A powerful idea – that continuation is itself the goal – this brings to mind another idea: that for every artist who breaks through the barrier and achieves success, there are hundreds or thousands, in the same conditions, who never gain recognition. They are the silent majority that fill the ocean, each a small drop that, probably, no one will ever know. They are the ones who persevered with the idea – that continuation is itself the goal – because working is like breathing, essential for survival, and very little comes from it in return. I imagine it has always been this way because for every work of art that we find referenced in books as a "masterpiece," there will be others that rotted in the squalid attics of anonymity. But now the situation may change, because the work of the whole world is online, millions of images for someone to one day sift through, images that can survive the test of time - What you put on the net, stays on the net forever - this doesn't solve the initial problem - the lack of support needed to keep the machine running, but anyway, artists have already solved that problem to make continuation their goal. Observing this avalanche of data growing exponentially, I can't help but think that peace of mind also has a price, so there are some advantages to taking the quiet path, without ever giving up on that "goal".
An optimist would say: - Work first for your pleasure and fulfillment and be happy with what you have.
Excellent piece that frames the life of art so precisely. I have lived the past 30 years of my 63 years of life as a grand work of art, existing for much of it on less than $10k/yr and often on less than $5k/yr. I did more than survive ~ I thrived. I was prolific in creating performance art and immersive creative experiences, blending music, art, storytelling and theatrics. And, I did pencil painting, sculpture & digital art - not to sell or show - but as my practice. It wasn’t easy. It was often very hard. I struggled with skyrocketing manic episodes and plummeting depression spirals. There were many times I didn’t know when my next meal would be. I couch-surfed, dumpster-dove, begged-borrowed-stole. I worked odd jobs - mostly construction - though rarely stayed on any longer than needed to just get myself through to the next creative project. I asked myself many times over => “what the hell are you doing? Are you crazy?” I eventually learned that the answer was a resounding YES! And that was perfectly acceptable to me because in a world that is upside down, backwards and utterly insane being crazy IS sanity. It’s not pejorative. For me, it was the only reasonable and sane course for my life. To do otherwise would be to rob myself of my very humanity. AND, I’m still at it => not yet a Breakthrough Artist, as far as the market and artworld are concerned => but as far as my own experience is concerned this past year has been THE Breakthrough year of my career. Ha! Yesterday I told a friend “I want to be a professional artist when I grow up”. Today I told him “that’s the ninkepoop-idiot-fool talking. I’ve been a professional artist for 30 years.” It’s a strange paradox that the struggles and suffering that the artist must face - due to the unfairness, invisibility, market-driven insanities - perhaps, as it turns out, IS the real payment. Without having walked the lonely, difficult, excruciating paths that I was forced to because of this environment, I would not have created the magnum opus that has been and is my life => a grand work of art that is rare, filled with mystique, and irreplaceably valuable.
Your piece illuminates what I have been trying to articulate to the people around me since quitting a 28 year teaching career that I never fully enjoyed but endured because it was what made everyone else ‘proud’ but slowly sucked my soul away. I now write, spend loads of time outside, teach yoga & meditation, volunteer for hospice and create art that revolves around all of those things, yet even on the ‘worst’ days, my soul feels alive. I am fortunate to have saved enough to have basic necessities for this experiment (still full of the worries consumerism and capitalism programmed in me, but I have come a long way).
Thank you for making me feel less alone in following a path no one taught, but some of us cannot ignore. ❤️
This is a fascinating illumination on the underlying realities of many of our life experiences as artists. I am reminded of the great Henry James quote “We work in the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art."
My life is my creative practice. When I decided to finally take art seriously, I made work every, single day in my DIY version of art school. Also, for 13 years. Never once did I try to sell anything or insert myself into the "art world". Fortuitously, 2 years ago I ended up working in a museum, and for the first time in my life, my job and my practice are in alignment.
What I like about this article is that it shows the non-commercial dimension of the artistic process but does not frame art-making as a hobby or a side gig. It is still the dominant act of the artist, but it does not rely on the marketplace for validation. Because our (American) culture is solely focused on financial success, and there is no other type of success to have, to be an artist and maintain a lifelong practice is seen as quite strange. But we see this phenomenon elsewhere. Raising happy children might be extremely rewarding for many people, but because those children are not seen as a financial benefit, it is now low status to have children. Or, someone might become a historian, which, the last I checked, is also not highly paid, and they might get great joy from researching and writing about history. They, too, like us loser artists, are seen as failures, even if they go teach at a high school or something.
Everything is a failure in our society unless you make gobs of money. As a result, the arts and humanities are dying, and people wonder why they have no meaning or culture in their lives. The artist you describe and others like him defy this societal expectation.
