Julie Dermansky: from the Lumis Collection in the basement of the Robinson science center, Binghamton, NY

JULIE: My work isn't really done until it's out in the world.
My uncle is an artist and told me, never sell anything for less than say $100, or make up your own number. If it's less than that number, then just give it away. But don't sell it. I like that rule. Keep the value for yourself. Joseph Cornell hated to sell his stuff. Leo Castelli could never get it away from him.
Andy Warhol said make pictures you'd sell for $100 and others you'd sell for $10,000. That way you just get your work out there by having something for every budget.
Some people feel the universe should take care of you, and others get out there and hustle.
There's always a way to make money, one way or another. I grew up around the drive to make it for its own sake but for me it was a way to be an artist. Being an artist costs money and I needed money in my pocket. I started making and selling jewelry when I was 14. In college, I would go to the dorms, not be shy, just say, “would you like to see some jewelry” and spill it on the bed. I’d make $400 or $500 which made it pretty impossible to go do some job for $6 an hour. It didn’t make any sense. My art objects always sold.
I'm not qualified to do anything so it's lucky people have always bought my stuff.
People romanticize self-employment but it's a heavy burden because you can’t count on regular money coming in. I've envy people with steady jobs on one level. I have no safety net but then again no one is 100% safe and the rug can be pulled out from under anyone.
A lot artists don’t do their homework. You have to hustle, have to keep going, Have to have faith in your work. You have to be willing to go below your level sometimes without bumming out. If you insist on selling everything for thousands and never do, you'll end up with no money and no collectors. If you need the money, don't feel bad, get your work out there. That's what makes your work into a commodity, because it's visible. I don't know who created the rules about artistic integrity, that money is evil, that you shouldn't make work in order to sell it, that it shouldn't have a decorative element. And no art schools have classes about marketing. It's frowned upon.
It's so easy to give up, to forget to market, to forget to find a market place, to not do your homework. You've got to feel confident about your work, that's a key to salesmanship. You've got to learn about grants and sources of funding. Artists have a knack for being self effacing and for being overly self critical instead of learning skills and promoting themselves.
The art world is very seductive and full of hangers-onners. there's so much energy and people want to latch on to it. When I've had relationships that have reached the point where men say you've got to decided between me and the work, it's too much and there just wasn't a choice for me, of course, it was the work.
I can't be something else, even if I wanted to.