Our ability to make our art work is what ultimately sustains our lives in deep, satisfying ways. However, the world we inhabit is one that does not value thinking, aesthetics, actions, and other activities that do not produce large sums of money for someone. Efforts that expand what it is to be human or that produce new ways of thinking or being in the world are not valued by the dominant culture. A concerted political effort was made by champions of free-market ideology to dismantle support for the exploratory arts. We must constantly fight for the lives we want. In order to make our work, develop our ideas, and to continue our conversation of over thirteen years, we have had to do a variety of things to attain a certain level of economic stability. We do not always have economic stability, despite our efforts.
All three of us must do work for money in addition to our work as artists. Sometimes the paid work overlaps or intersects with our artistic practice in beneficial ways. We have all taught or conducted workshops, and continue to do this, in universities, art schools, and academies. Individually, we have worked in museums, offices, grocery stores, shipping warehouses, the homes of friends with children to care for, and have sliced meat, bussed tables, and sold books and records on eBay, etc. to fund our lives. We have also received support from our families, life partners, and community of friends, without whom all three of us would likely be homeless or dead.
We do make some of our income from our work together as Temporary Services in the forms of speaking fees, workshop fees, book sales, travel and hotel accommodation, honoraria, and, more rarely, awards. We also make art individually or in other collaborative configurations and earn money in similar ways through those practices. No one in the group works with commercial galleries. Temporary Services has never had a gallery and has always been self-representing.
We started a publishing imprint and online store called Half Letter Press to build up long-term infrastructure for economically sustaining and supporting both our love of publishing and the work of people that do not get enough support. We formalized our core values a few years ago into the following list:
We Strive to Build an Art Practice That...
1) Makes the distinction between art and other forms of creativity irrelevant
2) Builds and depends upon mutually supportive relationships
3) Tests ideas without waiting for permission or invitation
4) Champions the work of those who are frequently excluded, under-recognized, marginal, non-commercial, experimental, and/or socially and politically provocative
5) Makes opportunities from large museums and institutions more inclusive by bringing lesser-known artists in through collaborations or advocacy
6) Puts money and cultural capital back into the work of other artists and self-publishers
7) Insists that artists who achieve success or renown devote more time and energy toward creating supportive social and economic infrastructures for others
Half Letter Press has not been very profitable thus far by any normal measure of economic success. However, it has greatly expanded the audience for both our ideas and the creative work of people we care for, in the form of thousands of publications spreading throughout the world via mail orders and our participation in publishing fairs. This often results in other opportunities, such as exhibitions, lectures, and teaching jobs, which aren't as easily quantified on a tax return. It also results in new friendships and fruitful collaborations. Many of our customers are also artists, teachers, writers, and publishers. The social and economic rewards of those relationships have been slower to reveal themselves, but they are clearly becoming more substantial as we develop this new aspect of our practice.
1.02.2012
