Holy shit... a rant - Professional Art Views: Why do you fail so hard?
The views of the professional world of art make me sad.
I spent an hour listening to the guy they brought down from Frisco for the juried art show. By the end of it, I wanted to dig out my eyes with a spork. I hated the way he spoke about his craft.. Like it was just some tool. Just something else to be used. He loved the blankness of things so much that his art was stunted. It didn't speak. You might as well have put a blank canvas up there (or in his case, a lump of clay. He was sculptor. Worked in ceramics). He's just another cardboard cut-out guy claiming to be something he isn't.
I get sick of the way the 'professional' views of art are. A majority of these people treat it like means to some ultimate end and nothing more than that while the amateurs out there are producing more creative and wonderful works than ever. Sure, a lot of this isn't going to look as polished as something you'd see in a museum, but you can tell they put their all into it; and they did it because they love doing it. And nobody's noticing it because they're too damn wrapped up in seeing more of this elitist garbage that people who have made it into the design world are spitting out. It's disgusting.
Now I'm not saying it's not right to use your talent to make some extra cash. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to take commissions from people if that's something you're comfortable with doing. I'm not saying that. There's a difference between utilization of talent and selling out. There are people out there who are amazing artists and make their livelyhood off folks who truly appreciate their work for what it is, whether you work with mediums, or you do some sort of craft.
I'm talking about people who have the abject gall to sit there and feed people a line of bullshit while they spit out these things that no one in their right mind is ever going to remember in 20 years... or five minutes from then to be quite frank.
The same thing can be said of the whole "BFA Review" that I see in a lot of schools. What gives these teachers the right at any point to tell someone who is really serious about making art and design their profession that they can't do what they love? I don't care if you have tenure. I don't care if you've got experience. That is not your call to make. What point is there in crushing the dreams of someone else?
Ironically, in Russia they took people's natural talents and forced them to do it whether they wanted to or not. Yet here, we look at your work and go, "Oh, I'm sorry. You're not good enough and you should just give up now."
People like that are the reason why I didn't enter into the juried show. I love honest feedback, don't get me wrong, but I don't need the approval of some pompous elitist ass who thinks he knows all about what's worth looking at in the world to tell me that they think my work isn't going to make the cut. That's not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because I enjoy it. I do it to express myself. I do it to make a statement I can't put into words. I do it because it's a part of me.
And people wonder why nobody's interested in funding the arts. No one's looking in the right direction.
I spent an hour listening to the guy they brought down from Frisco for the juried art show. By the end of it, I wanted to dig out my eyes with a spork. I hated the way he spoke about his craft.. Like it was just some tool. Just something else to be used. He loved the blankness of things so much that his art was stunted. It didn't speak. You might as well have put a blank canvas up there (or in his case, a lump of clay. He was sculptor. Worked in ceramics). He's just another cardboard cut-out guy claiming to be something he isn't.
I get sick of the way the 'professional' views of art are. A majority of these people treat it like means to some ultimate end and nothing more than that while the amateurs out there are producing more creative and wonderful works than ever. Sure, a lot of this isn't going to look as polished as something you'd see in a museum, but you can tell they put their all into it; and they did it because they love doing it. And nobody's noticing it because they're too damn wrapped up in seeing more of this elitist garbage that people who have made it into the design world are spitting out. It's disgusting.
Now I'm not saying it's not right to use your talent to make some extra cash. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to take commissions from people if that's something you're comfortable with doing. I'm not saying that. There's a difference between utilization of talent and selling out. There are people out there who are amazing artists and make their livelyhood off folks who truly appreciate their work for what it is, whether you work with mediums, or you do some sort of craft.
I'm talking about people who have the abject gall to sit there and feed people a line of bullshit while they spit out these things that no one in their right mind is ever going to remember in 20 years... or five minutes from then to be quite frank.
The same thing can be said of the whole "BFA Review" that I see in a lot of schools. What gives these teachers the right at any point to tell someone who is really serious about making art and design their profession that they can't do what they love? I don't care if you have tenure. I don't care if you've got experience. That is not your call to make. What point is there in crushing the dreams of someone else?
Ironically, in Russia they took people's natural talents and forced them to do it whether they wanted to or not. Yet here, we look at your work and go, "Oh, I'm sorry. You're not good enough and you should just give up now."
People like that are the reason why I didn't enter into the juried show. I love honest feedback, don't get me wrong, but I don't need the approval of some pompous elitist ass who thinks he knows all about what's worth looking at in the world to tell me that they think my work isn't going to make the cut. That's not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because I enjoy it. I do it to express myself. I do it to make a statement I can't put into words. I do it because it's a part of me.
And people wonder why nobody's interested in funding the arts. No one's looking in the right direction.