Hi Everybody !
I want to share with all of you a little bit of what my career as an artist and my experience with many other artists taught me about social recognition and acceptance.
Let's put a little bit of context here.
I come from a country where the artists are not respected at all: I bet you know this kind of situation where a "client" comes and asks for an artwork in exchange of a ridiculous offer such as "recognition" or "why should I pay for this... my nephew could draw it too".
Really, I am not kidding.
And I am not only talking about visual artists but also musicians: one of my brothers used to have a garage band and I remember pretty well that every time they wanted to have a concert anywhere, they had to pay for it.
Exactly, that is Argentina. Although these kind of situations is very common in other parts of the world.
This is something that doesn't really encourage artists to get further, because they start feeding this beast called "I am not worthy". And it is not only something that plays an emotional role on the subject, but also economical and professional in general. Think about this...
...if the person thinks that is not worthy, they will accept any amount of money for any work, (Or will even not receive any money at all in some cases and be okay with that). And this is harmful for the artist himself and for other professional that share the same profession.
It is harmful for himself because the artist will struggle with money, which will make him/her enter in this mental stage called "survival" and stop developing his/her skills. And emotionally it will also hit the artist because he/she will think that is not worthy, and its art will always be shitty, and the stigma of failure wins.
And It is harmful for other artists because accepting crumbs for a work makes the whole standard of payment to fall apart and clients will start lowering the paying prices to the average market. Making clients to not accept offers from artists that been studying and working and practicing for more than a decade non-stopping (such as myself, even tho' I haven't worked and studied for a decade yet but eight years).
This is why social support, cheers and critiques are so important for the artist. Because this makes it all to be worthy.
Social acceptance encourages the artist to get further and get better. In the best of cases it will also encourage the artist to be more humble and accept more critiques and corrections to its work, and get even further and better. And of course, since all the business are made with another people, business are also something that regards to realm of social connections and relationships.
You may be thinking, why it is so important for an artist to have a social acceptance if in the end the art is what makes him/her happy?
Because we are social animals. That's all... if we would do things only for ourselves, we would probably just survive instead making our lives better. We want to succeed in things and get to better places, better features from and for ourselves just for share them with others.
Think about it: if you are a materialistic dude or dudette you probably want a new car or new expensive shoes/clothes, rings and stuff for showing to others. You don't want them for just watching yourself in the mirror of your house, you actually have it for showing to others in a display of social status.
Artists are not different, but their concept/conception of it is more ethereal. Their art is their way of showing their status and their place in the society as creators and narrators of visual stories where they can take you to. Our best intention and wish is to take you to a journey in every different artwork of ours.
This is why every time you show your support, and if you are a client that pays fair, you are actually making the whole market and professional environment better. This is the best you can do, and if you are part of that very little group, you have my gratitude.
So next time you got the opportunity to choose if supporting an artist or to make its life more miserable, think about yourself... how would you like other people to be with you if you were in the place of that person?
Thanks a lot for your support and I see you in the next one!
(All the images are my own creation and therefore I own their rights)
I always try to listen to the ideas of my fellow followers to improve my posts and to give something back to the community... therefor: What would you like the next posts to be about? What should I talk about? What kind of painting? Would you like some tutorials about arts, about cooking? Maybe some fresh gaming broadcast? I would love to know!
I apologize if I don't reply to your message. Sometimes I can't find enough time for it. But you can be sure that I will read it!
Bye!
