The premise of this sentence made my jammies bunch-up. This wiki entry might have been written about Van Gogh. “Lived modestly” is a euphemism for “poor.” My favorite stereotype: the poor artist.
William Blake also lived modestly; he’d be shocked at the “resale value” of his work now. Nothing brings valuation to an artist’s work like the sudden end of the supply. Blake’s life came to a natural conclusion, so at least there’s that.
How do we know something has value? Resale, of course. Commodity. Soul reduced to a bottom line.
.003 percent of the nation’s budget goes to the National Endowment for the Arts. Valuation. If you desire to truly understand the phrase, “lived modestly,” visit your local not-for-profit arts organization. They’ll heap sincere gratitude upon you if you donate a ream of paper.
As an exercise in understanding soul, ask an actor or painter or dancer or composer the most obvious question: why do you do it?
Their answer will have nothing to do with resale value or commodity. Keep in mind, that doesn’t mean that they don’t want to be paid. Imagine Van Gogh’s answer. Or Mark Rothko’s. Emily Dickinson’s. Wouldn’t you love to know what they knew, see what they saw? Attempting to stand in their shoes, to see what they saw, is the reason that their resale value is so high. They connect us to something greater than commodity.
A caution: the next time you ask yourself, “What’s it all about?” be careful to direct your question to your inner Mary Oliver rather than your inner Elon Musk. They serve remarkably different gods.
My favorite quote of late: “And while a hundred civilizations have prospered (sometimes for centuries) without computers or windmills or even the wheel, none have survived a few generations without art.” David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art & Fear
.003%. That equates to an amount far less than Jeff Bezos’ tax bill. As a percentage, that’s much more than Kerri gets paid for a single spin of one of her pieces on your favorite streaming service (.000079 of a cent). Spotify, Pandora, and the rest are making out like bandits while the independent artists continue to “live modestly.”
What’s the real value of a nation that so desperately undervalues its art? I guess we’ll just have to wait for the postmortem resale.
Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora
read Kerri’s blogpost about ROTHKO
every breath/as it is © 2004 kerri sherwood
Filed under: Art, Creativity, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, commodity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Emily Dickinson, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Mark Rothko, Mary Oliver, NEA, pandora, poor, resale, spotify, story, studio melange, the melange, valuation, vincent van gogh | 1 Comment »
The Direction of Intention 