Chapter 10 of potential hindrances to our creative development :
**00X: If we sell work, we are good and successful artists.**
In the average social setting, have you ever noticed how awkward or tense it can get when you’re asked about your creative endeavours? Like maybe you spilled the beans that you’ve signed up for a drawing class and now your friends and co-workers are asking to see what you’ve made and what you’re gonna do with it (fridge? frame? market?). When I got to the point of introducing myself as an artist, I realized I had to be prepared to describe what I do (without fumfering or sounding like a pompous jerk) and I had to be ready to answer the question, “do you sell your work?”
I’ll be honest with you— when asked what I do in a meet and greet scenario, I’d rather opt for saying, “I’m a librarian.” Perhaps starting off an acquaintance with a blatant lie is a bad idea, but striking up a convo about something I’ve read is a hell of a lot easier than articulating why I make bizarre things that aren’t necessarily for sale (plus I’ve always thought it would be cool to be a librarian and I do love to read).
Chevy Chase in the 1989 film, ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’.
The idea that we need to sell our creative work for validation (meaning, we’re the real deal if we can make a living at it) can form a slight National Lampoon’s Christmas lights tangle in our creative flow— partly because this presupposition adds whatever warped relationship we have with money to the resistance we have against expressing ourselves. Not only that, there is a full-on fleet of cultural perceptions working against the possibility of making a living through our work. Right away I get a flood of anxiety-ridden narratives or images like: the starving artist, selling out, it’s business/not personal, you can’t be creative on demand, ‘making it’ in the art world, etc. I’d like to say I know better than to buy into these stories (or clichés) but they seem to have taken up shop in my unconscious mind where they influence me without my permission— just as they hang around and seem to shape our culture from behind the scenes.
Have you ever noticed how some parents love to support and talk up the creative pursuits of their children but then as adolescence creeps up, the tune flattens to something like, “you better buckle down, now” ? (If you’ve noticed this spilling out in your own parenting out of concern for your child’s future, not to worry— we’re all reacting to intense social influence on a regular basis but we can use awareness to ground ourselves and see more clearly). This echos in public education where ‘the arts’ usually become rare options by middle school and the pressure of ‘get a real job’ tends to dig its meat hooks in us at around grade 9. In an abrupt way, creative expression is ushered into a hobby lobby (which could be cool) or completely out the door.
[As I’ve said, part of the snag is that the arts are generally delivered in a prescribed strategic approach while applying a universal or singular criteria that ignores the individual. As a result, most students are pretty dang happy to be rid of any ‘art class’ that they associate with judgement, comparison and expectation outside of their authentic expression. What I’m saying is that standardized art classes aren’t really about fostering an individual’s creative potential and so it makes sense that such courses would be cast aside in favour of the more legit-seeming sciences and humanities that post-secondary institutions require for entrance].
So even though we may hold the belief that selling our work is the path to legitimacy and success, there’s a good chance our education gave us the deep impression that we wouldn’t actually be able to survive on our creative work. And to make things even more interesting, this common perception that we’ll probably starve in the streets is paired with the idea that we shouldn’t have monetary success— because then our creative expression will suffer.
I don’t mind saying I find it difficult to square up the money and the fame
with the art and integrity.
~DAMIEN HIRST
[Title image: Is this Martha Stewart with Mr. T? The source eludes me:(]
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