// October 7th, 2008 // No Comments » // Thoughts
This is guest blog post by Dirk. I am much more entrenched in the coroporate\business type world in regards to my art (photography) but it is nice to know he is out there doing his thing.
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Discontent artists in their mid-twenties are so cliché, but clichés are usually true.
Weather you are a photographer or an actor or any individual that has decided to dedicate their heart to a craft that is whole heartedly artistic, your mid twenties suck. There is no need for long poetic verses about how specifically it sucks, I assure you there are enough mediocre albums and blog posts by purported artists that could fill countless thick tombs about how the ‘struggle’ is totally unfair. I hope that this small commentary doesn’t fall into that category, but like both current presidential candidates, I shouldn’t make any promises because things are simply moving far to fast. This brings me to my first of three stupid rules about being a successful artist that everyone seems to be following at this particular time in America.
You must be a part of a scene somewhere and then transcend it.
A lot of people probably stopped reading right there, but right now particularly it is absolutely true. Move to Brooklyn (guilty) or San Francisco or Austin or Seattle; is one of the first things people say when you say you want to make some good art. This poses a serious problem for most artists. In this era our greatest artists are self-quarantined to coteries where they can do ‘serious’ work. For instance you can not be a legitimate ground breaking band if you are from the mid-west or the south, or more specifically if your home town is part of your artistic identity. There are many exceptions to this rule (Sam Shepard and Outkast are the first of many that come to mind) because lets be honest, it is a really stupid rule. No one here in New York believes (or believed in 2001) that the greatness of The Strokes could come from Milwaukee. The problem is everyone believes the artistic mesopatamia myth. This sucks because these places are almost always expensive, because of the droves of bourgeoisie pilgrims that go to an artistic hot bed soon after anyone makes anything great in the hopes that somehow the fairy dust will rub off on them and miraculously make them that much more interesting. The fact of the matter is that good art can be made wherever you make honest reflections on the human condition and last I checked you can do that wherever you are, provided in fact that you are there.
If you’re heartfelt and work hard enough you will be successful.
It sounds elitist (most likely because it is) but everyone is not an artist. On the other hand I fully believe anyone can be. These ideas are not contradictory. It comes to one scary truth, IF YOU DO NOT HAVE NEW IDEAS NO ONE WILL CARE AND IF THEY DO, IT WILL NOT LAST. That being said, most people just don’t want to fail that much because most of your photos, performances, paintings and scripts will be uninspired and hard work has nothing to do with it. The world is littered with people that wanted to be artists, but refused to admit that what ever art they were producing wasn’t interesting. If you work hard your whole life to build a house you will eventually build a house. But if you work your whole life to produce a painting about the atrocities of war, yet do not first produce an interesting opinion about Picasso’s Guernica you will never succeed no matter how hard you try. This rule sucks for artists because you have to admit that you’re an idiot for a very long time and no one will pay you for this very necessary concession. The problem is that unlike everything else in this democracy, hard work in the arts entitles you to nothing, except to perhaps wait tables and work and Chuck e’ Cheese like Zach and I. (Note from Zach – Only he worked at Chuck E Cheese. At least I made money at my crappy job serving tables getting berated by people at private clubs. Ha!)
Great artists are famous.
If I transcend any ’society made borders’ and have original ideas I will be famous? No. Great artists at best make a living. Kanye West is a good artist, but so is the guy who designs his album covers and so is the architect that builds his mansion. Hardly anyone knows their name. Steven Spielberg is good artist, but so are the cinematographers and art directors of his great films. Most people do not know their names. The point is that acclaim is great. I require it that’s why I am an actor…I am that honest…also why I am an actor), but the greatest prize as an artist is not fame or awards, it’s a living. It’s the only hope we have that lets us be (kinduv) normal.
Why does all of this suck when your 24 or there a’ bouts? Because no one wants you to succeed, there are enough artists failing in the world already because it is… let’s face it, really fuck’en cool to be an artist. No one wants to pay you. No one wants to help you. The life of an artist would be a whole lot easier if you were just passionate about say being a wide receiver, surgeon, or teacher (all admirable professions might I add i.e. Jeremy Maclin). Of course all of this would require you to not be what you want to be for a living. All we want is to think about what it means to be alive and trying to make a living doing so. So I guess the real problem is that, we would all do it for free because we already do. That’s why it sucks to choose to do it when you’re in your mid-twenties, but thankfully it will always be at its very essence comforting to you the supposed artist and inspiring (hopefully) to everyone else. For me I just can’t live any other way, it sucks, but I can always hope that eventually someone will pay me for it (not the sucking the living).
Dirk Otis is a recent graduate of the University of Missouri and the New York Film Acadamy. He is currently pursuing an acting career in New York City.
