Art is Dead, The End

2005-04-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

The beginning of the end. I decided to create this when I couldn't take one more cliche "my parents wanted me to be a ________ (doctor, lawyer, dentist, etc.) but I wanted to go to art school now I'm holding cards for this happening" joke at some god awful show. Although I never went to an actual "art school" I did major in art and yes it was to the dismay of my parents but I wasn't doing it to rebel and I am paying for most of my education anyway. I didn't even mean to become one. My life plans included majoring in criminal justice and then pursuing a career in law enforcement. I took a 3D design course as an elective and I couldn't stop after that. Studio, art history, Italy, the whole bit. I had decided to make art my life. Damn the man and his plan for me to live in some cube, stuffed inside another cube typing reports into a smaller cube. I'm an artist now! But I graduated and realized that its not the outside world that doesn't understand artists, its artists that don't understand what it means to be an artist. People who are not inclined to art gawk at even the most bland still life and exclaim how they could never do anything like that. Art is a multi-million, dare I say even billion, dollar business! Huge corporations pay millions of dollars a year adorning their offices with paintings to inspire their workers. Home Goods, Wal Mart, even BJ's sells paintings the average person can afford so everyone can own a piece of art. And here is where we have our problem, the vast majority of artists in the world today are scrambling to get a piece of that. I won't lie, I'd love to make millions off of my work but I'm not expecting too. It's not because I don't think its good enough or I have no faith in it, I love my work, its different without being so different that its awkward, but it will never make money for me because it is not one of the three types that are selling...1. crappy "abstract" 2. Pretty seascape,still life, landscape, etc. 3. Any number of big eyed fairy things/or small eyed beanie wearing graffiti people. These things are not made by artists, craftsmen maybe but not artists. An artist is a unique indiviual with fresh, raw ideas, not a play-doh molded art school grad or hippie urban kid who makes his or her own clothes. Artist is now a marketed to death term used to sell clothes and music just like everything else. Art isn't a degree or a portfolio or a job skill. Art is a gift and a love. Art is dead.