My Life as a Failed Artist

http://www.vulture.com/2017/04/jerry-saltz-my-life-as-a-failed-artist.html

by zt • 9 years ago

45 19 9 years ago

chfs• 9 years ago

I made art obsessively.

It's amazes me how the more control over the creation process someone gets, the more passionate he usually becomes. I've observed this and vice versa in myself and others so many times.

theprop• 9 years ago

10 years of a life...

hprotagonist• 9 years ago

If anyone else has read a bunch of Daniel Pinkwater, there are some interesting coincidences. I wonder if they ever met...

hoodoof• 9 years ago

The parallels with my life as a software developer / entrepreneur are disturbing.

I often think of my development projects much as I think an artist must think about their art.

Mendenhall2• 9 years ago

I enjoyed his thoughts on his youth and artistic struggle, but as an artist I would say the fact that he quit making art is the proof that he just wanted to be an "artist" rather than make artwork. I think there is a difference between someone who wants to be an "artist" and someone who wants to make art and very often that is what determines success or failure.

kennu• 9 years ago

I think you are right and that the same applies to many other things, too: wanting to be a developer vs. wanting to develop things, wanting to be a manager vs. wanting to manage things, and so on.

exolymph• 9 years ago

Yep. You see this a lot when it comes to writing as well.

IAmGraydon• 9 years ago

That's really an interesting observation, and I can't help but apply it to my own time as a musician that spanned 17 years. In a short period of time it just went away. Maybe I was fueled by the idea of being a musician rather than making music.

vanderZwan4• 9 years ago

An as another on-and-off artist I find this an infuriating simplistic remark. I quit the art world, not making art, and quite frankly, your attitude is like someone telling me "then you didn't really love her anyway" after leaving an abusive relationship and not really being interested in talking with that person again.

Being an Artist is so much more than just making work. It's living within a context of fellow artists, and art critics. It's hustling. It's playing by very specific social rules and knowing how to sell your work to fit whatever is popular according to the whims of the public and the art critic. Knowing how to, and being willing to play that game, is just as often what determines success or failure. And most of that compromises the artwork itself.

Mendenhall2• 9 years ago

Was not my intent to make you feel infuriated. I do feel you may be reading a bit more into my post. I agree with your thoughts on the art world. I also notice you say you quit the art world not making art.I think that is very different than what author did.

anotheryou• 9 years ago

Good art != popular art != art that makes money

Art that makes money == art the art-market/world likes and can sell OR art you can sell to people (aka ikea-aesthetics)

I love art, I love making art, but the art-world is horrible.

Another problem is taste: When you are a professional you have a different taste for things than most people. Hence a good ammount of good art can't be popular.

(Of course there are exceptions, it's just like in music: there are a few pop-bands that also make good music (or some good bands that happen to make music in a popular style))

gnarbarian• 9 years ago

You're not alone, Hitler was a failed artist too.

dan-compton2• 9 years ago

I will never understand the need to identify as something. To do so is to reject dynamics. Do the things that sustain you and keep an open mind.

vanderZwan4• 9 years ago

Then you're in all likelihood either very privileged, or this xkdc[0] is relevant, or both.

https://xkcd.com/774/

optimuspaul• 9 years ago

I had identified as open minded, but now I'm conflicted. Thanks a lot, now my life is in turmoil.

dan-compton2• 9 years ago

heh

cousin_it• 9 years ago

From reading his story and looking at his artwork, it seems to me that he went off into a feedback loop of making and appreciating a very specific kind of art, which requires a certain mindset from the viewer. It's a danger to anyone who's trying to express themselves as fully as possible. With enough time, you can teach your mind to find depths of meaning in anything at all, so it's sometimes useful to trust other people's first reactions over your own highly evolved (warped) perspective.

vanderZwan4• 9 years ago

In his defense, you can say that about a lot of contemporary art, including the successful stuff.

Part of the problem is the need to be "original": true originality is almost impossible to recognise, because by definition we only recognise (re-cognise) what we already know.

My Life as a Failed Artist

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