Part 1
Emerging artist? LOL! When I was twenty three I walked away from the occupations of a tradesman that my parents bought up to believe was my lot in life and went out in search of my identity as an artist. I ended up in StIves in the far south west of England and immersed my self in the modern arts scene. I worked out postmodernism and got to tell the artist exactly what I thought of it. At the end of summer I ended up in Bristol studying philosophy, English literature and performance art, all while learning to juggle and ride a unicycle. From there I ended up in Melbourne studying art and English while continuing with juggling, magic and unicycling. In nineteen ninety eight I started telling people I was a clown and was much more successful at this than any of my attempts in trades. I originally set out to do kids parties, I got festivals instead. This was a lot of fun and was well paid when the work came in, but it was a long time between gigs and there were constant calls from people wanting me to do free work. “Sorry I just can’t afford the fuel.” In 2005 a circus turned up and asked me to join, it wasn’t the greatest show on earth and there obviously wasn’t much money in it. But regular shows and a life on the road appealed to me; so I was a genuine circus clown for about a decade. Living conditions with the circus weren’t easy and after time it became too much. So I joined up with a church charity that worked with homeless people in the Logan and Brisbane area. Eventually it came time for me to get a job or start study; a job seemed unlikely; so I took to studying theology and philosophy at a Christian college. I throughly enjoyed my time with The Millis Institute, grew from the experience, have alumni and am looking forward to being a graduate at the twenty year reunion.
Part 2
While I have treated my occupation as a clown, artist and philosopher as a job; I have never really managed to make it pay. Despite the lack of money I have been able to use the trade to improve my standard of living. The most profitable thing I could do would be to sit at home, drink and watch TV. But that wouldn’t be nearly as much fun as going to parties, festivals, traveling with circuses or studying. In my adventures clowning around I have met many other artists that have experienced varying levels of financial success; none could be described as rich and famous. The claim that only the rich and famous qualify as artists is patently absurd. The only reason I would give this claim any consideration is that it is a requirement of this course.
Is it art? The question has long occupied the musings of philosophers and the question of what is an artist is just as vexing. The question becomes more than a philosophical musing when questions arise as to who gets access to artistic spaces or artistic grants. The subject is highly subjective and by its nature the definition of art defies the objective definitions of more utilitarian pursuits.[1]
“There are few modern relationships as fraught as the one between art and money. Are they mortal enemies, secret lovers or perfect soul mates? Is the bond between them a source of pride or shame, a marriage of convenience or something tawdrier?”[2]
When I first took to trying to be a professional clown I found my self getting a lot of calls from people wanting me to do free work for them. I gave it some thought; I am getting a good deal from Centrelink and Mum & Dad. Maybe I should just stick to amateur and not try to go professional. The big deal was fuel, it takes a lot of travel to be a clown. Then food on the road isn’t cheep, there’s overheads like insurance, communications, props and costumes. It is not free to do art! I had to charge for my services but couldn’t make a living at it. I met a lot of other struggling artists during that time. The struggling artist is a powerful iconic image in our culture, we like the story of the pathetic character that can do art but can’t get their life together. When my parents were suggesting to me that I get involved in trades my teachers were suggesting I get involved in the arts. I didn’t want to be an artist because I didn’t want to do the struggling artist thing. I ended up having to do the struggling artist thing anyway but with the thought I wouldn’t be struggling nearly so much if I had followed my teachers advice.
Then there is the other extreme like Taylor Swift who from June 2015 to June 2016 earned three-hundred-and-sixty-five-million dollars selling her songs, that is a million dollars a day. It took Israel Folau, the infamous football player a whole year to earn what Swift earns in a day, it takes our prime minister two and a half years to earn what she does in a day. But this kind of character can be equally pathetic. The media loved it when Britney Spears got messy; the good girl of pop got on drugs, divorced her high school sweetheart and lost custody of her children; the media liked that story. Michael Jackson turning into a complete freak then dyeing from a mix of bad pharmaceuticals; awesome news. Jackson Pollock an alcoholic dying in a car crash. Andy Warhol a drug addict. Kurt Cobain killing him self – yeh! We will buy magazines selling those stories.
Yes – there is the struggling artist who can’t get his life together and there is the superstar who is a complete mess and these are the popular ways of thinking about what an artist is. But there is another kind of artist that affects us every day and is hardly given any consideration in our popular culture; the artist that just makes a good living out of their art and has a lot of fun in the process. These people are not rich and famous, but they don’t struggle either. These are small business people that can produce a good product that people want to buy. Some artists even get jobs, radio announcers, the local news crew, people that design flyers for the pizza restaurant up the road, people that run the local community centre, people that run the local festival, teachers, people that provide activities for the elderly, children and disabled. The list goes on of artists that are not rich and famous but simply earn a good living doing their art.
Then there are the others; it’s not just painters, singers, actors, jugglers, ect that make the arts happen. There are technicians, bookkeepers, forklift drivers, administrators and many others that are involved in making art happen. It rarely occurs to anyone that there was a carpenter that needed to build and install the stand the artistic vase was put on. Or that there is someone in the gallery who knows how to hang that fabric without making it obvious how, or damaging the fabric, or doing something embarrassing like hanging it up side down. I remember being at a festival where I was involved in producing seven nine meter tall lanterns. At the end someone asked “how do you put a price on an experience like this?” I answered “well there is someone here who can put a price on it. While we have been having fun with this there is a woman in that donger over there that has been adding up all the costs. She knows how many kilos of glue it took and how many meters of gaffer tape it took and how many sandwiches we needed for lunch and how much it all cost. She can tell you exactly how much it cost to have this experience. Making art isn’t free and it takes all sorts”
What is an artist? An artist is someone who makes art.[3] What is art? It can be a realistic statue of Greta Thunberg, or three sheets of rusty sheet steal bolted to a wall that apparently represent endangered species, or a quilt of squares of cotton died using native leaves collected from a forest, or a guy with a forklift putting in portaloos at a festival site. And the money? It could be the famous super star traveling the world in private jumbo jets earning millions, it could be the struggling artist who would be better off on welfare, it could be the academic on a good wage, it could be the guitarist that works a day job and earns a little extra in local pubs on the weekend. I can’t define art so I can’t define artist, but this I can say; it’s not just the rich and famous, it takes all sorts.
[1]Daniel Grant, How do you Define Artist?, The Blog, May 25 2011, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-do-you-define-artist_b_582329
[2]AO Scott, The Paradox of Art as Work, The New York Times, May 9 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/movies/the-paradox-of-art-as-work.html
[3]Daniel Grant, How do you Define Artist?, The Blog, May 25 2011, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-do-you-define-artist_b_582329
Clown Artist Philosopher 