On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 an art teacher who will go the extra mile wrote to me from Argentina:
“Hi Tamar! I’m sharing herein the questions the students want to ask you […] They are truly enthusiastic about your participation in the project!”
Here’s how I answer:
Hello! Hello! Let me answer the questions each in turn.
What would you like to know about TAMAR LEVI? 1. How did you start being interested in art?
I enjoyed playing with paints, mark-making and trying to build my own stories in pictures since I was little, but I became most fascinated around age 13 when I learnt there are lots of symbols in paintings.
You may learn to read a story in a painting the way you would read a story with words.
You can ask yourself some questions to help you read what’s going on:
What visual symbols are in this picture? (E.g. a skull, a rose, a goblin sitting on your chest while you sleep, and what might those mean death, love, a nightmare sensation… )
Any more complex symbols? (E.g. mythology will tell us what this swan is doing that he shouldn’t be doing.)
What emotions are conveyed with that colour choice? (For Wassily Kandinsky, this blue represents his creative energy.)
What emotions are conveyed by these shapes? (For Salvador Dali both lobsters and telephones were erotic forms and he felt they achieved greater eroticism when put together like this.)
What can we learn about the story behind the picture by the way the artist painted it (e.g. stabbing, splattering paint effects, a focus on the mother character, lots of yellow or dark red/black paint)?
What information can we get from the materials?(There’s a very interesting 12 metre sculpture in Athens, Greece made out of sharp broken glass. It appears to be running at a sprint. Does the chosen material/construction help with the impression of motion?)
I’m going to share the very first painting I remember being FASCINATED by! I saw the original in The National Gallery when I was that 13 year old visiting London, and the Art History student giving tours explained how one could “read” the story.
This painting is absolutely STUFFED with symbolism. It’s very big but I chose this image because these look like the closest colours to the original. Sometimes called “Allegory of Venus and Cupid,” sometimes called “Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time,” the analysis describes it as a visual puzzle. When I understood some paintings are intended to be puzzles that help us unlock an artist’s worldview, I was hooked.
I remember the young enthusiastic tour guide pointing out the theatre masks on the floor next to Venus’s feet, the tortured face in the center left, and he made us lean close and see the angel Folly (the one with the rose petals). If you looked closely at the original, you could see that little angel is stepping on a dropped rose’s thorn, which reminded me that sometimes laughter is followed by tears, that we must enjoy joy while it lasts.
Why is Cupid’s mummy giving him a kiss while about to put an arrow in his back? Or is that mother’s love: something you cannot choose to be hit by, even if you wish to be in control.
The most amazing symbol I was impressed by is the symbolic act of Father Time pulling a big blue blanket over everyone enjoying that moment, meaning it will all be gone the next moment.
The other thing that I learned looking at this painting was that you can twist your characters around and they can still look realistic. The artist Bronzino could make bodies look real when, really, he was making them do what he wanted them to do. Imagine how long this neck would unnaturally look if Venus’s arm were not right there? Try Cupid’s pose when you’re at home tonight.
2. Did you study at college? Where was it?
I studied Philosophy at King’s College London and then Psychology at the University of Cambridge. However I’m a visual learner so I wanted to illustrate the ideas from my philosophy books. That’s how I started out in children’s literature: I made my own little books illustrating big ideas like “Do flowers have feelings?” They were not picked up by publishers at that time so I went on to illustrate other people’s books before writing my own again later.
When I was in London I wanted to take an art class that taught some classical skills, e.g. glaze and paint mixing and varnishing skills. It was really difficult for me to find a class that taught the practical skills. There were loads of classes around about theory and history of art, but I realised the practical stuff was better found in books. I did a three day course at Camberwell college that was meant to be an introduction to oil paints but I think, at that time, I would have learnt the same amount of info from books or the internet.
3. How do you manage to live on art?
I don’t. Not anymore. You can be well known and popular and still not make a lot of money at this. It’s incredibly difficult to earn a living at the fun side of art and pay your rent and feed yourself.
I’m going to be completely honest with you because I think it’s important to demystify the serious stuff. I cannot rely on full-time income from my art as of today because the global pandemic has changed the way people engage with galleries etc. It remains to be seen how I must adapt with these times. Maybe after the needs of my family become lower maintenance, maybe then I could return to producing more and earning more.
As an artist/mother I find my art struggles to exist in the margins of my responsibilities. Those responsibilities are primarily keeping my family alive and well, while taking into account the domestic labour and house management side. I could joke that I’m Minister of Internal Affairs at our house. But it’s no joke. The emotional, physical and psychological burden of chronic fatigue and parenting while creating collections of paintings needs to be discussed with people who are looking at a possible career here.
Choosing to have a family AND have a creative life is a constant time and energy juggle that needs a consistent discipline to return to the cyclical process of project completion and promotion. You cannot do it ALL unless you have a strong network of support around you (friends and/or family who will give to you as much as you give to them with regards to childcare etc), otherwise something will feel compromised. Someone wiser than me said it better, “it’s a myth that you can do everything at once. You can do everything, but not all at once.”
Here are the best ways that I know of at this time, however they might change as the world is changing a lot during this pandemic and more people are buying more things online. Ways I think you might be able to earn a living in or around the art world:
Teaching art at school or university, the practical or the theoretical side (treat your art teacher well, she’s your magic key to this whole world)
Artwork / storyboarding / creative thinking for advertising companies or fashion companies
Architecture / interior design/ furniture making /product design
Comic books / animation / gaming industry work
Building a niche following in social media and selling workshops and merchandise to them
Museum / gallery curation
Series / film / theatre /live performance industry / costumes / makeup / storyboarding / choreography / music video making / film editing
Publishing graphic novels, picture books, photography for magazines or book jacket design
With regards to the latter: be aware of not selling your work for less than the value of your expenditure. Often funded by getting student loans, prizes, patrons or government subsidies or institutional support. Here’s a visual sketch I just did last week for a government application to take my live art performances into schools here in Belgium. It won’t be very much money, but it’s a useful stipend.
4. What inspires you?
When it comes to every day: a very yellow afternoon light often inspires me.
When it comes to portraits: super wrinkly and well-lived faces inspire me. Asymmetric faces inspire me. Characterful people inspire me. Beautiful people do NOT inspire me. Adorable curious humans inspire me. No matter their size or age.
When it comes to landscapes: a sense of space, a huge view, a WOW moment in nature.
When it comes to book illustration: a phrase or idea that is very tricky to understand inspires me to make a visual that will make sense of that idea.
When it comes to getting my big projects done: death inspires me. My best friend was killed and sometimes I remember her and am reminded that life is very short and there are lots of things to get done. I want to have completed DELPHI my graphic novel comic book all in one line before I’m on my death bed.
5. Do you work/ paint at special times of the day? Do you have a fixed routine for painting/ drawing?
I used to beat myself up for not doing things every day with a very rigid routine. Lately I’ve realised I’m a “burst of energy” kind of person, I work intensely very very quickly, sometimes for many hours of hyper focus, then not again for days. Once I accepted that’s just my way of working, I’ve stopped beating myself up so much!
6. Do you have any tips you would share about painting?
Tips on the theory behind painting:
Don’t compare yourself to too many artists or everyone that’s online. It can be overwhelming when we see how many people might be “ahead” in their process. We are all on different journeys. Also, don’t take advice from too many people, only a very limited few who have an aesthetic intelligence you admire. It gets confusing when you get notes from a wide range of people who all think and feel different things. Everyone can discuss how they experience your art differently, but you don’t need to take it all as advice. Be selective.
Tips on the practice of painting:
Clean your brushes. Look after your favourite ones. Mix your own colours. Don’t just work from the tube. It looks elevated when it’s your own palette of your own favourite colours you’ve mixed yourself. Use the best quality materials you can afford. You can sell things for more money when done with better quality materials and you will improve faster because your tools will not be slowing you down. Also: USE YOUR SKETCHBOOK!
