September 30, 2002
September 30, 2002
It’s a Monday, an art day. Monday’s have been an art day for me for over ten years. Today I am making art in my studio. For the past five years, starting on September 29, 1997, I have been writing and keeping this journal, telling my story with words. I have written a lot about art and life. Today I am again writing about art and life. Art and life continue to be connected in my life. I continue to hold onto art for dear life. I continue to feed my art to keep it alive. Art continues to feed my spirit to keep me alive.
The economics of my art, however, continue to be dubious. For the past ten years, I have forfeited 20 percent of my income in order to have the freedom of spending my Mondays on art. How long can I afford to invest my time, money, and energy into making and living art? I’m not sure. I’m surprised I’ve been able to hold on this long.
I wish I could find a rich patron who knew about real artistic freedom and awareness. I wish I had more time to spend. I need an art patron to invest in Curvism to buy me more time. Where for art thou, oh patron saint?
Five years ago, I was getting ready for my first major solo art show at Flanders Contemporary Art Gallery in Minneapolis. I am now getting ready for a minor return show at Flanders, scheduled to open on January 25, 2003. Will Flanders find me an art patron? Maybe. It’s more likely that Flanders will find a couple of commercial art customers willing to buy a couple of pieces of art for a couple of thousand dollars, which really won’t buy me much time. Maybe a miracle will happen and something big will develop from this small show. If we take a strictly commercial art approach to Curvism, I fear I’ll run out of time.
Curvism has never been about making commercial art. Instead, Curvism has always been an art movement about creating a new way of seeing, thinking, and living. Curvism advocates for the qualities and values repressed, ignored, and victimized by the scientific, capitalistic, commercial, postmodern world; the kind of qualities and values that are most needed now to rebalance the postmodern world and save it from a careless scientific commercialism.
Our world is faced with many critical issues that need to be addressed, among them the environmental concerns of global warming, destruction of wilderness areas and ocean habitats, land and water degradation, human expansion, loss of species, spread of disease, poverty, hunger, and gross economic disparity. Science and capitalistic commerce cannot solve these problems. Only care and compassion can cure these planetary ailments. Science and commerce can be used as tools, but left to their own devices, will only make matters worse.
The traditional religions are of little help in addressing these issues; they have lost their power to science and the world of commerce. They continue to fight against each other in ethnic tribal wars, caring only for their own kind, showing no compassion for their evil enemies who won’t be converted. Our religious leaders and politicians seem to have no sense of urgency to do anything to really change the world. We are being careless.
Can Curvism art change the world? No. But it can add its voice to the voices of others who are standing up against the abuse of power. Curvism symbolizes a world-view with an earthly outlook. Care and compassion is the only force that can compel us to live in peace. Having a world-view is the start of caring about the whole world.
The story of Curvism is about one artist trying to make a contribution, trying to make a difference. It is the story of one artist trying to make a living, trying to live differently, symbolically, as if one person really could change the world. Yet, after five years of writing in my journal, I seem to be in the same circumstances as I was five years ago, telling the same story. What will happen next to the story of Curvism?