Artists Making Art for Artists.

 I really do enjoy spending time talking to other artists, seeing what they are working on, what they are thinking, what they believe to be important ideas...but it really bugs me how often things like that (gatherings or artists starting groups) become artists just high-fiving each other and talking about how awesome art and themselves, by making it, are. It might be the long day and me not sleeping great last night, but I'm sorry, Art, by itself, is nothing spectacular and nothing to be high-and-mighty about. It doesn't make you better, it doesn't make you smarter, it doesn't make you more important and it doesn't make you more thoughtful. It's nothing that makes you better than anyone else and buttering yourself and other artists up doesn't really do anything at all....

I've always sought to get art out there. To make a difference for other people with it. To get people that weren't originally interested thinking and talking about art. I want to get art out into the public in both the physical and mental idea of it. I want people to talk about art, see art, own art, and know art. If another artist likes my stuff then great...awesome. Thanks, you made me feel better about myself and I'm glad. But if the only people that like it are artists...what am I really helping? I'm simply regurgitating ideas to create more art for artists to further regurgitate toward other artists...it becomes an endless cycle of artists patting each other on the back, promoting each other, and making each other feel good...and I just find it totally worthless.

Yes it's great to get praise from your peers, but to stop at that and see that as the end point destroys the reason for creating work in the first place. Maybe I'm just perceiving situations badly and maybe I'm clueless at this point...I don't know. I'm just wary of an artist run art world...an artist dictated, artist oriented art community that fails to recognize the needs of the general public. We may be creating things that many people cannot, but that doesn't mean they aren't interested, that they can't understand, they can't contribute or that they themselves can't help. Art is great and all and I love it...but making it without a thought of the rest of the world, being content with using it as an automatic pat on the back, excluding the people around you because "they don't get your work" is a disservice to art and it's importance in the community, as well as a disservice to the community itself. Artists making art for other artists in the same community is not the same as artists working with the community to create a better art community, and I think that's a massively important distinction.

Let's make the art community great without forgetting about the rest of the community.