7. How did you feel when you were invited or you had your first exhibition?
I was excited and worried because the exhibition was in the UK and I was living in Greece, so it was a complicated journey!
For my last performance, for TEDx’s international platform on YouTube, I spent all my time and physical energy preparing the show, but too much mental energy worrying about how I looked on stage. I wish I had done more work on unpacking body positivity before I had to stand in front of so many cameras and such a massive global audience.
8. Do you only know how to draw in this style or have you tried different styles and techniques?
I’ve tried so many styles.
In black and white:
I do these zenlike continuous line, mostly contour, drawings and paintings in a nearly-abstracted minimalistic form of portraiture.
In colour, I use hand mixed acrylic paints in a classical realism style with a mixed media of oil pastel on the top.
In my sketchbooks I use watercolour and ink.
Sometimes I used pencil as a child but it never felt bold enough. I tried a dip pen and ink jar, but the quill wouldn’t move in the circular motions my “handwriting” in art likes to move.
So that kind of pen was not ergonomically correct for me. I ended up using Sharpies and uniball pens to go with my deep black line’s flow faster.
I really like a certain illustrator named Shirley Hughes who uses gouache to paint her books, but every time I use guache the colours feel too matt for me.
I used to work with felt tip markers a lot. They were great for my publishing work,
but didn’t like how they fade away in the sun when I want to display them.
I did a LOT of photography as a child and teenager and that helped me understand how I align my perspective on the canvas.
I used to make A4 sized illustrations.
And A4 sized portraits.
Then miniature landscapes.
Lately, I’ve realised that there’s something portable and giftable in miniatures.
Yet giant canvases are truly liberating. They satiate a need for freedom during this pandemic.
For now the black and white minimalist zenlike one line portraits are really calming,
and the colour pictures satisfy my need for deep textures in paint. I think I’ll try even bigger canvases for my next project.
I first saw it in a book when I was 12 and I was so impressed by the warmth and dynamism. She was painted in such a lively way, a nontraditional pose, and her direct look at the camera gives me a really clear feeling that this is a very good likeness of a kind and intelligent woman. It was historically unusual for women to be painted as individuals rather than objects. Perhaps it was because she was a female artist painting a friend, and that’s what gave her subject an individuality and unique sensitivity that was so uncommon at that time.
I also liked the rich red cloth which popped visually against a huge gold frame. Maybe I identified with the artist, maybe I identified as the subject, but I’m sure I’ve been doing variations on this theme for my whole portraiture career.
My favourite painting by my own hand is this picture of a wave which was the first oil painting I ever painted in my life! I did it with only one palette knife and I still enjoy the wave’s movement and how thick the paint is sculpted. Look at how I couldn’t even sign my name properly in the corner! That’s how wobbly my coordination was with a brush right at the beginning!
10. Who is your favorite artist?
For portraits:
I spent a lot of time looking at David Hockney’s early works and sketchbooks when I was a kid. I’m not in love with his current work, but definitely got influenced by the casual portraiture of his friends and family in his early sketchbooks.
For landscapes:
I’m a little bit obsessed with an artist called Ori Reisman who worked hard to represent the shapes of the landscapes around where my father grew up. I don’t know how he layers colour, I wish he was still alive so I could ask him.
For illustration:
There’s a French artist called Joann Sfar I met in London.
His early work of pen on watercolour influenced me hugely.
I haven’t explored his recent work, but I love the humanity and eroticism in his inky wiggly lines.
I used to be very into this niche cult figure Edward Gorey, then realised I enjoyed consuming his books but they didn’t galvanise me. I wasn’t engaging with them in a non-academic, passionate way that moved me forward in my own practise.
I think that’s an important distinction: I like Ernest Hemmingway and his very direct and unadorned prose style, but I shouldn’t waste time trying to emulate him in my writing, my way of writing is closer to the style of Anthony Burgess… very descriptive and playful.
Similarly, when finding an artist I admire, I need to check in with how they make me feel. If they make me feel othered, alienated from their practice and make me feel like giving up, then I need to turn away from their work. If they make me feel like I want to dance with their themes and bring my own ideas into a dialogue with the discussion their works instigate, then I need to remember to reach for them when I need motivation.
It’s kind of like friendship. If someone is negating you, negging you, pulling you down, then don’t waste time, rise up and move onwards and away. If someone applauds you and celebrates you for who you are and sparks your interests in a positive direction, you invest in that friendship to keep them around you.
11. Are you interested in and willing to take part inother types of art expressions such as music, for example?
I wish I could sing. There’s a narrative movement in the journey of these one line drawings that I’m doing.
So I’ve asked fantastic musicians to collaborate with me.
They play music while I do live painting performances.
I like to dance. I think there’s something primal and communal in circular folk dances. I’d love to engage with fashion more. A collaboration with a fashion company to put my art on their clothing and bags feels like an exciting step into another realm of artistic expression.
12. What is your perspective of art?
There are few ways I could interpret that question. Either you are asking my perspective on the art industry, my perspective on the history and direction of art as a practice, or perhaps you mean what perspective do I apply in the themes I employ within my personal art practice.
My perspective on the art industry:
There are not enough government grants or academic awards to support early career artists. Therefore mostly only people with capital (i.e. financial freedom) have the support at the beginning. This is a problem in our socioeconomic system as a whole, not just for artists.
The gallery and auction system is elitist by necessity. It has to be selective to judge what’s good, and be able to value it for the higher price tag. I’d like there to somehow still be a standard of quality maintained while providing egalitarian accessibility online as well as still in beautiful museum spaces but I definitely need an economist or director of monetisation to step in and explain how that could possibly work!
My perspective on the history of art/journey to present day art:
Artists are made famous when they move the game forward, provide something people haven’t seen before, become collectable brand commodities or do something better than others or provoke and make “woke” the audience in a compelling way.
I’m curious to see how the accessibility of more affordable art-transcribed products, as well as the transparency of social media will unveil the art industry’s elitism, and hierarchy of art collectors, and how the information revolution will change how non-dynastic collectors and public individuals engage with art for their homes and art for public spaces. What art is “good” for galleries is very different than what the internet consensus deems “good art.” I can’t wait to see where this is going.
My perspective in my personal art practice:
The perspective I bring to my art is the belief that I wouldn’t want something gruesome or depressing on my walls. We’ve got the news on tv for that. So I try to make sure my artworks provide a positive uptick in people’s moods when they walk into their homes.
13. How long does it take approximately to write a book?
It depends how good you are at returning to your manuscript to get it done! The autism book I co-authored and illustrated in 2011-2012 took about 18 months to get to publication. That might be because there were people involved who are not easy to work with. They were not good communicators. Before that and since then every other project was and has been much more pleasant and gone more quickly. When people respect and credit you appropriately, without exploitative agendas, it’s amazing how much you can accomplish together.
A few years ago, I noticed that I was using too much visual description in my writing. I needed to move from traditional high literary works towards graphic novels in order to cut a lot of the text and represent it more in illustration. So this DELPHI publishing project has taken me 15 years! And it’s still not done!
I have moved countries 3 times and given birth to a human and lived a very full life in between though, so it’s almost excusable!
14. Do you frequently attend social events?
I used to, before this pandemic! One problem with moving countries too often is that my network gets chopped and changed so I lose a lot of connections with every move.
However, here in Brussels we’ve met some INCREDIBLE new friends that are very similar to us and it’s made socialising much easier.
15. Have you studied something else which may not be related to painting?
I studied Philosophy in London and Psychology in Cambridge, but I bring themes from both those areas of research into my painting work, so I think they are related. For Philosophy, I make sure my art engages with the big ideas that excite me. For Psychology, I learnt a lot about what happens in the brain when we see clear faces, when our spatial reasoning witnesses certain shapes, what happens in the brain when certain colours are prioritised over others… it has all been very useful.
