I Leave All My Art To???

Your (future) late wife would throw out your work? That makes me sad.

I would give them to my sister to manage. I have many licensed images so the income/royalties could go to her.

According to the myth, it all becomes super valuable after you die.

Otherwise, be sure someone has your passwords and knows how to manage the accounts in case you have a stream of income.

My grandson has some interest in photography, and I will give him rights to all of my work, and the password to my account here, and change the paypal account to his or his mother's. Hopefully he will have enough interest to maintain my personal website and my (then his) account here.

I am setting up a corporation that will own all my art shortly. Each of my kids will own 25% of the shares. My wife and I will own the rest.

With the PODs et al, the tricky thing is maintenance. You have to know enough to up date the credit card information, keep the mailing addresses, email addresses up to date, monitor potential changes or glitches that might render the portfolio inert.

Maybe write out a little "how to" manual on maintaining the collection.

I will leave my art to two churches that I attend. One of them recently had sales for an artist's paintings, and sold over twenty. I intend to live a long time yet, however.

Doubling down! I like it!

Probably family won't care much....I think local art schools might be interested, not for sales, but for source material. Though what teacher these days wants that responsibility...hmmmmm


Garage Sale ! I'll publish the date, soon as I know for sure,lol.

Our Hospitals are overwhelmed with gifts of Art.

if you want - donate it to the library of congress. at the very least street photos are a thing they do actually have there. and i think they accept everything. best to leave it in tiff format though. and your name will be remembered.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Not really much of a concern for me right now, it might not ever be. I'm actually more concerned I'll be leaving a big burden for someone to deal with. I suspect most of it will end up in either the dumpster or the thrift store, or possibly in a yard sale for a couple bucks each. As for the online accounts, I'll leave a sheet of I.D.s and passwords so they can access them and close them down if they want. It's unlikely any of those accounts will be worth keeping open.

That is funny, I just thought about this yesterday. I would leave it to my two sons to have any income created by it divided equally.

As I have a Wegners a life threatening disease that can kill very fast my time is very unpredictable so my wife will be left to take the painting off the walls.

Good question ~ ~what to do with one's artwork? Ha, ha, I had a niece who said she could come, take and give to Goodwill! Or somewhere like that! I was really upset! Gee, I could do that if I wanted. My family, too, is kind of baffled what to do. I am old as well! Ha, ha, wrap it all up and leave on the doorstep of some ART museums, maybe! Wrap some, leave in places, then advertise the game for people to go look and find a painting or sculpture. IF found, keep it. Find someone to manage your art and sell it. Or find an auction company, though they do take a commission. Of course my family gets first choice, then what is left.......???? Your last statement was, donate it. Then the question is, to whom?

Not much of a concern for me at this stage and I may change my mind in the future but at the moment I couldn't care less what happens with my photos. If any of my accounts were making enough money I'm sure someone would want to take it over. I rarely ever print out my own stuff and hang it so what I do have... Take it, make a bonfire out of it... Whatever lol.

I register all my work. My three nephews and niece will own it all one day.

Dave

One advantage photographers and digital artists have is their art takes no space if they don't print it out. Storing finished paintings is already starting to become a burden for me, I'm planning on backing way off on the painting and focusing on sketching and drawing. That will simplify things for me and create less burden for my "heirs" to deal with, paper burns easier than hardboard. I may even "purge" my paintings and drawings annually and just hold onto the digital files.

I'm taking mine with me!

Me! Leave it all to me! Love it

my final wishes. print all my work then toss it all into my coffin. so when the dig up my body in a thousand years, they will know what art is.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

My wife gets it all, whether she wants it or not!

It seems that many of us have an egocentric perspective on our art. It's more important to us, as the artists, than to anyone else. With the steadily increasing image production created by camera phones and the like, plus devices yet to come, photographic imagery will likely have little value to future generations. Painting and sculpture may be a different story because they have a more physical presence. Hard to know, though.

