IN THE RELAM OF ARTISTIC ENTERPRISE, especially writing and music, the supply is greater than the demand. And maybe this is a good thing; it shows that, in america, the streets are flooded with creative, talented people, writing books, writing and playing music, sitting on street corners with guitar case open, hoping for a little encouragement and sustenance.
the writers don't hang out on street corners. they slump behind solitary computer keyboards, typing rambling blogs, composing poetry, finishing up that next novel, the one that will propel its author onto the best seller list. After leaving the street corner or the college pizza bar, the musician goes back yet again into the studio for another session of laying down and mixing. The new CD, all twenty copies, will arrive by UPS in a few long weeks. The studio time was terribly expensive, and the hours filled with monotonous, repetitive, tedious drudgery, but in the end the music seems to work, and the CDs will be stamped out at a fairly reasonable rate. If nothing else, they can be given out free of charge, to friends, and anyone willing to listen at least once.
Tens of thousands of writers and musicians, and only a handful of connoisseurs, willing to experiment, willing to gamble on some new unknown. and did I mention painting? What college town in america is without its hordes of canvas artists, each with a unique style, each with a hero, maybe picasso, maybe monet or renoir serving as idol and role model. Every artist has a role model, a hero. Hayden had Bach, Mozart had hayden, beethoven had mozart, tchaikovsky had beethoven, and even more, mozart..always mozart.
Let's not even talk about the art of acting. Who among us does not have at least one good friend who is a damned good actor, and struts and frets convincingly upon some remote stage in some small town community theatre? Anyone who does not know someone like this has not lived. Your friend will someday appear on broadway, or in hollywood. Have faith.
somebody down the street right now has bob dylan for inspiration, or eminem, or britney spears, (if you can imagine such a thing.) And the thing is this; by and by, day in day out, these hordes of writers, painters, and singer song writers are really very very good! Many of them are every bit as "good" as those who make it to the top, gain worldwide recognition, and make millions.
But, back to simple economics and facts of lie. There are so very many of them, and so little time, and so few opportunites in this busy world for the rest of us to do much more than pick out a select few, usually whatever is handed to us by our corporate media masters, and stick with the ones who become our favorites.
But for all you struggling starving artists, all is not lost. We all agree that the joy of creating is in the act of creation, not in the response we get from the world. And besides, you never know; anything can happen. Some fine day your book, or song, or painting may be read, heard, or seen by somebody who is wiling to take a chance, and put the money up front to show the world...you. Far stranger things have happened. Mozart was always in and out of fashion in his own time. Van Gogh was ignored. NObody read charles dickens, at first.
And above all else, someday you will be dead, and when you are, your artistic creations will not be. They will live forever, in somebody's heart and soul.
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