I was quite shocked to learn that one of my most favourite visual artists (the amazing Suzybee of www.mindtours.co.uk) cannot afford to live off of her art alone.
It is seemingly an everpresent conundrum. whether genuine expression can be a profitable exercise or not, and how this rather helpful form of external feedback might take place.
In music, the current system for distribution and subsequent proftiabilty is in a strange state of (r)evolution. The majors of old are streamlining to contain only the most mundane safe bets of middle middle middle ground pop musics (presumeably following the motto ‘no-one ever made a loss underestimating the stupidity of the general public’).
So, now they have shed more independant musics from their roster (well, I don’t mean this as a recent trend, it seems like a while ago now, but still it’s crazy to think that once upon a time, forward thinking records like ‘Bitches Brew’ were being pushed by major financial insituations), where does this leave the indpendent minded artist?
Financial assitance from the government wasn’t a possiblity last time I checked (unless you count dole money or you put as much effort into creating an elaborate disability as you do into creating anything artistically meaningful). I think in one of the Scandinavian countries there was some possibility of obtaining a grant for young mucisians, but here in the UK. I don’t fakking think so, mister.
I guess this could be counteracted by saying that the English government invests large amounts of money into providing grants for those wishing to enter tertiary education at official insitutions, but in most cases this is of little benefit to an independent artist (I have found regimented learning to be more detrimental than anything else, though maybe that’s just me).
So instead, they are ejected into a world of relatively unskilled labour to earn their keep and thus preseumably need to work for a large proportion of their time to maintain a decent standard of living, and so sleepless nights and high levels of stress are normal. (or another option for living is by coasting by in someone elses slipstream (like a fish I saw doing on a wildlife documentary), or maybe even taking a cue from Harry Partch, and living the drifter highlife, though obviously both these options have their drwabacks).
So what’s the point I’m trying to make. Honestly, I don’t think I have one. It’s just it’s kind of interesting.
In some ways, it’s been a healthy thing (well, for me at least). There are many people who don’t have the luxury that is afforded by those who can roll into a building, get looked after, get to play around with some cool looking equipment or show off their pride and joy and then trundle off home to the tune of a job well done. But definitely it’s a very weird position to be in, with the high water mark left by some of the sixties still in our collective memory, where independance was celebrated by large numbers, to now. Where very few independant artists are lucky enough to earn money from what they do (many even making a loss), but yet, crude commercially minded imitations of pure expressions bring in more money weekly than any of us will see in our lifetimes.
I guess we just do what we’ve been doing since the dawn of time. Doing our thing as best as we can and hoping for a little luck along the way.