Some say that there is nothing that mankind craves more than self-preservation and immortality. For a name to be held accountable for something great, for something in the history books, for something eternally found on Google; but, as artists generalize: sometimes fame and immortality only arrive after an impoverished life.
“No artist produces great art by a deliberate attempt to express his own personality”
– T.S Eliot, Four Elizabethan Dramatists
The Artist’s Truth
To be classified a true artist, one must do what one loves and what one is passionate about; that is generally the rule. Art is the act of creation, an act akin to godliness. But what if your art is not enough to ensure you have money for food or looking after your family. Alternatively known as the brave and the stupid choice in the career trajectory, an artist has absolutely no guarantee of earning a living, even with a university degree. Often from a young age any artistic skill is channelled into better, more conventional career paths, such as architecture, graphic design and advertising. But if you know that making art in all its wondrous forms is the only thing you can do to make you happy, is the uncertainty worth the risk?
Commercial or Selling Out?
What if nothing sells and money can’t be made? Should you turn commercial to make money and give up your artistic freedom and artistic dream – or do you live in poverty doing what you love for the sake of your art and immortality? It depends if you want to be a realist and access the more mathematical side of your brain. We all have to survive and have our basic needs met: food, housing and healthcare. Especially in South Africa, where there is no such thing as the dole or unemployment benefits (UIF is governed by a you-have-worked-before rule), survival has to be ensured in order to create the art. Otherwise the art will die with the artists. That is the harsh truth. So, maybe selling out and designing CDs covers for that really bad boy-band is merely a step and a tool to create a more lasting piece of art. As all experiences enrich and shape our lives, maybe all the steps we take, even in mediocrity and disgusting jobs, are going to be fuel that keeps the fire of our creative forges alight.
“No, the thing to do is try to make a painting that will be alive in your own lifetime…”
– Marcel Duchamp
What’s Fame Got To Do With It?
In Greek mythology, Pheme (or Fame) is the goddess with the irrepressible voice or rumour that spreads reports among men and women. Pheme is never overcome by sleep and is a swift creature with countless tongues and ears. She does not care about the nature of the rumours she spreads – whether they are good or evil – and she is beloved by mortals for bringing them renown and knowledge. But fame is definitely not the best way to achieve immortality.
If your face is only selling newspapers, then your work is never worthy of immortality. The best example of this is the film director, Christopher Nolan (Inception, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins). His films have reached audiences the world over, making box office headlines and billions in profit, but I don’t know what he looks like; it is his films, beautiful images, emotive themes and masterful stories that always stay with the audience, becoming classics. Any stories about his relationships and favourite type of socks will instantly be forgotten. His work will remain immortal.
“…many believe that precious immortality is dependent on Fame; and whereas few wish annihilation for themselves, the rest how that Fame will make them known in posterity when their life is over, reasoning that to be remembered is the same as to be immortal.”
– Excerpt from page belonging to the Greek Mythology Link, a web site created by Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology. http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Pheme.html
Poverty and passion
The idea that poverty and passion go hand-in-hand for artists, like the way shoes are always sold in pairs, is social mantra. But some bloggers don’t always agree.
The problem with the whole “starving artist” thing is that once you start down that path you start to think of yourself as a victim of life. And really – nothing could be farther from the truth. We all have tremendous reserves of creativity and strength to cope with most of what life throws at us – the trick is to see your life as a great experiment, to realize that there is always a solution, and to keep your heart open and look for it.
– Excerpt from ‘The Perils of the Poverty Conscious Artist’ by Daniel Daniel Tardent. http://artmarketingsecrets.com
The Poster Boy for Starving Artists
Vincent van Gogh worked unsuccessfully to get recognition for his work during his lifetime. When he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in a dreary mining district in Belgium, where he was dismissed for overzealousness. He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. Van Gough also suffered from mental and physical health problems. Around the age of thirty-five he began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment. He later left the asylum and was placed under the care of a doctor, but sadly, in 1890, he shot himself "for the good of all". During his brief career he only ever sold one painting. His work is described as “an inimitable fusion of form and content; dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature” (Excerpt from Artistic Influences” The Van Gogh Gallery. 17 January 2008. http://www.vangoghgallery.com/influences)
Van Gough’s brother’s wife collected his paintings and letters after his death, and dedicated herself to getting his work the recognition it deserved. In a short period of ten years Van Gogh made approximately 900 paintings. He only became famous after his death.
“One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to pay several times while one is alive.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
Miss Helen
Helen Elizabeth Martins is considered South Africa's foremost Outsider Artist. Outsider Art was first recognized by the French artist, Jean Dubuffet, who coined the term 'Art Brut', or ‘Raw Art’, and described it as "fantastic, raw, visionary art created by individuals often maladjusted, with no art training, who work outside the mainstream of the art world.” She is very similar to van Gogh in her life’s passion for art, and untimely demise without recognition. However, in her case, her greatest wish and her immortality was ensured by her constant refusal to never give up creating. She entirely decorated her home in Nieu Bethesda with ‘glass and light’. She decorated not only her house, but also sculpted huge creations of cement and glasses, as well as many versions of her totem animal, the owl. Her eyesight began to fail and in 1976, and she took her own life by swallowing a mixture of caustic soda and crushed glass in olive oil. The theory is that she could not bear the thought of going blind - a great theme in her life and work is ‘light’ - and she was worried that she would be taken away from her life's work. She was discovered shortly after taking the mixture and removed from Nieu Bethesda to hospital in Graaff-Reinet, where she died three days later, on 8 August 1976. Helen’s home has now become known as The Owl House and been declared a national monument. It had been Helen Martins' greatest wish that The Owl House and Camel Yard be preserved as a museum.
“The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.”
– John Quincy Adams
Inner Immortality
Does Fame (and hence, immortality) have the power to make the small great; and the great, titanic in proportion? Can something or someone being praised by others for their creative prowess be ever disregarded? No matter what you need to do to create art, even if you are too scared to entirely give up the bussing annoyance of a desk job, the general conclusion seems to be that if you live to create, do anything to live, and creation will be its own reward.
“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work… I want to achieve it through not dying.”
– Woody Allen
