Being an artist is not an easy matter. The biggest temptation is complaining and, if you were to look at my Facebook feed, which is full of artists’ views and postings, you would see a lot of people giving in to that temptation. ‘Why am I not richer?’ they ask. ‘Why doesn’t everyone like my paintings as much as l do?’, and variations on those themes.
Oddly, though, one is often the subject of the envy of non-artists. It is because being an artist means spending most of the time doing, or at least thinking about or talking about, the thing one loves most of all, and most people don’t have that. You probably won’t ever make much money (my wife is starting to appreciate that, after some hopeful years) but you are enjoying it (she still hasn’t come to appreciate that, though).
It takes a romantic soul to dedicate his or her life to art, and we love a romantic soul. Last summer Radio Four serialised the latest book about Van Gogh, Van Gogh’s Ear by Bernadette Murphy. Snappy title, l thought, and very astute. When I was cab driving, and customers discovered that l was an artist, the two things they would refer to were (a) Rolf Harris (enough said) and (b) Van Gogh’s ear. Not his paintings, notice, just his ear. So, a catchy title.
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