I have one of the most important jobs in the world: I am an artist.
Although I used to write comedy the statement above is not meant to be funny. Yet, it it must be acknowledged that when the baby is sick in the middle of the night, or the toilet is overflowing, or the roof is leaking or the car will not start, no one ever says, “Quick! Call an artist!”
Artists need to do their jobs: to communicate inspiring and unique visions before an emergency arises. Artists create and offer visions of the world that add inspiration and meaning to life.
Genuine artists have been the leaders of their tribes and communities, they are Shamans, medicine men or women, priests and priestesses, the ones who bring a vision to the group. Chiefs, kings and queens, presidents and CEOs manage and govern the affairs of the state, community, company and home.
When leaders try to control or even inspire artists what results is a lot of truly awful stuff, in all the art forms, visual, music and the spoken or written word is created or thought to be “inspirational”. It is simply illustrative, often bombastic and “party” line propaganda, whether the group being represented is religious, political or social. Certainly emperors, kings, and others with dictatorial power have used the arts to foster and disseminate their views and interests.
Artists themselves can wallow in what is politely referred to as “self expression” and “exploration”. Wiser. Mature artists keep their research and development process behind closed soors, at least until it leads to an inspirational masterpiece.
If artists abdicate their job, people seem to look to them anyway. Currently, because we see them as related to a vision, in visions on movie and TV actors and video (including music) stars' lives and interviews are featured on TV, magazines, TV, and even radio – why? Having a recognizable image brings celebrity. Vision sells. Visions we know are shared with others sell more.
However, the people behind the vision, the writers, directors, cinematographers, designers and visual artists happen to be the ones more responsible for fashioning the images we see on screens in theatres and on desks, in galleries, and in books, etc. Art in the commercial world is not about self-expression, but about selling a product or supporting and enhancing a story-line (script).
It has always been true that there are fewer genuine (inspirational, bringing-fire-down- from-the-mountain) artists, people with inspiring visions to share per capita of the population.
Why does it appear that there are more artists, including fine art visual artists than ever before, yet we are not seeing many visions that can inspire or lead us, individually or in society?
Perhaps the explosion of images that began with film photography and then grew with movies, television, less expensive printing, and now digital and computer and Internet images have made it seem that anyone can be an artist. Perhaps our intoxication with youth, which is encouraged by how stunning young people look on in photographs, is also partly responsible for the assumption that looking good and even speaking in dulcet tones indicates that a person has something valuable to say.
Real art inspires us to be more of who we are meant to be, individually and as a society. It changes the way we see ourselves, others and our world. Genuine artists manage to hold complete dichotomies in a seeming moment, they delve into truths we have not seen they show us a new vision. As such it is healing, inspiring us to be more whole and reminding us that we are not alone (that others have been through this way before, but we are responsible.
And they there is art that is clever, loud, sincere but not inspirational. For instance, once again we are being treated to paintings that depict, now often with words, that “War is Bad” as if it is some new and brilliant idea. Most (I am being kind) of what I have recently seen in NYC galleries on this theme has been superfluous (still being kind) to previous works by genuine artists, such as Goya. A genuine artist, one with an inspirational vision will add something more to the oeuvre, the way that Picasso, who was well aware of Goya's work, added Guernica . And then, another visual artist and storey teller, Francis Ford Coppola added, Apocalypse Now .
I believe genuine artists are sort of “anointed”. Artists are not people who have carefully selected a career path. The path chooses us. It hounds and follows one until one's unique vision and the way to communicate it is discovered. It is not about self-expression or fulfillment or having fun. it is about expressing a vision, which one may also be emotionally or intellectually attached to. The vision can creep up and find the artist as when the heretofore un-political Picasso was asked to create a work for Spain 's pavilion at the World's Fair and this commission resulted in Guernica .
Although training is helpful all the training and talent in the world does not make one a genuine artist offering a vision. If it did then there would be less people teaching art and even more artists shown and selling in galleries for large sums. More people who have MFAs from top schools are teaching or even working in other fields than are creating recognized art. Knowing how to create is not the same as having a vision that needs to be communicated, eve when the bills are due..
In fact, most artists in any field do not reach their prime until they are older. This goes against the current grain of finding the new and young artist. That is a notion that puts an unfair and enormous burden on most young artists of promise, except for those who play ingénue roles.
Although his work looks easy to create (but, isn't) Mark Rothko expresses deep pathos along with grand scale majestic awe. As a genuine visual artist he did his job, and although his narrative is not religious his intent and meaning surely inspires. He created a vision that people of all religions and beliefs, including atheists and agnostics can share.
When Italian Renaissance artists developed new understandings of perspective, they both led and mirrored social and scientific understandings of their times. In their world new and connecting lines were being “drawn” socially and from city state to city state. The telescope had been invented and improved, along with the understanding that the earth revolved around the sun. The focus was often on vistas, on how humankind fit into the general scheme of things and physical place and landscape was important.
The Impressionists focused on the light. Their light fell on everyone (as light does) rich, poor, on the dancers, the middleclass, etc. The light was everywhere, and so, startlingly were they.
The Cubists mirrored both psychological discoveries (think Freud, where morality takes a back seat to understanding) and those of physics and chemistry, which were giving shape and form to energy and mass.
The Surrealists continued to present new psychological and scientific understandings, with Dali heading up the relativity of time.
Andy Warhol and Pop artists threw our popular imagery and fascinations back in our faces. We saw our reality and ourselves anew.
Minimalists focus on the basic energy and form, including light as physicists continued to delve into the Big Bang.
Conceptual and then Word Art came in as the world was bombarded with imagery in advertising, in stores, billboards, print and various screens – the idea itself not the image became primary.
Currently, an emerging visual art theory is that of Post Conceptual UnGraven Image where the strokes that create an image are all symbols (binary letters) mirroring contemporary concepts in science, especially elementary physics while referencing ancient religious theologies.
We need genuine artists more than ever before to create visions that inspire us to see the world, society and ourselves in new ways. We need visions that change our lives and how we live, creating meaning and responsibility. We need visions we can share.
So being an inspired and inspiring artist, a genuine artist, is one of the most important jobs in the world.
Learn to perceive every moment of now as a blessing and affirmation full of possibilities along with challenges. See more. Live inspired. Then share the vision.
