The whole concept of art only being for the wealthy is such a horrible concept and I really wish it would die.
It’s not like we can’t understand and appreciate the finest art with our course, vulgar minds; that only the enlightened wealthy can truly appreciate such things. It’s not like you need to own a work to understand it. It’s not like owning a crate of paintings in a warehouse in a “in-between” place outside of any tax authority that no one has seen in years and that you’ll never actually lay eyes on makes you appreciate art more. It’s not like using art to launder money or your reputation actually makes it easier to see what the artist did. But all that, I can ignore.
What I can’t ignore is my friends who are artists who make art for people at prices which bring the accessibility of owning an original work of art into the budgets of those of us not born with a silver spoon in our mouths are hurt by this myth because if their art is affordable it’s obviously inferior; or the assumption that you just can’t afford it anyway.
Art has always been the domain of the people; and of all the things that the 1/10th of 1% has tried to take from us, it is perhaps the thing that cuts the deepest. We all need to have a connection to the arts; enjoying it, owning it, making it. Art is a base cultural bedrock; and to secede it to the ultra-wealthy is unfathomable.
Please. Make art. Make music. Express yourself. And support the people in your community who do this for us. And this art - folk art, pop art, just plain art - is every bit as important as “fine art”.