I assume that my art will die with me. Presently, it occupies hard drive space and physically consists of hundreds of matted and framed prints. Someone may want it all, but I don't know.

My camera gear is another issue. My system includes two Nikon bodies and eight Nikkor lenses, accessories, studio lighting and more. I keep the gear current, and my plan is to endow my alma mater, MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art), with everything; with the camera stuff going to a promising student. I'd like to know that my creative tools will outlive me in the hands of someone who can truly benefit from them.

My Uncle was an avid amateur photographer, a 5 star exhibitor with the PSA. One of my early influences. He passed suddenly a year and a half ago. I saw my Aunt a couple of months later and asked her what she was planning to do with the closet full of slides he'd had. She had thrown them all out a few days after he died along with all of his equipment.

A friend of mine was a a fellow professional, well known in the jazz world. He'd shot about 70 covers for Jazz Times magazine and dozens of CD covers among other things. He was twice divorced with no kids, so the estate went to his 90ish mother. I ended up being the only person willing to help her make arrangements and clean out his apartment. Sold off his gear to help pay for the funeral and she gave me his archive. She passed soon after and the copyright passed from her to her nieces and nephews. Just started working with them to sell prints here and license as stock.

I'm going to have to set up some kind of trust on behalf of my niece and nephew for my work.

David,
Ouch...regarding your uncle....
My wife's parents recently passed away. They left us thousands of her dad's slides from their trips to Europe. My wife said, "so should we just toss them."
Sigh...they are safely stored in my bedroom....I am thinking of rephotographing them and then uploading them here...

I have no fear about my camera equipment. I owe my first wife some money. She says if and when I die, all my camera stuff goes to her....

Robert - If you die? Do you know something I don't???

Ronald W - how much older - he's more than half my age and I'm over 70 by a little. No - he's not likely to change before the trumpet blows

No idea how old he is but I think I am older, not sure. I'm 57.

Helps to have a living will and testament.

The animal bronzes from editions remaining will be donated to the certain chosen wildlife conservation supporting agencies like the Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund. They may sell them and raise more funds to help the plight of gorillas and another I have supported for the protection of Rhino.

The oils and framed paintings and illustrations of wild creatures will go to the same supporting charities by contract and the paintings as well. All the miscellaneous subject art will be used for filling eroded areas of my riverbank studio. All this is planned along with my living tortoises and amphibians as well as other animal family members like my dogs and cats. Zoo's will get the wild animals. It has been difficult to find a zoo who has good enough facilities believe me.

I think your wife and my wife are related !!!

Once a year I have a garage sale and start over.

My stuff will just float in cyberspace until the website administrators delete them.

I have worried about this very issue to the point of insomnia. Now past 60 (I can hardly believe it myself), I think in the event of my death, what will my three children do with my immense inventory, about which they understand and care little, and, are ill-prepared to market or maintain? My legacy should not be marked by the exhaustive “final solution” dropped on my children’s shoulders, that disposal process of my paintings, canvases rolled or stretched over heavy, wall-sized wood constructions. The fact is, when young, an inventory is a portfolio; when old, inventory is warehouse clutter.

But, then, I wonder, why should we care? We seem to consider settlement plans for our art as if death is temporary, that we might return someday to be sure all things are put in proper place. With all due respect to spiritual advocates, my thinking is that, if out there somewhere, no after-life cares about any of this. I have chosen this type of life--an artist, who, like others, accumulates "stuff." I should not lose so much energy worrying about "what to do with it...if?" Adherence to nonchalance, however, is easier said than done--especially as I a look at my boat load of space-filler.

I am "almost" sorry I started this discussion as it seems to elicit some anxiety about our art after our demise....
The only other photographer I know in real life is a wildlife photographer (lions, tigers and bears) and she is not interested in my candid street images...

