Analog Skill or Cybernation Overdrive
I can safely agree that in today’s era of high technology, being an artist is a mixed bag of WTF. Back before “art programs” had any legitimacy. Let alone any chops to even compete with a skilled hand and mind. Being called a professional artist actually carried with it a solid weight of skill (in certain circles). It carried an implied spectrum of experience and clout. Mostly because you had to be ‘an experienced adult’. If you were a young person, it became branded as a low rung career. Lacking any serious prospects on being able to support normal living expenses.
Yes, you had your Bob Ross’s and Thomas Kinkade’s. Those well established gallery show artists that lived in LA and NY. Those few that were paving the historical landscape of what art was. But those were pipe-dream professions to us lowly budding mortals. For the rest of us, there were ad agency graphic designers/artists, magazine/newspaper cartoonists, literary illustrators, and tv/movie animators. Unless one of these was your job title, working for a large corporation; most anything associated with being an artist (by school career day standards) wouldn’t cut it in the real world. Note that being a comic book artist was not even a recognized profession to a lot of school districts back then (including mine). My heart was broken.
All this was back in the 70’s and 80’s. When art was considered only an elective in a lot of public schools (disregarding the amazing private and specialized art schools for grades 9-12 in only a few cities in the US). (You also need to realize that this was a time before the internet. Information was not easy to come by, and libraries in a lot of places were not up to date with new publications.) Try having a serious discussion with a career advisor about becoming a professional artist back then. It was hopeless in suburban public schools. “You can’t make a living by painting pictures.” That was what I constantly heard from the school system. Showing proof to them by holding up a stack of comic books didn’t help my case. Let alone trying to explain that the profession had been around since the 50’s and before. I just got eye-rolls and head shakes. These people were not artists. They pushed paper and standardized tests. Probably why I was heavily encouraged to go into the field of architecture and graphic design. “Work for a credible firm or agency. This is a career that has prospects and a way to climb the salary ladder.” Yeah, take your knocks as a student intern that works for free to gain ‘on the job’ experience. Then work for minimum wage doing grunt work until someone notices your so called potential. You know the drill. Climb that life-sucking ladder to success until you hate what you once loved.
I had a total of 3 great art teachers in my life. One in grade school and 2 in college. The second one in college actually became my mentor that I got to understudy with. All the others were horrible, hyper-opinionated, chauvinistic, elitist a$$holes and idiots. I do have to say, like any other profession, a lot of really amazing artists can be real d!cks in life.
Cut to 2000, the art industry was booming. All that crap I just talked about was a thing of the past. We had professional 20 year olds working as professional artists in multiple industries making enough money to buy a house flat out. New professions existed and 100’s of ways to make a living by ‘painting pictures’ so to speak. And the computer programs were amazing back then. We could do stuff in mere minutes that would usually take hours and even days to complete. It was still a little rocky if you were just starting out, but you could excel at it and make a living. Schools had become incredably flexible and prospects had become numerous.
Cut again to now, and holy crap. With a little bit of money, the right programs, and computer. You can create just about any kind of visual art without any modicum of skill, schooling, or experience. Whether or not it would be any good would be up for debate. But still, the way things are going now, who is to say ‘the professional artist’ will be a thing of the past. Will drawing on paper and painting on canvas going to be considered just a hobby in the near future? Is going digital a one way street to soulless expression?
‘More out of work artists working in Starbucks looks to be a chilling realization.’ It’s a funny old trope, yes. But could it actually become a serious reality? I mean, I did my fair share of street art portraits and selling landscapes to tourists at fairs and carnivals. Living the lifestyle of the “starving artist” was sort of a right of passage back then. That sort of thing has been around long before I was even born. The mentality was, ‘you didn’t succumb to the system and just got by on your art’. Some of us even went as far as being homeless. Not my cup of tea, but in my circle of close friends, a couple of us were just that hard core about it.
I just have to hope that whatever happens and however the industry changes. There will still be a place for the painters, sketchers, and dreamers.
Long live the ever enduring street artist!
(Disclaimer: I did sort of paint a grim picture in this post. It wasn’t always like that all the time. This account is based completely on my own personal experiences and the places that I grew up and lived. In no way am I claiming different circumstances and/or opportunities had not been available and/or in use anywhere else.)
