THE TESTED AND TRUE METHODS OF HAMILTON'S HOBBY ARTISTS
Warning; if you have a problem with your reading comprehension or sense of humor do not read this!
If an artist is defined by their full time commitment to their work then it becomes evident who the hobbyists are.
A Guide to be a successful hobby artist in Hamilton
1. Get a partner to pay your way, live off their money then you will have the free time you need to create.
2. Get health benefits from the government. A certificate from your doctor saying you can’t work, will give you an income while you struggle away at your art.
3 (the biggest group of hobbyists) Get a full time job!
I have heard this is the way in Hamilton. You can work full time spend money on your hobby art and show in galleries.
4. (The most dangerous) get a job in arts administration. Where you can define your own hobby approach as the status quo. And help other hobbyists like your self.
5. Own your own gallery; you get immediate recognition from the community of hobbyists that are up your ass trying to get a show.
6. Wait till you retire, have money in the bank and a pension and you will be free to create whatever you want.
7. Use more than one of the above methods and you could be quite a wealthy home owning so called artist.
I have watched as these hobby artists pass the ball between themselves in our community for years. And I have seen many marginalized real full time artists being driven out of the city because of this. I have seen an art community fraught with fraud and chicanery.
In our town the artist is as marginalize as they were in the courts of the renaissance. And the marginalized artist is too busy surviving and making art and in no way can compete with these privileged hobbyists. Unfortunately the tension felt by real artists in this kind of society does not exist in the work of hobbyists. They are comfortable people who want comfort first. So don't expect anything, new, earthshaking, or intellectually riveting from them.
It is your loss Hamilton. Maybe you should inquire of your curators why they prefer the hobbyists that chase them down as apposed to going into the community to find the marginalized full time artists that have given a real commitment to their town. And when you do go to a gallery, note if the artist is a hobbyist or not. I’m sure you will find a difference in the works ability to go beyond the decorative and didactic. I haven’t found this to be the case in other major centres that I frequent. Nope, in Hamilton it is just more of the blight that keeps our city down. Ooops don’t forget some of these curators are the hobbyists that you should watch out for.
What do hobby artists do to a community? They rob it of any sense of professionalism.
This in turn erodes the community’s confidence in the commitment of the work they are looking at. And also reduces all serious artists to the lowest common denominator. What ever you do don’t become a full time artist in Hamilton, you will be ignored. Just ask the other full time artists, who ever they are.
2 comments:
... lowest common denominator....
personally, good art inspires and instills emotion. it need not be an intellectual masterpiece (that is what inspires.... and is vaguely erotic in a freudian sense. i'm sure you understand)
but there is this tension: what if the hobbyist artist is better able to instill emotion through this work than the dedicated artist? the hobbyist need not be serious. but if his or her work is a greater aid to the art community, is is just to criticise his or her lack of dedication?
appeal to the lowest common denominator is dangerous. as most evident, television is getting more and more stupid for this very reason....
ressentiment....
Thanks for your comment.
It takes dedication to the work to develop it to a point of mastery. This mastery being defined by the artist's own body of work and not any academic standards or critical theory. The latter exists as tools to further explore an art works relation ship to the world around it. If it were only about emotions then the commercial artists would be filling the gallery. It is like you say "good art inspires and instills emotion". That is a start but art can go even further than that. My attempt in this piece was not to chide the hobby artist since I have fallen into that category many times. My real intent was to criticize an art system/community that has come to accept the new form of marginalization of artists. And at the same time ignoring the real issues facing artists in most communities.
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