money & art

I was struck by this quote by John Ferrie:

Paint like nobody is watching and paint like you don’t need any money.

Woah.

I think the last bit is the clincher.  One of the reasons why I think art is not celebrated as it should be is that the question of “will I eventually make money at this?” has wheedled its way into our collective unconscious.  It is a feeling that acts like a virus: it replicates into a million different ideas and fears so they aren't recognisable as progeny of the original concept.

One of the ways it plays out is the instinct to play it safe.  Playing it safe means creating stuff that you know will sell.  Is there anything wrong with this?  Technically no but it doesn’t do much for being fulfilled.  

Playing it safe means – basically – copying.  An artist sees what is popular (or what is selling) and tries to copy it.   This happened to a friend of mine, when someone tried to copy everything she did down to her business cards!  This was a desperate attempt to create a short-cut to “success,” because the ego is only interested in LOOKING successful.  It’s not really interested in the deeper aspects which actually lead to success because it knows that it can’t provide that!  So it focuses on stuff which fortify the superficial aspects of success. 

Money is obviously an idea that equates to being successful so the ego is obsessed with that idea.  It’s out there trying to make us off-balance with the idea of Money! Money! Money!  But we need to be vigilant against those cries and hold out for something more meaningful.  This eventually does pay off.  The pay-off is in the form of a thousand other things, along with money.  Money is not the source of money, as Adam Smith would say.  Value is the source of money and value is where we should put our focus on.