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October 23, 2004
Why much?
No, I don’t do it for the money, hell I’d’ve stopped long ago if I did. Exactly why I do it is a tricky one. Indeed, from time to time, when it all gets too much, I try to stop – but can’t. So some would say I have to do it.
I don’t have to sell it. I often get this one wrong. Being a misplaced product of the middleclassprotestantworkethic I feel a fundamental need to “do well”. It is hard, on a purely fiscal level, to work on a six foot nude which is wholly uneconomical.
[It’s hard on an artistic level too but that’s a struggle I enjoy]
I have to keep telling myself it’s okay. I have to realise that in fact the most important thing is to do the work, the second most important thing is for the work to be seen, then way down the line comes selling the work.
I want people to want what I do.
I don’t want to do what people want.
Since the artist has split [about 150 years ago] from his alter ego the craftsman, it has been a selfish arrogant pursuit. But a necessary one, because as society is getting more and more tied down to systems [both corrupt and honourable] it is important to have creative people existing outside the system to be able to observe and comment on the one thing the system ignores: the human condition.
Money is the false idol of the systems, so to equate it to Art is wrong. To try to put monetary worth on creativity in no way helps the creativity. Money can provide the freedom for creativity to occur, and that is the test of an artist perhaps. Do you work to live or live to work?
Posted by john at October 23, 2004 04:00 PM
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