does art need money?

there are so many places with no money that have thriving artistic communties... Indonesia, Georgia, New York... to name just a few

The generators of innovative art typically start with nothing. Nothing... if they are dynamic, compelling and succeed to make something, they seduce people to work with them whom they eventually have to pay and who are often the ones that motivate them to start to make/find money! Then they start to attract/find funding or income... and little artisitc communities are born that create a core for a business community, that sadly often does not return the favour of the audience that comes to them from the art.

Sometimes this happens to someone once; a fluke, beginners luck... but then an artist decides to try and see if they can sustain their art habit AND if they need/want to keep their 'team' - be they designers, musicians, actors, framers, publicists... then there is a new challenge. The infatuation may be over. How do you keep it going? For years and years? 

SO it goes back again to the question Bill T Jones asked me 'are you serious about the business?'.

and yes, it becomes a business... it may be a small business, you may not, in the end be the one RUNNING it, but it is a business and this does not have to be a bad thing. In fact, it can be very freeing. 

Sometimes I separate my 'art hat' from my 'business hat' completely... mostly I do. Then sometimes I need to do a little dance with them both... and see what I learn... how can they inform each other?

When I did Poetic License, for the first run, that was getting rave reviews, was getting small houses... and when I sat sadly outside the theatre after a show with 4 people (even though they were delighted to have such a private showing and gave me a standing ovation) I was of course mortified... the head of the theatre, a very loving and mature theatre producer/artist said

'why did you call it Poetic License?' you should have called it 'Sexy Angel', poetry is the hardest artform to sell of them all... of course for many, many reasons I would never have even thought of that title... but I will never forget that moment... and all I still had to learn.

Oddly my next piece was not called 'Naked Exotic Women from Venus with exposed...'

funding versus no funding

I recently had an e mail dialogue with some colleagues that helped me coalesce some thoughts re: art and funding

I have been in a few discussions over the years with artists who are for and against arts funding and it always hard to see between the lines of sour grapes, and so many artists sometimes self defeating iconoclastic self sufficiency...

I worked in the USA for 12-15 years without funding of any kind and in Canada with good funding.

Both were invaluable. The unfunded environment lent itself to a kind of business savy that leads to larger audiences and reaching more people in many ways.... and yet I rushed development and often presented work far too early, because I had to... and with funding I was able to spend the time i needed and get the support I needed to focus my energies on the wriitng and performing but sometimes neglected audience development and presented really strong shows to half filled theatres....

So I would say that both are useful... and I am glad that I have lived on both sides of those tracks. We all know cities where there is no money where the arts are thriving AND cities where we are envious of good funding systems in which art is also thriving...

now likely the artists themselves are healthier in the funded places and one huge difference... they may also be able to have families and keep working when they are older. 

In unfunded environments, it is not an accident that most of the artists are young... and childless.

independent artists and self promotion

It is wonderful in many ways that we all now have access to cheap promotional tools AND it is awful! It levels the playing field in some ways (makes it cheaper) but then what lands in ones lap is more self promotion than one ever wanted. It used to be that independent artists had to write their own bio's and that was hard enough. Hopefully you can just quote what other people say about you - which I greatly prefer... awhile back we all farmed out our web sites cause it was too hard to write HTML code, and who had the time but then you had to wait for someone to change things for you and it often took too long... so then many independent artists have taken BACK their own sites, cause it is easier, cheaper and there is this idea that people want to know the LIFE of the artist, not just the calendar, press clippings and bio.

But geeeeesh.When I signed a contract for a commission a few years ago, part of the contract included my agreeing to 'maintain an active twitter and facebook presence'. I couldn't believe it. At that point I was not twittering... so I began... and they started a 'fan' page for me and off I went. I have let the fan page die since then... and I have gone through phases of twittering and not... I try to just twitter, blog things that are real for me. I find that I can twitter when i am not too busy but geeesshhhh... it can be endless...

