Someone should really take the time to champion the virtues of shooting to be part of the "B team".
I totally think it's underrated.
The "A team" just promises to be a big ball of stress and
screw worrying whether there's a living to be made at this...
It's so much nicer getting a day job so you can make whatever you feel pulled to do without much thought to whether it's up to expectation or if it's going to feed the kids this week.
It makes it so much easier to just get to work.
6 comments:
I like this jar and the way the shinos are working with your images.
if only there was a paying day job I could find
So true!
Its not the throngs of part timers and amateurs and hobbyists who fail to see the importance of what we bring to the table, but somehow our status makes our voice less easily heard. The art institutions just tend to look at things from the top down, value 'professionals' and full timers more than the rest....
Scott Cooper had a great article in this newest Ceramics Monthly that talks about his own experience in 'killing the dream' of being a full time potter. And the worry I have is that we are too often sold on that dream, and that any falling short of that is therefor considered a failure. Somehow our values have gotten skewed to where we have pictured a particular lifestyle in clay as our goal and not a dream of what we DO with clay. I'd say that any life that gets to play in the mud has found a measure of success.....
The whole issue of professional vs amateur is being discussed among arts advocates and policy makers, so art institutions may be opening up to a more egalitarian and inclusive view somewhere in our future. That seems to be great news! Here's an article where this is discussed:
http://www.stateoftheartist.org/2012/03/12/diane-ragsdale-the-professional-lens-are-we-a-sector-of-underemployed-%E2%80%98professional%E2%80%99-artists-or-successful-%E2%80%98pro-ams%E2%80%99/
And never doubt that what you do as a part time potter isn't also important! The 'B' team may get less publicity, less pay, fewer opportunities, but I think we'd give the 'A' team a run for its money. The teams were never divided on the quality they offer....
We are not doctors or nuclear physicists. Our game is not always based on the amount of training or our professional credentials. As artists our quality is how we imagine things, and this is not something bounded by our education or our institutional sponsorship. Part time neurosurgeons may be less desirable, but part time artists are not practitioners that can be evaluated just by the lines on their CV....
Keep up the good work!
Now that I think further through this, I'm not even sure what the "A team" represents anymore. Many of the heroes that I have admit to a very unstable and precarious future. Makers seldom succeed at living a golden life of security, it's the kingmakers that ride the horse of riches.
I think you've got it right! Though its much easier to become familiar with artists if they have institutional backing, pots in prestigious shows, University teaching positions, big-time gallery representation, pictures on the covers of Ceramics Monthly, etc....
Its a political reality of power and profits being maximized at the top, and the established institutions mostly only trickling down the scraps and chicken feed we get to survive on. Which is why things like etsy and kickstarter are such great things. They are an egalitarian response to those kingmakers.... And our choice becomes either play the system, work outside it, or somehow work to change the system...... Tough choices!
It's all comes down to you and your customer. My a team are those people who buy my, our, work and support what we do. I love your work and I am sure that I am not alone.
Post a Comment