Quoting another artist

I found another really compelling post on www.saartistsa2z.com - a directory for artists and art lovers which is run by artist, curator and arts writer Gerhi Janse van Vuuren. I couldn't resist posting it and sharing it with you:

Human need can be distilled into five fears we all share: the fear of death, fear of the future, fear of chaos, fear of the outsider and the fear of insignificance. Every artist faces these fears as a part of their calling and as representatives of humanity.

Being an artist is a statement that says: What I do matters. It matters to me and if you accept what I do, it matters to you. And if what I do matters, then I, as the doer, matter.

Now no one need fear being insignificant.

Being an artist is a state of being that walks the edges of society. Artists choose unpopular opinions. They step out and forward, as the vanguard. They become strange even to themselves, but manage to carry on when they accept their own strangeness.

Now no one need fear the outsider.

Doing art is a process of making and unmaking. Giving shape, order and form to ideas and materials is a futile process. The world is forever sliding down the other side and what was made today begins to decay tomorrow. But tomorrow I, the artist, start remaking it again.

Now no one need fear chaos.

Being an artist is a futile game of trying to beat time. Not only have you already been beaten by the masters who lived before, but you are also being thrashed by the masters yet to be born. What one makes today is old hat tomorrow and cliché the day after. What is on the cutting edge now is lost in mediocrity a moment from now. But you can only make something today – yesterday and tomorrow are not options.

Now no one need fear the future.

Being an artist is an attempt to cheat death. It is a process of externalising pieces of yourself and casting them in forms that might outlast you. And that may exist even when you are no longer there. And because things we have made will still exist, we will not be gone, though we may be dead.

Now no one need fear death.

Thanks to artists and what they do, we matter, we belong, we have order, we have now and we live. And every artwork that exists is proof of that.

Extract from the exhibition catalogue of the Winelands VAN-Guard exhibition, edited by Gerhi Janse van Vuuren, published by VANSA Western Cape

I'm busy updating my website, and also working on proposals for exhibitions for next year. So watch this space for more exciting things to come (as opposed to quoting other artists...)!