Hello, bloggers...
Matt has asked me to pass along the entirety of this moving correspondence from one of our readers.
Best wishes,
Richard
Blog editor
(pictured above: Elaine Gloodt)
Dear Mr. Lamb,
I love your boldness at speaking your mind and sharing your thoughts. My late mother... Elaine Gloodt -- some of whose work can be seen at:
www.gloodtworks.com --
...would have gained much to be reading your power packed statements as she was an artist who had talent but was always "intimidated" by the critics -- the critics being anyone who had a different perspective about her work.
Yet, she did forge forward and did what all artists inevitably must do to be whole - create to expose that which is within.
Thank you,
J. Carey
Dear J.,
Thank you for writing in.
Your mother is one of the millions of artists who spend untold hours creating the world that they perceive in their imagination and experience, interpreted through their artwork. If all of this work were assembled over time, I believe we would have the complete history of the world as it really is, and not as it is written by those who would advance political, social, economic, or religious agendas. The artist manifests the subconscious reality of a being human in a particular time and space, culture and geographic area.
With all the computers we have available in this age, I’m sure that the great technological minds of the world could come out with a complete profile of every generation that has ever lived. Where the average artist becomes timid is by believing that their art is not important, or that someone else can define what they think, work, do, play, and paint about.
Worthwhile art has nothing to do with some ass standing in front of your work and telling you you shouldn’t be doing this, you should be doing that. It would be like going into a restaurant and telling people what to eat. The maitre’d would kick you out, and there you’d be, sitting on the street, some asshole completely enamored with your own culinary expertise.
Who gives a damn what “they” say? If they have enough money, they could hire somebody to come into their house 8 hours a day and say, “Oh yes, great wizard, tell me more so I can scribe it in the sky!” You don’t need that.
I’m not putting down critics who are capable of great writing and appraisal and appreciation of art. What I’m talking about is Mr. Don’t Know Nothin’ About Nothin’ telling you what you should be doing in your artwork. I’m sure if you went to their garbage route or their accounting office and told them how to pick up garbage or how to line up numbers, they wouldn’t change their ways because some stumble-bum artist came in and told them to. Your art is your thing. It’s your dog... If it barks, they can move.
Thank you for your comment, which we can all learn from, and thank you for sharing the story of your mother, Elaine, who you must be very, very proud of. She left behind a great legacy of art and thoughts for all of us to ponder.
Matt