother cried the first time she walked on those stepping-stones as a small child.

DIY Sculptor finds her old poet friend on FaceBook and guess what? The Poet’s mother is now the head of the Japanese Cultural Center of Northern California, which has over 13,000 sq feet of space right in the heart of San Francisco (one of the best visual arts communities in the country). They get in touch and talk about collaborating on an installation called, “Stepping-Stones of Tears.” They decide to lay a regular stepping stone path down in the Center’s garden, then have the path turn into the spilt metal stepping stones with a part of a poem carved into each piece, illustrating his mother’s tears on the steps as she entered years of internment.

The Poet’s mother is all for it and offers to fund the project as part of the Center’s Day of Remembrance activities, which draws very influential and wealthy members of the Japanese community .

This installation received excellent coverage in the San Francisco media, commanded the attention of some key art critics, and drew in some curious curators. At the end of the exhibit, a wealthy family purchased the work and donated it to the Center for permanent installation.

In this fictitious example, DIY Sculptor took a resourced-based view of her career, combined the resources and capabilities actually available in order to create competencies that gave her a distinct advantage in a niche art market.

How do you take a resource-based view of your situation?

Step 1: Identify your available resources and capabilities.

Brainstorm a list of physical things, places, skills, processes, attributes, information, knowledge, networks, people, and funds you have available to you right now. Again, this does not mean in your possession or in your skill set, but accessible to you in some way.

For Example - DIY Sculptor has skills in metal working, negotiation, and design; access to cheap scrap metal; the $.10 per pound in funds to purchase the metal; a computer; the internet; a FaceBook account; and a skilled poet friend with a mother in a key position at a cultural center.

Step 2: Identify how you can combine these resources and capabilities in a way that creates competencies.

List all the ways you are (or can be) competent at what you do, when combining your resources and capabilities.

For example – The DIY Sculptor is competent at making spilt metal art, making aesthetically pleasing design; making critical creative associations with socio-political relevancy, and maintaining valuable friendships.

Step 3: Identify your core competence.

Out of all these competencies, which is your core competency? The one that:

· provides a benefit to those who experience your work;

· is not easily imitated by other artists;

· and can be leveraged in all your work.

For example – DIY Sculptor’s work was good and her metal working skills were competent, but her core competency was her ability to make creative associations with socio-political relevancy. She demonstrated this when he saw the utility in the spilt metal as both a stepping-stone and puddle, with representation of an emotional story of injustice that still requires advocacy, healing, and awareness. This competency was a benefit to her audience. Also, it is not easily imitated by other artists, because she has already been “branded” in the art world as the artist that does spilt metal installations on socio-political issues in niche cultural/political communities. Any other artist doing this work would appear to be a copy-cat, which is unattractive in the art world. Finally, she can leverage this competency in future installations.

Step 4: Determine if this core competency is an advantage in your industry.

Are you more valuable to your audience, patron, or buyer because you are less expensive? Do you have some cost saver that will allow you to make money, even when charging less then other artists? Or, is your work so unique, innovative, or dynamic that no other artist can command interest in the same way? Or, is your work so tailored to the needs of a particular segment of the art (or performing arts) market that no one else but you is meeting those needs so precisely?

Step 5: Determine how you will obtain and integrate new resources and capabilities.

Once you begin to leverage you current set of resources and capabilities, you will gain access to new ones. You will also have to be pro-active in developing new skills and finding new assets.

For example – DIY Sculptor now has a “name” to leverage in the art world. However, that value will fade fast if she doesn’t build on it in a timely manner. Also, she now has more capital due to the sell of the installation. How will she leverage that to advance her career? Will she move to bronze? Will she buy more spilt metal for a high volume of similar installations? Will she learn to write poetry so she can do new installations, even when her poet friend is unavailable? Will she network with other poets to increase the range of poetry supply for her work? Will she see if some of her new contacts can help her partner with a “name” poet like John Ashbery or Saul Williams?

Although, I am not advocating the reigning in of your big dreams and large visions (especially since I always shoot for the stars; hoping to land on the moon), but I am offering another approach to unleashing your creativity and launching your career. It can be exciting to take stock of what you actually have available to you, it may surprise you. Sometimes we can be so busy thinking about what we don’t have, that we fail to see the value in what we do have. For artists, who often express frustration in their lack of resources, this can be very empowering.

So, stop waiting on things to come, mine those gems already buried in your backyard and make something beautiful…today!

(Originally published on FracturedAtlas.org April 5, 2009)