Art Ist being advised by competing Ids. All images courtesy of Mark Simon.

In the land of Creativity, there is great joy as there are creative seeds to be sown. The rivers of Development run deep and flow through the fields of Production. As with all land, in Creativity there are owners and there are tillers.

Hello. My name is Art. Art Ist. Like most artists, I often find myself acting as an owner and a tiller at different times. Knowing when I can reap the rewards of my own healthy creative crop and when I can’t is very important.

Upon my shoulders are the weight of my artistic and job decisions. Should I follow the Angel of Great Risk and try to retain all the rights and profits to everything I do by working for myself? Can I do that? But then I hear the sweet whisperings of steady money from the necessary Evil of Work-For-Hire and staff positions. How do I resist the call of the paycheck? Do I have to?

As creatives, we all have dreams of our concepts being accepted by millions and having the riches of the world thrown at our feet. This dream is part of what pushes us to continue through the dark forests of rejection.

I believe that true happiness lies not in blindly seeking out and accepting only one goal, but in how we live our lives, every minute of every day and what jobs we accept as we wind our way along the road to eventually reach that goal. Methinks there could be a happy medium twixt my opposing shoulder nymphs.

Perhaps I should listen a bit closer to each of their arguments so I can make informed decisions as I till my creative soil.

The Angel of Great Risk, but a better fit for some personalities and greater rewards.

As I lean my head to my right, I hear the Angel of Great Risk whispering that I should only develop my own projects and always hold onto all the rights. Ahh. It sounds wonderful. Full control over my own properties. Yes! But, what if it takes me a few years to get a deal for one of my ideas. What if it takes 10 years? Or 20 years? Or never? That’s not unheard of. How will I survive until then? I don’t want to sell French fries. This angel may not be for everyone.

Then I feel a tugging on my left ear by the necessary Evil of Work-For-Hire. “Work for someone else,” he says. “Let your employer find all the jobs, deal with clients, and pay your insurance and taxes. You can then concentrate on being creative and not worry about all those business things!”

Hmm. Good point. How can I be creative if I’m always dealing with business issues, tracking down payments, marketing for clients, putting proposals together, paying the bills? The freedom to just create and getting a steady paycheck doesn’t sound bad at all. It may not be as bad as I thought.

I think I should peel these concepts and see what’s really inside. “Angel,” I say. “Let’s say I do decide to work for myself. Will I really have full control over all the work I do?”

After a short pause, I hear his soft voice saying, “Wellllllll. Not always. Some freelance work may also be work-for-hire.”

“What exactly is work-for-hire?” I ask.

The angel responds, “Work-for-hire is where the person or company paying for your work is the legal author or artist of record. They own all the rights to the work, not you.”