4 ms·

(background: I was and adjunct at an art school (https://mica.edu https://mica.edu) for a couple years, planning to pick it up again in the fall. I asked my stu

(background: I was and adjunct at an art school (https://mica.edu https://mica.edu) for a couple years, planning to pick it up again in the fall. I asked my students "what is art?" every semester, but they never knew.) This is going to sound a lot like shooting down, but it's a note to myself as much as it's a note to you. You got this. :+1: There is a difference--huge, massive gap--between, "I want to make art" and "I want to be an artist". The first is about creation and expression, the second is about going to parties and having people be excited to greet you. Stephen King said it something like, "i meet a lot of people who tell me, 'oh! i want to be a novelist' but what they really want is to have written a novel." Ronnie Coleman said it better, "everybody wants to be a body builder, but don't nobody want to lift no heavy-ass weights." echoing another response: > If you can make art and be happy, you're done. Step 1: make art. Step 2: find other people who make art. Step 3: look at their art. Step 4: show them your art. You can do these in any order, but the most important is the making. There is no magic formula. There is no formula that all successful artists follow. Art education is irrelevant to success, but it's great for technical skills and forcing you to practice. Like with any other creative act the two best things you can do for yourself are figure out what you can tolerate engaging with in repetition for the rest of your life and then repeat it. Good luck!

simonebrunozzi 5y ago
What an amazing answer. Thanks for sharing it with me. You are right. What I am trying to do here is to understand how the art world works. Yes, I can "do art" by myself, without showing anything to anyone. But I'd also like to understand what happens if you want to put your art "out there".
- pasabagi 5y ago
  Well, the normal thing to do is to read art magazines, follow artists you like on twitter, then respond to open calls. The response can vary depending on what sort of show/residency is being advertised - if it's just an informal, local thing, you probably just have to convince somebody you have a good piece for their space. If it's a big institution, you probably have to send them a fair bit of explanatory matter. My preference is just to do shows in local spaces. Then you don't have to deal with any nonsense - you just write an email to the guys that run the space, then if they like it, good, you go do the show, if not, also fine. Grandfather comment absolutely nails it about the whole thing of making vs being but I think there's a flipside: if you spend your whole life making contemporary art without doing shows, you're never going to get any kind of feedback other than people saying 'is that art'? and thinking they're being clever. You need to meet people who are also doing contemporary art, otherwise it gets pretty depressing pretty fast.
senectus1 5y ago
>Step 1: make art. Step 2: find other people who make art. Step 3: look at their art. Step 4: show them your art. I would add one more step, and it MUST be step 1. 1) Allow yourself to fail. The biggest detriment to your ability to create art is yourself. you'll always be your harshest critic. Failure is good, you never learn faster than when you fail. So fail lots and lots and lots.

simonebrunozzi 5y ago

What an amazing answer. Thanks for sharing it with me. You are right. What I am trying to do here is to understand how the art world works. Yes, I can "do art" by myself, without showing anything to anyone. But I'd also like to understand what happens if you want to put your art "out there".

pasabagi 5y ago
Well, the normal thing to do is to read art magazines, follow artists you like on twitter, then respond to open calls. The response can vary depending on what sort of show/residency is being advertised - if it's just an informal, local thing, you probably just have to convince somebody you have a good piece for their space. If it's a big institution, you probably have to send them a fair bit of explanatory matter. My preference is just to do shows in local spaces. Then you don't have to deal with any nonsense - you just write an email to the guys that run the space, then if they like it, good, you go do the show, if not, also fine. Grandfather comment absolutely nails it about the whole thing of making vs being but I think there's a flipside: if you spend your whole life making contemporary art without doing shows, you're never going to get any kind of feedback other than people saying 'is that art'? and thinking they're being clever. You need to meet people who are also doing contemporary art, otherwise it gets pretty depressing pretty fast.

senectus1 5y ago

>Step 1: make art. Step 2: find other people who make art. Step 3: look at their art. Step 4: show them your art. I would add one more step, and it MUST be step 1. 1) Allow yourself to fail. The biggest detriment to your ability to create art is yourself. you'll always be your harshest critic. Failure is good, you never learn faster than when you fail. So fail lots and lots and lots.