[BLOG POST 10/11/24] Lately I've had so many ideas bouncing around in my head that I couldn't focus to write something for this blog. Because I still don't have any one thing that I want to write about in depth I thought I'd give you a smattering of what is in my mind's eye:
POSESSIVE PRONOUNS & SELIFIES
Recently I've read many artist statements and been in many conversations and the thing that stands out is how many of us start almost every sentence with a possessive pronoun: I, My, We, etc. Perhaps its reflective of our times where we each live fairly closely curated lives with our favorite playlists following us from our cars to work to home, TV shows/movies streaming on demand, and conversations friends who share similar ideas. Everything has become about the individual including our sentence structure.
That got me wondering about something....if you took a sampling of selfies from social media and removed the person in the photo what would remain? What is in their life that isn't them??? Would you see a beautiful place? A cute animal? Or would there be nothing in the background?
EXTERNAL VALIDATION
After finishing re-watching the TV show "Northern Exposure" one episode has stayed with me. It is the episode that follows Ed and his personal demon of self doubt. It got me wondering, what is my personal demon? In another episode I found out when a wheelchair athlete faced her personal demon - external validation.
A big part of my artists' journey has been enjoying the ACT of making my art. What I paint is what I'm thinking about or experiencing. But after a while I've started to notice a desire for my artwork to be SEEN in and appreciated (and purchased) by someone. Anyone. But why??? Am I making art for someone else or for me? Is it possible to do both? If so, how do I balance the two sometimes competing interests?
THE ART GAME
Every job or industry has its own set of rules that people play by and the art world is no different. It's taken me a while to learn the players, the pieces, and the general rules and I still have a lot to learn. It occurred to me that it might be fun to make it into an actual board game, that way it would be easy to see in physical space and we could play out different scenarios.
However dear reader, from where I'm sitting right now the art game is pretty dark and twisted.
Artists aren't valued until they are famous and even then they aren't treated as well as their artwork is. Everyone wants a piece of a famous artist - gallery owners, collectors, government agencies (i.e. taxes), museums, and more - but artists are often mistreated. For example, one famous artist told me she worked with a gallery owner who thought artists only made good work if they were desperate so refused to pay them any commissions from their artwork which sold.
If I'm completely honest, the game doesn't look very fun to me. So where does that leave me and my demon of external validation?
SUCCESS AND MONEY
In my current painting I wanted to explore my limiting beliefs around money and look at all the different ways money exists (cash/physical, bitcoin/abstract) and is is often talked about in our world in relation to water-themed words like liquid assets, currency (current-sea), cash flow, revenue streams, etc.
It's a big topic and my painting can't cover everything I'm thinking about or how success and money are related to the art game. In fact, the more I think about it the less I am certain of anything at all. Which leaves me feeling confused and questioning what I'm doing with my painting. sigh
Anyway dear reader, that covers most of what is rolling around in my head today. Tomorrow may be something different so be sure to stay tuned! 😉
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