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Hey, wonderful humans. Welcome to another episode of the Curated Muse podcast. In this episode, we are going to be talking about legalities for artists. Yay! It's such a fun topic. I was so excited to share information about it. Just kidding. It's not exciting, but I am happy to share information about it because it is very important for your career moving forward. I will be coming at this from more of an artist perspective so that artists can get information to help protect themselves in the future. The reason I'm not coming at it as a gallerist is because I'm not talking to galleries. If galleries do not have a contract in place, if a publication or an event doesn't have a contract in place, they are a business and they should. And they shouldn't have to have me telling them to do that. That should just be a known thing. So that's why I'm not speaking really to institutions or galleries or events because they should know better. But as an artist, whether or not you are new or you are a veteran, you may not actually know this or you may know some of it and then have aha moments about other things. I've been in this 20 years and I still have aha moments. This whole podcast has been started because of a slap to the forehead with my hand because I should have known better, but I didn't. And that, my friend, is why I'm doing this podcast just for you. So that you will know better and you will protect yourself. Because this world is brutal and artists are often preyed upon by bad galleries and institutions and events that kind of suck. There are great ones out there. And I know we do a lot of supporting and talking about helping artists, but I just want to share really quickly, there are so many fabulous, wonderful galleries and publications and events that really support and love and nurture and care and progress the careers of artists out there. But In this podcast, we will not be talking about those people. We will talk about those people that shall not be named, that are not good for us to work with. Everything you do as an artist needs to be in writing. It doesn't matter if you're working on an exhibition, a group exhibition, a solo exhibition, you're going to be in a publication. All of it is going to need some type of documentation for you to participate. There'll be no handshake deals in this. There will be no just shaking your head and nodding. Because I understand that when an artist, again, doesn't matter if it's early in their career or later in their career, when they get an amazing opportunity that's literally making their hair stand up on their arms and they're so excited, it is terrifying to think about rocking the boat and losing that opportunity. Because as an artist, whether or not you've had opportunities or you're just getting out there starting to try to get an opportunity, any opportunity matters because they're hard to come by. It is not easy forging your way out there as an artist through the muck and noise and all the things you have to do to get where you need to go. That when this beautiful, amazing pot of gold opportunity shows itself, You don't wanna look a gift horse in the mouth. You don't want to knock over the pot of gold. You don't wanna kick yourself in your own foot. Is that even, is that a thing? Is that a metaphor? Anyway, moving on. You overall do not wanna disrupt that opportunity by looking like a pain in the ass, by looking like maybe you're too difficult, but you're not. And I'm gonna tell you firsthand, If you do not get a contract in writing with the terms and conditions laid out, you're getting yourself into something that's going to cause you a lot of headache later. It is better to stand up for yourself. Ask for what you need. And if somebody is not willing to give that to you or they think you're a pain or they don't want to work with you anymore or they're going to be elusive about it, it's because they're not transparent. There is no gallery, organization, event, magazine that is going to want to pull you into some contractual agreement verbally without having a legal contract unless they are predatory, unless they want to change those terms and conditions because he said, she said, you remembered it different than I remembered it and that's not how it is. Anybody who is running a business that is above board is going to want to protect themselves too. The idea of a contract or you asking for a contract isn't just to protect yourself. It is to protect both parties. This is called a partnership. A document should have the terms and conditions in which everybody agrees to. And if there's something you don't agree to, then you have to dispute that and come to resolution or not sign the agreement. And it's understandable, as always, to remember things different than someone else. This is why contracts are there, why agreements that we sign are there, because everyone You know the game telephone. And if you don't, the idea is you have a line of people and one person whispers something into an ear and whispers on and on down the line to each person. And by the time it gets to the end, it's completely different. And that's the same with when you are talking to somebody about some type of an opportunity. If it's not in writing, perceptions get in the way and perceptions aren't fact and they don't hold up for anything. Early in my career, I did not get contracts, and boy, did I get myself into a lot of trouble as an artist. I had work damaged, like extreme water damaged, and it was shipped back to me. There was nothing I can do about it. I had work that was never given back to me that I chased the gallery down for three years, and I never, ever got the work back. I've also never been paid for pieces that I should have been paid hundreds upon hundreds of dollars for because I got no contract. All of that information should be outlined for you. You should have your commissions. And again, this is really more about exhibitions. But if you're in a magazine or you're doing an event, all of these things matter too. Like if you're doing an event, who's taking care of the electricity? All of these different types of things. Are you going to be provided a tent? Do you have to bring your own tent? Do you owe the organization a chunk of percentage of your sales? All of that matters. For exhibitions, what is the commission rate? Get that in writing. Who handles damaged artwork? Get that in writing. When are you going to get paid? When does artwork get shipped back? Who pays for shipping there? Who pays for return shipping? I mean, I could go on and on probably for like 10 minutes in regards to all the little nuances and important parts that you need to have in a contract. For yourself, looking at the contract. You don't need to go hire an attorney to look at contracts. Most of them are pretty simple. Just make sure that all of the most important things are there. How the work is handled, how it's stored, how are you going to get paid, how is it getting to the collector. And if it looks good to you, then move forward. If it feels uncomfortable to you, if something feels off, always follow that intuition. I am somebody who really likes to lean into my