Wired & Patched Stories

Is Art a Drain on the System? https://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/8572197-if-you-want-art-you-need-to-pay-the-artists/ It is not that cultural creatives do not have work ethic or focus. It is just a different kind. It is a different sort of wealth they often value and when the idea comes, they are helpless to its urgent insistent ways or they become unwell. When I first got back to this area (2012) from the west coast it was jarring to see musicians depicted as lazy, unmotivated takers in well-attended plays, and business people reflecting that artists always had their hand out looking for handouts. It was upsetting to see the unsustainable low prices of original work and brilliant painters serving coffee. When on the same planet, in San Deigo original paintings were kept as a private investment for the artist and prints with a few original markings were sold. In New York where I had worked as a gallery intern, there were rooms stacked with investment art. Paintings sold for $40,000. That was then, this is now. The clock has ticked on. Now anyone can copy a painting with cheap paint and cheap wine. The internet put us on a fast speed into the collective mind. Creating original content/innovation that is nourishing to the soul, designing experiences to restore human dignity and heart is work. Hard work. Might it not be about making less STUFF tho? What we are up against is something not really met yet in the story of humanity. It is more about "value" than "money". More about unseen worlds than visible. More about making the intangible tangible. More about respect. More about the main elements of our shared design of reality. Earth, Air, Water, Earth. and how things relate rather than what is relating.

“The world is in crisis. It needs people who have the skill to combine inner power with outer action. Inner power comes from self mastery, observing and controlling the ego, and deepening integrity through a regular practice of reflection or meditation.” ― Scilla Elworthy, Pioneering the Possible: Awakened Leadership for a World That Works