16. Have you ever had a gap year? If not, would you like to have one?
I was really lucky to work for a year before going to university. Among many small jobs that year, I was an Au Pair in Barcelona. Growing up in Alaska I spent a lot of time painting portraits, but in Barcelona the architecture was so special I started painting buildings for the first time and I was shocked how fun they can be… and they don’t fidget like people-subjects do!
17. If you weren’t an artist, what would you like to be?
I would probably be a Psychologist. In fact, I’m wondering whether I should develop an Art Therapy workshop based on my research at Cambridge and my experience as an art teacher, because I feel there are a lot of calming benefits to be had through this continuous line drawing method I’ve been developing. Paul Klee said drawing is “taking a line for a walk.” It’s very relaxing. There’s a lot of anxiety going around nowadays. Perhaps therapeutic art practices could help with that?
18. How would you define you?
More deeply, I would define myself as a recovering Perfectionist, renegade Philosopher, erstwhile Psychologist, suffering from chronic Trying-To-Do-Too-Much, sparked by Childlike Wonder in curious people and places.
Slightly more simply put, I’m a triheritage, multilingual, bisexual positive-thinking human who just likes to get better at playing a long game with paint.
Let me know if you have any more questions! Good luck with your exams!
(Το κραγιόν και οι μάσκες δεν πάνε μαζί) της Tamar Levi*
Ποτέ δεν είχα ζωγραφίσει μια ολόκληρη συλλογή στη διάρκεια μιας καραντίνας. Πολλοί περισσότεροι λάτρεις της τέχνης έκαναν την εμφάνισή τους στην έκθεση μου “IMMENSITIES” απ’ όσους περίμενα. Ήρθαν με χαμόγελα πίσω από μάσκες, προσδοκώντας για ανθρώπινη επαφή, άλλοι μοναχικοί, μερικά ζευγάρια και κάποιες μικρές οικογένειες, όλοι έφτασαν αργά αλλά με σιγουριά στη γκαλερί Art Base εδώ στις Βρυξέλλες, στο Βέλγιο. Ήταν τιμή μου να καλωσορίσω επισκέπτες στην πρώτη τους έξοδο από το σπίτι τους, από την αρχή της παγκόσμιας πανδημίας COVID19. Η πανδημία άλλαξε το κοινό μου. Παρατήρησα ότι οι πιο προσεκτικοί από αυτούς αγοράζουν έργα τέχνης από το διαδίκτυο και η πλειονότητα αυτών που ήρθαν οι ίδιοι ήταν ένα νέο κοινό, ενώ πολλά ήταν τα άτομα που γνώρισα για πρώτη φορά εκεί. Ήταν εκπληκτικό που συναντήθηκα με τόσα νέα πρόσωπα μετά από μήνες αλληλεπίδρασης μας μόνο σε μια μικρή φούσκα.
Ακολουθούν οι προτάσεις μου για το πως διοργανώνεται μια έκθεση ζωγραφικής κατά τη διάρκεια μιας πανδημίας.
Βήμα 1ο. Βεβαιωθείτε ότι οι ημερομηνίες σας είναι σύμφωνες με τους περιορισμούς. Ελέγξτε ότι τόσο εσείς όσο και η γκαλερί αισθάνεστε άνετα με την ημερομηνία, αναβάλλετε την έκθεση εάν υπάρχει περιορισμός λόγω καραντίνας ή κόκκινης ζώνης που θα δυσκολέψει το κοινό σας ή που θα μπορούσε να σας κάνει ως οικοδεσπότες να αισθάνεστε άβολα. Ελέγξτε τις κυβερνητικές οδηγίες και βεβαιωθείτε ότι η πιθανή επιλογή πώλησης εισιτηρίων σας, έχει περιορισμούς που αντικατοπτρίζουν τις κυβερνητικές διατάξεις. Βήμα 2ο. Βεβαιωθείτε ότι το κοινό σας κατανοεί πλήρως το τι παίζει.
Κάθε φορά που υπήρχε μια μικρή πληροφορία σχετικά με την τοποθεσία, τις ημερομηνίες, την προετοιμασία, σχέδια εκδηλώσεων, φρόντισα να το επικοινωνήσω μέσω σχεδόν όλων των μέσων κοινωνικής δικτύωσης (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin). Αυτό ήταν εξαντλητικό, αλλά έπρεπε οι επισκέπτες της γκαλερί να λάβουν όλες τις απαντήσεις σε πιθανές ερωτήσεις τους. Ακόμα κι αν η κυβέρνηση λέει ότι μπορείτε να έχετε έως και 200 άτομα σε μια εκδήλωση, μπορεί να μην αισθάνεστε άνετα εσείς που γνωρίζετε το κοινό σας καλύτερα. Είναι πιθανό να αισθάνονται παρόμοια με εσάς, επειδή το δικό σας το κοινό προσελκύεται στο περιεχόμενό σας λόγω της σύνδεσης που αισθάνεστε μεταξύ σας ήδη.
Βήμα 3ο. Προετοιμάστε μια ασφαλή στρατηγική εισόδου και εξόδου.
Οι επισκέπτες της γκαλερί ήταν έτοιμοι για έξοδο στην πόλη, αλλά με ασφαλή τρόπο. Ήταν κουρασμένοι από το γεγονός ότι εδώ και μήνες δεν ζουν ουσιαστικά τη ζωή τους. Ο ιδιοκτήτης της γκαλερί επινόησε ένα αριθμημένο σύστημα περιστροφής εισιτηρίων όπου οι επισκέπτες έβλεπαν τους πίνακες σε δεξιόστροφη κατεύθυνση. Εάν ήταν περισσότερα από 20 άτομα στο χώρο, τους ζητούσε να δώσουν τον αριθμό τους στο επόμενο άτομο στην πόρτα. Το προγραμματίσαμε αυτό, ώστε αν υπήρχαν περισσότερα από 40 άτομα το βράδυ των εγκαινίων, να έκανα την ομιλία μου στον εξωτερικό χώρο, αντί να ενθαρρύνουμε όλους να βρίσκονται πολύ κοντά ο ένας με τον άλλο στο εσωτερικό.
Βήμα 4ο. Εκτιμήστε τους συνεργάτες σας. Δείξτε λίγη συμπόνια σε όλους τους άλλους ανθρώπους που σας βοηθούν ώστε αυτό το πράγμα να γίνει πραγματικότητα. Ο φωτογράφος σας έχει χάσει πολλές «δουλειές» κατά τη διάρκεια της απαγόρευσης κυκλοφορίας. Ο ιδιοκτήτης της γκαλερί έπρεπε να ακυρώσει πολλές εκδηλώσεις τους προηγούμενους μήνες και είχε αυξανόμενα χρέη. Χρειάζεται ενσυναίσθηση. Η πανδημία είναι μια στιγμή για να είστε φιλικοί, όχι ντίβες – ας είστε ευγενικές.
Βήμα 5ο. Μάσκα
Οι VIP επισκέπτες ρώτησαν. «Πρέπει να φορέσω μάσκα μπροστά από τις κάμερες;» Ανησυχούσα ότι το κραγιόν μου θα είχε τριφτεί γύρω από το στόμα μου κι ότι θα έμοιαζα με κλόουν. Πρέπει να φοράω μακιγιάζ κάτω από τη μάσκα μου; Πρέπει να βγάλω τη μάσκα μου όταν μου παίρνουν συνέντευξη; Οι κυβερνητικές οδηγίες για τη χρήση μάσκας άλλαξαν ενώ η έκθεση ακόμα «έτρεχε». Νομίζω ότι είναι ευγενικό να ζητάμε άδεια από τον εκάστοτε δημοσιογράφο, του τύπου, «σας πειράζει αν βγάλω τη μάσκα μου;».
