Doing creative work for a living can be challenging. Once money is introduced into the equation, things change. But I think we need to stand for art, day in, and day out.
My favorite strategies are often the ones I do for free. My favorite projects are not always the ones that can pay me the most. What’s more valuable, on a personal level, are the projects where there is an opportunity to think, and to do something unique and expressive.
Art is not created to be purchased, though it’s always nice when someone pays for it. Art is created because it needs to be created. It almost cannot help but leap out from inside of you, shouting for the world to look, consider, and reflect. Bad art is still art, it just may not be for you.
It would be nice if we appreciated art, but at some point, we collectively decided that art was less important. We’ve begun to confuse art with entertainment, and craft with trade.
In one, we pour forth ideas and effort from the deepest recesses of our soul. We commit to quality, we put ourselves into it. In the other, we simply churn it out, paying little thought the the outcome of the work.
In our television, we decided that digital and analog tranquilizers were preferable to thoughtful narrative.
In our work, we decided that speed, following the crowd, and fame for fame’s sake was more important that meaningful relationships, originality, and real emotional engagement.
I want to make art. I stand for it with every project. To put my heart and soul into everything, but I do it against the odds, virtually every time. The world may not always reward us for our art, but now is the time where our art is needed more than ever.
Photo by russn_fckr on Unsplash