I listened to an interview of the author and art critic Jerry Saltz on the Pivot Podcast last week. I don’t follow the “fine art” world. I have no interest in critics’ opinions or participating in what I assume would be a pretentious domain of wealthy people. So, it came a pleasant surprise that Jerry was not what I expected. He was a bit rough around the edges. He went to art school but worked as a long haul truck driver before becoming an art critic at age 41.
Jerry had lots of interesting things to say- enough to encourage me to read his books. He talked a lot about encouraging artists to make art for its own sake (as opposed to trying to make a living – or even worse, become famous, as an artist).
He said that artists are compelled to create art. He said that “good art” vs. “bad art” was simply a matter of opinion and interpretation. One anecdote he shared was reviewing some famous Flemish painter’s works and thinking – “Gee, it’s very brown.”
Jerry’s advice to artists was “Make art. Make a lot of it. Make bad art.”
I don’t call myself an artist. But I do make a lot of bad art and occasionally what I think is good art. So maybe I am an artist.
As for making money from it, I have zero interest in investing any time, attention or effort to that side of the art “business”.
I think that’s a major reason why I enjoy it so much.