Art For Art’s Sake: How Hustle Culture is Ruining Creativity
Theodore Dreiser defined art as “the stored honey of the human soul”. It is that which encompasses so many disciplines and serves so many purposes that it is almost a concept too imposing even to define. Art and the human experience are so intimately intwined, going back to at least 45,500 years ago, when the oldest known cave painting was created. It can act as a form of expression, a mode of dialogue between thoughts and materiality that are perhaps otherwise difficult to communicate. It can be a way through which human skill and prowess can be illustrated. It can act as a creative activity that is fun to do and affords the artist a means to unwind. Art is multifaceted in its ability be deep and meaningful as easily as being fun and whimsical. The possibilities of what creating can achieve are truly endless.
Unfortunately, however, art is often reduced to what its value is, what can be obtained in return for it. But value is a tricky word. It has a variety of meanings and intimations, but I certainly think it is telling that the first three synonyms that Microsoft Word generates for “value” are “worth”, “price”, and “cost”. It’s easy to underestimate the ease with which capitalism weasels its way into our brains, affecting how we perceive not only everything around us but also ourselves. It is an insatiable beast, one constantly demanding to be fed. Capitalism compels us to use every waking hour productively, posing a problem for artists who wish to create purely for pleasure. If you’re making something and not monetising it, then what’s the point of making it? Wasted labour! our hijacked brains scream.
As well as this overwhelming pressure, there comes the subsequent demand from social media to share! share! share! The mentality of being readily accessible to others via social media seems to be continually developing. Of this culture of over-accessibility, Professor of psychology Phil Reed has said that “the ability to regulate what others know about oneself is a strong moderator of stress”. It can even feel like something hasn’t even really happened if you haven’t posted about it. Through being able to gain online attention, art possesses the ability to create social capital and, successively, financial capital: value. Consequently, artists are bombarded with the expectation to produce what is popular, what is selling, what gets the most likes. A lack of likes can quickly transform your art into something bad and worthless. Except it doesn’t! As with so much in our society, these kinds of value are illusionary.
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Leonora Carrington – one of the most celebrated Surrealist artists of the twentieth-century – said of her career: “I painted for myself…I never believed anyone would exhibit or buy my work”. This really made me consider the underrated importance of prioritising yourself when creating and of keeping your art private. By ensuring you are creating for yourself and protecting your art from the pressures of these external influences, you afford yourself a freedom through which you can create in a way that it fulfilling and authentic to you. You don’t owe anyone your art.
This is something that I, myself, have grappled with. As a child I was a prolific creative, always writing and drawing whatever I so desired. However, as I got older, the amount of time I would spend creatively noticeably dwindled. I became conscious that my time was better spent in a way that was more “productive”: studying and working a job. Whilst these are things that we must all do, it is interesting to reflectively consider the fact that be creative isn’t considered productive unless you are monetising your produce. Now, attempting to return to writing creatively is proving much more difficult than I anticipated. So acutely aware of what kind of stuff is “in”, I catch myself subconsciously attempting to emulate poetry styles and subject matter that I see all over my Instagram as that is how people are finding success. I hinder myself creatively by equating this success with meaning something is worth doing. When, really, none of these processes lead me to find my work more gratifying and certainly not more genuine. I am now working to write in a way that has personal value which, for me, means working privately and not sharing my work.
I think it is so interesting that some of our world’s most treasured and celebrated creatives only gained status after their deaths; their lives were spent creating in private, for themselves. Franz Kafka worked as a lawyer for an insurance company and wrote in his spare time. Vincent Van Gogh only ever sold one painting during his lifetime. What little of Emily Dickenson’s work was published was done so anonymously and heavily edited to comply with contemporary tastes. The art that they produced was both unpopular and unprofitable during their lifetimes. However, none of these supposed failures of their work take away its true value. Furthermore, the objective value these artists’ works now possess demonstrate the fickle and ever-changing nature of what art is considered valuable and what is not. Could it be that the privacy surrounding these celebrated artists’ creative processes, unrestricted by external influence and a need for “success”, is an element of what makes their work so refreshing? Therefore, it seems only sensible that artists prioritise themselves when creating and we remember art is allowed to exist for art’s sake.
“The mentality of thinking your art needs to be of these object values, I fear, is ultimately detrimental to the process of creating.”
So, returning to the impossibility of attempting to assess the value of art, I believe that value lies wholly with the artist. That neither social nor financial value have any influence on how fun or meaningful something you have made. These are elements that are ultimately always subject to change whereas you enjoying your art is not. The mentality of thinking your art needs to be of these object values, I fear, is ultimately detrimental to the process of creating. It doesn’t matter if what you make is “bad” or “not as good” or “unprofitable”. What matters is that you made it! And that it matters! To you!
Words: Becca Child
