Artist You’re Involved.
Artists have an eye for seeing in between the cracks and crevices of their surroundings. The beauty we bring comes from centering the ambiguous and the tangential. This is often our happy place, the superpower which brings about fresh change and renewal in the midst of institutional stagnation.
When artists are around other artists, especially younger ones, there’s a strong sense in which we believe the world would be a better place, if only we had people more like us. I of course think the world would be a better place if everyone thought more artistically. But this isn’t the same as saying we need more artists. Artists need to be very much involved with people who are not like them.
We need to be involved, ‘cause we’re involved
Many artists I know, including myself, struggle with the pace of those around them. We want to consider things deeply, to chew. This is what makes our work amazing. We’ve spent hours thinking about one tiny wood shaving of the universe - maybe something that doesn’t matter to a lot of people. We produce a film, a dance, or a comedy skit in response and we labour over the thing obsessively.
For most of us creatives, to do this sustainably we need to hide away and be a little reclusive for periods of time, working alone or maybe with one other person. We need to maintain the equilibrium that comes with distance.
But could it be that this tendency is what keeps us from getting stuck into the thorny mess of relationships around us?
A lot of artists I know aren’t doing their creative work full-time. They’re balancing copywriting or hospitality or care work. Sometimes when they talk about their work outside of their practice, they are internally disengaged. They’ve struck off their colleagues for their political sensibilities, or other quirks. For them, the real world is their creative practice because folks around them are not ‘a vibe’.
But isn’t this the kind of mindset we’re seeking to shift through our creativity?
And, aren’t we probably in ways we don’t always like to admit it, part of the problem when it comes to relationships?
When we really think about it, we’re not hovering over institutions like a cherub on a cloud. We’re actively shaping them whether we like it or not. Most of the time, there’s reciprocity in annoyance. In as much as you feel irritable, someone else feels irritated by you. You are someone else’s headache.
Whether it’s family or workmates, look for threads which link to what’s important to you in your practice. Don’t throw relational mess in the bin so quickly. It is valuable and probably worth sticking out for the long run. And even if it doesn’t end up being so valuable in the long run, it’s always an opportunity to better understand your own triggers and fears.
Real Work, on the Ground
At the same time, how do we manage our frustrations with people who struggle to see the inherent value in artistic perspectives? Understand and be realistic with the voice you’re bringing to your team or workmates who have likely never spent a long duration of time in the contexts through which you so naturally move. Understand that your work is on the ground - but only if it is connected to and framed in a way that’s accessible for your community. lf your community is mainly other artists - then you have an easier ride.
But if your work community half the week isn’t artists, but other hospital workers, builders or funeral advisors, you have a harder time. BUT you’re in a much more privileged position. You’re in close proximity with other culture makers - just not the ones we ordinarily think of in creative circles.
One of the things I get asked as I meet new people I work with is ‘do you do this full time?’. One time I responded ‘no’, the person who asked said ‘but isn’t that the dream?’
I kept quiet and smiled.
At this stage in life, I can honestly say that I hope I never become a full time poet and that’s because I want to be regularly confronted with the world around me, as it is, not just what I wish it would be.