Yes But

Okay, I promise that this will be my last in a continuing exploration of gnarly art world conundrum rants (at least for a while). The "Small Pillow of Conditionality" (above) is not a new piece, but appropriately summarizes the ultimate paradox. Yes, we (as artists) don't want to be told what to do or how to make our work BUT we do want to sell things.
That presents a huge conflict because I firmly believe that most people (who ever they are) really want art to consist of unambiguously pretty pictures, not knotty contentious sociological diagrams of what atrocity was committed where. Honestly. Ask any one entering a major museum and they'll enthusiastically tell you they're headed straight to the Impressionists or the Renaissance masterpieces. And who can blame them? After a particularly awful week of killings and economic slumping and surgical procedures, art is viewed as a mini-vacation from reality.
But of course the reality is that many artists, myself included, don't always make pretty pictures. Witness the above pillow, sewn with used Band Aids. I suppose it's "pretty" in that the complimentary red fabrics echo the red blood in a charming and supportive way, not to mention the carefully applied piping around the perimeter. But is anyone going to buy my bloody Band Aid pillow... probably not, even though it does show case my winsome sense of humor nicely.
And it's damned hard, as we all know, to get people to part with their filthy lucre so as long as the artist in question isn't producing lovely watercolors of sailboats and iconic, weathered red barns, there's little danger that a sale is being made.
So we want it both ways. We want to sell, but we want to sell what we make, even if what we make isn't always traditional and representational or beautiful. Despite ourselves, we occasionally do sell something and that does confirm our inner suspicions that we are indeed geniuses.
Are you still with me? For the non-artist, this is all probably a bit tiresome, but to us "creative types" (I keep hearing that phrase) it's what keeps us up at night: How to sell, without selling out.