from www.mnartists.org, “Math Class is Tough: That Rare Artist”http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=84009
".... This newcomer, we read, is that rare artist who also has a head for business. This description is repeated several times by both the reporter and the artist’s devotees, repeated so that we understand: sure, there are plenty of creative people in the world, but most of them are not very good with numbers. It implies many things, each one more infuriating than the last. But I know what the reporter means. She means it in a positive way, when she says that this artist can also make money. Really. We all know what she means and so let’s stop taking it the wrong way.
"Okay, scratch that. We all know what she means, and let’s take it the way we want to take it, which is with a grain of salt, preferably attached to several other grains of salt, which are in turn attached to the rim of the glass of the world’s largest margarita, which we all drink as we sit around reading the newspaper’s arts section out loud, guffawing until tears come to our eyes. That rare artist who also has a head for business. Ya hear that? I’m rare. You? Well, no. Not rare exactly. More like medium rare, haw haw, God that pisses me off. How come it’s never the other way around, like if they interviewed the president of the Chase Manhattan fucking bank they wouldn’t be all surprised if he played the violin, they’d just say he played the fucking violin, not that he was a rare businessman who had a head for music, and we laugh louder and then have another drink and dull the pain of the world thinking that we’re too stupid to make a living because we are Creative Artists. That’s what the reporter means, and it sucks that most people think she’s right."
8 comments:
There are artists and then there are artistes. The artistes are the ADD-laden, focus deprived, borderline geniuses who spew creativity the way most of us exhale and often have no time for social niceties and, I've found, simple hygiene. Is it a stereotype? Abso-friggin'-lutely. Is it accurate more often than not? Afraid so.
But there are artists who have a good head on their shoulders and can create a good marketing plan for themselves and have the business savvy to flourish while indulging in creativity from time to time. So, yes, there does seem to be some generalization and perhaps I'm only propagating the myth by suggesting that there is some truth to it when you add the frustrated Boho factor. But it's also been my experience that the frustrated Bohos with no business sense usually don't care that they don't have it. They're too busy trying to purge the torrent of thought from their heads to worry about using their art to make money.
So where does that leave us? Again, with the question of "Are you an artist first and a business person second?" Do you write just to write and sod the world if they don't like it and, hopefully, some brilliant soul will see the genius in your work and offer you oodles of money for it? Or do you tweak and adjust and look at trends and try to make your book a little more like DaVinci Code so that it looks like it sprung immaculately from the BVM's sacred twat and hope to repeat Dan Brown's wholly undeserving success? (Undeserving? Interesting counterquestion. So he wrote a crappy book that's making him gazillions of dollars. Because it's umpteen hundred pages of bad writing [caked with the occasional interesting idea], does that mean he's less deserving of his gazillion dollars than, say, Umberto Eco who visited similar territory in his Foucault's Pendelum with far more literary panache than Brown could muster if he channeled Dickens himself? Or did his accute savvy of what would get the world's attention earn him every last dollar, down to the last gazillion, and he should be lauded for his business sense?)
You raise interesting questions, CAVU. Sadly, my contacts have made my eyes dry and I'm no longer sure what I'm writing or if it even makes sense.
Oh, and close your quotes.
I'm with you in that tub of a margarita, sister.
Being creative and knowing your strengths can coexist.
In the land of multiple intelligences, we teachers know that different kinds of people have different proficiencies. Mine tend towards strength in verbal/linguistic and conceptual thinking. They do not tend towards numerical/sequential/logical.
In other words, I hate math. I always have. It doesn't make sense to me, it confuses me more than the difference between right and left, and I don't feel any shame in admitting it. (I get lost pretty easily, too, which is why my directions often suck.)
Anyway, the thing that sticks in my craw about said quote is more the attitude of condescention towards artists in general. "Oh, poor things, aren't good at math. We should pat them on the heads as they stand in line for their gruel."
Art has a place in the world, and that place isn't as important as it used to be. Artists need to address the desires of a market if they want to be successful -- that doesn't take math skills. It takes market savvy, and while an analytical skill as well, it's something I'm starting to get the hang of.
Little miss thing can back the fuck off of patting my head, because me and my creativity will soon be making sales. Just you watch. If she thinks I don't know how to count zeroes or balance my checkbook, she's delusional.
thanks for your comments. it is interesting, and particularly on my mind b/c i've been an underemployed artist who currently feels financially cornered into applying for jobs that i do not want. i guess there are some good things that will probably come out of these jobs--even beyond the paycheck--but i really can hear my parents (well meaning, very artistic folks from a very different generation) saying "buck up and get to work--art's great, but it won't put food on the table." so, how true is that? i feel kind of defeated, even if it's temporary or won't stop me from being a great writer and all of that.
personally, while i suck at math, i'm great at both business and science. and i do do some business for my art, and it isn't supporting me. YET. partly because people don't pay enough for it (she addresses this later in her article.) and i rock at business jobs, i just happen to hate most of them: cubes, water coolers, being trapped in the same chair for 8 hours, spreadsheets make me cringe.... and i'm afraid that going back to some of that is proving the "see--your art didn't get you by and now you're doing things you promised yourself you'd never do again." that all may have more to do with me getting over my own blocks, but whatever. still: very interesting topic, no?
do read the whole article if you're interested: http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=84009
Yeah, but you still haven't closed your quotes and it's really making my molars tingle.
See -- he does this on my blog, too. It's always gotta be Brian Brian Brian, all the time.
Close your quotes, my molars tingle.
Finish your book.
Nyeah, nyeah, nyeah.
Don't you have homework to do or something, Brian?
*gah*
But seriously, Mary, I'm sorry that you feel so cornered and demoralized. It makes me regret the advice I was giving you the other night -- but I'm personally terrified of being broke again. I'll take a paycheck and a little dismay over artistic freedom.
You'll find a way to work it out, honey. I know you will. You're brilliant, talented, interesting, thoughtful and fabulous.
Hang in there!
Voix, don't regret the advice--it did actually help--and you have very good points. I needed to hear it. The truth is that there are both very good things and very not-good things about both options (taking the available jobs or not). I've been to this rodeo before and I know what I'm getting into. And that whatever I get into I can get out of. So... I'll live. Alas--at least I have the ability and opportunity to work at all.
OK, now I'm confused. The whole THING is someone else's quote? I thought there was a small quote from someone else and then you going off on it.
Where are my meds? Oh, wait, I don't need meds. I've got advice pellets from Voix's psychiatric Pez dispenser to keep me sane.
My cup runneth over.
yes, dude, the whole big-ass thing is her quote. i didn't comment b/c i wanted to see what people thought before i blah blah blahed all over it.
yes, isn't it nice that voix has offered to solve all our problems? i shall take full advantage.
Post a Comment