There is so much on my mind and as always I wonder if this is an appropriate medium. As of late, I'm thinking not so much. In truth I'm exhausted by electronic media. In the end I think it pulls a certain amount of energy away from more productive avenues of expression. But I'm willing to admit that maybe it's just me.
So, SC primary, no surprise. People who are upset by this live in a bubble. Period. If you haven't noticed that white, rich, conservative America is indignant and in full panic/fear mode, you should put down the NY Times and get out for a walk once in a while. Call your grandparents, call your parents. Go talk to your richest friend. They are freaking out. Make no mistake, Gingrich is a formidable adversary and if progressives don't think he stands a chance they are dead wrong. This country IS that desperate and crazy, and probably more so than most realize. Newt turned racism and philandering into character strengths on live television. This man is not to be dismissed, nor are the symptoms he represents in the national consciousness to be ignored. For my money, I still see Romney as the nominee, but he has to get his shit together and stop being so damn smug and slick and, -here's a wild thought, try standing for something. Preferably something that can be reduced to a sound byte.
In the art world there's a lot of ink and bandwidth being spilled on Damien Hurst, and to be honest most of it is not good conversation. A rich artist who makes art for rich people who got way too famous way too young. End of story. The shift that has taken place in the last 50 years or so is more interesting.
Rich people used to want to be around artists (or at least have them around). They made dinner parties interesting, they imparted a certain cool factor onto their hosts/patrons and so on. A few of this upper echelon of society actually thought that art (something they themselves were incapable of creating) was worth fostering and protecting and paying for. I am not naive enough to suggest that the affluents' goals were purely altruistic and for the "betterment" of society, except that sometimes they actually were. What happened post-Warhol is that now artists want to be around (and be) rich people, and rich people only want to be around themselves. The contemporary artists court the vapidity and self-absorption of society, -not as a means to an end, but as the end itself. They look forward to the droll dinner parties and yacht cruises. The shift is subtle, but significant. The old saying goes that you cannot serve two masters, and art is a jealous one to be sure.
We're told in America that "there is nothing wrong with success". It is what we are supposed to strive for, after all. But success has become synonymous with money, and lots of it. This is a problem. This is a false truth. Sure, call me a poor outsider, that's fair. But consider this; life is an endurance sport. You can come in early and come in big, but you die in the end just like all the people who didn't give a damn. No amount of money or power or celebrity or walled community can protect you from the fact that you will die; it will be inopportune, and it may well even be pathetic and insignificant. Worst case scenario, you will do it alone and won't be missed all that much.
If I wanted money, I would paint horses for christsake. You can't go wrong with horses. It's easy. I could spend the summer in Aiken and paint a crapload of horse pictures, maybe even some polo drawings and I could quit my day job by the end of the year and have galleries from Savannah, Charleston and across the state calling me all damn day. Make the best-selling ones into cheap giclees and by a mountain home. Hey, maybe this isn't such a bad plan!
Where did we get the idea drilled into our heads as Truth in this country that we deserve comfort, luxury and wealth and endless resources that we can use up at our whims? What about that makes us "great"? What part of greed is difficult to understand? What part of "love your neighbor" is vague? We live in a snatch and grab culture that cannot have a candid discussion on its own shortcomings, much less its sins. Our national art has become that which reinforces these fear-based fantasies, and give permissiveness to unsustainable lifestyles which exist only at the expense of the less fortunate.
Horse-ranting aside I feel depleted. I'm going to pull the plug for awhile and wait for warmer weather and go to the studio and see where it goes. The work is not moving in ATL, but people are seeing it. I've always found that market tough to break into. I'm not discouraged, partly because I don't feel owed anything, and partly because I know the work there is good. I can afford to wait. I can afford to continue to make work and push myself further beyond my comfort and pre-conceptions and crutches of art. I'm simply saying that this revolution may not be tweeted.
