Did your mother or father ever teach you about what being fair means? You wanted another piece of sweet goodness that was so beautifully rapped in that pretty rapper and you got an answer such as "Now honey if I give one more to you, there will not be enough to go around." Then you grew up............... Or did you? You might be able to think back to that explicit point in time when you got hit by the brick flying through the window! It hit you in the head and when you picked it up, in perplexed anguish, the message tied to it read "life isn't Fair"!!! And the bricks just kept coming. You get a job, work hard, your never late and never take smoke brakes and then the ass kisser who does as little as possible gets the promotion, raze, or the same raze as you! It goes on and on and it sucks.............
I have two very good friends, which are both artists and mentors to me in my own work. Their work, as well as their lives, differ vastly, you could say they live on two completely opposite planets from each other. They both work very hard and are equally opinionated on the subject of what art is or should be. I hold a large debt of gratitude to both of them for all the time, patients, and energy they have invested into my life. When I show them each my work, in turn, they pick out almost completely opposite pieces; that they believe are my best. They then strongly encourage me to "go that direction". I will admit, it can be confusing. They both have great points and equal passion in their admonishments. You must understand something here though; Artists like followers and worshipers. They have learned quicker than most that "life isn't Fair".
One of the first things a person learns being an artist is that "life isn't Fair" and "life is going to kick the shit out of your pride". This could be one of the big reasons so many art students find other occupations after graduation. Take the music industry as an example, there are those who study classical piano from the time they can walk. They go on to be a genius in school, playing anything that can carry a tune, they work for years on a piece that few if any one can comprehend or even listen to and and if they are lucky they sell that piece for the elevator. Then there is the punk kid who can't tune his own guitar to save his life and couldn't tell you were the key of G remotely could be found. He gets picked up by a talent scout, before he is even legal to drink, and is making millions. Not to mention playing for millions just because he is good looking, has tattoos, girls like him, and he is cool. People sing along, people line up for his next record, people know his face........... "Life isn't Fair" those who we see work the hardest we believe should get the most but we still don't want to listen to that chaps elevator music. Wright and wrong be damned!
One of my friends that I mentioned above does sculpture work that takes him two or three weeks to complete. My other friend also works in sculpture but spends, at times, years to complete a piece that sells for the same price as my first friends pieces do. Then there is the kid that ran around the ghetto who vandalized local businesses and then went on to try to sell his work in a few coffee shops. He becomes famous over night and now makes more that both my friends combined at the ripe age of thirty. He was a vandal and now he is a famous artist. We quantify that this kid should not have this honor and we also might say that he really isn't an artist at all; if of course we don't take to his style of work. (Other artists tend to be the quickest in this game to pin that tail on that donkey.) "It isn't fair to all those who have worked and worked at perfection their art for years." They say. Yet "Life isn't Fair"!
Now that we understand "Life Isn't Fair" maybe we can go on, quit wasting so much time complaining about who got what and put our efforts into loving. A wise man said a long time ago "Judge not lest thee be judged, in the same manner you judge you will be judged." I think we all know who that wise man was and I think we all know that we are all guilty. I personally want to try to be to busy with loving to make judgments on who deserves what!
.jpg)