Why I will no Longer work for Free

Why I will no longer work for free...  What I am talking about is giving my intellectual property away for free under the guise of 'exposure'. As creatives we hear it all the time. The emails I get almost always start off  with "We Love your photo of X it really captures what we want to say in our Magazine/Publication X, we would love to feature/print it..." We'll give you full credit. Take for example an excerpt of a recent email sent to me from the people of Pensacola Home and Garden

I've had interest from several publishers for this particular photo, it was for a Sriracha Devilled Eggs recipe (on my old blog) that highlighted a SilkScreen print I made in response to being homesick.

 

To be honest a I sent a rather curt No, 

Another time I had a large food and wine event ask me to donate handmade hand printed canvas bags (like these ones, but with kitchen utensils on them) to their event as swag bags for their participants. It was huge, they charged the general public $$ to hob nob with celebrity chefs, they had seminars, cooking demonstrations, sellers, buyers etc. I replied with a 'that sounds fantastic however I can not give you the bags for free, I broke down what it would cost to make them time, supplies etc, I did not ask for the full retail cost but a fee that would help cover the start up costs'.  I never got a response... not even a thank you for taking the time to respond.

Here is the thing, every time a creative, artists, crafter, designer etc gives their work away for free and I am not talking about donations for good causes, we are devaluing our work saying that it is not worth the same as 'working artists paid commissions'. My time is worth X, materials cost X, I spent 4yrs and my own money on my Art University degree. I may have children and can not afford to work on my career full time but the time and talent I  do give is 101%. 

I hope to rejoin the workforce as an artist one day and be paid for my creative intellectual property, but as a working artist why would anyone pay me for work that I once gave away for free? Am I not undermining  the future me and current working artists? Why would professional companies pay working artists when there is legion of free labour just looking for a little bit of exposure? 

So that is why I will no longer work for free... 

I have had a lot more brazen requests for free work, images, time etc, this woman was just the straw that broke the camels back...

Home Turf and Gimme Shelter.

I was back on my home turf this weekend. Husband and I were able to get a little weekend

getaway in (why I was so late posting Saturday). Every time we are in Vancouver we make sure to grab breakfast from Granville island, even if that means going there on a Sunday. Get there early enough you can usually find parking,  get your coffee and grab a pastry in a decent amount

of time. 

Do you see what is taking shelter with the frame of the photo?

When we are on the 'island' (what was once our home), I with husband on tow (he likened my art supply buying habit as a black hole) visit Opus (I needed new pens),  and then head over to Emily Carr University of Art and Design- my old school. We both love walking through the Concourse Gallery. A space for rotating works by the students and faculty. The title of the most recent show was Gimme Shelter.

There was a large tent like structure, a couch made out of chicken wire and stones (that reminded me of the time my classmates and I attempted to cover a couch in large ceramic slabs covered in thorns), photo essays and simple wire sculptures, all beautifully done.

But the one I loved most was this piece pictured above. I loved that it was a simple shape repeated and that from every direction it changed and that you could view through it and then over it

and your perception changed.

I would love to know the name of this artist, I feel strongly about citing and giving credit where credit is due but none of the plinths, photos, or sculptures has names on them. Was this an over site? or was this part of the theme? Vancouver is a city where Shelter is on every citizens mind yet though it has a shared common concern it is also a very anonymous city. Hmm... I wonder?!

Someday my husband and I would love to move back to Vancouver, we still refer to it as home but our question is and always has been shelter... We want it to be not only a city we find Shelter but one in which we live and thrive.