Βήμα 6ο. Καθαριότητα Η διατήρηση ενός αποστειρωμένου σπιτιού είναι αδύνατη – ένας αποστειρωμένος δημόσιος χώρος είναι ακόμη πιο δύσκολος. Αυτός είναι ένα από τους τομείς ανησυχίας που μου εξέφρασαν γονείς νέων παιδιών (όπως είμαι κι εγώ) που ήδη χάνουν τη μάχη του ελέγχου. Μην περιμένετε υψηλότερο επίπεδο καθαριότητας από αυτό που βιώνατε πριν την πανδημία.
Βήμα 7ο. Χαλαρώστε Είναι η ημέρα των εγκαινίων. Έχετε βγει από την καραντίνα. Τα έχετε δώσει όλα για την προετοιμασία του event. Έχετε μεταφέρει και κρεμάσει όλους τους πίνακες. Τα φώτα έχουν στηθεί. Έχετε επικοινωνήσει με ειλικρίνεια στο κοινό σας και με καλοσύνη σε όλους τους συνεργάτες σας. Έχετε στείλει προσκλήσεις μέσω διαδικτύου και υπάρχει διαθέσιμο μικρόφωνο, σε περίπτωση που χρειαστεί. Φοράτε κάτι που σας ενθουσιάζει! Προσοχή – μην επιλέξετε τακούνια μετά από μήνες που δεν τα έχετε φορέσει! Τα δάχτυλα των ποδιών μου βίωσαν τρομακτικό επίπεδο μουδιάσματος μετά από αυτό το γεγονός, για πάρα πολλές μέρες!
Η εκδήλωση ξεκίνησε στις 6 μ.μ. Υπήρχε μια στιγμή μόνο, περίπου στις 5:30, όπου είχα ένα μικρό όραμα για το εγγύς μέλλον: Ξέρω ποια είμαι και τι έχω πετύχει, ξέρω τι πρόκειται να γίνει. Ήταν η πρώτη φορά που άφησα τον εαυτό μου να φανταστεί πώς θα είναι η εκδήλωση. Πριν από εκείνη τη στιγμή δεν θα μπορούσα να φανταστώ ένα όραμα της εκδήλωσης. Ο δικός μου φόβος για την ολοένα αναπτυσσόμενη πανδημία μου προκάλεσε πανικό. Μπορεί να μην ήταν μια τέλεια εκδήλωση, αλλά δεν θα μπορούσα να κάνω κάτι περαιτέρω, η τέχνη μου ήταν τόσο καλή όσο μπορούσε να είναι, στο μέγιστο των δυνατοτήτων μου, σε αυτήν την χρονική στιγμή.
Τελευταίο βήμα για τη ζωή γενικά (Ποτέ μην το ξεχάσετε) Ευγνωμοσύνη.
Ευχαριστώ τους καλεσμένους μου που ήρθαν. Ευχαριστώ συλλέκτες που επενδύσατε σε έναν καλλιτέχνη εν ζωή. Και αναγνώρισα ότι χάρη στο πείσμα και στην αφοσίωση στην τέχνη μου, πραγματοποιήθηκε μια ζωντανή εκδήλωση. Οι πραγματικές αλληλεπιδράσεις είναι γεμάτες με πιθανότητες για νέα τέτοια γεγονότα, και όλοι χρειαζόμαστε αυτό το είδος αισιοδοξίας σε αυτή τη χρονική στιγμή. Ευχαριστώ τον κάτοχο της γκαλερί που μοιράστηκε τον χώρο του. Ευχαριστώ τους δημοσιογράφους. Ευχαριστώ τη μπέιμπι σίτερ για τη φροντίδα του παιδιού μας. Ευχαριστώ τους αγαπημένους μου που με υποστηρίζουν. Και έτσι χτύπησα τον εαυτό μου ελαφρά στην πλάτη γιατί έφτιαξα κάτι νέο και ελπιδοφόρο και ζωντανό σε αυτό τον γελοίο κόσμο.
* Η Ταμάρ Λέβι είναι ζωγράφος και συγγραφέας παιδικών βιβλίων. Μεγάλωσε στην Αλάσκα, ζει στο Βέλγιο και έχει «παντρευτεί» την Ελλάδα.
I now know what it takes to paint, plan and welcome people to art events and sell art during a pandemic.
It takes: flexible dates (watch out for panic), constant considerate communication (bring in forgiveness), safety & sterility measures, and in the end, letting go and gratitude.
I’d never painted a whole art collection during a national lockdown. I’d never planned an art show during a global pandemic. I’d never seen the relief of culture lovers reconnecting in the “new normal.”
More art lovers showed up to my art show IMMENSITIES than expected. They came with smiles behind masks, in hope for interaction, solitary culture vultures, some in pairs and some small families, all arriving slowly but surely to Art Base gallery here in Brussels, Belgium.
It was my honour to welcome some visitors on their first venture out of the house since the beginning of the global Coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic switched up my audience. I noticed those taking precautions were buying art online, and the majority of those coming in person were a new audience, many people I met for the very first time. It was surprising to meet so many new people after months of interacting with only a small bubble.
Here are my suggestions on How to Run A Successful In-Person Arts Event During a Pandemic.
Step 1)Make sure your dates are in line with pandemic restrictions.
Check both you and the gallery are comfortable with the date, postpone if there is a lockdown or red-zone level restriction that would limit your audience or make you as hosts feel uncomfortable. Check the government guidelines for numbered groups of non-family members. Make sure your ticket sales option has restrictions in place that reflect the government guidelines. The main theme underlying these step is the uncertainty, the fear of planning things that might not come about, the wariness in case it will be rescheduled or cancelled. “Pandemic permitting,” might be the phrase to put at the end of every supply chain interaction. Work towards the event on any element that you can despite a possible changing date. It’s better to have everything ready and postpone than wait until dates are secure and be biting your nails for months and rushing at the last minute. The quality of your work will be closer to guaranteed if you do everything steadily.
Step 2) Make sure your audience understand what’s going on.
This is where we must embrace social media (as dark and scary as it is). Every time there was an iota of information regarding location, dates, preparation, event plans, I made sure to communicate it with utter transparency through almost all my social media channels and website. This was exhausting, but I hoped gallery visitors anticipating the show were getting answers to the questions that they wanted to ask. I answered event safety questions from gallery visitors through Facebook (personal pages, professional pages and event invites), Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, email, text message SMS, Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, my website, Instagram direct messages and telephone calls.
I made three mistakes.
I should have made an email invitation or forwarded on the gallery’s newsletter with the full description of the event to those guests who do not use social media at all.
Although I made Instagram and Facebook stories, I should have also made video blogs on my YouTube channel to update people and to outline the strategies that we were putting in place for other art event planners that might want these guidelines in a visual format (e.g., I watch How To…. videos on YouTube more than reading blogs like this). This video output could have included a live Zoom or YouTube streaming experience of the artwork that would have made it accessible to e.g. family far away (I’m still bummed my mother has not seen any of this painting collection in person).
There were a lot of TV news cameras and newspaper cameras in the gallery. This happened at my last show and a lady confidentially asked to have her background profile removed from any social media posts. I mentioned this in advance when talking in person or on the phone to prospective visitors but I should have made it clearer in every interaction, including emphasising to gallery visitors that they then have the duty to inform their plus ones. There was one guest’s plus one, a gentleman in particular who did not feel comfortable having news cameras in the gallery and I regretted not giving him a more reassuring fair warning.
Those mistakes, those gaps in the information output, are regretful. However, the main theme underlying this step is forgiveness. You cannot do everything. No one can. You cannot create high quality work, put together a high-quality event AND use all the social media and communication networks to the extent they offer (there are always more ways you can utilise them, that’s part of the addiction). Unless you have a massive media communication team at hand, and even then, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to coordinate all the information needed during a pandemic.
The reason that you can never “win” and do it all is because it’s a moving target. It’s a living organism. Event planning is a protean beast at the best of times. During the global Coronavirus pandemic, we’ve noticed governments sharing conflicting information. If the official information is conflicting, and ever changing, then we individuals have no hope of doing everything by the book. Just try your very best to respect the official guidelines but also pay attention to what feels right for you and your audience.
