When creativity is your business, can you still make business a priority?

It’s a problem that has plagued artists through the centuries, as the right side of the brain struggles with the left for supremacy. Can a person make a living successfully in the arts in this province?

Fresh out of school or with experience to spare, some of B.C.’s most creative minds are also reflecting sound business practices as today’s artists take innovative roads to financial success.

The Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver has made a specialty of turning out young artists in a variety of disciplines for 79 years. High-profile alumni include furniture and home accessory designer Martha Sturdy, author Douglas Coupland and visual artist Attila Richard Lukacs. The philosophy of this undergraduate school is summed up by a quote borrowed from The European League of Institutes of the Arts: “The arts have the capacity to persuade, subvert, celebrate and confront; to challenge the status quo.”

Karen Dyer photos, Business Edge
Ross Penhall has a full schedule, combining his love of painting with a career as a firefighter.

At the same time, the school has also embraced a strong business focus.

“It’s very important to help students make the transition after leaving the school,” says Monique Fouquet, vice- president, academic at Emily Carr. “All our faculty are working professionals, so the students are taught by practitioners who know the arts workplace.”

Faculty members sign contracts at Emily Carr that specify yearly reports on the progress of their working practice. In addition, the school brings in a series of visiting artists as lecturers, to help give the students a feel for the realities of surviving as a contemporary artist.

Most important to the business side of an artist’s education, according to Fouquet, is the institute’s professional practices course.

“For the past two years, this course has become a mandatory element of all of our degree programs,” she says. The program emphasizes teamwork and personal management skills required for professional careers in visual, media and design arts. Students are given a series of assigned readings and combined with field research are trained to learn management, business and marketing processes and techniques.

Michael Tickner has come a long way since setting up his paintings in Stanley Park.

But how does this theory stand up in the face of the practical, real life of an artist in British Columbia?

One Vancouver-area artist agrees that business sense is integral to his artistic life. “I think the reason that I can make a living doing what I do, is that I was in business first,” says Michael Tickner.

Tickner came to Canada in the early ’70’s, and soon decided he was going to make a career of being an artist, or die trying.

“I was accepted to the London School of Art when I was a kid, but I was too young to attend,” Tickner says. “By the time I was old enough, I had to make a living, so I passed it up.”

Tickner worked in his native England doing other jobs, but never forgot his first love of painting. He started producing pen-and-ink pieces as a hobby, and in his first foray into the practical business of art, sold them at private viewings in the homes of friends.

His initial route into the Canadian art scene was through Stanley Park. “I think the rule back then was you were allowed 30 feet of display space and a maximum of six paintings. I lugged my paintings down there on the bus, broke a few sticks to prop ’em up and I was in business.”

Tickner painted under the name of Granville in those days, and on his first day of business, he sold half his stock.

“I really believe it’s all about getting your work in front of people,” Tickner says. “Whether my paintings were on show at Stanley Park or in a private home or in a gallery, the main thing an artist has to do is to find ways for people to see your work. The percentage of people who will buy art essentially remains the same, no matter where you are. So it becomes a case of the more people you get in front of the paintings, the more you sell.”

It’s been a long time since Tickner has had to hawk his pictures under the leafy bowers of Stanley Park. Now he displays his work at a number of galleries in the Lower Mainland and elsewhere, although over the years he’s done everything from selling sketches door to door to retailing numbered prints to realtors to give away as housewarming gifts.

Tickner is always keeping an eye out for business opportunities that allow him to practise his art. “I have always tried to be as creative in my business choices as in my art,” he says.

He paints an average of 35 to 40 original canvasses a year that are so popular he cannot keep them in stock. He also produces limited-edition silkscreens, giclees, posters and art cards, and has illustrated a book written by David Bouchard called The Colours of British Columbia.

Tickner works with his wife and business partner Alice, who currently runs The Studio Gallery in Lions Bay, B.C.

He is a member of the Fine Arts Trade Guild in England, a group that sets the ethical bar for artists of all disciplines. “They establish high standards of artistic integrity,” he says, “and make it clear that artists do not run the same print twice for a set of limited editions and that sort of thing.”

Tickner mixes his altruism with some good business sense. “I try to always have a charitable aspect to my work,” he says. His greeting cards are widely sold to businesses, embossed with a company name and a seasonal verse at Christmas time. “Big businesses always like the charitable element to the cards,” he notes, adding that everybody benefits when a charity is involved.

Another strong proponent of the good business benefits of charitable contributions is West Vancouver artist Ross Penhall.

Penhall has been showing and selling his work to great acclaim for the past decade. He is now exclusively relying on galleries south of the border to display his work.

“Even though I’m not currently displaying my work in local galleries, I still spend a lot of my energy working with local charities like Arts Umbrella or Artists For Kids. It gives my work a presence here, and it feels good to be helping these groups out.”

Penhall has worked as a firefighter in West Vancouver for 23 years, but insists he’s not hedging his artistic bets. “It’s a perfect job to have because it’s not nine-to-five,” he says. “I work a two-day shift and then I can come back to my studio and work on my art for several days.”

Penhall loves being a firefighter, but notes that his art brings in more than the salary he earns with West Vancouver Fire Rescue. He’s currently an acting captain while his paintings are burning up the art world.

Penhall also produces about 35 to 45 original canvasses every year and just like Tickner can’t keep up with the demand. Where Tickner has branched out to art cards, posters and more, Penhall relies more on gallery sales.

“I had my work in Buschlen Mowatt Galleries on Georgia Street for eight years,” says Penhall. “They were responsible for getting me some credibility, for getting my work out there.”

Last year, he signed with the Caldwell Snyder Gallery in New York and now has his work displayed in San Francisco and Carmel, Calif. “I feel a big part of my success is scarcity and my work’s been around here for awhile. This gives me a chance to enter a whole different market.”

Penhall enjoys being able to share some of the business worries and decisions with the galleries that show his work and act, in some capacities, like his business manager.

“I’ve always wanted to be in a gallery,” he says. “I suppose you could do it all on your own, display and sell your work through a website, maybe, but having my work in a gallery allows me to spend my time focusing on the painting. I think people still like to come into a gallery and be told a story.”

Web watch:

www.eciad.bc.ca/eciad
www.rosspenhall.com
www.michaeltickner.com