Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Simon Cherkasski. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Simon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
It’s not easy for an artist to convert his artwork into a product, especially psychologically. Artists create artwork from a desire for creation and the feel of beauty and harmony, and converting all this into a desirable product for sale is a big compromise for the best majority of creators. You are required to create artwork that is in demand instead of what you have in mind and soul. For me stubborn and self-opinion as I am, the golden middle is a solution, I create and recreate some of my most popular designs, but each time adding to them some individuality, and create hard-to-sale items for my creative self, some of them take years to sale, but eventually they all go, you just wait for a special customer that equal mathematical equation (good taste + finances + space = sale). And obviously hard work of representing yourself, boring art shows, Social Media, and other non-less boring events, it’s like feeling a lake with a bucket, the more water you pour in, the bigger boats can move in.
This is all of my secrets “Dancing with the Devil without selling my soul”
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I graduated from Art School in the mid-’80s and served in the Army for 3 years (my scratch book was with me all the time). Traveled the world for a few years (big stop in Paris). Open my first design studio in 90’s just to year later close it and start working for a local newspaper as an illustrator for the next 12 years becoming Art Director and Editor in Chief. But when the challenge became too small for my adventurous nature I move to a radio station for the next 8 years, directing programs and producing jingles. During this period I was participating in dedicated art shows, but can’t consider pure art as my profession. Moving to the USA in 1999 was a big step toward me today, after the first 2 years of working as a designer in a small publication in Baltimore I met an Israeli artist, whose studio was right near my workplace, and started working for her for the next 5 years. She was a necessary drop of confidence for me to start my career as a professional artist and thank her for that. It took almost 10 extra years of supplementing my art career with graphic design and illustration, but today I can survive and thrive on artwork sales, especially since my line of artwork consists of originals only, zero prints, and other types of copying.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Most of the Organisations created to help Artists are basically creating workspaces for bureaucrats that are busy sustaining their workplaces and do very little for artists. Public galleries and public art shows would be a great help. Our “Palm Bech Art Consil” did Open Studios weekend which was a great success, but it was the first direct help in my opinion to local artists in 8 years since I moved here. I”m attending the seminars and meetings from time to time, just to figure out how little they understand local artists.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I”m a very self self-sufficient person and overwhelming people’s attention is a burden for me, but this being said, documenting your work and creating videos and reels is an essential part of everyday business, especially for an artist. So I bite my lips and shoot videos, even do it harms my creation process (when you are “In the zone”, everything is an interference), but it must be done, and it brings customers. Shoot videos, take pictures,s and share, I actually enjoyed getting my first 27,000 likes, and I was sure that I was immune to flattering.
Facebook-Instagramm_YouTube-Website are 4 wheels of your social vehicle for a long drive.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cherkasski-art.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGaYyqGHK_7/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cherkasskiartist
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-cherkasski-0095a9/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SimonCherkasski
- Youtube: https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCBJQzqi0pN6Vjnsh45iFDKA/videos/upload?filter=%5B%5D&sort=%7B%22columnType%22%3A%22date%22%2C%22sortOrder%22%3A%22DESCENDING%22%7D
Image Credits
Simon Cherkasski Buterflyflower (copper-sculptures_24x48inch_2023_$850) Simon Cherkasski Tora (copper-sculptures_24x48inch_2022_$950) Simon Cherkasski Fidller on the roof (copper on wood-sculptures_24x48inch_2022_$4000) Simon Cherkasski Vase (copper-on wood, sculptures_24x48inch_2022_$4000)