My Beautiful Art Career
I don't think I could ever be successful like any of the artists in The Field's study "To Fail and Fail Big: A Study of Mid-Career Artists, Success and Failure."
Independence, self propulsion and seriously FAILING often are all integral to my process. Putting a lot of time into something that doesn't work, figuring it out, abandoning it and starting something else that does work are very important to me. When other people are controlling my work, I can't do that.
I am quite content to be unhousebreakable and uninstitutionalizable. I have been:
- the one who never got picked
- the last one to get picked
- the only one to get picked
- the one whose work was in a damp, dank, dark back room
- the one whose work was spotlighted in the front room
- the one who was picked but she could only have 7 minutes exposure even though everybody else had 15
- the one who didn't get mentioned in the review of the showcase
- the only one to get a good write up in the review of the showcase
- the one who was abused and humiliated in front of everyone by the artistic director
- the one who was held up as a shining example to everyone else by the artistic director
- the one who didn't get the grant or residency
- the one who did get the grant or residency
- the one who funded herself
- the one who funded other artists
I love Miguel Guitierrez' statements, especially on Page 8, "... everything in the field pushes you to normalize, institutionalize, professionalize."
To Fail and Fail Big: A Study of Mid-Career Artists, Success and Failure
