Art and Society :Role of Artist in Society

Introduction

Art and work are on the opposite spectrum of life. Art is moody, vague, unreal, and mysterious like a woman. Work is clear cut, hard and fact based like a man. Can these opposites work together? Can they live in one heart? That is a difficult question. When opposites are forced to live with each other compromises are made. Otherwise, things break apart; in this case artists or a businessman's life. So let's see how these two things can work together from an artist's perspective.

Free your mind

Find a job that leaves you with lots of time to think. Bricklaying or pizza delivery is an ideal job for an artist. A programming job with lots of time doing brain-intensive work on a computer is not a great idea. Anything that leaves your mind free to wander around is good for art. Art needs a thinking mind. If you don't have time to think you will find yourself void of any great ideas to create something. Even a job with more than 40 hours a week is great for an artist if it is not brained intensive.  

Find time for your art work

Give yourself to art in your free time. Commit yourself wholeheartedly to it. This might seem boring for some people but for a true artist, art is something that refreshes the mind, lightens the mood, and brightens the day. It gives a feeling of accomplishment.

If art gives you these feelings of enjoyment it would be easy to work on it in your free time, on weekends or commutes, etc.

Are you a true artist?

Many people say they have an artistic soul. But being an artist is more than mere words. Your actions really define who you are.

If you are an artist at heart you will be bored by the mechanistic modern life. You will look for feeling and genuineness everywhere. You will look for beauty everywhere and ugliness will stifle your soul. An artist likes his own company. Living in your own world, creating fantasies and illusions around you. These are some things that true artists have in common. 

True art needs lots of sweat and blood

Creating true art is a hard task. Even if you are a born artist you need years and years of practice and skill to truly express yourself. It is one thing to have an extraordinarily beautiful idea, it is another to bring it out of your soul onto canvas or paper, etc. 

Bringing something from intangible to tangible, imaginary to real is a very hard task. It is not something that you do in one go. It is a try and try again process which needs patience, undying hope, and persistence,  

Don't expect fame and popularity

You have created a work of art. Then what? If it's true art you have probably discarded people's likes and dislikes and done what your heart told you. True art is beautiful but its beauty is not superficial. It is deep. It is the kind of beauty that does not look at the popular trends of the day. It is not fame conscious. It is undemocratic to its core. It tells as things truly are and how the heart perceives them.

True art needs the patience to appreciate its beauty but unfortunately, the world has become too fast and materialistic today to have patience. So very few people look for or even appreciate true art. Most people are blind to it.   

Are you really that great?

When you start your life as an artist you are making a bet. Either you really are that great or you aren't. Such a bet contains a high chance of failure. You can lose precious years of your life. If you are in the middle of making such a decision, you should reconsider.

But artistic souls hardly ever reconsider such choices. Art is a matter of life and death for them. Have you ever reconsidered breathing fresh air? Have you ever reconsidered your preference for drinking clean water?  

Study the best of the works

As an artist, if you want your artistic expression to be more refined, you need to study more art. Look at the classics in your genre. Paintings, music, poetry, books all of these modes of art have classics: works that everyone knows about but few ever really appreciate. Find out what distinguishes them from others.   

Don't be intimidated by difficulty

Living as an artist is hard. In this day and age of materialism, it is even harder. Everyone is running around for fame and money. An artist does not aspire for cheap fame or money that is acquired by selling your soul. Of course, he wants fame and money like everybody but he wants them on his own terms, not the Worlds. If he gets it he is happy, if he doesn't he is at least satisfied that he lived his life as he really desired.  

It will take time 

If you remained persistent with your goal as an artist you will gain your reward perhaps late in life or even after that. You will gain some people who will truly admire your work for what it truly is. But most of all you will gain wisdom and satisfaction that you have lived your life to the fullest. 

There is so much beauty around us all but few of us ever find the time to appreciate it. We are so busy and monotonous in the routines that nature seems colorless to us. We only find enjoyment in the artificial. We want instant satisfaction.

As an artist, you will have the patience, time, and openness to enjoy the beauty of this life and that is the greatest satisfaction that life can give to anyone.  

Conclusion

Life has become superficial in the modern era. We have surrounded ourselves with machines and man-made things. Our connection with the throbbing pulse of life is lost. We are no longer connected with nature. Art is not always about nature but it is something that has a deep connection with the organic aspects of life. It flourishes where nature flourishes and it dies where nature dies. 

In this age where nothing is natural and every aspect of our life is institutionalized and mechanized art is a breath of fresh air. But few people are willing to breathe this fresh air.