Even if the government says you can now have up to 200 people at an event, you might not feel comfortable and you might know your audience well too. (They are likely to feel similar to you because your audience is attracted to your content due to the connection you feel already, the shared expression of humanity already bridging between you.) If you don’t feel comfortable and you know your audience won’t either, then consider doing it a different way (an online gallery experience perhaps) that would suit you on a personal level and the people you are hoping to connect with. More people have been buying art online than for any of my previous shows. However, if you intend an in-person event to connect art from your heart to people with a kinship, you need to make sure the presentation reflects that relationship. The way you would want a wedding to reflect your relationship.
If you put on an event that doesn’t suit your personality or needs, the art itself will become alienated from the people that end up trying to connect to it. It will be disingenuous to invite everyone you know to a place where you don’t want them to be. We all have to be in the right head space to connect in the arts. Unless you are buying original art for investment purposes only, it’s more likely you’ll be looking to find a bond with a painting. We need to be feel safe to engage with the artwork. This is not the time for forcing provocation upon an already anxiety-burdened public.
Step 3) Prepare a safe entrance and exit strategy.
Gallery visitors were ready to go out on the town, but in a safe way. They were tired of not living their lives. The gallery owner devised a numbered ticket rotation system where you viewed the paintings in a clockwise direction. If more than 20 people were in the room you were asked to pass your number to the next person at the door and step to the open-air gathering space just outside the gallery. We planned that if there were more than 40 people on opening night that I would then do my little welcoming and contextualising speech amongst everyone outside, rather than encouraging us all to linger too close inside.
Step 4) Love your collaborators. Show some compassion to all the other people making this thing happen in your team. The photographer has lost a lot of business during the lockdown. The gallery owner had to cancel a lot of events and had rising debts. I’m sure many art galleries are facing untenable rent and utility bills. I stepped up the dialectic rate and the empathy in my communication with all suppliers and contractors and collaborators. A pandemic is a time for an empathetic friend, not a diva. (Actually, I don’t know when is the time to be a diva.)
In this circumstance I listened to whatever the gallery owner suggested and worked as hard as possible to be flexible on dates and in-gallery hours. I paid the photographer more than invoiced because we’ve got to keep each other alive when we can. An arts event is more of a family gathering than a corporate event would be. We are often poorly paid for the amount of hours put in, underappreciated as limited producers in the capitalist system, and each of us are facing just as much uncertainty as our cousins in the theatre and music spheres. No one here is future proof and the new normal is eating into all of our savings.
Just be kind.
Step 5)Mask wearing
VIP guests asked “Should I wear a mask in front of the news cameras?” I worried my lipstick would have rubbed around my mouth like a clown. Should I wear make up under my mask? Should I take my mask off when being interviewed? The government guidelines on mask wearing changed mid-show. Again, I think it’s courteous to ask permission from the press journalist or interlocutor, “do you mind if I take my mask off?” I also think this harks back to the comfort level described above. If you are more comfortable taking precautions your audience might be similar to you and want the same things. If you are feverishly denying this global event and it is part of your brand to clan together with other deniers, you’re probably reading the room correctly and in that kind of event masks might not even be welcome!
Step 6)Cleaning
Keeping a sterile home is impossible, a sterile public space is even more tricky. If it were my gallery, I might have budgeted for more cleaning, however I understand it’s a LOT to do and stay on top of and costly in time and energy or cleaning bills. This is one of those areas of concern that has been voiced to me by parents of young children (as I am) who are already losing the battle of control. I feel it helps to know the space you are entering, as you are also entering into a nonverbal contract of trust. You might have visited in the past and known what their level of cleanliness is or been to similar venues or museums and become familiar with what to expect. Do not expect a higher standard of sterility than what you experienced pre-pandemic, because I can speak with assurance, the post-pandemic world is more strapped for time and cash and the cleaning budget might be one of the first things to slip. If parenting a child who touches everything (and then their mouths) is part of the concern, then this needs to be assessed by the parent who is battling with what compromised level of control they need to in order to enjoy an activity in a public space.
Step 7)Letting Go
This bring us to Step 7, letting go. It’s the day of the show. You’ve survived lockdown. You’ve done the artwork to the peak of your present ability. You’ve prepared the hanging devices. You’ve transported it safely to the venue. You’ve hung and curated the space. The lights are set up. You’ve communicated with transparency to your audience and with kindness to all collaborators. You’ve detailed mask safety, safe entrance and exit, cleanliness and courtesy with everyone involved to a comfort level that suits both you and your guests. You’ve got invitations up online and a microphone available if needed. You’re wearing something you’re excited to wear. (Don’t choose heels after months of not wearing heels! My toes experienced frightening levels of numbness after this event, for a record amount of time!) You’re in place and your car has a little note on it saying “Please don’t tow me, I’m in the gallery right now, please tell me if there’s a problem with parking here,” and similarly, your child is safe at home with a familiar babysitter and a little note that says “Please read her four stories before bed.”
The event started at 6pm.There was a moment only around 5.30 wherein I had a small vision of the near future: I know who I am and what I made, I know what this is going to be.
It was the first time I allowed myself to imagine what it would be like.
Prior to that moment I’d been unable to project a vision of the event. My own fear of the ever-developing pandemic caused a mental imagery block. This is panic. Long term, sustained panic. This is the kind of thing that causes mind-body PTSD. Painting during lockdown through the anxiety and paralysis: unable to be certain if the main exhibition event would happen or not, unable to do anything but respond to the entrapment with landscape art that represents freedom, all I could do was make sure I communicated clearly through my art and show up on the day. It might not have been a perfectly executed event, but I could not be more than I am and the art was exactly as good as I could deliver to the best of my abilities in this exact moment.
How do we calm panic in this instance? How do we cure mind-body PTSD when trying to do something normalizing in a not normal new normal? It feels innocent to offer art to friends post-pandemic, but it’s actually a huge undertaking. So we must circle back to forgiveness. I forgive myself for not following all of social media’s siren calls. I forgive myself for not being as slim as I was before lockdown. I forgive myself for not painting that one painting to the majesty of my original vision. I forgive myself for not being able to have family close-by. I forgive myself for letting go of my normal painting-by-sight. Forgiveness for painting by memory, for my new artistic abstractions which are not my normal skillset, but they are new, evolved skills. I forgive myself for weeping to calm my perfectionism. I forgive myself for making this all that it is, during this strange era, whatever it becomes.
Sustained fear is unhealthy. We have all gone through a major global event with a lot of uncertainty involved. One suggestion in PTSD therapy is to connect mind and body again. Small actions like focusing on the sensation of hair brushing, or taking warm baths, or going for nature walks and paying attention to breathing in sun and air… Also, making movement a part of daily life: silly dancing (be safe wiggling to the radio when in the shower), rough and tumble child’s play, focusing on the tasteful pleasure of healthy food choices. It’s incredibly difficult to find space for small movements when we prioritise big achievements. But without the mindful small movements we can’t survive with mental and physical health intact to enjoy this or the next big events.
Last Step For Life (Never to Forget)Gratitude
Thank your guests for showing up. Thank your art collectors for investing in a living artist. Thank your collaborators for bringing their skills to the table. And acknowledge that your stubborn commitment to your art made a live event. Passing on that commitment to your art is a kind of death, a possible depression and stepping back from an event you committed to would be fading away from the community you’re contributing to, and fading away from the positive vision of vibrant humanity you’re trying to express and keep aflame at this time. The real-life interactions are brimming with possibility at these kinds of events and we all need that kind of optimism at this time. Thank the gallery owner for sharing their space. Thank the journalists for sharing their platforms. Thank the locality for a sense of place. Thank the babysitter for the childcare. Thank the support from the loved ones that are left. And pat yourself on the back for having made something new and hopeful come alive in this ridiculous world.
