I have made a decision to not make a living off of my art anymore. As I mentioned before art is subject to capitalism. To make a living off of art will no doubt direct ones art towards areas that are most likely in service to capitalism. All these art school graduates are flooding into jobs as graphic designers and most are doing nothing close to what they were passionate about. Art is my immortality. I will live on through my art and writing. It is life after death. My legacy will not be that of the capitalist. My legacy will be built on the philosophies and beliefs that I espouse.
I found myself in a trap. I was attempting to create paintings that others would want to see. My art was aimed at being aesthetically appealing. Art to hang above your couch is not the art I create. I am not in any way talking down to art that is. Well not all art that is, Thomas Kinkade was about worthless. Perhaps that is my radical socialist view. Here is one guy preaching what is ought to be and turning the perpetuation of the lie into a capitalist enterprise. Fuck that shit.
So here I am. Criticizing my past art. I have done art to survive for years. My art has been design for corporate and military propaganda. I have sold shit to survive falling into the same trap almost every other artist fell into. How do you break it? I am not completely certain, but I do know at this point that my art must not be geared towards a sale or to please someone else. I must continue to create art that comes from that place that I am passionate about. I must be delivering the medicine for the corruption of the consciousness. If as Collingwood said art is the medicine I must ask if I am a snake oil salesman or am I curing cancer? I am going to try my damnedest to cure the cancers of society and stop peddling snake oil. What is the cancer? Capitalism, Militarism, Capitalism, Sexism, Hetrosexism, Racism, Religion, The State and all forms of hierarchy.