But the key thing with commissions is that I don’t ask for something that I want, I ask the artist what they would be excited to make next and sponsor their next dream project. I get out of their way, but I sponsor it. Maybe this is equivalent to sponsoring one single or one song from a musician/band, but I don’t think the public is allowed to just do that, are they? There’s kind of a detached or indirect relationship between the musicians and the audience because the music labels are handling most of those decisions.
Discussion
Which may also be true of visual artists who are represented by art galleries, where the direct kind of one-on-one collaborations that I do become closed off. But I’ve never worked with artists who are represented by a gallery like that. I tried to once but the response was, Sorry you have to go through one of my galleries to work with me, and I didn’t like that.
I’ve seen it happen where a popular band is no longer represented by a music label and simply goes to Kickstarter or GoFundMe to raise the funds needed to record the next album they want to make. That’s a very similar idea with crowdfunding patronage vs. the patronage of one individual. It’s just that the nature of original works of physical art cannot be shared or distributed so easily!
I love this way of thinking about commissions 💜
I think about it like this: the artist has their portfolio that they want to share with the world. What can I sponsor that would upgrade their portfolio in a way that showcases this artist at their best?