Art School
004
There's a few considerations upon becoming an artist:
First, though you may make money at it and do quite well, the chances are that you will not do well at all
financially. Your contribution to civilization has to be more considered as a sort of donation.
Well, then, what do you get in return? Immunity from the world's incredible financial dilemmas.
Independence from the oppressive employment system of the establishments that tend to erupt from the stilted economic
opinions of the public at large. Legitimacy. After all, being an artist is not only work, it's hard work. Self-employment. You're your own boss.
You will gain legitimate intellectual stature. The profession of artist is the highest
endeavor man is capable of. Once you have mastered your own unique techniques, you will have become a legitimate authority in your own right.
Oh there's a lot more that I can't think of right now off the top of my head, but I think that's enough of an incentive right there. As far as the financial thing goes, guess what? As I've already said, the money is worthless. The financial system could collapse but you still have your
accomplished artwork in storage and your talent and skills ready. Even if the money's no good, you can still barter your work.
Because you are a legitimate artist, that gives you the status of not only an entrepreneur, but also makes you your own charity of sorts, if you are in
duress or hardship. This allows you to gain permission to solicit the businesses in your area for donations of such things as food, clothing and equipment as well as other things like a workspace.
It is possible to operate completely outside the economic strata of a community as long as they
tolerate you. That is to say that those in the community prone to gossip don't launch a
vendetta against you the way Arles did to Van Gogh. But then, it's a wide world. As Woody Guthry wrote in one of his many songs, "... I come with the dust and I'm gone with the wind...". You can usually get by for at least three years in a place
until the natives get riled up and then look for a place more deserving of your gifts.
The principle thing is that if you think of money instead of thinking AROUND it, it will bastardize your work and it will become nothing more than commercial art. Dull, lifeless, clever maybe, but lacking in vitality; a mere shadow of what art should be. You must
developed the thick skin to laugh at the mindset that tends to form against you. These are cowards who never did anything momentous or creative and they must try to destroy you because you by just your being cast them in a bad light.
That's a funny little side benefit art gives you, the ability to get past financial
limitations. It's a part of the enrichment you get from the intellectual stimulation and growth active participation in the creative process of doing artwork gives you.
Second, you have some overcomable fears to overcome, such as confronting doubts as to your ability and then there's the sleep
depravation. You mightn't have the self-discipline some do and just want to keep working until you finish the work or at least a certain stage of it. I scared myself silly one year when I found myself working on the same painting for seven months.
Face your work bravely and do something with it. If it isn't everything you intended it to be there's always the next work of art. Everything makes a statement. If to no one else than to you, and if you go ahead and finish that piece, it can teach you more when you study it later. I used to hang up my work so I could look at it and learn something from the result. There were those in art school that started something and then scraped it all off the canvas with the palate knife. They never got anywhere. Of course, if that's you then you must consider if art is really your "bag" as we used to put it in the sixties.
Third, there's craftsmanship. Any work of art is worth doing well. And that means from the
ground up. So you might as well resign yourself from the git-go that you're going to have to hastle the appropriate steps necessary to prepare for the type of work you're going to do. If it's a drawing, paper is important, acid free, decent "tooth" to grip the
medium and so on. If it's an oil painting, the best possible paint on a suitably
sized ground. If you're poor, you can make your own oil paint, it's not that big a deal. If you paint on canvass, oil paint rots canvas in a decade or less so you have to coat the canvass with something to keep it isolated from the film of oil paint.
Those are just examples. The point is, you've got to do it right. If you sell, your integrity is at stake. It's part of a good product. If you don't sell, you might years later and you're in trouble if the work falls off the canvass and you have nothing left for your trouble.
Furthermore, there are other things such as health issues. Most of the beautiful colors you will handle are toxic in some way. You have to get used to handling them the right way, keeping clean. And also there's the solvents you'll have to use. Most
commonly turpentine. You can develop an intolerance to it through repeated exposure to the skin.
You'll be shocked when you develop an allergy to turpentine. Or, as I say,
"turpentine saves nine." In my case it was in the form of
terp-induced exima in my hand where I used to twirl my terped brushes to clean
them. In the case of Deihl, my artist room mate in my Oakland, California
studio on 1969, his face swelled up. As he put it he began to look like
Quasimoto.
Also solvents need ventilation.
Remember sol and vent should go together. Otherwise don't get into
art. I'd rather you be a live idiot than a dead one. The part of
your lungs that pass the oxygen to the blood cells is made of very delicate
stuff and they'll dissolve very quickly which is also why people should not try
to siphon gasoline, by the way.
There are other things we'll cover later -- I hope. If not you need to continue your research and find out a lot of these things for yourself as you go.
Click to return to "Flowers Beside a New Hampshire Forest, Gallery Nine".
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The Art School table of contents
Bare walls, dead civilizations.
http://www.paulhallart.com is created and authored by Paul A. L. Hall (little ol' website maker, me).
Copyright © 2004 by Paul A. L. Hall. All rights reserved.
Oh you don't like some kinds of art? I don't blame you. They really got off the track, didn't they?
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