Questions!

[Josholas]

So, to get away from some of the application stress, I thought it might be fun to do a survey of sorts. This community is, in my opinion, a very interesting mix of people, and I am personally very interested to see what you have to say.

1.) Why do you make art? What do you feel is the purpose of your art and art in general?

2.) Who do you make art for? Is it for the population as a whole, yourself, the artistic elite & critics...etc.?

3) What/who inspires your work?

4) Do you feel the (MFA) grad school process is as it should be? Or do you feel like the system is broken?

5) Do you feel that artists have a responsibility to society? If so, what does that look like?

6) Should artists dialogue with to the "bottom tiers" of society as well as the sophisticated elite? Should we concern ourselves with "social good"?

8) What is your favorite and least-favorite thing about the state of the art world today? If you could change anything, what would it be?

9) Does art have a responsibility to dialogue with artists and movements of the past?

10) If you had a giant megaphone that could reach the whole world, what would you say?

[Emoree]

I'll bite.

So, to get away from some of the application stress, I thought it might be fun to do a survey of sorts. This community is, in my opinion, a very interesting mix of people, and I am personally very interested to see what you have to say. 1.) Why do you make art? What do you feel is the purpose of your art and art in general? I want to share my worldview and get people to think. I don't think you can say there is a purpose for art in general, at least not contemporary art since it has basically (d)evolved to just life experience and communication (or not). 2.) Who do you make art for? Is it for the population as a whole, yourself, the artistic elite & critics...etc.? I make my current work for myself and my husband. If for nothing else but the memories. I have ideas of projects I would like to do "for the public" but without an exhibition space I just leave them as ideas that I pick at in my mind. 3) What/who inspires your work? My home life inspires my current work. 4) Do you feel the (MFA) grad school process is as it should be? Or do you feel like the system is broken? I think the MFA process is hit or miss. I think art education (pre-MFA) as a whole isn't honest in terms of how "art" actually is in contemporary society. It's all well and good to have great technical skills, which would have taken someone far years ago, but it won't help someone nowadays in the "real" art world. Which I think is a shame. I think colleges, especially, and even high schools should focus more on this--on the actual state of art as it is currently practiced in all its forms. 5) Do you feel that artists have a responsibility to society? If so, what does that look like? I think all human beings have an absolute responsibility to themselves and society. How that looks depends on what is important to that person. 6) Should artists dialogue with to the "bottom tiers" of society as well as the sophisticated elite? Should we concern ourselves with "social good"? What the hell are the "bottom tiers" of society?? Ugh I really loathe this question. Moving on. Did I miss 7? 8) What is your favorite and least-favorite thing about the state of the art world today? If you could change anything, what would it be? I don't really have anything to say to this question. It is what it is, for better or worse. 9) Does art have a responsibility to dialogue with artists and movements of the past? I don't think it's an obligation/responsibility, but it's an option. 10) If you had a giant megaphone that could reach the whole world, what would you say?

I would stop all noise for five minutes-- no noise and no digital images. Just visual and auditory silence. Obviously, it would need to be a special megaphone.

[Josholas]

Sorry, apparently I can't go back and edit the post.  But to clarify on #6, I was referring primarily to the general populace, lower socio-economic classes, or people who generally have less familiarity or interest in "high art" discourses.  For example, one might argue that artists like Kehinde Wiley and Takashi Murakami have a strong interest in communicating with the general population, while many other artists, such as Gerhard Richter, have a strong interest in engaging art critics and current artistic discourses, while the vast majority of the general population may not have a clue who they are.  This is not to say that one is better than the other, or that they are mutually exclusive. I would assume most artists are a mix of the two, and I am curious to see what the mix is in this forum.

 

And you can answer #7 however you wish!