I commissioned a piece of art from a Maori carver. He works collaboratively with his clients. The client tells him a story about themselves. It needs to be a thoughtful, spiritually true story. I followed his cultural custom and spent three days fasting, taking plenty of time to myself to think / meditate on / pray for my story. On the day he created the work, I took time to tell him my story. He designed in collaboration with the muscles, tendons and bones of my body, with the spirit of my story, with me, and with the cultural worldview of Maori iconography to complete the design. I got to approve the finished design before he permanently carved/inked it into my arm.

My moko was absolutely, specifically intended, by me and by the artist, to become a defining part of my existence, to continue to influence who I am for the rest of my life, and by extension, to influence those with whom I interact. I asked for it to be placed on my body where I will see it every day.

I approach the art I buy this way as well.

Honestly I can’t imagine beauty making something less important, though I acknowledge maybe that happens in the art world. I think that’s why I prefer to make art where I can, but stay the hell away from the “art world.”

I commissioned a piece of art from a Maori carver. He works collaboratively with his clients. The client tells him a story about themselves. It needs to be a thoughtful, spiritually true story. I followed his cultural custom and spent three days fasting, taking plenty of time to myself to think / meditate on / pray for my story. On the day he created the work, I took time to tell him my story. He designed in collaboration with the muscles, tendons and bones of my body, with the spirit of my story, with me, and with the cultural worldview of Maori iconography to complete the design. I got to approve the finished design before he permanently carved/inked it into my arm.

My moko was absolutely, specifically intended, by me and by the artist, to become a defining part of my existence, to continue to influence who I am for the rest of my life, and by extension, to influence those with whom I interact. I asked for it to be placed on my body where I will see it every day.

I approach the art I buy this way as well.

Honestly I can’t imagine beauty making something less important, though I acknowledge maybe that happens in the art world. I think that’s why I prefer to make art where I can, but stay the hell away from the “art world.”

I wonder if your concerns about trends in art and art marketing come only from your desire to also run a business with your art? I probably haven’t worded that correctly, but I hope you catch what I mean. There is always a practical aspect to every pursuit, no matter how pure it is. We must live in the world, and that makes us conform in some ways, and bend to include practical issues. That’s an interesting conflict, balancing what is purely possible with what we can really do in this time/space reality.

I think this is an interesting observation about the life of any creative. I’d recently posted to twitter that: creativity is finding the best answer to a question that has no answer. I think this falls in line with your comment because that is exactly what I need to do at every step. Maybe in the future these concerns will subside as I reach a greater level of success, but when if you look at really successful artists (business) what tends to happen with that success is a desire to create a project to fit their means. ie: Christo who practically goes broke for each new project.

And this same thing can act as a barrier to future work, through fear. It creates a feedback loop that says they can’t do anything cause they don’t have the money to produce what they want so they just end up not doing it.. (starving artist) For me I’ve just applied the previous definition of creativity to the problem and continued to work. I work digitally and produce work generally on demand or as I have the means to. As those means grow I’ll work on more varied and expensive projects. Maybe I’m a new breed of independent bootstrapping artist? lol

Thanks Charlene for the comment here and the shout out on twitter.

I wonder if your concerns about trends in art and art marketing come only from your desire to also run a business with your art? I probably haven’t worded that correctly, but I hope you catch what I mean. There is always a practical aspect to every pursuit, no matter how pure it is. We must live in the world, and that makes us conform in some ways, and bend to include practical issues. That’s an interesting conflict, balancing what is purely possible with what we can really do in this time/space reality.

I think this is an interesting observation about the life of any creative. I’d recently posted to twitter that: creativity is finding the best answer to a question that has no answer. I think this falls in line with your comment because that is exactly what I need to do at every step. Maybe in the future these concerns will subside as I reach a greater level of success, but when if you look at really successful artists (business) what tends to happen with that success is a desire to create a project to fit their means. ie: Christo who practically goes broke for each new project.

And this same thing can act as a barrier to future work, through fear. It creates a feedback loop that says they can’t do anything cause they don’t have the money to produce what they want so they just end up not doing it.. (starving artist) For me I’ve just applied the previous definition of creativity to the problem and continued to work. I work digitally and produce work generally on demand or as I have the means to. As those means grow I’ll work on more varied and expensive projects. Maybe I’m a new breed of independent bootstrapping artist? lol

Thanks Charlene for the comment here and the shout out on twitter.

Maybe I’m different from a lot of people because art has been part of my life since childhood. Because I’m shocked every time I encounter people whom I consider to be art-challenged (that’s the kindest word I can think of). People who have asked me to pick out art for them, for their home, etc. I think my jaw must hang open at that request.

While I appreciate the backhanded compliment they make about my implied good taste, I can’t imagine asking someone else to pick out my art, or picking out art for someone else. Art is something I fall in love with, an image that mesmerizes me, something that I can’t walk away from without feeling a sense of loss. Each time I buy art (I buy mostly at retail but have a few pieces from artists), I buy because I fell in love with it. It took my breath away.

I don’t buy art to match the couch (although I do see color trends in my choices during periods of time). I don’t buy art to fill a space in my house. I buy art that I love, and later I figure out where to put it, where I need to see it, and the location has nothing to do with decoration.

I wonder if your concerns about trends in art and art marketing come only from your desire to also run a business with your art? I probably haven’t worded that correctly, but I hope you catch what I mean. There is always a practical aspect to every pursuit, no matter how pure it is. We must live in the world, and that makes us conform in some ways, and bend to include practical issues. That’s an interesting conflict, balancing what is purely possible with what we can really do in this time/space reality.

In my life, the need to support myself and provide myself with a quality of life interferes with my pure pursuits. If I didn’t need paying clients, where might I go and explore through my media? And how do I breathe life and meaning into work I do for clients, knowing that it allows me to use my skills and talents to support myself, even if it reigns in what I might possibly accomplish by putting up limits and constraints that suit someone else instead of my own desires?

For my path, I trust that the slivers of time I carve out for my pure pursuits change who I am so that I bring a different person to the client work. The richer and more complex I am, the more it changes the nature of my client solutions and brings them along the journey with me. I do better and richer client work because I am constantly challenging myself through my personal projects. Seems like a nice balance.