On bravery and other things...
“You have to be brave with your life so that others can be brave with theirs” -Katherine Center
This quote has been with me for a long time. I found it somewhere online with no attribution and then did a search which led me to knowing the origin, hence the redacted “unknown” in the photo above.
I think about this quote fairly often when it comes to being an artist. Is what I do really “brave”? I don’t think so, really. Everyone has their definitions of bravery, which usually include some amount of self sacrificing behavior in service to others in some why or form. Firefighters, corporate whistleblowers, people saving others from certain death, etc… usually come to mind for me. Then, there are people who are living their truths in the face of social damnation (and death, in too many cases), like anyone being out and on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. These people face often insurmountable hate for being their whole selves. As a straight identifying cis man, I’ll never have to deal with the level of ostracism non-straight people do. Basically, anyone who stands strong for true liberty is considered a threat to the established order and called brave in doing so. I do the same thing. Are they really being brave or are they just acting with empathy in accordance to very human reactions to injustice?
As I think about it, are they really being brave or just living their lives having to deal with constant hate and in opposition to those that don’t respect them? They are only “brave” because their current existence is in opposition to conservative social norms. Those social norms stand in opposition to anything/anyone that doesn’t fit into specific prescribed categories. The same can be said of artists of all stripes. We are often called “brave” just for centering our creative lives in opposition to social “norms” which puts relevance on ways of being that discourages creativity. People and institutions espouse a love of creativity, but actively discourages it if that creativity goes too far outside the bounds of what is considered normal and challenges what is considered acceptable.
In American society, those of us who center creativity in our lives are called brave by those who have not chosen to do so, for whatever reasons. Most of that has to do with artists living mostly outside of the established life cycle of school, only regular work, family, retirement, etc… Also, since artistry is not really respected, or rather, the artist isn’t respected, we are called brave for daring to live life with being able to make very little money over our lifetimes with our art. In every creative field, there is a 1% group of people who have huge monetary success, but the majority of us often struggle to make basic ends meet. Are we brave or is it that we’re doing something perfectly normal, but are forced to move through a system that devalues anyone who steps outside of the bounds of “normal” capitalistic endeavors?
I’ll be the first to say that what I do is not brave. I’m doing exactly what I feel called to do. In the eyes of someone who maybe never thought about pursuing a creative life or had the idea drummed out of them by any number of factors, I and others may be seen as brave, but we really aren’t. It’s the limited system that we have to operate within that causes what we do to be seen as brave. Artists are known to be scrappy and inventive in how we live, but that’s only because artists’ labor is valued, but as people, we aren’t. That extends to almost everyone in the U.S. because of it’s individualistic tendencies. Every person for themselves is the standard, even when we know deep down that it doesn’t work out for any of us.
There are certain artistic practices that I consider brave, such as those artists who continually call out egregious wrongs, putting themselves in danger of being censored or worse by the state. I’m sure that even those artists wouldn’t consider themselves brave. They are doing what they feel is needed.
I look at Center’s quote as a way to center my practice as a service to those that come behind me; the future artists who may need to see some kind of way forward on their path. In the present, I try to look at my life as an example of this quote. I don’t think I’m doing anything extraordinary, I’m just I hope that future art makers will be able to look at what I’ve done and gain some measure of confidence in what they are doing or trying to do. I pass by this slip of paper and it also reminds me of what I need to do to keep myself going. I’m not just in this for myself, I’m in this for others coming along this path, as well.
*click* or more precisely, *tap*
Every now and then, the right circumstances present themselves for me to make halfway decent self portraits. Such a time was during an afternoon earlier this week. I was sitting at my desk as the afternoon sun was coming in at just the right angle to nearly blind me (reminder to get new shades installed sometime). I try to be present in these moments, take in what’s going on and possibly make some use of them creatively. I usually don’t do a ton of editing to photos I make, aside from playing with exposure, brightness, contrast and sometimes, saturation. I get overwhelmed with the amount of editing tools that are available now. I’m really selective with editing choices and keep them to a minimum.
I’m not a fan of certain kinds of overly processed photographic images that I encounter online. Most of the shots I take are documentarian in nature. I’m loathe to push some photos too far away from what a scene looked like to my eye. I like to experiment with focusing on specific things and editing to enhance those things, but most of the time I like my images to be somewhat grounded in what I consider reality. Most of the photos I take come from a documentary viewpoint. I take a lot of process photos in the studio, there’s my Daily Observations photos of what I see in my immediate environment outside and random photos of everyday life. One of these days, I’ll buy a proper camera again and not rely so much on my phone. Although, for most of my purposes, my phone camera fits the bill pretty well.
On my radar:
From Hyperallergic: Artists respond to the possibility of a TikTok ban, now that the House of Representatives have voted to ban the app in the U.S. if it’s parent company doesn’t sell it.
Gallerist Barbara Gladstone on the Art World What If…? I loved this interview with Gladstone. She seems to be a really down to earth kind of dealer for having built a huge art business that’s lasted for so long.
Christopher Wool, “Seestoprun” on view through at least July, 2024. Christopher Wool has been a favorite living artist of mine for years. This latest exhibition finds him showing paintings and sculptures on an unfinished floor of an office building in the financial district of New York. Seems like a perfect fit.
An enjoyable read that resonated with my soul and needed to hear today! Thank you!🙏🏾