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Studio Art
For Sale
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Your Art. Is it a hobby? Is it a business?
Are you wondering how to decide just what your passion for art really
is, legally? There are some ways to gauge just how you are doing. The
answers to a few questions will make that very clear for you.
First of all let's look at the HOBBY.
If it is a hobby you are not engaged in doing it for a profit. You have
no plans for making a profit, nor do you desire to make a profit. You
just do your art for the sheer joy of doing it. You get a real "high"
from making things like paintings or sculptures. You do it because you
love to do it and that is all you need. You make a little bit of money,
and you spend that money just to buy more supplies to make more art again.
Your losses are limited to the gross income you have made in selling the
art.
Is it a BUSINESS?
If it's a business, then you are engaged in making art and you want to
make a profit. You have written out a business plan that has measurable
outcomes. Your plan is for you to make money from you art and to show
a profit.
Here are some additional things that are necessary for you to do if you
are in it for a business.
1. Concentrate on marketing your work. Make every effort to make sales.
2. Keep detailed records of your sales and expenses. These are kept
separate from your personal records. Have a separate checkbook and credit
card, just to be used for your art business.
3. Have an accurate accounting system.
4. Keep track of the time spent making your art.
5. Keep track of the miles you travel in doing your exhibitions.
6. Track your profits, and losses.
7. Make sure you will have pleasure in the creation of the work AND the
marketing efforts. Both are necessary and you must be able to do both.
8. Engage the expertise of an advisor who understands the ART business.
It is not like other businesses, and you need someone who knows how we
do our business, the tax breaks that we can claim, etc. I found a man
who LOVES art, is a musician, AND a professional tax accountant. It is
well worth the 2-hour drive to have someone like this doing your taxes.
Ask around, your artist friends may be able to point the way to someone
like that for you. My tax person specializes in working with artists and
he has clients from all over the US. My artist friends gave me his name,
and the rest is history.
Reprinted with the kind permission of the author
About the Author: Lynda
Lambert is an artist, poet, educator and Assistant Professor of Fine Arts
& Humanities at Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA. She is a "Commonwealth
Speaker" for the PA Humanities Council and travels all over PA giving
lectures on African American Art and Artists. She was chosen for the "Art
in Embassies" program of the US Dept. of State and her artwork is on display
from 2001 - 2003 at the US Embassy in Papua New Guinea, representing the
US. Her essay, "Soul of the African American Daughter in a Sibling Society"
was just published in the new book "The Sibling Society: Papers Presented
at the Robert Bly Colloquium" which was edited by Terry White, Kent State
University.
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