I'm glad I have no desire to paint big! lol It seems almost all artists do, like it's a requirement to be an artist to be painting 5' X 6' monsters. If I was doing that the basement would already be full. Currently my "inventory" is manageable, my goal now is to keep it that way. I placed a substantial order for panels and paint at the end of the year, I've decided to make that last as long as possible, several years even, as long as I don't frame them they won't eat up any more space or money than they do now, but even so I'm doing more work on paper, that takes up even less space than panels. Again, my concern isn't for my work to outlast me, I really don't care about that, my concern is for my hobby to not become a burden for the people that have to clean up after me.

This is a serious subject that should not be taken lightly. We create so that future generations may enjoy our work but if nobody really cares for their being of any importance we are truly dead . Speaking for myself it is a source of great worry. I have over one hundred left to worry about.

I feel sort of opposite to you, Raffi. The act of creation is my primary reward. I really enjoy capturing and perfecting an image, and then seeing the final result. I have no concerns about future generations seeing my pictures. I don't market them at all, yet have had sporadic sales here and elsewhere. It gratifies me that others share my vision. What will happen to those prints over the years? I have no idea.

I am in my mid-60s and I have thought about what will happen with my paintings if I die suddenly. What happens to that canvas on the easel left half painted? Would someone try to finish it? (probably not). I have two mid-30s children and both can draw, but choose not to. Both have paintings done by me in their houses and seem to like them. Not sure what they would do with my growing supply of painted canvases. No husband. I also have a younger brother & sister and both love my paintings but have no artistic talent themselves. I have thought about having a sale on some of the paintings "I don't really like that much" to clear them out. But then...do I really want to sell something I don't feel good about? I don't like stacking paintings up against each other, but am resorting to that now. My studio has wall to wall paintings just to keep them safe from damage. A work friend came over last week and said "it was like a "museum" at my house with wonderful paintings all over." I do show my work locally and sell stuff on FAA some. I do have some regular commission customers. But I have always had a regular job, doing regular stuff, not artsy stuff. I know I won't stop painting, it is too fulfilling to do that.

Good discussion topic. We all are going to die and the talent goes with us.

Murray makes good sense. I'm sorry, Raffi, but I cannot agree with your statement, "We create so that future generations may enjoy our work..." Truth is, nobody frankly gives a damn about anything I have ever created--never have I been told, "thank you for what you did." I do what I do for me, plain and simple. If somebody out there cares, great! I had a college professor who once said,"I'm gonna paint these things anyway; if someone wants them, all the more the better, but I will continue making them regardless..."

I'm with you Kenneth.

I paint and paint again, maybe a hundred or so paintings per year. Maybe more, I've never counted and for twenty years...LOL.

Some are average, others pretty bad. I'll paint no matter what and people buy them. I'm not sure painting decorative wall art is all that I'm about and I have some of my personal favorites stored in a room in my house. I have many that are rolled up in tubes stored away. All of my family, some neighbors and friends and coworkers have my works in their homes, so maybe I already consider myself dead. I'm not going to wait until I'm dead to share my art...it has to go.

Weird, I never thought of painting just to sell. It's kind of out there for me not to share it, but then again, I have a very different career for making money and paying the bills.

Life is challenging, death inevitable, and worrying is a waste for me. I just get up and get moving every day and I'm happy to be.

This thread has me thinking for some reason, it's interesting.

I laugh in the face of death. My future sales? May they bless my nephews and niece.

I do not laugh too loudly.

Dave

I am not as prolific as you, Lisa--I have only some 200+- paintings that I will admit ownership to--and I am passed 60. So many of my paintings, too, are rolled away, but their large size makes roles like carpets, ready for warehouse storage, standing upright like soldiers. One doesn't paint like entering a financial investment--we do it anyway and pray that sales might soothe financial problems and lessen inventory. Artist Sue Coe once said in an interview, "Since artists do not create for money, they cannot be controlled by money." Yes, this is the mantra for all genuine art-making.

Wow, Kenneth, you are prolific in thought...that probably doesn't make sense, I've been painting since yesterday without sleep.

