Work is Good: Get Thee Behind Me, Gurus of Art Twee
on March 3rd, 2013I’ve been trying to figure out how to frame this for a long time. How to make a point that everyone can and should make art if they want, while at the same time, making the point that creating art that is actually good, or of cultural value, or even salable, is not so simple.
The Gurus of Art Twee disturb me, because they sloganeer at people, convincing them that Anybody can Make Art, and conflate the work of little Timmy with the Mona Lisa, as if art is one thing that encompasses any recorded emotional human experience, and not a vast bell curve of value quite beyond your personal investment and values.
When someone creates a work that is something beyond personal value, something that is of value to others, or culturally important, then that is something that is rare and precious. And not everyone can do that, or gets to share in it beyond being a consumer or patron. It’s not something you get to make for yourself just by wanting to.
Art may be easy, but stop lying to people Gurus of Art Twee. GOOD ART IS RARE AND IT IS HARD.
It is right and proper to encourage those who want to make pictures or write stories, but there is also a lot to be said for moderating the discussion with reality – the reality that you put it out there, that thing that is a part of you, and that you love – and the world will judge, and that judgment may be rough.
Go for it.
Do it. Dream.
Dream on.
Dream big.
But DREAMS DON’T COME TRUE UNTIL YOU WAKE UP.
Gurus of Art Twee are trying to sell you a t-shirt with a slogan on it, or they are trying to contextualize the good feeling of their pep talk about how you too can be a wonderful artist with whatever book or album they are trying to sell.
Anyone can open their mouth and sing. Not everyone is good at it. Sing in the shower, by all means. Bless you. But the right to make art is often confused with the right to be perceived as being good or successful at it.
The Art is Easy! slogan is nice, because it is encouraging and tra la, but it’s twee. Being an actual professional artist is not easy. I mean, bricklaying isn’t rocket science either, but no one devalues the labor that goes into it.
Every time someone twees Art is Easy! Michelangelo’s ghost is forced to haul another cart of Corinthian marble in Hell.
My blog is full of examples of my encouraging people to make art. But I ALWAYS temper it with a dose of reality. Making art does not make you a professional.
Not being a pro does not mean you can’t live an art centered life and be perfectly happy.
I have wasted much of my precious time on this earth worrying about whether or not people thought I was a good artist. If I’d put all that time into actually working harder on my art and blocking out the noise, I’d be a much better artist today.
Finding the right advisors to help you become the artist you want to be is difficult. Your internal voice is tough, but judging the verity of the external voices can be even tougher. Sometimes they are ignorant and cruel, and sometimes they are simply telling you what you are not prepared to hear.
You may very well be a wonderful artist or writer or musician.
But it will have absolutely nothing to do with what someone is trying to sell you.
It will have everything to do with what comes from inside you.
It’s yours and you don’t need slogans. You don’t need gurus.
And this post is way too big to fit on a t-shirt.
So, have it for free.
Art is easy? HAH! Art is hard.
Art is a matter of the heart, as easy as falling in love and just as common; but falling out of love is just as common and never easy.
And art is love and lack thereof, every single day.
THANK YOU.
You’re being way nicer than need be.
This conversation sometimes make young artists nervous, thinking we’re telling them not to make art. That’s not what this is. It simply means that just because you have the right to make art, that does not mean you have the right to be told the art is good, or to make a living at it.
You don’t have to make money at art to be an artist.
But the Art is Easy gurus are trying to package the idea of making art, and selling making art as a toy.
Which it can be.
Or not.
But good art is rarely easy.
As someone who is currently making art every second I can, I can relate to your realism. I’m always examining what I’m doing and trying hard to continue to improve page by page. I hope one day someone will pay something for my art, but I’m content to just make it.
That’s the best piece, art comes from somewhere inside you and money is not a compelling reason to do it. People should make art because it challenges them and its something they can continually improve at and also because they have to and they need to.
I know for me personally, it’s something I feel like I have to do or I’ll wither up and die with all this stuff inside me. It has to come out, there’s no other choice. Maybe the money will come some day. But it doesn’t matter.
“Dreams don’t come true until you wake up.”
THAT should be a t-shirt slogan!
[though I'd change "don't" to "can't"]
I don’t agree that money doesn’t matter. Artists should do everything in their power to understand money and business, because if you have enough money, you can buy the time you need to make any art you want all the time. Without money, you can’t do that.
If you’re fortunate, you can make art for a living, but if you can’t make art for a living, you still need to buy the time to make art.
So, art first, but make sure you understand that money isn’t some thing outside of you, it is the symbol of the time and effort you invested to earn it. And if you have enough of that, then you get to make more art.
I understand what you say. However, I haven’t made any money off of art yet, but I’m still producing it. Currently I’m in that place where what I make represents potential future income, but it’s not really returning anything right now. I have a day job that sucks away a lot of time, but pays the bills, and every other second I have is spent creating with my eyes on a (hopefully) not too distant pay off. It will feel pretty nice if I start to make money on art, and that will certainly provide a further incentive to create it to add to the already existent intrinsic necessity.
I look forward only to being able to make more art, and am filing my process and my skill to the finest point i can manage every day in order to soon achieve that goal.
I guess it’s like drawing savings bonds that have a future payout, rather than drawing money at this point.
Do you have any advice for a novice making such a transition? Other than the obvious “don’t quit your day job until you have a chance at being solvent with only art”?