proud to be a whore

[egypturnash]

This is, amazingly enough, pulled from a discussion I had on Deviantart's forums. The question was about "compromising your vision" and "selling your soul". I may have gotten a little ranty here, but when you get right down to it, these myths of "real art" do a lot to keep people from making their own stuff...

I think too many people get sold the whole "pure, starving artist" myth. It's only art if it has no commercial value! It's only art if it's difficult to understand! My core set of influences - cartoonists and animators from the early 1900s - somewhat insulated me from this when I went through art school; all of my idols were "whores" in the eyes of people who believe in the purity of artistic essence.

For that matter, most of the Old Masters were "whores" - all those great paintings that've survived the ages are idealized pictures of nobles, jumped-up noveau rich, or pictures celebrating the glory of the Church. DaVinci? Whore. Michaelangelo? Whore. Rembrandt? Whore. Damn skilled whores, but whores nonetheless.

Art-as-useless, artist as a hungry-but-pure figure, is a romantic caricature. Starving in your Paris garret in misery to become famous after you're dead and enrich the people who bought your work for a pittance because you were their friend? Screw that. Lean on your friends and family, and find ways to pay those bills, yeah. But don't let yourself get eaten by that. How many people have achieved their modern dream art goal of animation or video games, only to burn out after a few years and maybe never do it again? And how many people do their best to toil away in obscurity and self-enhanced depression? Since starting my current freelance gig, I've done more art for myself than I have in any similar span of time: I know my work's valuable because I get paid good money for stuff I'm shitting out. I don't waste time wondering if I'm any good any more. That regular paycheck confirms it.

It's scary, and it's not easy to find a niche in the world of commerce for your art. But it happens. Sometimes you lose yourself to the Money, the Responsibility, to one particular dream. I came close myself.

Comments

[mister-wolf.livejournal.com]

I duuno. I seem to have a pretty commercially and artistically useless style. =:P

At least there's graphic design. Though frankly I'm just phoning it in.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

When you can support yourself phoning in work (which I think you are these days? It sounds like that from what you said on the phone the other day), it's great! That's what I stumbled in with this AG stuff. I keep trying to cheese it out and they say it's almost too good no matter what!

So here I am, being a commercial corporate whore. And as soon as I was sure it's pretty solid, what do I start doing? Experimenting, pushing my own artistic boundaries. New subjects, new approaches to my mastered tools, new media. This is wonderful, and I get to do it because I'm a sell-out!

[mister-wolf.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're right! =:D What was I thinking! Yay for being a whore!

[kaputotter.livejournal.com]

A.
fucking.
men.

[medox.livejournal.com]

Very nicely said!

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

On the other end of the sliding scale from Artist as hungry but pure, is the person who no longer creates for sake of creating, but only can work towards something that is marketable. They get stuck in the demands of their audience, focus groups, bosses, etc, and become slaves to other people's whims. They no longer create personal works because they enjoy it, only things they think people will buy. The pure corporate drone/common perception of commerical artist. I think many of the "starving artists" are afraid that if they start turning a real profit, they will down slide completely into this other state.

Course, as in most things, it is really just different shades of grey.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Seeing myself doomed to becoming that was a lot of why I left animation. Everything I was involved in that was pure and personal and from the heart failed. Everything horrid and empty did well.

If you let the love of money take over from the love of art, that is your fate. Animation has always been in a dangerous space between love of money and love of art, due to the size of the undertaking.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of a single panel comic I saw. It showed a vending machine that offered products such as peace, enlightenment, love and shiny noisy stuff. Only the shiny noisy stuff was sold out.

[merrycalliope.livejournal.com]

The other Art Myth that gets me is 'Everything must be original'. Basically, to admit to any sort of outside influence is admitting to copying.

This seems to be a myth prevalent in realms like deviantArt or anywhere there are more amateurs than working artists. I've found that the more devoted artists will freely admit their influences. No doubt because they are considerably more confident in their own skill.

The most entertaining debate I witnessed along these lines was when an artist who'd been through art school described a series of classes he took in which the students went to a museum, set up their easels and painted copies of various famous works of art. Learning-by-copying is a fairly tried and true method of learning why an artist did what s/he did to create a piece of work. But of course people went ballistic and accused this artist of being a 'copycat' and that his art school must have been terrible for instructors to make people do such a thing, etc, etc.

