Lose the Minus
Mistakes I've Made as a Recording and Visual Artist
Mark Rushton’s Perseverance in the Arts is a weekly email on Substack where I talk about my ongoing work as a recording artist and visual artist.
Visit the Mark Rushton Gallery for original paintings, metal prints, and tote bags that other people in public will like.
License my music, sound fx, and illustrations at Pond5 for your creative project.
I’m on Bandcamp. And all the usual streaming services. I do all my streaming listening via Qobuz, a service that actually sounds great and pays artists.
This week’s topics:
Recording Artist Mistakes
Visual Artist Mistakes
Some Things I Did Right
Seefeel - “Lose the Minus”
Recording Artist Mistakes
The above is from the book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, and I guess I’ll include some other quotes from that book in this post. A lot of things about that book make total sense to me.
As an any kind of artist, you can’t expect your grand plans to fall into place. Artists make things most people don’t need and almost nobody wants.
Lately, the biggest mistake I made as a recording artist was giving up self-management of my publishing catalog for several years. I have it back now. As of October 2024, it’s all cleaned up in the US. The rest of the world will take a while.
Another mistake was not contributing to stock music libraries any earlier than I did. I just didn’t know about things like Pond5 for licensing music, sound fx, and illustrations. I was doing well with my “non-musical” works on streaming services, so it never entered my head that other creatives might want to use the components that I record and edit.
I don’t think my late entry into the world of sync licensing is a mistake. I took several years to research that industry, and I’m glad I was cautious about it. Maybe in the future I can announce some uses of my music in film, tv, or advertising.
Visual Artist Mistakes
Nine by Sister Corita Kent and one by John Cage. This list has always helped me, especially Rule 7: The Only Rule Is Work.
Visual Art is something I’ve stayed with even though it seems I should have given it up a long time ago. In high school, I was not allowed to join the Art Club because I was “too old”. I was a junior at the time.
When I went to an actual art college, I had an excellent drawing and painting teacher, but some of the others probably shouldn’t have been teachers. The “others” were the main reason why I dropped out of art school to accept a full-time job at a mutual fund investment company near the college. While at the mutual fund company, I soon pivoted to a career in tech that I’ve been in for over 30 years. I have no regrets about dropping out of art school. They did me a favor.
In recent years, I developed an interesting technique but had trouble scaling it up. I should have just kept the images small, scanned, and then printed onto substrates like metal, but I just didn’t know anything about dye sublimation printing at the time.
I did zero licensing of my artworks until very recently. My catalog management was terrible until I started using Airtable. And while I’ve bought many sketchbooks over the years, I can rarely get past a few pages before stalling. I also made too many “larger” artworks.
Another mistake I made over the years was switching around to different web sites. I’ve used MS Front Page, Wordpress, Squarespace, and various site builders. I’ve finally settled down and have been with Art Storefronts for a few years. “ASF” allows me to offer original artworks, prints, and merch via the Mark Rushton Gallery, and I recently renewed with them. While I don’t do marketing the ASF way, their Art Marketing Podcasts and other live streams are very insightful. I think ASF has good fulfillment partners. I like the metal prints I’ve ordered from Bay Photo, and the totes bags I’ve bought through Gooten are excellent. ASF’s web site back end takes a while to learn, but I understand it now. ASF is expensive at first, and is not for everybody, but I felt like I was paying for a marketing education I didn’t get in art school.
Some Things I Did Right
On both the recording and visual side, I’ve never been afraid to “make even more art”.
I’m always pivoting, but on my terms.
On the business side, a few years ago I switched from sole prop to LLC after consulting with my CPA. Incorporation isn’t right for everybody. Talk to a CPA in their “off season”, which starts October 16th and lasts until early January. Only talk to a CPA. Don’t talk to lawyers.
I’ve never bought an ad. Not one. A lot of people keep buying Meta ads, thinking that is the way to success. I’ll never do it. All it does is give Zuckerborg more money. Billionaires always need more money. I don’t think “the masses” are sitting around and trying to find your art on Instagram these days.
I’ve never signed a lease. I would love to have a studio space outside my house. I’ve been doing real estate “reconnaissance” for several years to find a studio space, but everything I’ve encountered has made me wary of signing a lease.
I also think regularly writing about my music and visual artwork on Substack, and the processes and things that go into it, has been a good thing.
Prior to Substack, I was very bad about this sort of thing. They didn’t teach any of that in art school, either. I suppose in colloquium you talk about the art, but you’re not really encouraged to write about it.
And with that, here is the late, great Fairfield Porter:
Seefeel - “Lose the Minus”
I was into Seefeel in the early 90s with their “Quique” CD, which I think was only available on import back then.
Seefeel broke up for a while, then got back together.
Their latest mini-album, “Everything Squared”, is a further progression of their unique minimalist sound using guitars and electronics.
“Lose the Minus” is only 2 minutes long, rather short considering some of their older pieces, but it unfolds and doesn’t stick around any longer than required. That’s a good title.
Here’s a link to “Lose the Minus” on Qobuz. High quality. 24-bit 48 kHz audio.
Wear good headphones, I like Grados.