Why I don't do commissions

I might have had this on my journal a few years ago but I have been getting a lot of questions why I don't make a living doing commission portraiture?

When I was in art school I my goal was to make a living from my art. I thought it would be wonderful to get up in the morning and just paint and draw. At first I supplemented my income by, teaching and working in picture frame stores. Soon I started to get lots of portrait commissions, at first just in here in Michigan, then Chicago. So my wife and I packed our bags and moved to windy city. Portraits Chicago a very exclusive agency for commission portraiture represented me. I started making great money, and for the next two years I was never without work, but I was miserable!

Art, my sanctuary, the very thing that gave me such pleasure was now reduced to paintings of corporate bigwigs wanting to look important in cliché posses, pipe in hand, arm on an overstuffed chair and so on. I had very little input on the creative side. I was told to make the subject look younger and thinner and I would "rake in" the cash. Soon I started cutting corners in my work (the faster it got done, the more money I made). I lost the will to improve and actually my work started to suffer and I had no energy to do "fine art" in my spare time. I had to get out of this, I told Portraits Chicago that I am no longer available for commission portraiture, and got a job in an art supply store. In the evenings I started to work on my art again, every night I painted, the enthusiasm was back! I worked forty hours a week in the store and did my art for thirty hours. I made less money, and I was much happier. Now I am the director of a small art school back in Michigan, my work is still growing and the excitement has not diminished. I sell my work just fine now, but under my terms. I don't need to make a living off of it; I never want to lose that artistic freedom that I enjoy now. Art is so precious, and I almost lost it.

Every once in a while take on commission if I know the person, if I respect the person, and if I have total control, then its rather fun. Saying all of this, I know many artists that love commission work and thrive on the challenges of it, and they are happy. I just was not one of them.

Oh one more question I that I often get; why don't I draw cerebrates? well I only work from the live model and from photos I personally take of the live model, so….when Angelina Jolie calls me up, ill be there in a flash suffering for my art…

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