Deep Thought Thursday: Improve the audience for your art

You have the audience you deserve. To enlarge or improve your audience requires all of the energy you have. You get back what you put out.

--Alex Katz
from Letters to a Young Artist

(See previous Deep Thought about your studio from the same book.)

Comments

[Mary Richmond]

It's interesting this has been up a few days with no comment. I would think it might draw lots of comment. I have been thinking about it, wondering, is it true? And after a really honest look in the mirror, yes, it is. My own journey, including my audience, reflects exactly what I have put into it. That's both wonderful and a little depressing but there it is. As the saying goes....hunh...or something like that. Another good one to chew on, Alyson!

[Alyson B. Stanfield]

Mary: Perhaps it hasn't been commented on because it's exactly as you say. People know it's true. I don't like to think of it so harshly ("you have what you deserve"). I like to think of it more in the positive ("you sow what you reap").

[Mary Richmond]

Of course "You have what you deserve" is as positive a comment as a negative one--all depends on your point of view! Funny how we tend to think we deserve the negative and not the positive. Am gearing up with my goals and thoughts for the new year so I can welcome and deserve success!

[Gerald Morgan]

I have gone around and around with this thought over the past days. What I think is that one can go around and around with this thought. Seems to me that while there are all sorts of factors that can affect the audience or lack of one for our art; there are many artists who are very talented but who can't find a way into a small markets. The fact is there just isn't enough room for us all. The best usually do find a way to rise to the top - Right? I am not so sure about that. What of Talent? Training? Luck? Persistance? But then one can say "you have the audience you deserve".
At some point an artist can come to point where one becomes worn down with it all.Like I said these thoughts can go around and back again. Is there really an answer?

[Alyson B. Stanfield]

Gerald: Ah, one can think too much. And is it a talent for art or a talent for self-promotion? Maybe it's just a talent for living fully.