My art show IMMENSITIES is on until Oct 10th. Art Base, 29 rue des Sables, 1000 Bruxelles
My professional art career has been a literal journey. Cross-cultural work brings up many questions; How do I set-up a truly global yet personal business? How to navigate the tax system in my host nation and continue to submit tax documentation for my home nation? What is the most cost effective (and reliable) way of getting my art to the buyer? What is the best platform for selling and safely delivering my art that is not US-centric? One that is truly global? One that gives me strong visibility in the European market? How do I continue to build my network and increase my visibility? These are the kind of challenges I continue to overcome, building my art career in Europe, with a view to true location independence. In addition to sharing updates on my art projects, this blog aims to share insights I’ve learned throughout this journey. I’m hoping that this website, is going to be a place where I can blog about the kinds of questions that I’ve been having as I’ve traveled through Europe and worked as an illustrator. Stay tuned!
I was approached by Kathryn Hunter to be featured on her podcast series, “Compass,” and asked to discuss the themes above.
Compass is a podcast series which focuses on location independent womxn — people like me who seek answers to business questions that enable them to work remotely.
In this podcast I discuss how I’ve pursued a career as a book author and illustrator, and am now transitioning into a full-time professional artist. We discuss how I found my direction and what steps I’ve taken to support my art through passive income and work towards my art supporting me.
Check out the podcast with any of the platforms below:
Here is the full transcript:
Kathryn:
Welcome to Episode 50 of Compass, I’m your host Kathryn Hunter.
Do you need to build your personal support network? Today, Tamar Levi and I talk about that and more when we discuss becoming a children’s book illustrator. I wanted to give you a heads up, we’re switching to a biweekly format for the next few months. I’ve got some intense travel coming up and combine that with my chronic health issues and the part where producing Compass is a one woman show, it’s a lot. I also love making this show and sharing it with you, sharing these stories, so no worries, we’re sticking around, just with a bit of a shift. So next episode will be February 4, see you then!
You’re listening to Compass, where we talk with location independent womxn about their work and the paths that got them there. We get into their stories of struggle and success, finding clients, figuring out what to charge, and of course, we talk money. Join us and take the next step in finding your direction. Tamar, welcome to the show.
Tamar:
Hi, it’s lovely to speak to you, in Peru!
Kathryn:
I like to start with your early life and see where that influences you later on. What did you want to be when you were five?
Tamar:
I really need to check with my mother, if I’m remembering this right. I definitely did a lot of reading. I did a lot of art, and I remember quite early on, spending a lot of time by myself and doing art projects by myself. Later when I was a little bit older and doing some babysitting, I’d make books, children’s books for the children that I babysat. So there was always a book element and an art element from early on.
Kathryn:
How had that changed by the time you left high school?
Tamar:
I grew up in Alaska and left in early high school to move to a remote part of the UK. At that time I hadn’t identified what I wanted to do as a career, but I definitely understood that travel was important to me. Around high school, I knew that travel was going to be a part of my life, that learning languages would be important to me, that making sure my income had a good interest rate or passive income that supported that kind of journey. So I got involved in lots of small jobs to earn part-time money in order to be location independent quite early on.
Kathryn:
Did you pursue college?
Tamar:
I did. I always did some part time work while I was studying. I don’t come from generational wealth or anything that could allow my studies to be just a hobby, or allow my art to be just a hobby. So I was always doing part time work as a tutor or doing editing work. I got a yoga teaching qualification. So even while I was studying at university, I was still earning and I chose to study Philosophy. I had gone to a school in Alaska that had philosophic content and when I studied Philosophy at university in the UK, I really felt like it helped me understand pretty early on that the system is rigged. That both the academic system and the world of commerce require capital. We live in Capitalism. We need capital to make our projects happen and I always knew my art projects would be important to me, so even though I studied Philosophy, I made sure that I was aware of the systems I was working within and investing money on the side whenever I possibly could to make the creative work happen too. I also want to add that after doing my university degree, I set up a small publishing house in my early twenties and was able to access a lot of free business education as a young person who wanted to create an employment space. I was able to give myself a business education quite early on, and I think that has been really helpful alongside the critical thinking I got from the Philosophy degree.
Kathryn:
How did you develop that business education?
Tamar:
On a personal level, I learnt a lot about myself. I realized I tend to overwork. I tend to not give myself time off and I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist. So I picked up whatever courses I could in business. But I started to realize that I wasn’t very good at running a business in terms of work/life balance. So I ended up selling that small publishing house and using that business knowledge to get myself employment in the corporate setting and thereby earning enough to allow me to pay for further education and pay for further time to do the kinds of art projects that I knew I wanted to do.
Kathryn:
How did you get into being location independent?
Tamar:
You know, I really need to acknowledge that I grew up in a family that came from different cultures and made sacrifices, changed multiple locations for different opportunities, and I observed as a child how they earned in different contexts, which gave me some perspective on what a location independent family and lifestyle looks like. So when you say, How did you get into location independence? I would say I was definitely raised with a global mindset. Then, when I understood that I want to travel in my personal life, I was about 17 years old, had just finished high school in the U K and moved to Barcelona as an Au Pair. While I was living in Barcelona, I was doing childcare and in my spare time I was painting and sketching all the time. And people started approaching me as I interacted with galleries and interacted with people in the art world. People started approaching me, asking about my art, and asking to purchase my art, so I would say that time in Barcelona where I was an English speaker, living in a non-English-speaking space and doing my art was probably my first big location independence experience.
Kathryn:
How do you describe your work to people who are just being polite when they ask?
Tamar:
I explain I’m a children’s book author and illustrator.
Kathryn:
And when they want to know the details?
Tamar:
I help them understand that I’m moving from being a children’s book author and illustrator, moving from the publishing industry space, to being just an artist. And I don’t want to deceive them by saying I just sit and paint and so I explain things about how that involves understanding web sites and technology, business acumen and interacting with our communities and making sure I’m paying my taxes in all locations. So, I say I’m in a transition period. If people really want to know, from the publishing world to a more artist’s career.
Kathryn:
How did you get started in writing and designing books?
Tamar:
I was an avid reader as a child and an artist. I made books as a babysitter, as I mentioned earlier. And I was always interacting with people who enjoyed books, enjoyed art or enjoyed photography. So I had a quite rich visual artistic community. How did I get started in making books? I think I always walked with one foot in one direction and one foot in the other direction because I was afraid. I was afraid of getting too deeply involved and not being able to sustain myself in the creative world or in the publishing world in general. And it wasn’t until, tragically, a friend of mine was killed, that it made me realize I needed to focus on Plan A. I needed to focus on my dream, and really commit myself to fulfilling the projects that I want to do within this one lifetime. So I would say I got started when I reevaluated what is worth focusing my time on. And since coming here to Brussels, I’ve started exhibiting more in galleries. We’ve been here four years and I’ve done seven art shows. When people come to those art shows, they tend to commission artworks, if they’re private art collectors. So, I would say I got started in the publishing industry many, many years ago. However, I got started as an artist who works more exclusively to commissions only in the last maybe three to four years.
Kathryn:
How do you find clients?
Tamar:
I try to keep a balance of real life networking and online networking. I don’t like to live online. But I have to be careful not to put all my eggs in the basket of the location where I’m living, in case we ended up moving again. So it’s really about trying to find a balance between real life and online spaces, but sometimes they find me! I had a fantastic email a few months ago from the University of Notre Dame that said they’d found an image I’d done of a philosopher and their Philosophy department wanted to use this image and could they pay me for this image? So that was one of the best emails of my life!
Kathryn:
Tell us about your first major struggle.
