A reader asks Matt’s opinion on art competitions which require entry fees.

Matt responds:

When I was a struggling student I used every penny I had on booze.  It kept me happy and unafraid.  It took me awhile to figure out it wasn’t the ultimate answer. I really don’t know anything about entering these competitions.  I always am suspicious when I’m asked to give money to win a prize.  It’s probably better to buy a lottery ticket.

Who’s looking at your art?  Are these the great art critics of this country and other countries or just a bunch of scam artists who might be looking at art one day, automobiles the second day, and toadstools the third day?  When I read something about an artist, I always ask:  Who wrote this, their brother-in-law or somebody who looks at it with intelligence and perspective?  I liken it to going to a dentist or a brain surgeon.  They both operate on the head, but I wouldn’t want a dentist cracking open my skull.

So the authority, education, credentials, and background of a person looking at your art are important, but if your art is outside the mainstream, maybe you’re the only one who understands it right now—and there’s nothing wrong with that.  100 years from now, you would go down as a great discoverer, but today the people would say it’s just a pile of crap.  It might matter to someone who might buy a work of art based upon a third-party appraisal, but I believe the best critic of any artist is the artist themselves.  Can you look at a piece of art and say, Today I’ve used all my skills, introspection, and power, and this is the best I can possibly do today—but I’m going to keeep working so tomorrow or the next day I can do something better?

If that’s the case, but the art critics don’t like it, well, that’s just too damn bad.  I’m not going to lose any sleep over it, I’m just going to say, “I’ll show those bastards.  I’ll just keep doing and doing and doing and challenging myself to do better.”

Art is a personal exploration inside ourselves to come up with some form of manipulation of whatever product we’re using, to try to put into perspective the thoughts and ideas that we have.  If it’s only a yellow painting to go above a green couch, then it would become obvious to anyone over 6 years old that it’s a yellow painting to go over a green couch.  But if it’s about world peace or love or other things important to the human endeavor, then it becomes something of a mystery, and people are going to see completely different things than what you intended—so that you as an artist have challenged not only yourself, but the viewer.

That is one of the main purposes of the artist:  to give a gift with which you can challenge other people to think about what they’re doing on this planet, and why.

Thanks for the thought-provoking question,
Matt