What Happened to Art?

If you go on social media and the internet itself you see different art forms like photography, graphic design, filmmaking, etc. (I believe these are amazing ways to inspire people and express yourself, it would be very detrimental to see those die as well.)

Often if you were to ask people what they think of the arts they would respond with something similar to this, “I appreciate the arts but I’m not particularly inspired by them nor would I go out of my way to support them.” Society no longer sees the need for the arts and understandably…

What are the arts even for?

In short we need the arts for expression, for understanding, for growth, for emotion, and for our own well being. It’s as simple and complex as this. “Every art form is creatively telling stories.”

So then what are stories for? Probably something you’ve never really considered before, what is the point of all this? Why do we read books, watch movies, stare at paintings, watch ballets, operas, and plays? Your immediate response would probably be that it is all entertainment, but it is so much more.

“Art does not exist only to entertain, but also to challenge, to think, to provoke, even to disturb in a constant search for truth.”    

– Barbara Streisand

The arts take us away from our busy, boring lives to somwhere else. A place where we can express who we are. A place where we can learn about ourselves and others, we get to see and hear about those who have gone before us. 

Just think of how music draws out your emotion and helps you feel what you are trying to understand. Think of how certain characters have inspired you to be better or greater, and what about a single picture or painting? Doesn’t it cause you to remember and/or imagine if you just sit and stare?

If we need the arts, why then are they dying?

• Are they dying because in this culture we get what we want immediately?

• Are they dying simply because the past generations have no patience to create something worth being admired?
• Are the arts dying because there are no master artists?
• Are they dying because people are simply tired of Shakespeare, Van Gough, Puccini, Beethoven, etc?
• Are they dying because the artists themselves have lack of passion?
• Are there just too many distractions that a person’s mind can hardly focus on their art?

Well, these all play a role in our dying arts but to sum them all up, being an artist is time-consuming and not profitable for the time that you put into whatever artwork you are pursuing. You’ve probably heard of the term starving artist. Unfortunately, it is more true than people want to let on. People don’t want to pursue something that is so risky that they are given (most of the time) a less than 50% success rate. 

If these are your odds, most artists do not find it worth their work and effort to put their art out to the world only to never be noticed or consistently rejected.

On the flip side, why are the people who may not be artists themselves but appreciate art not watching plays, ballets, and operas?  Or taking time to actually learn their instrument of choice when we know they really want to? I believe the answer to many of these issues is the fact that when something is time-consuming it can be so mentally draining which could be the cause of all the mental illness in this decade, but I digress. Millenials and Gen-Z have short attention spans. They cannot sit and do anything for very long without getting bored or feeling like they failed. Therefore, they give up. 

If we as artists are not willing to become masters in our art forms then we simply cannot expect to make masterpieces. 

Something I have been contemplating is the quote in which Thomas Edison said,

“It took 99 ways to learn how to not make a lightbulb before I made a lightbulb.”

What if we as artists did the same thing? What if we made up our minds to make 99 uninspiring artworks before we made our masterpiece? For example, writers spent time creating garbage until they created a story finally worth telling, or the pianist sat down at the piano every day to practice even when it could cause ears to bleed until he found the piece that made people really stop and listen. 

Are we as artists willing to just sit and listen, sit and think, sit and stare off into the abyss each day, each week, each year until we have found that piece, that story, that picture to inspire the world?  

What is killing your creativity? 

As we already covered, possibly the fact that you are unwilling to fail over and over again and continue to try, could be because of all the technology surrounding us. We are so easily distracted, so easily entertained by our phones they are so loud and we allow them to be. We turn our volume all the way up so we can hear them. Every dm, Snapchat, text and if you allow it to,  it will only continue to interrupt your creativity. Almost everything we want is given to us at a moment’s notice, and because of this, our attention spans have become that of a toddler-we can never just sit and do one thing for too long. If something bores us for longer than 5 seconds we can simply scroll past, put it down, or click off. All this instant gratification has made us lazy when it comes to pursuing the things we want to make our area of expertise. 

What has become easy?

Music – Who knows how to read notes anymore? If you go on YouTube there is definitely a video of someone playing your instrument that can show you how to do it yourself without you needing to know very much about the instrument itself. 

Stage entertainment –  Who would go see anything when you can watch whatever you want from a screen in your home? On top of that, the acting is better, the music is better, and all the stories just are better on the screen.

Painting –  It is easier to create a picture with a camera or computer than to get out a paintbrush and a blank canvas. 

I’m not desiring to do away with all the modern art forms like cameras, youtube, and movies, I am simply saying that you won’t see as many people creating plays, paintings, or ballets simply because it takes too much time and will most likely be unprofitable. 

How can we make the arts “cool” again? 

As timeless as Shakespeare is, people know his stories and he will be forever appreciated and never forgotten, but I can see that people are starving for something new and different. We saw Lin Manuel Miranda do it in 2015 with Hamilton, that was the first time people who would not normally care to watch a play become passionate and inspired by what was being put out onstage. He put a completely different spin on musicals, storytelling, and theater itself. 

The creative genius of Miranda took the old ways of storytelling and put it into our modern music. No one would have thought rap and our founding fathers would have anything in common but it really makes sense to see them roasting each other through bars, rhymes, and rhythm of rap and hip-hop.  

As I watched that story travel the world I thought to myself, “More of this, we need more!” 

I could say the same thing when it comes to these timeless stories from J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, or C.S. Lewis but again, people are longing for something new. 

Every generation is unique and has different tastes than the last, but I believe there are ways to bring them all together through creative genius. I think the answer is to cater to each generation in a different way and to tell a good story, that is something no one can pass up. There are stories that can speak to every person, you just have to tell it in a creative way. 

So what if that was you?

What if you are the next creative genius? 

I know you have a story up your sleeve, you have something you want to share with the world but you’re scared, you’re scared of rejection. People can be cruel, heartless, and so unemotionaly  blunt but the criticism will help you know what garbage looks like, and to push you to keep going. You must be willing to fail to recreate again and again. 

“You are born an artist or you are not. And you will stay an artist my dear, even if your voice is less of a firework. The artist is always there.” 

– Maria Callas

Don’t quit your instrument, your writing, your dancing, your painting, or whatever you are pursuing. You could be the next great writer, poet, singer, dancer, or painter.

 I know one of the biggest questions that comes to mind for artists is, “How am I going to survive on my artist salary?” You don’t have to. You can work doing something you like or tolerate but never give up on your art on the side.

Don’t be afraid, there is someone out there that you can inspire.