Artists become project managers for their creations whether it’s working at a small scale with them being the only person on the project or them working with a team at a larger scale. There are deadlines to meet all while following certain processes to get there. A singer-songwriter may start with the sound of their next song first before writing a lyric or they may write a lyric and then create the sound. The most successful artists I believe are efficient project managers.
I ordered KAWS’s book that released earlier this year of his life’s work up until now and upon opening it and leafing through the pages I came across a “behind-the-scenes” look of how he created his artwork. There were sketches of canvas paintings with numbers written on different parts of the canvas that identified the paint color for that particular area. There were concept sketches for what would be his figurines/sculptures and he gave his audience an insight look into his way. I then YouTubed some of his installations and saw a few videos of crews of workers on lifts, small cranes moving his sculptures into place without KAWS being there at all. Now…. that’s a project manager.
The project manager is in charge of making sure the project is moving along towards completion. During this time the project manager may need to source out materials, change the way things are being done whether it’s who is involved or the order for how the project is being completed. The project manager has to understand what the goal is for what they are working towards to make sure that goal is met. This is the same for a project manager at companies in different industries or in this case a project manager at one’s own studio.
Artists are project managers.