One claim made to discourage people from pursuing a career in the arts is that artists can’t make a living. That is not always true. I have known artists who could make a living with their art.
The real problem on this matter is as follows. The supply exceeds the demand. There are many people who want to be artists; there are not enough people who want to procure art.
The correct solution to this problem is to increase the demand for art. It is to get more people to see value in art. Then more people will be buying art, and more artists will be able to make a living.
Artistic types are constantly accused of a lack of realism. What people who think such things don’t understand is that the reality of the civilization is that it is what people make it out to be. Art becomes a part of reality when more people value and procure art. And that does not only benefit the artist. It benefits the civilization and its inhabitants.
In the times to which we look back most fondly, there was both economic boom and a cultural blossoming. We see this with Renaissance Italy. We see this with 1920s United States. These times are cherished because they made the most of man. Business and technology vitalizes man’s productive potential; culture vitalizes man’s creative potential. With these liberated to do their job of benefiting the world, we see created a golden era.
More people need to understand such things. There are many who militate against, and crush, the creative people. This is a horrible way to behave. These people need to leave the creative people alone and let them proceed with their work of making cultural contributions. That way what they have to offer will be realized, and people, country and civilization will benefit from it.
Both business and culture constitute accomplishment. Both therefore deserve respect. Some see artists as narcissistic bums; in fact producing good art takes hard work. I’ve worked most of my life. I also translated a vast body of poetry by Russian poets into English and have original ideas on a range of subjects. There is no contradiction between art and reality. Art becomes a part of reality when real people make it so.
Of course a part of the problem is owed to artists themselves. They created bad styles such as avant garde and postmodernism, and their art fails to speak to the people. However I have known magnificent artists who took an oppositional stance to that state of affairs while producing amazing artwork. These people, not NEA, should be in the business of running the culture.
When I attended a poetry reading in Melbourne, people were thanking me for bringing passion back into poetry. Passion – and beauty – is what poetry is meant to be about. You lose that, you lose the poetic perspective, you cease being a poet. I have taken a different route.
So no, there is nothing unrealistic about art. It becomes realistic when social reality accepts it. More people need to be made convinced of value in the arts. I am doing my part toward that outcome. I hope that others do as well.