So yesterday’s accompanying post with the comic was a little weak. I felt as though I didn’t say anything interesting enough. With that in mind I make this addendum.
It seems interesting to me how we as an overall culture like to make particular demands of our artists. Though we may say that we love an artist, or are a big fan of their work, we often only know of a sliver of what they produce. This is predominately seen with music artists.
With our free market system it is difficult to say that we are only being given what is provided us. We are provided with what we consume most. People are constantly sampling the desires of the majority to determine what to satiate their appetite for entertainment. I say this only because it seem often a re-bustle of those who oppose the entertainment system that is in place.
“I love this band,” or, “this is my favorite singer,” are comments frequently made when a song comes onto the radio. In reality though it’s just that song. One of the reasons that itunes and napster were able to do so well is their “nod of the hat” to the fact that we like our music in piece meal fashion. We don’t love the artist as much as we like that one song that they did.
From an artistic perspective that’s extraordinarily daunting thought. To think that you could spend weeks and month pouring over a compilation of work only to find all of it passed on except for one piece. If that one song, photo, phrase, or thought where taken from that collection would people still enjoy that artist?
How much work is produced and overlooked is quite disheartening. To imagine the amount of self-confidence needed to overlook such a cold fact of the artistic world is amazing. This is one of the reasons that I think that I have always found it quite difficult to bring myself to attempt showing my work. Certainly there are a rare few artists that are consistent in their work in their ability to intrigue and captivate their audience. To ponder what that means in it’s entirety is awe inspiring and something that those artists even over look themselves many times.
We have instead embraced a narcissistic attitude to propel ourselves forward, (the artist community that is), in place of a sense of humility and sincere desire to express. For those artists that are consistent and humble we are quite fortunate to have. Those below that level of acknowledgement have quite a daunting task of internal emotional battles to overcome.
Fortunately enough the internet has been able to create a world where artists can express themselves, and people that enjoy their work as a whole can find them and take part in the breadth of their thought and creation. Creating a deeper form of emotional interconnection than the internet is often attributed.
Hope that makes up for yesterday.