At least I hope to maintain contact with the small following that I have.... the 'niche' blog idea appeals as there is no pretense at 'going viral', just keeping a living journal for those who may be curious about your journey and how that might assist theirs... but sometimes the whole thing can feel very ugly. 

The world seems to full of people trying to become motivational speakers; writing their books, to start book tours to get on TedX somewhere, to start coaching and workshops... some of these folks may have something to say, but content is key and experience for me is even more key... but maybe this is just my age, I am looking way out past my age - not that I can't learn a ton from someone younger, but I am liking the 60+ crew right now a lot. I meet so many people under 35 working their schpiel. Live your dream, Fulfill your goals, Follow your bliss... I can get all skeptical about this and then I watch my skepticism and wonder what it is in me that reacts to this?... why not? Why not put yourself out there and say 'Hey! I got something to say!' Everyone is doing it... but I just go back to writing my wacky play... and of course I already have a 'job' as a professor/artist, so i don't have the same urgent need to 'make it' in that way... 

I am still a fan of several self help books that have come out over the years (Stephen Covey's ever so useful 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that I am forever grateful for to name one and there are so many good ones...) so maybe there are dozens of others out there with ideas that will help move me and many others forward... so I have decided to shut up that skeptic as best I can and try to take pearls wherever they come from... and anyway, in the end it is still true that the test of time will clear the wheat from the chaff...

Are you a pro performer or actor that gets really stressed out by performing?

OK, before you read this, I really want some people to respond to this question and get a dialogue going...

If you are a professional performer- do you LOVE performing or does the stress of it more often than not, overwhelm the pleasure? 

Ok so in my last blog I said "BUT ideally what you can shift is the burdensome attitude that creates the pressure... I'll get to that in another blog!"

well I dodged that one cause.... geeeesh this is a hard one and I do not have answers. Maybe I am in a year of trying to identify some answers to this. As someone who has decided to return to more performing after directing started to take over... for reasons that are complicated to go into here... I am REALLY looking for this. I will try to share what I learn, if I learn anything!

Oddly, performing for me is extremely stressful and I do not 'look forward to performing'. Now for someone with 9 solo shows and a massive draw of reviews, thank God, mostly good, does this mean I am masochistic? I know that I am not alone in this. An actor in Toronto whose work I have great respect for, but shall remain nameless... has this perhaps even worse than I do. When I was directing a show where I could hire anyone I wanted, I met with him. He generously shared that he found performing extremely stressful and was not a huge fan of performing. And yet that is his life. I was astonished and relieved. Maybe that is why he is so good and so successful. BUT...

is this not a bit sad? I find it sad in myself... and I am tired of the misery it causes me... and as my Balinese dance teacher said to me today as i got up to perform the Topeng... "Happy, happy, you think too much, must be happy..." is it that simple?

ok, I'd love to get some dialogue around this for real...

Are he and I alone? can any other professional performers out there speak to this conundrum?

(I stipulate professional, cause if you have never HAD to do it regularly, that is a different story... cause I know there are TONS of people with performance anxiety... I mean those who have made it there lifes work even though it is more stressful than fun...)

Getting Our Bodies Back by Christine Caldwell

Getting Our Bodies Back by Christine Caldwell: Recovert, Healing and Transformation through Body-Centered Psychotherapy.

This is an excellent book- for those just beginning to want to find a deeper physical life and for those who already have a practice and for teachers working physical as well. It delves into addiction in a useful and intelligent way and this section I found particularly exciting, as I know from my work with students that physiological awarenss can really help with addiction and she has articulated this well. She offers useful tools for therapists and those in therapy... all in all, if you are someone who wants a practical, readable guide to physical embodiment practice and how it relates to emotional issues, this is an excellent book! 

For actors as well- but closer to the psychological than the physical. It will not give you any advanced physical processes, but it is a great companion to an embodied physical process and therefore a good companion for actors!