Tamar:
My partner and I moved from London to Berlin. I was editing as a freelancer and illustrating the first book that I was also co-authoring AND I was also doing [my first] paintings to commission. I had started a PhD in London and set up a professional critique group for other professional authors. So I had a really rich community of critique and a really healthy friendship circle in London and then we had to move to Athens, Greece, where my partner had to do the obligatory army service that young men from Greece have to do. So I started working two jobs in Athens and I had gone from having a really great community around me and doing a PhD in London to suddenly doing Distance Learning and feeling really isolated. I was amazed that the research I had started doing for that PhD won me a big financial reward. The research got an award and the money was great, but I felt socially and personally very isolated. And I think this is where a podcast that talks about location independence needs to acknowledge the mental health of constant travel. My husband was experiencing reverse culture shock, which is when someone goes back to their home country and it’s changed, or they have changed, and I was figuring out my network, my audience, trying to understand how to price work inside the austerity crisis of the country at the time and trying to understand what is a liveable salary per location. I was also doing seven book projects. My partner was not around very much. He was in the army, and it was a very discombobulating political climate. The space of Athens, Greece at that time was a fascinating time to exist there, but it was definitely a major struggle.
Kathryn:
How about your first major success?
Tamar:
I would say that, to comment on the mental health stuff, and how I got through it and how I learned from it, would lead to the success that I got not very long after. I had understood, only after leaving Athens, that in both Berlin and Athens, I should have invested more time in the online communities in order to not feel so isolated. And also to find people within my language community that could connect with me in my career or in my personal life. So once I understood how valuable the online community is, I was then able to better recognize the kind of burnout I experienced in isolation and it got me to a happier place when I then recognized that all those publishing projects were exciting but they didn’t motivate me to the level that doing paintings by themselves motivated me. So by refocusing and allowing that transition from Athens, Greece to Brussels, Belgium to just give me a moment to reassess what it is I’m doing, and then understand whether or not it’s what gets me up in the morning: I think that was one of my biggest successes, to give myself that time to say, hey, I’m physically moving locations, let me just check everything I’m doing is what I want to be doing! And when I recognized what I wanted to be doing was more painting, it brought me to a personal place where I was better able to share my paintings and talk about my painting practice and gain the art commissions that allowed me to do more painting.
Kathryn:
What do you consider your greatest career success?
Tamar:
It’s actually not the publishing projects that became successful in the publishing market, but when I was back in Barcelona when I was 17 and I was trying to sell some artwork to interested collectors then, I remember pitching a price for a painting and it was a number I’d seen on the wall of a gallery and I thought that was a healthy number for the amount of hours put into making a painting. And I remember pitching that price and being really naive, not understanding that the person collecting was going to negotiate me down so much. So recently I sold a painting for the price that I wanted to pitch back in the year 2000 and I remember feeling like that was a real early benchmark, for me to get that price that I had in my head is what a painting is worth.
Kathryn:
If you could go back and give yourself just starting out any advice, what would you say?
Tamar:
If I were not planning on becoming so location independent, I would say try to find an in real life mentor and stick with that mentor and get some guidance on how to move through an industry. If I were to know that I was going to become so location independent, I would say find the communities online, invest in the online space in terms of time and understanding. And I would also say to a younger self that the part time work that you do needs to be digital if you’re going to travel. So educate yourself in a profession that can be part time work that sells at a high value while you’re doing your creative work and finding your feet in the creative space. Another thing that I wish someone had told me earlier was: try to find a tax advisor who understands location independent lifestyles and can take some of the stress off. I mean we all need a financial support system, and if I’d understood that earlier, I wouldn’t have gotten so bogged down in where I was living and where I needed to pay tax and that at the end of the day I very strongly wish I could tell my younger self, learn more languages!
Kathryn:
Odds are there’s no such thing as a typical day for you. Do you want to give us what a random day looks like?
Tamar:
I think I’m going to tell you about yesterday. Well, what I got up to yesterday, although I don’t think yesterday a particularly good day in terms of my work, I woke up with chronic fatigue because I have a child who needs middle of the night comfort and I did the childcare in the morning routine, got her to school and then went to the European Parliament here in Brussels. My husband is working there, so I used the corner of his office to do some work before I had a meeting with an elected Member of the European Parliament. I had an idea for an art exhibition that relates to Women’s Day 2020 and I’ve been looking for a space or a person who wanted to support this art show. I had identified and met with a Member of European Parliament who is an incredible feminist and incredible politician. She’s lived many lives and I thought this person might be interested in the kind of show I want to do. So I set myself up to do some work before meeting with her. I sent invoices for live art events that I’ve done over the last couple months for galleries and conferences. I sent documents to my Belgian tax advisors. I made phone calls that relate to school transitions for my child and I did preliminary research for my next show. I found some sketches that I needed to find that I had scanned in from previous sketchbooks of mine.
I needed to check that the hanging system in the gallery was appropriate for the canvases that I was working and… I’m telling you all the kinds of emails that I was sending because I think things like the school transitions is a big task and things like checking in with the tax people of a country that you’re staying with is also a big task. So I’m trying to just be really honest about the kinds of things I have to educate myself about, while living in another country. I also sent an email to you to make sure that this meeting was going to happen today and that we had everything we needed and tried to do some research to understand the medical system here better in order to advocate for the health needs of my family in this country. Then I went to this meeting with the Member of European Parliament who received the pitch for the 2020 Women’s Day event really well. I do believe that’s going to go forward now. I had lunch and then worked in a cafe for a couple more hours where I sent emails to previous publishing houses to check that the promotional activities that have approached me here in Belgium have the distribution of the books coming from the right wholesaler, in order to price it to their needs when they do those promotional activities. I sent emails to publishers regarding a charity that wants to use images from a book that I had published and then I wrote emails to my US tax advisors. So there are two big chunks of that day that were relating to Belgian tax and US taxes. I then went to pick up my child for my second shift of work, which is childcare and meal planning, cooking, cleaning, the bed routine.
Kathryn:
Do you keep up with any kind of continuing education, formal or informal?
Tamar:
I have three areas that I try to educate myself in. My first one is making sure that my art techniques are developing: my artistic practice is moving forward. I’m now learning tech around website migration. I’m moving my website from one platform to another. And the last area that I spend a lot of time learning in, is whatever is location specific to where I’m living. I really like to know the history. I like to do short trips around the country. I like to learn the languages of wherever I happen to be based. And there’s also issues around checking that the qualifications I have are certified as valid here in this country. For example, I have a degree in Psychology. Sorry, that was my Master’s. I forgot to mention that earlier. I just wanted to check that if I want to offer Art Therapy here, my qualification needs to be certified here in Belgium. And so there’s a lot of furthering education around learning the system of wherever we’re living. It might be the tax system and the legal paperwork or how to advocate for those medical needs in this country. So in terms of furthering education, I would say even though it’s not super interesting on an academic level, I’m constantly learning about how to live well in the country that I’m based in.
Kathryn:
What are you most excited about right now in writing and illustrating books?
Tamar:
I have four exhibitions coming up after the new year, so I’m excited about the artwork that I’m working on for those exhibitions. Regarding book projects, I’m working with an art historian on interviews with other artists who work in a similar method to me and that makes me very excited. And lastly, I have to say that because I’ve been traveling so much, I’ve been working in a very small format, miniature paintings, but one of the galleries has proposed that they would like very large paintings from me. So I’m very excited to be expanding those children’s book illustration formats outwards onto really big canvases.
Kathryn:
Now it’s time to get into the numbers. What would you say your income range is and how long have you been doing this work?
Tamar:
It varies from reprints of black and white line illustrations from previous books that are now going into their second edition, those reprints might be anything as small as €40 to €90 per illustration. If it were an original illustration that was NOT made to commission, it should be between €350 and €500 per, I would say framed, black and white illustration. However, I haven’t yet had the confidence to pitch the €500 mark. After listening to your podcast with Bari Tessler talking about feelings around money, I’ve been really inspired to interrogate why I don’t [yet] have the confidence to negotiate my price upwards. Yeah, I want to say that it’s really important in the illustration income range to make sure that you’re diversifying your clients, because you don’t always have repeat clients, and when I do a live art event, for example, I might ask for €1000 to 1,500, but I need to be aware of where that art event is based and whether or not that client will repeat work if I’ve pitched it too high. It’s a very delicate client negotiation.
