Art

I’ve been thinking a lot about art this week. The coffee shop where my writing group meets allows local artists to post their wares for sale, a different artist each month or two. On a number of occasions, there have been pieces that I would have loved to purchase. Alas, most of them were selling at $100-$200, a price that’s too steep for me.

I feel sad that I am unable to afford to support local artists. I know how tough it is to make it as an artist in this society. I understand why they often charge so much. I’ve been thinking a lot about how society used to support artists, in a way. At least, back in the day, an artist had a chance to find a patron to support him.

I wonder, however, if that was truly any better. I doubt that there were very many patrons who just supported their artists without expecting something in return. I’m sure the artists were required to paint/sculpt/etc. specific things that the patron wanted. Did that distract the artist from his work? Did it change his work, shape it in ways that he hadn’t intended?

Ultimately, however, I think that if you asked artists today, “If a rich person offers to support you fully but in addition to your own work, you have to produce regular, commissioned pieces for him/her, would you accept?” that most of them would say yes. I know I would.

In honor of this week’s topic, I’m posting a picture of the one and only piece of original artwork I’ve ever purchased. I bought it from a guy on the street on Maui for $20. I like how it’s dark and kind of spooky. I hope to give it more original artwork company some day soon!

2012 Goal Update

Goal 1: Revised part of Chapter 17 after critique from my reader. Hit page 11 of Chapter 18 (approx. 4-6 pages left to write). Agreed to do some writing work for my husband’s video game project if they need me. Wrote 2^nd blog post.

Goal 2: Thought about how much fun it would be to learn how to restore old books & start some kind of business around that (okay, probably not a non-profit, but I could see doing some pro bono work on the side).

Goal 3: Not much progress here this week. The husband is very busy as his team tries to get their game to “alpha.” We haven’t had much quality time together. Trying to be a good, understanding wife.

Goal 4: Went for a gorgeous 3-mile hike with a friend today. Decided that I need to stop bitching about my horrible temp job and start looking for something else. Found two jobs to apply for.