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Kristy Jo Beber and the Business of Art

By Jack Cantey

Fort Wayne Reader

2006-12-05

Like many fine arts graduates, potter Kristy Jo Beber had a strong grasp of her craft when she finished school in 2004, but only a set of vague notions regarding what to do with her artwork once it was completed. Beber knew how to make art. It has taken two years of hard work, trial and error, and commitment to a modest living, though, to teach her how to be a working artist.

It might surprise some that the term “working artist” is not a paradox. In fact, a successful working artist is usually also an accountant, a publicist, and a designer. The demands of managing an emerging arts career are quite similar to those of running a small business.

Just ask 28 year-old Beber, who, in essence, is her own small business. “I make clay, I teach clay,” states Beber. “Everything revolves around clay.” An average week sees her spending around 20 hours creating her pottery, much of it spent hunched over a potter’s wheel in concentration as she guides a lump of clay with her hands into its final form of a bowl, vase, or cup. Or perhaps she’s experimenting with a dozen new glazes while waiting for an eight-hour kiln firing to finish. And on certain nights, Beber also teaches ceramics to non-art majors at IPFW, her alma mater.

It was at IPFW in 2000 when Beber – then a photography student – first fell for the potter’s wheel. “There’s something about that feel of the clay pushing through your fingers,” she explains. “Once you get it, there’s such a sense of accomplishment. It’s more connected. I feel like it is more hands-on than slab building. Not necessarily better, but better for me.”

In the past two years, Beber has primarily used porcelain for her brightly-colored vessels, which are influenced by both classical and contemporary forms. The porcelain’s white surface provides her with an ideal canvas for a wide range of glazes. In the past year, however, she has introduced a popular line of black and tan pots made of groggy stoneware. “People have really seemed to respond to them,” Beber says. “The rough surface is the tan of the clay and the black is a stain I paint on. It’s pretty contemporary and geometric.”

20 hours a week of throwing, glazing, and firing her artwork is just the beginning, though. She must then find venues to sell her pieces.

Beber’s first experience with selling her work was the summer before her junior year at IPFW. “There was a little art fair...I sold a lot and it clicked, ‘Maybe I could sell pots and make money, and not have to waitress or bartend anymore.’ I started to do a few art shows after my senior year and, each year, it’s just gotten to be more and more.”

In 2006 alone, Beber estimates she has participated in over a dozen art shows, fairs, and exhibitions. Half of the shows were outdoor affairs, which often require long drives and physical demands, while also being subject to variables such as weather and customer turnout.

“One of the big lessons I learned was going to an art show and seeing that the public considered us free entertainment, not realizing that we were working artists there to make our living. Basically, I spent all weekend and made $200 while spending two days – eight hours a day – in the sun and also setting up and tearing down. I learned that it was a lot of work.”

Beber has recently turned her attention to gallery representation. After all, why spend all that time selling your own work when others might be willing to help sell it for you? Currently, she is showing her work in the Park Avenue Gallery in Winona Lake and the Orchard Gallery of Fine Art on Covington Road. She is also actively seeking gallery representation in Michigan.

The final major challenge a working artist must face is how to let people know about you and your artwork. For many artists, self-publicizing can be an intimidating and uncomfortable chore. “I felt it was a vanity at first,” Beber explains. “But then I realized that anyone who is trying to run a business has to promote their product. If I was selling cars or couches, I would advertise that I was doing that. Why not advertise that I’m selling my pots?”

Along with periodical email blasts, Beber designs and distributes two or three postcards each year to a mailing list of approximately 200 customers. She stresses quality over quantity with mailing lists, saying she would “rather have ten reliable customers receive my postcards than waste 24 cents each” on hundreds of people who will never buy her work.

One lesson that many artists learn the hard way is that donations of artwork to charitable – and, at times, not so charitable – organizations do not necessarily lead to an expansion of a customer base. This doesn’t keep Beber from giving, it just makes her a more selective donor. “In the beginning, I thought that people would see my work and come buy from me. It never really happened, but I still give to causes I believe in. I limit it now and try not to get taken advantage of.”

When Beber looks into the near future, she’s realistic about the local market, but also is enthusiastic about creating a life for herself as a working artist in her hometown of Fort Wayne.

“I think I’ll have to branch out and sell to different communities, go to farther away shows. But Fort Wayne is a nice place to live, I think, and it’s an affordable place to live. Maybe I’m making my income from other places, but I’m based out of here.”

To find out more about Kristy Jo Beber, visit: www.kristyjobeber.com