I never thought I’d be the one waxing poetic about art but get ready because that’s where we’re going. Like, what even is it? What’s the point?
For a living I create visuals for video games. I don’t design them, that’s someone else’s job. My job is to make them happen in real time in the game. I reproduce other people’s creativity. Rick Ruben says that art is created for art’s sake while art created for financial gain is commerce. One isn’t better than the other but they are different. I create ‘art’ for commerce and don’t feel the need to call myself an artist.
But who is?
That art show Brenda and I went to…I just don’t know. That art was, I guess, created for the sake of making something beautiful. But honestly, it feels more like try-hards who get results and want to be known as artists. Like the cream of the paint by numbers crowd. Is that art?
I was talking to Greg about this and he said there’s this thing among writers where everyone’s telling each other if you write then you’re a writer. You don’t have to be good, you don’t have to make money at it, and you don’t have to write much. Did you write something you didn’t have to simply because you wanted to? Then you’re a writer. Was it good? Doesn’t matter. Everyone starts somewhere and if we start drawing lines and gatekeeping then people stop starting. So, I guess if you make art you’re an artist.
Greg was telling me about him and his wife going out for dinner a while ago on vacation and the waitress asking him what he did for a living. She’s a software developer and makes good money. He’d burned out in the not-for-profit sector not long before that, quit, and moved to a cheaper market to become a writer. At that point he hadn’t made any money even though he’d been at it a while. But he figured: “hey, we’re on vacation, let’s be confident.” So he told her he was a writer. Then it turned out she was a writer too and she’d been submitting to all these literary magazines (that he hadn’t heard of) and was keeping up with all the new hot writers and generally better at the game than he was. Then she goes and gets this guy washing dishes who was also a writer and also equally hard working. Meanwhile Greg’s on vacation on his wife’s dime screwing around with Jules and his dumb magazine nobody’s ever read, maybe by design, and he’s self-published some weird novel about pacefistic conflict resolution played out with characters from an erotica novel killing their author. The one time he decides to introduce himself as a writer and he spends the rest of the night feeling like a useless sack of shit. For what it’s worth I do think Greg’s book is pretty good, but don’t tell him I said that.
But then there’s River. Jesus what a woman she is. Is she an artist or just a grey-market pot grower? Is there even a difference? She’s clearly not making much off her art but it’s really good and she’s trying to rebuild a culture that was intentionally and systematically decimated. She’s living in a trailer and growing dope just so she can keep making art to help her people find their voice again. Holy shit what a woman. I think I’d be in love if I wasn’t so scared of her. Or maybe that’s why I am in love. I have no idea anymore.
But then there’s Brenda too. I have never met anyone like Brenda and she doesn’t make art per se, it’s more that she is art. Maybe Jules is right and she’s a muse more than an artist. I grew up in an immigrant family. Hard work was the only thing there was. Mom and pop didn’t immigrate to a new country so I could piss it away slumming it with people like Brenda, or River. But Brenda’s got her own code and because of that she’s enjoying life a lot more. Maybe. I’m not sure about that new boyfriend of hers. In any case, she’s got an idea about how life is to be lived and I think there’s something vaguely artistic about it. And whoever that guy was who painted the van mural…he definitely saw it too. And who’s to say that’s not art? That guy might be painting vans to earn a buck but he’s also doing it because that’s what he’s driven to do.
I guess with artists there’s something inside them trying to get out and they make their art to figure out what it is. Or maybe they don’t know or care what it is, it’s just a compulsion. They do it because they have to. It’s the only logical thing for them to do. And they only sell it in hopes that it’ll enable them to do more of it.
But that’s the thing with those folks at the art show. They weren’t doing art because they had to, they were doing art because they could. If they had to do art they would’ve taken that road years ago. They wouldn’t have made it through med school or law school or whatever school has been so kind to them as to allow for an early retirement in the country making art that celebrates early retirement in the country.
And who am I to shit on that? It makes them happy. They’ve found themselves in this place and they’re doing what makes sense to them. And fuck they’re good at it. Irritatingly good. The quality is excellent and no expense has been spared on their hobby. I don’t know if I want to pay for it, though. I’d pay River a hell of a lot of money to keep doing what she’s doing, but they clearly don’t need it.
So I’ve been thinking: how does a community initiate an arts movement? Greg’s always talking about organizational systems theory and now he’s got me thinking about it too. If a community somehow decides they’re going to be about art then what does that journey look like? Do you need the dentists to paint flowers in order to cultivate the critical mass required to support people like River? Or do people like River not need any help yet get drowned out by the hobbyists?
Greg says it’s about recognizing what’s already there and cultivating that. Like instead of drawing up a plan for some elaborate garden, doing a bunch of landscaping, and bringing plants in from all over you should work with what’s already there. You go over to his place and it’s all wild. He’s not been planting stuff, he’s just been selectively letting things grow. Like he’ll pull out the saplings that sprout up in the wrong place but leave the wildflowers if he likes them, you know?
Greg also says it’s all about constraints. He doesn’t like a blank sheet of paper because then he can only be as creative as he naturally is. But if there’s constraints and he tries to work with and around what already exists it leverages his existing creativity. Now it’s not only as good as his creativity allows, he’s wall-jumping the barriers he’s come up against to get higher than he could otherwise. Like parkour, I guess. With tits. Fuck what a weird book that was. His next one’s got a giant dick in it too. Like a horse except it’s a dick. I asked him if it was the same like…aspect ratio…as a horse and he said it depended on context. I didn’t ask any more questions after that. Point is, he might be completely full of shit. But isn’t everyone?
-Walter
