18 posts tagged “art”
I find the idea of God unnerving.
I finished my painting today.
One of my colleagues who runs a restaurant from home said she would exhibit it for me over the National Arts Festival next month. The price tag she suggested was $190. I was a little taken aback. It certainly is no 'work of art' but even so I wouldn't sell it for that little. I would rather keep it for myself in that case, especially since it has a lot of personal meaning.
Nancy bought me a Moleskine to get my creative juices going... I am in an absolute creative rut unfortunately so I want to use it just to open up and explore different styles, subjects, ideas and stuff.
An old friend of mine is having her first solo exhibition in Johannesburg, which she invited me to come see. Nancy asked if it would make me sad if I went. What she meant was if it would make me feel bad for not becoming an artist myself. It probably will. I always get this ache in my heart when I go to gallery or an art museum. But nothing effects me quite as much as a practicing artist, especially a successful one and doubly especially one who I think is not that talented anyway. It makes me feel as if I have neglected my greatest ability and stupidly deprived myself of an equally fulfilling and productive life.
Recently I bumped into a lady who showed me some houses in Grahamstown a few months ago. She told me that she has since quit her job as an estate agent to become a full time artist. I was surprised to hear that because she was doing quite well for herself as an agent and I had no idea she was an artist. It made me remember one of the houses she showed Nancy and I. The owner was an artist himself who used a small damp cellar as a studio and wanted to move to a bigger house. As I was looking around the place I had a good look at his paintings too and we got talking about them for a bit. Of course he had no idea how much I yearned to lead his life. Just I had no idea how much the estate agent was also yearning to lead his life. To her I was just a schoolteacher. To me she was just an estate agent. To the guy selling the house we were both not-artists. She had a good laugh when she realised that I teach Art and that I understood exactly how she could have left a reasonably well-paid job to pick up her paintbrushes again.
People often think of artists as tragic figures who struggle to keep body and soul together, but the artists I know are nothing like that. They all make a fair amount of money, which they invest in things like property and lead perfectly comfortable lives. I believe if an artist is talented, works hard, has an audience and a little bit of business acumen, they will probably do fine financially. The stereotypical starving artist is the exception. Either the artist lacks talent in which case they don’t count, or they are so unique and ahead of their time that their work goes unappreciated, which is quite rare when you come to think of it. The artists I know are certainly talented and their talent is easily recognisable to others. So they sell their work. And make money. Just like my old friend in Johannesburg.
When I was a kid I met man from Germany. His mother and my aunt were penpals for many years and they would visit one another once a year or so. When she came to South Africa, her son came too. He always brought his sketchbook and paints and would busy himself doing art while the two ladies caught up. He was hobbyist painter at the time. He experimented in different media and taught himself different techniques and I didn’t think much of his work. It wasn’t that much different to what I used to do for school. I recall showing him my pictures and we would talk about them. He said I was really talented. Many years later he too quit his job as an estate agent to become a full-time artist. Now has a humungous studio overlooking a forest in Germany where he produces colourful abstract paintings that have brought him a degree of fame. I still don’t think he is particularly talented, but he has honed his style to such a degree that he can bring out the most that he can in his art.
I guess the moral to be had is that to be successful as an artist requires the same skill, work ethic and self-determination that it takes to be successful in any career. Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking, but I am sure I’ll also end up as a full-time artist down the line. Until then teaching art well is a satisfactory career too.
This is the last vase I did for my Ceramics course, which brings my Art practical method to a close as well.
From now on it is all teaching with very little doing on my part.
Over the weekend I did a series of drawings and paintings using alternative materials. It is a project that Art and Design teachers recommend as an opening to the course to get their students to loosen up and be creative. At first I was quite reluctant to use strange, messy and sticky things but afterwards I quite enjoyed seeing the results.
I also earned my first bit of money this year doing a line illustration for a book cover.
Today I went to my last class on teaching Design. As from next month I’ll be teaching the subject myself and be graded almost entirely on that. All the projects and assignments I have done so far hardly count towards my teaching certificate. I find that quite disappointing really because I have put so much time and effort into each of them. Then again, I did them because I wanted to not because I had to. After working for so many years with barely enough time in the day to make a sandwich, being able to do art everyday has been very rehabilitating. Now I feel like me again.