Kathryn:
What would you say the range would be for someone just starting out?
Tamar:
For book illustration, I’m a member of the Association of Illustrators, which is based in the UK, and they argue it should be between €90 for a half page to €1,000 for a full page of an illustrated publication. However, as I was saying earlier, the clients always negotiate and I’ve spoken to other artists who are in advertising and brand consultancy and they’ve told me that this negotiation never stops. It’s very frustrating that no matter how many years you’re doing it, you’re often still negotiating as if you have not been doing it that many years. So another problem is, if you’re working in modern publishing, you tend to be delivering your work digitally, which means that you are in a global market and artists from all over the world can undercut each other. So the beginning income range does have a recommended price as per the union of the country that I started in. However, I would say, again, it depends on the client and how well you can negotiate based on your relationship with that client. I would argue that you need to check what their budget is, if possible, and use a price calculator that belongs to a union, like the Association of Illustrators to check what’s going on in the market to make sure that your quotation is within range for what is being sold at that time.
Kathryn:
Where do you see it topping out?
Tamar:
I think that top income depends on how productively you can sell work, top prices [per hour] tend to be digital work because it’s time saving work and it depends on who your clients are. Publishing will always pay less than a corporate space or an advertising space, and salaried is very different than freelance. So recent freelance surveys have shown me that no matter how many years of experience you have, your income is not significantly increasing over time as a freelance illustrator. So I would expect, if you didn’t have typical childcare hours as I do, you were working full time, and you had repeat clients who are at the higher end of the price range spectrum, I would expect that someone should be earning about €30,000 per year for freelance work, not including other income sources.
Katrhyn:
What all goes into how you decide your pricing?
Tamar:
It really starts with client meetings, understanding their budget, understanding the length of the project and recognizing whether or not there’s repeat work with that same client and acknowledging that if you’re going to have an ongoing relationship, you’re willing to make sure that your prices fit their budget in a way where you’re both more comfortable. Being aware of what it costs to live in the location that you’re living in at that time. So being familiar with the budget of costs in your location helps you understand what to charge. Checking with unions, this is super important to make sure that you’re not undercutting everyone else in the industry and of course common sense. Calculating your expenses and how much exposure. For example, I’ve been invited to do an art event for the TEDx conference that’s coming up here in Brussels and so I really need to understand what level of exposure is important to me compared to what kind of pricing I’m going to discuss with the organizers. And there is a point where you need to learn how to ask for more money, but you also need to understand in the negotiation with the clients what feels right for whatever economic context they are in.
For example, I received a call from a friend in brand consulting who was calling me from Ulaanbaatar: he pitched a project to me. We were working on this project and we came to a number that we felt, felt right. It took into account respect for the experience we both have in the industries and understanding what the Mongolian economic situation is and that we would be at the higher end of the price range for the clients in Mongolia. What I’m trying to say is that no matter what unions or negotiations you have in your head, there is point that feels right in conversation with the client. And I want to say be more optimistic, talk online in illustration communities or in publishing communities, talking online together with people who are making a living in the art world can help us have a level of transparency with each other and make sure that we are budgeting things correctly for ourselves, and I hope that will make incremental changes towards higher pricing in the industry.
Kathryn:
Do you have any suggestions on how people find groups like that?
Tamar:
It might depend on what kind of illustration you’re interested in doing. If you are doing nonfiction and it’s very technical, I would say those niche areas are easier to find in a way. When I first started out, I remember there was a group of young publishers, it was a club or a society that was in London. I had a friend who was in that club and I remember thinking, that’s a place where I can have interesting conversations about what’s going on in the publishing community. And then I learned about a group which was Women in Publishing and these were pre-internet communities, or at least it was very early days Twitter so it really required me to get up and go to community spaces and make sure that I was present while people were talking about the industry. In terms of finding the online communities, I really like being involved in social media on a personal level. I do have a Facebook professional page, but I really like interacting from my personal page, in groups where people are talking honestly to each other as person to person conversationalists, and being really transparent about where they’re going, what they’re doing, what they’re earning.
The way that I find those groups tends to be based on either [1] what location I’m in, for example, Foreign Mothers in Athens was useful to me and then [2] maybe more specifically, Creative People in Belgium is a good example. Finding groups through search engines with the keywords that relate to how you identify. If you’d like to work within the location specific parameters, then those groups are going to have the location and a title. If you want to work within the industry try searching those keywords. And I would say in those groups, be interactive, don’t just be a creepy lurker who is reading everything and not engaging in conversation! Try to be helpful. Try to answer questions when you can. I’m hoping that this website that I’m building now, is going to be a place where I can blog about the kinds of questions that I’ve been having as I’ve traveled through Europe and worked as an illustrator. Questions like; Which postal delivery service reliably delivers artwork? And; Which print on demand services also do posting? And; Which art directories are helpful to people being an artist in Europe?
Kathryn:
What, if anything do you do to keep your income stable?
Tamar:
As I was saying earlier, I studied Philosophy and I think that really helps me understand that the system is not going to be working for me. We live in Capitalism, we need capital to do our projects and whether that’s property or art projects or whatever, you need capital. So from really early on I was always doing part time work and every time I earned more than how I was living, I would invest it in a way that gave me some passive income or gave me some assets that would then increase in interest over time and allow me to do more art projects. So in terms of income stability, I would say to someone starting out, make sure you have part time work, preferably digital, that supports your creative projects and live humbly with roommates or with flat shares, not extravagant lifestyles, in order to take the profit margin and invest it back into yourself, into your creative projects and provide capital for whatever inspires you artistically.
Kathryn:
What’s your number one tip for women looking to get into book illustration?
Tamar:
I think the number one tip that I would like to offer young people or people pivoting into the art industry is to make sure that you are aware the education industry is not always informing you with transparency about the profession, about making a living in the arts, being aware of getting the information on a practical level or how to be an artist is as important, if not more important than the theoretical that you tend to get from educational spaces.
Kathryn:
What are your next steps?
Tamar:
As I was saying earlier, I’m really excited by these four art exhibitions that are coming up. One is these giant landscapes, giant canvases, excited to try my hand scaling up! Another one is for a charity and I want all of the proceeds from all of my artwork for that exhibition to be going to that charity. Another art exhibition is the women’s day one: Women’s Day 2020. That one is going to require a lot of hard work, but I think that I might do something within a similar theme to what I would create for the TEDx conference. So I hope it not to be a completely creatively independent project. Oh. And the website migration is a big project. I need to move from one platform to another, and I need to just get all my blogs down that answer the kind of questions that I wanted to know as an artist here in Europe.
Kathryn:
Where can listeners find you?
Tamar:
I’m working on this website tamarlevi.com which is under construction, but I am also on Facebook as a professional page @FineArtTamarLevi. But I prefer to interact as myself on Twitter or on Facebook, even though I’ve got the website and the professional page and the LinkedIn and the Instagram [and the YouTube channel]. I really like to be in a personal space, so I’d really like it if people connect to me on a personal level too.
Kathryn:
Tamar, thank you so much for joining us. This has been great.
Tamar:
Thank you for your time, Kathryn. Have a fantastic time in Peru.
Kathryn:
If you want your own location independent life and are eager to take that next step, join us in compass insiders where every week I send you actionable tips, inspiration, and motivation so you can take that next step towards going remote. Join us now at compasspod.com/insiders.
Did you enjoy this episode of Compass? If so, please take a moment to write a review. Leaving a review helps other womxn find us so they can find their direction too. Thank you for listening to Compass. You can find today’s show notes at compasspod.com/050, that’s compasspod.com/050. Join us next time when we talk with Lili Tanis, video coach.
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Brief Bio
Educated in London and Cambridge, Tamar has published as an author, illustrator and editor of multiple award-wining books designed for families, classrooms and doctors. Her prized artwork is highly collectible, commissioned by private collectors, sold at private auctions and exhibited in galleries around Europe.