Why is it even important artists need an event to raise a crowd?
If the Coos Art Museum has an opening you can count on the whole art community turning out, if that opening happens to be at The Black Market Gourmet where the lure of Jardin’s food can be waved around then people come out, but if the event happens to be a single-man show at a location where the food isn’t a star or the place isn’t a headliner then you can count the heads with one hand.
Why?
The art should be the thing, if the artist is important and the work is new or a wider selection of their body of work why don’t the people show up?
Let’s face it, even fellow artists can’t be bothered to come out and support the work.
Sure you see some folks at all of the events. They are the hard-working, in-the-trenches sort of guys who make a point of coming out and supporting fellow artists even if they aren’t close friends.
Should artists support only their friends? Certainly but let’s delete the only. You should be out there supporting everyone who has the courage to show.
What does it take to show? First you need courage. You are letting people look at your creations without the protection of knowing what they will think. Worse yet, you have no idea what they will say to their friends. They can be wonderful assets if they like what you’ve done, but once they get out of the light and into the shadows the daggers come out. Do you have what it takes to let them see your work and then live with their opinions?
It takes work, a lot of it and hard back-breaking work at that. You cannot show unless you have done a significant amount of work. That means hours, weeks in the studio, working when the light is bright, the wind is fair and the sun is out, working when you are tired, sleepy, depressed and frustrated by life. Work, day in and day out until you have enough pictures you can actually mount a show. Have you done that?
If you have do you have the money? Money to show your own work, that’s immoral, illegal, unconstitutional and unfair. It is and if you know a way around it I would be happy to hear about it cause so far as I know that’s the price of doing business. Sure you can get a gallery owner or a place of business to let you show but for a real, organized, thought-out show you are going to have to shell out some sheckles. Those good folks with the venues don’t just let them host anything. Someone has to pay to keep the lights on.
Energy and not from a can of Red Bull. You are going to have to do everything from sweeping up to hanging the show and no one is going to come help you unless you have their children held hostage…okay, bad example, but that might be a solution to the money angle. Kidnap the little dears and then demand a lot of money not to return them.
It take a lot of energy to deal with all of the things which will suddenly come up to block you, destroy your plans, make your walls come tumbling down and generally gum up the works.
So you got all of that how will you deal with the rejection?
Guys this is like being a teenager all over again, you plan a party, send out your invitations, wait with a worm on your tongue and then when the day and time arrives, no one shows up or worse one or two show up to carry the tale back to school and spread it all around so that your humiliation is complete.
Ain’t that a nightmare come to life?
And it happens all the time. When you hear of an artist’s opening and don’t go you are condemning that person, an actual living, breathing person to high school again. That is a crime which has been banned by the Geneva Convention. That’s a human rights violation which makes Sub-Saharan war lords look like crossing guards. You don’t want that damage to your karma.
So resolve today to make a clean start, when you get one of those cards from an artist just trying to showcase their work, write down the date, put it on your calendar, log it into your smart phone so that a big mallet comes out and smacks you on the head and the speaker shouts, “ART SHOW STUPID!”
You can still duck the responsibility.
There are so many things which everyone needs to do that ducking a social responsibility is easy. Just look at our politicians. They organize endless committees to study problems so that they won’t have to actually deal with problems. Sure that makes sense. When we are all walking around with a gas can in our hands because the pumps have run dry they probably organize a Congressional Committee to look into the Can Problem. Why are the People’s cans empty. Was it a manufacturer’s defect? Terrorist attack on the can structure of the heartland or just greedy corporations gouging the economy by raising the price of cans so high the average person can’t afford to fill them. Then there’s the threat of violence when the people kick the can…
Don’t be a Congressman, take action today, make your plans to show support for every artist with the gumption and the good fortune to mount a show. Do it and be happy about it and bring your critical eye so that you can evaluate what you see and give informed, intelligent feedback on what the artist has created, cause you owe them at least that much for having the B***, the brains, okay it’s a B-word, to do all of the dirty, stinking, miserable work.
And maybe when you have your own show they will do the same for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment