This work is a living discussion of how the art market has changed (& is changing), what we value as a society, and hopefully provides opportunities for discussions around value, values, and the nature of art in general.

This is art about art. questions about questions. It’s dumb and smart and good and bad and will take me the rest of my life to complete.

In my experience, the artworks that have shaken me to my core and helped shape the way I think have consistently been “conceptual” art. Works where the idea/question/issue the artist wants their audience to consider is more important to the artist than what the work looks like.
That’s not to say I can’t appreciate or love other art - everything from Monet’s landscapes to Vangough’s portraits to Rothko’s big color fields all hold a special place in my heart (and at times have moved me to tears!). But I personally don’t walk away from Monet’s haystacks with burning questions. Looking at Erwin Wurm’s One-Minute Sculptures, though, leaves me with a sense of urgency - a desire to find someone to discuss what it means to create, to be an artist, to be human.
I see a photorealistic still life and I’m impressed with the skill it took to create it.
I see Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ “Untitled (perfect lovers),” and spend a week choking back tears whenever I think about it.
I pass a Jeff Koons balloon dog in a gallery window and I smile.
I read the plaque of Michael Craig-Martin’s “An Oak Tree,” and I’m haunted by its implications for years.

In short: I love (and make lots of) more traditional visual artworks (paintings, sculptures, etc.), but the work that really makes my heart sing are the works I’ve made where the depth of an idea is what drives me.

This piece tries to balance the best of both worlds.

Lets imagine you were buying a famous painting by Pablo Picasso.
You presumably love the work - it’s colors, shapes, brushstrokes, the composition.
But you might not stop to think about the fact that you’re paying for more than a painting. You’re paying for the time he spent thinking about it, gathering supplies, mixing colors, looking at the subject… to say nothing of the years and years of effort honing his craft with dozens and dozens of creations before it. You’re buying a snapshot of all of the lessons, trials, joys and flashes of inspiration that led to the production of that painting.
If you bought it straight from the artist you’d be putting money in their pocket to hopefully be able to keep creating work. If you bought it from a dealer or an auction house, hopefully your purchase both strengthens the market for their work (so they can continue to create art to meet the rising demand), and supports individuals and institutions who strive to enable the artist’s continued work.

But what if that artist didn’t have to wonder if their next piece was salable? Didn’t have to change their message or tone or color palate or style to try to match a certain vibe of marketability? Would that artist’s work suffer or suddenly blossom?

Thinking outside of art, if I was working at a job I liked, doing work I enjoyed, and my boss approached me to say that I could choose to work there for the rest of my career and in exchange get a lump-sum payment of a life-changing sum of money so that I could do my best on my work without fear that some idea I have could jeopardize my ability to pay my bills - I would take that deal in a heartbeat.
Some people would choose NOT to, believing that they could make more on their own and desire to additional freedom of being able to “sell” their time to whomever they wished, but removing anxiety around financial instability would make ME come alive in that hypothetical role.

That’s what this piece is, essentially.

Nobody has ever sold their career.
Plenty of people have worked at one company their whole lives or sold the rights to all the songs they’ve written or auctioned off huge collections of work created over a lifetime…
Plenty of people have had patrons or investors who believed in their vision and skill and provided resources to a creator in hopes of grand returns in the future…
But nobody has landed right between those two ideas and sold their actual career.

What does that look like?
I suggest that it means that any and all creative ventures I pursue moving forward belong to the collector of this piece. Every painting, every sculpture, every artistic photograph, every conceptual work? No longer mine. If I write a children’s book or write a screenplay or record a double-platinum album? Belongs to the collector of this piece. I would see any/all of those things not as works on their own, but as receipts to the collector for another portion of my career having come to fruition.

…………………………………..

• The 1st article is a look at what this work is: You Can Buy My Career For $5 Million

• The 2nd is a bit of art history that informed my path to this piece: The History Behind the $5,000,000 Career

• The 3rd examines the math behind the price tag: $5,000,000 Math

• The 4th outlines a few people/types of people who might want to collect this piece: Who in the World Would Buy This?!

• The 5th is a more complete examination of the questions and issues at the heart of this whole project: What Does It MEAN?!, and

• The 6th gives you a look at who I am, what I care about, and some series I want to work on: Why Who I Am matters

Be warned, however, that while I have a few answers to some of your questions, in the end, this is a relatively obtuse conceptual art piece meant more to bring up questions than to answer them.
But whether you have questions, comments, gifts of cash, or serious inquiries, I look forward to hearing from you.
Just shoot an email to:
Juan @ BuyMyCareer . com

If you want to peruse a collection of previous works, head to my portfolio page.