When Art Has no Audience
Posted on 09-11-2010
I’m more of a blog reader than writer. How about you?
Do you write more words in blogs than the words you read? Or are you like some today who depend mostly on the micro blogger to provide them with just snippets of blogs they find useful. It is humorous (almost) the number of people who will read a Tweet that references a blog and then pretend they have read the blog.
Perhaps, you do not write a blog at all. I know you read blogs or at least are reading this one so that qualifies you as a blog reader. My experience with blogs has been sporadic. My first blog was in 1998. As one of the early web designers from the mid 1990's I discovered a small program attached to my server software that allowed me to blog. I began in earnest and continued until I was attacked with overwhelming spam and the only way to stop it was to delete the blog completely. Today I have a collections of blogs that I comment on for different reasons. This one is about art and I have one where I write and makes statements about my paintings, and then I have one that is a nonpartisan blog on political absurdities.
I do not know to this day if I had a single regular reader. So I found a link to an interesting blog on Twitter the other day titled “Why You Should Blog Even Without an Audience“. Succinctly, the blogging activity makes you a better storyteller, better at your craft, and a better reader. Becoming better at all three of these things relate, for me, directly to my effort as an artist.
Most of my life I have created art without having an audience. It has not been very profitable – just as my first blogging experience brought zero return of filthy lucre is concerned. A few relatives and close friends acquired pieces of my art from long time ago, but I had almost no aspirations of building a following of art collectors. Today, my objectives are different.
I is my goal to create art that is desired and sought for by art collectors. Lofty goal, I know but if I don’t shoot at the bulls-eye, I’ll never hit it. I have had a modicum of success over the past two years by selling enough to average almost one original painting every 6 weeks. I am thankful for that but I do not let it fool me into thinking I have this method of making a living nailed down pat. I still am waiting for the audience to gather outside my studio and to place orders for works that are yet to be created.
It is good to paint even when there is no audience or no sure sale of my work and now I know a way to articulate the why.
It makes me a better storyteller. Every one of my paintings has a story and the more I paint, even if it is to full my studio with finished works, the better I get at telling the stories. Malcolm Gladwell makes the observation in his book “Outliers” that it takes a lot of time, a lot of practice to become an expert at something. “Education never makes an expert” is one of my own sayings. It take the repeated application of the skills to become good.
It makes me better at my craft. I have a difficult time even considering my work a craft, it is art and while there are arts and crafts, I do not do crafts. But this is a different meaning. I will say “It makes me better at my skills”. I learn how to achieve what I want through repeated attempts until finally I know how to mix the color I want without ending up with a cup of oil paint on my pallet when I only need a tablespoon of it. (If you have ever done what I am talking about, you know what I mean).
And it makes me a better reader of art. The more I paint the more I understand the paintings of others. The more I attempt to create what is in my mind, what is within, the more I understand what was within Sean Scully and his Wall of Light. When I understand a art better my understanding of life gets better.
When art has no audience, it still has purpose.
I’m more of a blog reader than writer. How about you?
Do you write more words in blogs than the words you read? Or are you like some today who depend mostly on the micro blogger to provide them with just snippets of blogs they find useful. It is humorous (almost) the number of people who will read a Tweet that references a blog and then pretend they have read the blog.
Perhaps, you do not write a blog at all. I know you read blogs or at least are reading this one so that qualifies you as a blog reader. My experience with blogs has been sporadic. My first blog was in 1998. As one of the early web designers from the mid 1990's I discovered a small program attached to my server software that allowed me to blog. I began in earnest and continued until I was attacked with overwhelming spam and the only way to stop it was to delete the blog completely. Today I have a collections of blogs that I comment on for different reasons. This one is about art and I have one where I write and makes statements about my paintings, and then I have one that is a nonpartisan blog on political absurdities.
I do not know to this day if I had a single regular reader. So I found a link to an interesting blog on Twitter the other day titled “Why You Should Blog Even Without an Audience“. Succinctly, the blogging activity makes you a better storyteller, better at your craft, and a better reader. Becoming better at all three of these things relate, for me, directly to my effort as an artist.
Most of my life I have created art without having an audience. It has not been very profitable – just as my first blogging experience brought zero return of filthy lucre is concerned. A few relatives and close friends acquired pieces of my art from long time ago, but I had almost no aspirations of building a following of art collectors. Today, my objectives are different.
I is my goal to create art that is desired and sought for by art collectors. Lofty goal, I know but if I don’t shoot at the bulls-eye, I’ll never hit it. I have had a modicum of success over the past two years by selling enough to average almost one original painting every 6 weeks. I am thankful for that but I do not let it fool me into thinking I have this method of making a living nailed down pat. I still am waiting for the audience to gather outside my studio and to place orders for works that are yet to be created.
It is good to paint even when there is no audience or no sure sale of my work and now I know a way to articulate the why.
It makes me a better storyteller. Every one of my paintings has a story and the more I paint, even if it is to full my studio with finished works, the better I get at telling the stories. Malcolm Gladwell makes the observation in his book “Outliers” that it takes a lot of time, a lot of practice to become an expert at something. “Education never makes an expert” is one of my own sayings. It take the repeated application of the skills to become good.
It makes me better at my craft. I have a difficult time even considering my work a craft, it is art and while there are arts and crafts, I do not do crafts. But this is a different meaning. I will say “It makes me better at my skills”. I learn how to achieve what I want through repeated attempts until finally I know how to mix the color I want without ending up with a cup of oil paint on my pallet when I only need a tablespoon of it. (If you have ever done what I am talking about, you know what I mean).
And it makes me a better reader of art. The more I paint the more I understand the paintings of others. The more I attempt to create what is in my mind, what is within, the more I understand what was within Sean Scully and his Wall of Light. When I understand a art better my understanding of life gets better.
When art has no audience, it still has purpose.
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