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The reverence for artists in our society is way overdone. I’m not just talking about the Andy Worhols and Taylor Swifts that make WAY too much money for what they give to society. I’m talking about the every day artists. People are way too excited for people who make art as a career, and many of them who complain that they are underpaid are wrong. Art is a fun thing that everyone enjoys doing. Be grateful you are able to monetize it at all.

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Bob_Robertson_IX@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
A good friend of mine is an artist… he studied pottery, has actual degrees in it. He’s an incredible potter.

He and I get into heated arguments over what ‘art’ is, and who can be an ‘artist’. I claim that an artist is anyone who declares themselves to be an artist, and art is anything an artist has created and has declared it as art. He claims that an artist is only someone who has dedicated time to studying the art and has put in many hours of practice, and art can only be created by a ‘real’ artist.

I concede that someone who has studied and practiced is much more likely to create good art, but even shitty art is still art.

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- Cruxifux@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I’d also argue that pottery is a mixture between art and trade though. You’re producing things people need and use, you’ve just added an artistic flare to it.
  
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- JamesTBagg@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Picasso is a “real” artist and his work sucks. I’m pretty sure his work was and is just a vessel for money laundering.
  
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  - Cruxifux@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Probably. Andy Worhol was almost certainly a psyop by cointelpro to make leftism look stupid. And also to launder money.
    
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    JamesTBagg@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    That’s a theory I’ve never heard. Might have to do some reading.
    
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bilb@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I know not everyone would agree with this, but I think art is an important part of society and failing to foster it leads to negative outcomes. Despite this, there is not always a “free market” purpose to sponsor artists. I think this has been acknowledged in the past and the gap has been filled by wealthy patronage and state sponsorship for the arts, but these sources of funding can have an outsized affect on the shape of the art it produces. I’m not sure I have a solution to that, outside of perhaps a universal basic income that allows people to pursue creative expression without fear of becoming destitute.

And I’m tempted to say “not everyone with a deviantart profile is contributing positively to the culture” but honestly, who am I to make that judgement?

All that said, yeah, I don’t think we need to be reverent of individual artists any more than we should be for anyone else filling a role in society.

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- Cruxifux@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  See I’d argue that the deviant artists prove my point. I know tons of people locally who create art and music for a net loss and do it for the love of the game, myself included. Its not as special or deserving of riches as most people make it out to be. In my opinion art should be community building primarily and culture enriching secondarily.
  
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icelimit@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Imo there are ‘artists’ and there are ‘entertainers’. Much of society conflates the two.

Entertainers are but monkeys for the masses to gawk at. Artists draw different reactions from different people.

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