Have We Been Gaslit To Devalue Artists?
It's deeper than we think
Does your creative practice make you feel like a baby? Do people treat you like a child, make you feel childish for wanting to pursue a creative life?
That’s by design, by the way.
In her book, “We Need Your Art: Stop F*cking Around and Make Something,” Amie McNee asserts that public, economic, social attitude toward creative life and work has been infantilized, in an attempt to make it work for the dollar, as everything in capitalism must.
“Artists make no money. I broke open when people told me that, and then I would look confusedly around the world I was living in. Art was everywhere, art was what people were clinging to in order to find meaning and joy in their lives. But what I was doing was selfish and silly.”
Often, artists (and filmmakers, writers, actors, etc.) are told over and over again in subtle and overt ways to “get a real job.” You know the feeling if you are one. It’s been said to you too.
So, you have two options… you can “get a real job” and abandon the creative calling in your spirit to perform for the economy; make the social structures happy with you and the people who’ve already sold their souls to it. And sometimes, that might be enough for you.
Or, you can continue your creative life in secret, in the off-hours, in the middle of the night, on the bus or train on the way home or on the way to work. Anywhere you can fit it in among the rat-race of having to perform for capitalism.
Both do virtually nothing to take away the shame you feel of being belittled for being a creative person. You either deny it’s existence or you are forced to hide it away from the eyes that matter.
Because, going after your creative life, full-stop, no back up plan, no landing pad. That’s just…
Unrealistic.
What if I told you that the belittling of art and infantilizing of creative work and serious artists is just a cover for making you exchange our humanity for being a corporate tool? What if capitalism doesn’t make room for real creatives because you would serve them better being a good little worker bee; even the “idea guys” have to work within those limits too?
They decided when and how artistic pursuits “count” as real work and what they are valued for.
I‘m doing all I can to de-fang the notions of “childish” and “infantilizing” rhetoric and attitudes around artistic and creative pursuits. To me, yes, the last time I was really free to be myself was when I was a little kid.
That kid could create anything. There was no stopping her and she could realize her visions much better than I can today.
To me, tapping into my child-like attitude toward creation makes a world of sense. It’s almost practical and enlightened at the same time.
I made (and I’m sure you have too) the same observation as McNee did when I was younger, if art doesn’t matter and has no value and artists shouldn’t be paid well, then why is art everywhere we look?
Why do movies make so much money, and why do they cost so much to make if art doesn’t count as a real job? Why are books venerated in the news and pop culture arena if writers should be outsourced by AI? Why are musicians always looked down on while their songs transcend our mental spaces and bring meaning and joy to our lives?
Because, if they admitted that art was important and worth being valued in our economy, then they’d have to relinquish their control of it. They would have to allow art to change things.
If they don’t want things to change, because they benefit from the structures that keep artists down, then art has to be circulated, curated, and produced on their terms.
It’s about control. There’s more than enough to pay artists their fair share. Just take a look at what the Irish government did recently.
But what’s more insidious than the material disparity is the mental/emotional gas-lighting. If you can shoot down an artist in their youth, before they reach their prime, and make them give it up by calling them “unserious and babies,” then there’s one fewer serious future artist to contend with.
I don’t know about you, but I’m done. I’m done taking the crumbs.
When you realize that being creative, in any capacity, with regular practice and dedication, is like drinking straight from the spring, you’ll never feel right accepting to drink from a cup again.