What I mean is that you are profound. Thank you for sharing your views.

I do very large paintings as well...so much harder to sell online. I take only a portion of the painting and digitally manipulate it, but it's a less than perfect image most of the time.

I'm checking your artwork out now. Your avatar reminds me of something Jackson Pollock would do and he's my favorite artist of all time.

Kenneth, if painting is just for you why do you hold onto so many? If you haven't looked at it for a year then why not send it to the dumpster? I'm not being facetious, I really want to understand why if the act of creating is what's important why you hold onto so much of the product for so long? I only have about half the paintings you do and they are a lot smaller yet I'm seriously considering throwing at least half of them out.

I have in my collection sculptures, lithographs and paintings which I have received by gift, purchase and inheritance from several deceased artists some who are internationally known.

It is a difficult experience to try to sell these because in one case their is nearly a hundred paintings.

The idea of trying eBay might work. Some of the more famous artist's work will not be easy to market even though my artists are on Artnet.com. There is a list of galleries hunting various artist's work to purchase.

Like selling classic cars which I have to also do it is no un-labored task. It's property and value if desire for it is not predictable. Must be why the Egyptians border their art and valuables inside the tombs of dead kings. Too bad it all got pilfrered and became a commodity for the current living world.

This might be a motive to destroy one's own art plus their collections lest they end up in a sleezy junk shop or the antique road show which I despise.

David King, I can't answer for Kenneth in any way as his line of thinking may be very different from mine. Money is not his motivation but perhaps expressing his view of what it means to be human is. Here is the way I view it, no single work can sum up your entirety of existence, or what it means to be you, but perhaps a bit at a time, work by work might come close? Art, more than anything else is about communication, and a body of work both good and bad can come as close as anything to being able to express what makes you you.

How does art sitting hidden away in storage express anything? If it's about process and you are painting for yourself then the physical product shouldn't matter should it? The digital artists and photographers have learned to let go of that hang up.

Yes, David, why not throw the work away? I guess to quickly dispose of what I took a lifetime to create is like shedding a bad soul--I simply cannot do so while I am alive--otherwise, to do so is like submitting to death. Original cutting-edge, large-scale paintings in today's age, which are my signature, are no easy task to market or store. The fact is, I hold on to them because outlets are slim. Don't misunderstand...I do not regard everything I have done as sacred--I realize they are just statements in paint. Also, to dispose of the work is not as easy as it sounds--the wood stretchers must be disposed of properly, since local sanitation laws frown on all carpentry materials just dropped in the garbage. I guess even at my age, I must get better advice on marketing through sales or to donate my work...where do I go?

I have no canvas....I have no paper....I am committed to the electron and the photon.

Dave

I can understand that Kenneth. It can be hard to let go of your creative output. I'm trying to be more pragmatic about it, I think I'll soon be disposing of the majority of my paintings, only keep my favorites, and may not be creating many more in the future. Sketching is a good pastime.

The fact is, I, too, have created no "new" canvases since circa-2008. In recent years I have reworked old failures, abandoned but not destroyed paintings. Something compelled me to hold on to the old failures, rolled up and left for dead. To my pleasure, many "resuscitated" drawings and paintings have entered a new life--remarkably, a successful life at that. Thus, I have created new works without adding to the cluttered inventory!

David, you could opt for painting in watercolor, it wouldn't take up any more storage space, if you wanted to continue in a painting medium. So called watercolor sketches. Still developing painting skills if the interest is still there. If you don't paint too large just removing the canvas from a temporary stretcher or backing would help. Of course, not as simple as just sketching.

Edit: I know a lot of heavier watercolor paper could eventually end up taking some storage space, but a lot less than stretched canvas or boards.

Ken, for me watercolor is just a sketching medium and only for it's convenience, it's really not my medium and I'm not really interested in pursuing it as such. I use it in sketchbooks and watercolor blocks but that's it.