How to Succeed in ART Without Really Trying

ART VS. HARD WORK!

 

How to Succeed in Art Without Really Trying

Art has nothing to do with the work ethic. Art is only about joy. Effortless joy. The artist does art for the sheer joy it brings him. Art audiences engage art and consume it for the joy it brings them. This is true even if the only real joy they get is making money from art.

Discipline in art must be an instrument of joy to make sense. And the most common sense one makes out of discipline and hard work is usually monetary sense. That is to say, the idea of being productive as defined by hard work and discipline is most commonly about making money. There is nothing pleasurable here about discipline and hard work except the pleasure we extract from it by making money. There may be many mysterious ways to produce pleasure from pain, but the simplest is to profit from ones pain by making money from it.

Art, on the other hand, is often about finding pleasure where others do not.. Finding joy in all sorts of hidden intellectual and sensual realms.. Discovering, divulging, treasuring hidden joys.

 

Sadism/Masochism of the Work Ethic

The work ethic hates easy money and free money. The work ethic believes money should be earned through ones own hard work and suffering. But easy money and free money are always more desirable than hard work and suffering for it. Those who take joy in the amount of suffering and hard work it took to create something (even demanding it) have a sadistic and masochistic streak in them they may not wish to acknowledge.

Being productive in art is always about producing joy. The more joy you produce, the more productive you are. Not the other way around. Unless being productive always produces joy. Being productive in art is not about producing works of art. Producing works of art is not about having something to show. Having something to show is not just about having something to sell. Having something to show is not about having something to get recognition for. It’s about experiencing joy! The joy of recognition. The joy of money.

 

You Too Can Succeed at Art and Become Rich & Famous!

The Joy Of Art

 

The Joy of Art

The joy of making money is about the joy money produces. The joy of making art is about the joy art produces regardless of whether it makes anyone any money.

Discipline for the sake of discipline is worse than cruel. It’s worse than pathological. It’s pointless.

“Be useful!” Says the work ethic. Art is not about being useful. Art is about pleasure: the pleasure of joy. Usefulness has no role in art beyond the usefulness of pleasure and the pleasure of usefulness. Every artist is a hedonist through and through. Pleasure…  Joy…  is a higher order of being, a higher order of existence, than either usefulness or suffering.

The goal of art is not to make art look hard to do or impossible to do by anyone other than the artist. Such principles of scarcity are economic principles, not artistic principles. Yes, talent of any sort may be scarce and not commonplace by definition, but talent is a gift. Unlike learned skills, talent cannot be earned through hard work. Thus the very definition of talent defies the work ethic. Just like free money, talent is undeserved. A gift. An undeserved gift. A lucky break. A happy accident. An unfair advantage.

Read… How to Succeed in Art

~ Joy (life’s unfair) Rip