Is being an artist a selfish act or does it help others?

Like all the best questions, there isn’t an objective answer, but it’s something I have been asking myself recently, prompted by a wonderful episode of Lights Out on BBC Sounds. My desire to create, my need to explore ideas, to find solutions to creative problems and share what I make with the world can often feel like it’s entirely for me. There’s a fine balance to be had in terms of making work for one’s self or making it for an audience. I would suggest that at the point of making work for an audience, you have lost the essence of what you truly want to create, it’s up to each artist to distil their influences, processes and skills into something that satisfies their own creative desires.

This doesn’t always render itself as a commercially viable outcome, in fact it’s unlikely to. The idea that we live in a meritocratic world, particularly when it comes to art, in which the ‘best’ work rises to the top is something that the vast majority of artist’s can't afford to live by. So commercially, it can be very hard to justify, but just because it might not be a profit making practice, it doesn’t mean that the work isn’t helping others. Just through its existence a piece of art is a demonstration that we each have a unique vision of the world, something to say or share which may portray an idea or thought which someone else has struggled to know how to say or present through their own means, almost like a question that they didn’t quite know how to ask. There is solace in knowing that someone else wants to ask the same questions as you. That is a beautiful and unifying thing. 

So I would suggest that art is both selfish and helpful, gratifying for the artist in its process of creation, but then up to them to find an audience that will connect and engage with the world to allow it to be helpful. To that end, there seem to be very few straight or quick paths, patience and persistence are certainly required, but in continuing the process of making, the vision sharpens, the voice becomes clearer and both the artist and the audience have a great sense of the questions that the work may be asking of us, even if we have to accept that we may not know the answers.

This article is taken from my November Mailout which also features some of my latest news and cultural highlights.

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