A powerful idea – that continuation is itself the goal – this brings to mind another idea: that for every artist who breaks through the barrier and achieves success, there are hundreds or thousands, in the same conditions, who never gain recognition. They are the silent majority that fill the ocean, each a small drop that, probably, no one will ever know. They are the ones who persevered with the idea – that continuation is itself the goal – because working is like breathing, essential for survival, and very little comes from it in return. I imagine it has always been this way because for every work of art that we find referenced in books as a "masterpiece," there will be others that rotted in the squalid attics of anonymity. But now the situation may change, because the work of the whole world is online, millions of images for someone to one day sift through, images that can survive the test of time - What you put on the net, stays on the net forever - this doesn't solve the initial problem - the lack of support needed to keep the machine running, but anyway, artists have already solved that problem to make continuation their goal. Observing this avalanche of data growing exponentially, I can't help but think that peace of mind also has a price, so there are some advantages to taking the quiet path, without ever giving up on that "goal".
An optimist would say: - Work first for your pleasure and fulfillment and be happy with what you have.
Excellent piece that frames the life of art so precisely. I have lived the past 30 years of my 63 years of life as a grand work of art, existing for much of it on less than $10k/yr and often on less than $5k/yr. I did more than survive ~ I thrived. I was prolific in creating performance art and immersive creative experiences, blending music, art, storytelling and theatrics. And, I did pencil painting, sculpture & digital art - not to sell or show - but as my practice. It wasn’t easy. It was often very hard. I struggled with skyrocketing manic episodes and plummeting depression spirals. There were many times I didn’t know when my next meal would be. I couch-surfed, dumpster-dove, begged-borrowed-stole. I worked odd jobs - mostly construction - though rarely stayed on any longer than needed to just get myself through to the next creative project. I asked myself many times over => “what the hell are you doing? Are you crazy?” I eventually learned that the answer was a resounding YES! And that was perfectly acceptable to me because in a world that is upside down, backwards and utterly insane being crazy IS sanity. It’s not pejorative. For me, it was the only reasonable and sane course for my life. To do otherwise would be to rob myself of my very humanity. AND, I’m still at it => not yet a Breakthrough Artist, as far as the market and artworld are concerned => but as far as my own experience is concerned this past year has been THE Breakthrough year of my career. Ha! Yesterday I told a friend “I want to be a professional artist when I grow up”. Today I told him “that’s the ninkepoop-idiot-fool talking. I’ve been a professional artist for 30 years.” It’s a strange paradox that the struggles and suffering that the artist must face - due to the unfairness, invisibility, market-driven insanities - perhaps, as it turns out, IS the real payment. Without having walked the lonely, difficult, excruciating paths that I was forced to because of this environment, I would not have created the magnum opus that has been and is my life => a grand work of art that is rare, filled with mystique, and irreplaceably valuable.
Your piece illuminates what I have been trying to articulate to the people around me since quitting a 28 year teaching career that I never fully enjoyed but endured because it was what made everyone else ‘proud’ but slowly sucked my soul away. I now write, spend loads of time outside, teach yoga & meditation, volunteer for hospice and create art that revolves around all of those things, yet even on the ‘worst’ days, my soul feels alive. I am fortunate to have saved enough to have basic necessities for this experiment (still full of the worries consumerism and capitalism programmed in me, but I have come a long way).
Thank you for making me feel less alone in following a path no one taught, but some of us cannot ignore. ❤️
Success for me as an artist is waking up each day and still being able to create. To have created a life and the means to pull it off. That’s art!
This is a fascinating illumination on the underlying realities of many of our life experiences as artists. I am reminded of the great Henry James quote “We work in the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art."
I feel that I now need to read "The Hunger Artist" by Kafka.
Tehching Hsieh is an extraordinary artist - I have long been fascinated by his one year performance and your piece brilliantly illuminates it.
My life is my creative practice. When I decided to finally take art seriously, I made work every, single day in my DIY version of art school. Also, for 13 years. Never once did I try to sell anything or insert myself into the "art world". Fortuitously, 2 years ago I ended up working in a museum, and for the first time in my life, my job and my practice are in alignment.
What I like about this article is that it shows the non-commercial dimension of the artistic process but does not frame art-making as a hobby or a side gig. It is still the dominant act of the artist, but it does not rely on the marketplace for validation. Because our (American) culture is solely focused on financial success, and there is no other type of success to have, to be an artist and maintain a lifelong practice is seen as quite strange. But we see this phenomenon elsewhere. Raising happy children might be extremely rewarding for many people, but because those children are not seen as a financial benefit, it is now low status to have children. Or, someone might become a historian, which, the last I checked, is also not highly paid, and they might get great joy from researching and writing about history. They, too, like us loser artists, are seen as failures, even if they go teach at a high school or something.
Everything is a failure in our society unless you make gobs of money. As a result, the arts and humanities are dying, and people wonder why they have no meaning or culture in their lives. The artist you describe and others like him defy this societal expectation.