Chasm

why do most fine artists find it so frustrating that people don't want to come and see their art?

Why do most people not want to go to galleries?

Why do so many people carry the impression that they don't get it?

Why is there a pervasive expectation that fine artists will struggle and scrape through their professional lives (unless they get a proper job to subsidize their art?)

Why is there so much resentment and suspicion that art is a big scam, a con, a waste of money?

Why did fine artists become sidelined in the public taste for culture, behind popular music and film?

Is it the fault of a lazy public or is there blame to be laid at the feet of the painter?

Why don't artists today make vital connection with a public? 

So many artists labour under the misconception that they are interesting. That they, themselves may be the progenitor and subject of interesting ideas which the public ought to want to receive. Art as a personal statement of personal ideas or concerns, in a  personal style. Artists seek a personal style as though it were the holy grail, the ultimate point of a 4 year degree, the key to a successful career. Style over content being the unintended, uninspected norm of development. The need for a voice rather than a message.

Art as personal statement. I have the freedom to say things. To talk about myself. And I have the platform. Facebook. Blog. I live in a world with the privilege of freedom of expression. It is my right to be able to express my feelings, and in order to stand out I need to find a visual language that is unique.........a voice.

And the public? The rest of us? The audience? What of us? We have to do the work of shedding the baggage of our preconceptions, translating the new language, responding with our emotions, caring. And the payback is ? What? What does it tell us that we can use? How does it grow us? How does it speak of our lives today, our culture, our values, our mistakes, our triumphs? The awful truth, that we daren’t speak aloud, is that there are an awful lot of artists who dont have anything interesting to say. He had a lovely voice, but turns out he was a self obsessed crushing bore.

Too many fine artists have taken their eye off the ball and become consumed with a focus on their naval.

What use do I have for art about art or art about an opinion unless it sharpens my own understanding of my own opinions in the tide of today’s cultural landscape. I yearn for Art about life. Art that tells stories that reveal insight about the human condition. I long for a time when artists gather to discuss life and politics and values and justice faith and love and science....and respond with work that is urgent and generous and outward focussed.