Hillary works hard her whole life, contributes, sacrifices, and gets run over by a charlatan, a poser, a braggart with nothing to show except an array of nubile women, rococo glamour, and major excessive wealth, his own private plane. What’s that like? Same sort of business happens in the studio all the time. Here a painter sweats over a canvas, I’ve known several, trying to get the sky go behind the trees, putting a single dash of ultramarine behind every fallen leaf, aligning all the highlights and shadows, and never really satisfied. After five, maybe ten years of nights and weekends diligence, with little attention except in-law derision, they give up ultimately to become disgruntled at some menial job, cranky and critical at the dinner table.
There are others who instead focus on the appetites of the audience, the way a ‘reality’ star might, a much more successful route, and so much less strain. The public wants iconic, some would say simple, mostly it wants familiar so repetition is in order, and the game is about notoriety and publicity. Common formula really. It’s a button you push down until it pays, coins shooting out all over the floor, and grad students east and west keep trying different stuff hoping to catch a nod and take the ride. With the mind-warping audacity of a Damien Hirst, somebody like that, it’s possible to break the bank.
These are two separate enterprises even though they share the same name, a source of confusion to many. Thank goodness in art it’s not winner take all, just damned close. Looking back not many people would consider Bobby Rydell or Ricky Nelson as musical geniuses, even though they had hit after hit in the fifties-sixties, but the roots of that music remains because, by the original artists, it was genuine, heartfelt and inspiring, most agree. Turns out it’s not just a matter of artists making better art, but also of more discernment and judgement on the part of the audience -- in truth they support each other, can grow together, and both will benefit.
There are others who instead focus on the appetites of the audience, the way a ‘reality’ star might, a much more successful route, and so much less strain. The public wants iconic, some would say simple, mostly it wants familiar so repetition is in order, and the game is about notoriety and publicity. Common formula really. It’s a button you push down until it pays, coins shooting out all over the floor, and grad students east and west keep trying different stuff hoping to catch a nod and take the ride. With the mind-warping audacity of a Damien Hirst, somebody like that, it’s possible to break the bank.
These are two separate enterprises even though they share the same name, a source of confusion to many. Thank goodness in art it’s not winner take all, just damned close. Looking back not many people would consider Bobby Rydell or Ricky Nelson as musical geniuses, even though they had hit after hit in the fifties-sixties, but the roots of that music remains because, by the original artists, it was genuine, heartfelt and inspiring, most agree. Turns out it’s not just a matter of artists making better art, but also of more discernment and judgement on the part of the audience -- in truth they support each other, can grow together, and both will benefit.
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