More recently I've seen 'disclaimers' in descriptions of dA works where the artist states "No reference was used to create this picture". So now not only is being influenced by another artist is bad but apparently so is being influenced by actual anatomy!

[mcity.livejournal.com]

No, I think it's just pride. I don't draw from ref, but that's because I have none.

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

What really gets me is the number of people who take "everything must be original" and twist it into "everything original is good". I've seen plenty of original garbage on dA getting showered with "OMG ITS SO ORIGIONAL +++++++++++++FAV"

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

Ah, the reference thing!

Recently, I elected to attempt a rather large personal art project, but I know going in that I have very little training in art and thus my anatomy is horrific in general. Dare I risk looking like a doofus? Well, no, I could use references!

My brain went into a brief spasm of, "But then you didn't actually create all of it, now, did you?" Nor did I invent humans, develop the graphite for my pencils, write the scanner drivers, or create the setting in which my art would be set. Really, why get bogged down in the matter at this point?

There's pride in doing something without a reference; it's a mark of skill if the result is convincing. It is, however, in no way morally superior, or even the mark of a better artist. It just means you have a better time with anatomy from scratch, merely one part of a huge number of microskills that make up figure drawing. So, now I'm looking for references for this ungodly project. *grin*

[higginsdragon.livejournal.com]

A crude way of putting it is that Reeses didn't invent peanut butter or chocolate, just the idea to put them together in a particular way. :)

[wolflahti.livejournal.com]

Stop being sensible and well-reasoned, or no one is going to listen to anything you have to say.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

I never understood that whole starving artist ePrejudice. Wasn't the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel a commision? And possibly the Mona Lisa? Beethoven and Mozart were artists, and they made money.

Heck, the only reason I'm not taking commisions is that I never figured out how to get PayPal working for the Bahamas.

[uniformvixen.livejournal.com]

Just don't forget while you're shrugging off the heavy burdon of responsibility, lest you become lost to it, that there are things that have been left undone and perhaps a few promises left unfulfilled. Which, thanks to your success, you the means to correct moreso now than ever.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I'm quite aware of those, trust me! I just have to acquire the tools to wield these means.

[sans-souci.livejournal.com]

And the most part of artists that make art that is very intellectual and difficult to understand were full of money. I have visited Picasso's castle in Antibes the guy didn't exactly lived in misery... not everyone was as fool as Van Gogh.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Yep! And yet somehow there's this cultural myth of, well, living just like Vince. Going crazy and cutting off your ear FOR ART. And dying unloved and alone. Depression will make for great art!

Except it won't: since managing to get out of my own gloom and doom, I've generally done more and better work. And I've started figuring out ways to make money with my stuff. But some little part of me that still believes the Tortured, Sensitive Artist myth is ready to call me a whore and a sell-out. It's so weird.

[higginsdragon.livejournal.com]

I blame Van Gogh for starting the whole starving artist myth. Even his fellow impressionists were pretty well off.

[doctorpinkerton.livejournal.com]

I think there's a real question of focus here... unless you're some blessed individual who craps out great art, you're gonna divide your attention between the actual art and the promo end of things. Which I suppose is why such execrable individuals as George Rodrigue have made such a killing...

At least there's still the chance of contributing worthwhile work in your mediums of choice. You'd shudder to meet the television types I've been in touch with lately - notions of 'art' hardly enter into the picture. Getting anything in any way different on the small screen is a total miracle! Good thing I've got a day job that leaves me with enough time and mind to get something cool done.

From one Mercenary Artist to Another

[adequatemagic.livejournal.com]

Remember, my child...

It's not selling out
If THEY are buying in.

Suffering for one's art, frankly, sucks.

[higginsdragon.livejournal.com]

Yay! Excellently said!

The myth is dangerous to both sides. Yeah, the artist will succumb to it, but it's also why there's a lot of people out there who think art should be near free. "Be honored we're even paying you!" It's a self-perpetuating cycle between artists and those who want art. :P It's sad that a lot of artists seem so content to live by it.

[normanrafferty.livejournal.com]

"Beware of whores who say they don't want money. The hell they don't. What they mean is they want more money. Much more." (http://neutopian.com/play/may22-06/Words%20Of%20Advice%20For%20Young%20People%20(Pete%20Arden%20Mix)%20-%20William%20S.%20Burroughs%20-%20Big%20Hard%20Disc%20Vol.%202.mp3)

-- William S. Burroughs

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

That just rocks.