intuition, but there are so many times in my life, and I'm sure you listening to this have been there too, it's a human error on our part where we just know better. Like something in our gut says we know better, but for some reason we just do it anyway. And then again, we have a hand to the forehead moment where we're like, darn it, I knew better. Why did I do that? And remember, even if it feels good, so you have the feeling of like, this isn't right, you move away. But if it feels good and everything looks good and everything moves forward, remember just because it looked good in the beginning doesn't mean things can't change, doesn't mean relationships can't shift. And you might be like, this is not really a great fit for me now, now that I've moved in this direction or now that I see this or I see these behaviors. And it goes the same way. Galleries are the same way. We look at relationships. They might be good in the beginning, but then we find maybe down the road they aren't a really great fit for us. Relationships end and they begin and some last forever and some last for a season. But just remember partnerships are partnerships and they're going to come and go in life and we have to move on. If it's not a great fit, we move on to the next thing and we find a better fit. Because if we don't learn to pivot, if we don't learn to just shift our focus when something doesn't work out, we're wasting a lot of time, right? And we've done that with our gallery and our magazine where we've looked at different business models and then we realize it didn't work. And this isn't like partnerships, but it's more like a business model and we pivot. And you move and you shake and you change. And I want you to look at that as an artist too. Just because you have a contractual agreement with somebody and it looked good on the day of doesn't mean that you might change your opinion down the road and want to shift that. That's why a good clause in a contract is the ability for both parties to end the contract with a 30-day notice. In our other business, Rise Visible, where we do web design, SEO, and digital marketing, we have that clause for all of our clients. If people don't want to work together, whether or not it's us or them, there's a 30-day notice and both parties part on good terms and they move on. You do not want to be forced into a contract. So make sure that there are clauses like that that allow you to actually walk away if you want to. Because sometimes in scary contracts, they don't allow you to walk away. They control you. That happens in publishing contracts and other types of contracts where it gets very scary and very mucky. And you do not want that. A free and open relationship and a contractual agreement is what you want. You want to be able to ebb and flow with your partners and be able to grow or disconnect when you need to. And both parties should feel that way. No one should come into a contractual agreement controlling when it's a partnership. It's different when you're selling a business or doing an acquisition. All that's a different story. But this type of agreement is more of a relational agreement, a agreement of partnership, an agreement of respect. And I'm going to share one other story with you. And people always think it's a little funny. But many, many years ago, I was in a relationship with somebody and I used to do photography for my art. It was how I created stock photos. I use those as references to create my own art. And in that circumstance, I was in a long-term committed contractual agreement with somebody. And after some weird things happened, not with them, I then decided that because they would push the button on my Nikon camera, I would set everything up. And this was before there were remote controls at the time. I would have them push the button and But I actually made them have a contractual agreement that when pushing the button, that the work was mine. The photographs were mine. Because in court, someone could say that all the artwork I've created could have been from reference photos that they took. They are the photographer. They pushed the button. And as much as that probably seems slightly neurotic and maybe a little bit too much, It wasn't. It was the right thing to do. It protected everybody in this circumstance. And there never ever became a battle. And my artwork was always mine. And I share that story because it might seem, again, counterintuitive to be in a deeply contractual long-term relationship with somebody and then be like, hey, sign a contract because this is my work. And like I said, it might not be fun to ask, but I'm telling you. Something on paper at some point in your life is going to protect you. And I'm telling you this from my own experience as an artist and a gallerist, that having contractual information, terms and conditions, how people behave, how things are handled, all in agreement, in the long run, saves you from predatory behavior. It saves you from undue stress. It can also save you from undue legal problems that can cost you so much money. And I want to make sure that you remain protected. This is also really important to me because I did work at a legal firm early in And I saw a lot of people getting taken advantage of. Of course, it wasn't artists. It was just regular people living regular lives. But legal stuff can get mucky. It can ruin months and years of your life. And just being around that brought it to my attention so I can bring it to your attention. And don't get lax about it. Just because you have a contract with somebody and then they seem cool and then maybe they invite you to another show down the road. Well, I'm buddies. I'm friends. No big deal. It doesn't matter. You always are going to need protection. And remember from here forward that partnerships go both ways. It means that both partners should benefit. It means both partners should be protected and both partners should be on the same page. But that page needs to be on paper. It needs to be signed. And it needs to be legal so that everyone is protected moving forward. So it is my hope that this podcast episode helped you understand a little bit more, maybe created a little less fear inside of you. Because if somebody doesn't want to give you a contract or is going to run you around, it is probably better for you to walk away, even if that opportunity looks amazing. Walk away and protect yourself. You and your art is so important. You put time and energy and passion and love, and whoever you're partnering with should come at you at the same level of love and care and compassion for your work. If you guys have ideas for an opinion piece, like I said, we had people write us and tell us some stories about their legal issues, and a couple of these artists are going to actually share their stories on Hyperlux. We have a submission section on our website where we have different topics, AI, I mean, it doesn't matter, social media, numerous types of topics where we're offering an opportunity for artists to speak their mind, share how they feel about what's going on in the art world or what's going on in their world as an artist. And we look forward to seeing you in another episode of this podcast.