The ongoing theme throughout much of my artwork has been the battle between consuming and creating. While my artwork does not speak to this theme directly, it is certainly the reason why I create. Our world bathes in consumption. Over the past two decades, I feel it has taken an unnecessary perch atop the minds of the people in the United States and the world. I believe that if you are only a consumer, you lead a very empty life. You go to work. You come home. You buy a bunch of stuff. You go back to work. We have gotten away from the power of creating. (I could go on an on about the importance of arts education in our schools, but that is an entirely different subject.) Creation and creating have been such important part of my life that I refuse to abandon it as I grow older. The arts have so enriched my life that I believe that I owe it to myself to create. While consuming is a natural part of life, it should not be…well…all-consuming. People should and need to create.
Which leads me to my point today…if I expect to sell art, aren’t I asking people to consume? It is one of these questions that just sticks with me. If I am denouncing consumption in one breath, aren’t I being hypocritical by asking people to buy and consume my artwork? To put it simply, I don’t think so. I think anyone who enjoys art will feel compelled to consume it at some point. And if that means you have to use money, I think that is the expectation of the artist. If I listen to a new song on the radio, is it wrong to purchase the song and the album? If I like an artist, shouldn’t I be able to buy a book of their work and purchase a ticket to see their work at a museum? Now consuming for consumings sake certainly brings many other issues, but I think art needs to be consumed to an extent because the image of the starving artist is cliche. It is possible to be successful and financially secure as an artist, musician, dancer, or actor.
One of the examples I always point to in my head is the show The Wire. I think television is quite possibly the ultimate consumed item. You have to buy a television. You have to buy cable. And, people spend hours of their life watching television. I’ve made it no secret that The Wire is my favorite television show. If you believe that television should, on its best day, be considered art, then you have to think about what makes a television show great art. Personally, I believe The Wire is great art. While shows like Jersey Shore and The Bachelor and Jon and Kate Plus Eight are the kind of garbage the networks shovel out, it is important to note that it is possible to create great television, or great art, on a medium that is highly consumed. I made it a point to purchase the boxed set of this show because I wanted to support what I believe is great art…not just add another box of junk to my shelves. I don’t want this to sound like an advertisement for The Wire, but it helps to illustrate my point. Great art can and should be consumed. So, am I asking too much for people to buy? No. It just depends on whether or not people think it is great or not…
Open Source Hardware
Wired recently had an article about the Arduino board. Open source software is not a new concept to me, but this one was. Here is a quick explanation about it from the Wired article:
I continue to be flabbergasted at the continued success of these open source ideas. When most companies are so focused on making money at any cost, it is refreshing to see these open source companies have any kind of success. It breeds a sense of working together and collaboration. The reason open source pioneers like Linux and Apache have lasted so long is that the focus is on the best working product, not the bottom line.
I guess it doesn’t make a great “business plan” but I wish these kinds of companies were more prevalent in our society. Or, the companies that already exist had some sense of working together. As consumers, we deal with so many propiertary items and closed systems (hello…iPhone) that it feels like the only reason we are given the “choice” of buying all this extra gadgetry is to increase the stock prices. Why can’t all the plugs I have just be universal? Why can’t I switch phone services without it being a huge ordeal? I guess all of this requires some cooperation on the part of the consumer, but I think we are entering a part of our history where we just can’t throw money at every consumer good that hits the market. With this kind of collaboration from company to company and company to consumer, I think we can have better consumer goods and more profitable companies. I guy can always dream…