1/29/2024 0 Comments One piece smoozeThere is a line to be drawn between isolation and communitarian exchange, between needing the reclusiveness of the studio and the celebration of completion that happens with an audience, be it one or many. Talking across categories rather than within a category feels more vital and expansive to my own process. My primary network consists of people who are operating in a variety of creative métiers-poetry, music, dance, theatre, business–and individuals who are compelled by those expressive pursuits. When I do an assessment of my closest associations and most inspiring friendships, very few of them are visual artists. The best part of my networking happens outside the visual arts. I have had to adopt the attitude that there are many ways for an artist to reach out, find an audience, and connect with people who care about the same set of issues. And those two values, authenticity and meaningfulness, are more important to me than what might be considered the pragmatic, realistic approach to the business of art promotion. We veer towards and away from authenticity and meaningfulness in hundreds of small ways that end up defining the texture and quality of our lives. I made the decision some time ago to be willing to live with those outcomes, whatever the cost. It isn’t meant as a criticism of them that they can manage in that world it is just a very clear demarcation point.Īnd as G points out in her posting, an unwillingness to participate in the appropriate art scene may operate to one’s detriment. Many artists seem to thrive in that milieu. Making contacts for no other reason than the possibility of future endorsements, fawning over the power brokers and monied players, strategizing about getting invited to the right parties and the biggest openings-it is part of the game I have the least inclination towards. The discomfort G addresses in her piece is a discomfort I have felt throughout my career as a visual artist. For a number of us, the obligation to “press the flesh” is the least appealing and most inauthentic aspect of the art making venture. There is an essential tension between the demands of working in solitude, that “rag and bone shop” that Yeats speaks of, and the cocktail partying, coterie development, personal promotion and politicking that is also part of every business ecosystem, creatively focused or otherwise. But even so, I resonated with G’s frank admission about her low comfort level with the community offered to her in her profession as a writer: I’ve never met a social network of writers that I’ve liked. ALL my writer friends are in some kind of writer’s group, while very few of my visual artist friends participate in any formalized art critique group. My experience is that the concept of community is very different for visual artists and writers. She probes the often disruptive relationship between the “solitary” act of writing and the role of interacting with the social network that is writers, publishers, literary influencers. A few days ago she posted an extremely thought-provoking piece called Are Writers Ever Really Loners? that I have been mulling over ever since. One of my favorite bloggers is G, the genius behind Writer Reading.
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