Never trust an out there -self-proclaimed- professional artist(e)
This is about weirdo artists I really can’t be bothered becoming close with because I do not trust them. I do not mean people who dabble in art or have art as a side hustle or hobby! Hell, my SO loves drawing, quite a few days of every week even.. Nor am I really talking about musicians, illustrators or designers and the like, I have had plenty of decent to great experiences with people like that.
I do mean people who make it their entire career and identity, often they also describe themselves as “Autonomous Artists” or “Performance / Conceptual Artists”.
I do not do well with those people. Too many unstable people that make that an issue for those around them. Often I have hoped to come across a major exception. I still do hope, one day perhaps! I’m sure they exist. But… “not holding my breath”. 🤷🏻
I worked for a few years at a now defunct but decades old rather large and fairly famous art academy plus art gallery in the Netherlands. I was in daily contact and worked alongside plenty of famous artists, as well as artists in training and people studying there. This amounted to a lot artist people.
Also, I lived with many artists in squats and share-houses for years, and dated about four of them, sometimes for months. Almost every professional artist that described themselves in the way above, were a bunch of weird or broken or untrustworthy people once I really got to know them. They treated others poorly.
One experience: I lived with two professional female full-time artists in a large, very organized, beautiful, legalized squat building with several communal living groups and clear structures. They had joined through a few weeks application process, also designed to keep out people that were not good for the building and project. But to be fair, it wasn’t that hard to get in at the start – at that time, when they joined, they were desperate for residents.
I thought their art was pretty ugly and quite some of the time required very little talent or training, I could made half of it, which is saying a lot. Stupid art/artists. The end. 😉
I am joking. – I really am a cultural barbarian in a few areas and my taste is probably questionable there.
What I did actually find objectionable was that they either did the few hours of mandatory DIY chores half-heartedly/badly or not at all, cutting a lot of corners. This DIY hours were sorely needed, ooold building, and everyone had them in their lease as a pre-condition, it was a way to pay part of their rent.
Even worse, one of them was really odd and ‘lovesick’, always forever dating someone new, and sometimes people who, like her, were only just about managing to keep it together mentally. She left a trail of unhappy exes.
There were two men deep in their thirties, living in the same building as she and I. These guys had to see each other every day, in halls, at meetings, at the restaurant that was part of the building and more... She was in a relationship with man one for a while, had a child together, then suddenly broke up with him and immediately got together with the man two. There might even have been some overlap or cheating, I think so, but I’m not 100% sure anymore, been a while, had not thought about them or very infrequently for ten years or more. I was never friends with any of them really, they just lived in same building. On good terms with all three however, I never had a direct personal issue.
Anyway, she very quickly broke up with man number two as well and had something with man number one again.
Result: Man two completely lost it; green with envy and jealousy, he ran through the building SCREAMING (he was a very tall guy), waving and brandishing an axe making various threats, chasing after Man one, who was also running away through the building, screaming in fear. Many of us in the building got to hear or even witness that madness. The whole building knew about it within half an hour, of course, all thirty of us.
In the end, it all turned out ""ok""... Not really. Man two was so broken up about it, that he couldn’t stay in the building, even though he had lived there for years and, as far as I knew, had never caused any trouble before; he had to be admitted to a mental hospital.
I don’t know if things ever turned around for him. Months later, man two was living in a sort of half-way house for people with mental issues, and he came round again specifically and only to do something very strange (and illegal, involved theft) in the building where he had lived for years with us..., He did it to a person (and her company) that he had never had issues with. Quite the opposite, he always got along with her and even did some work for her. So I guess, he was still not all there.
Then there is the graffiti guy and street art collective story. Generally, I really like street artists! Many do it for the love, not for the money or the fame, and their work is free for all to see in public. If the work has some beauty and care, it often can improve the neighborhood. That stuff I am forever looking at and massively enjoying. Low effort ugly tags on the other hand, nope. Reminds me a little too much of a dog pissing anywhere to mark its territory.
I was on friendly terms with a guy who was a painter and street artist, that was part of a pretty famous street art collective. They at times did beautiful work, paid jobs as well, won some minor awards. They all had the skills to do good work, him included.
Imagine my surprise then, when right after we squatted and moved into a huge old building, he took it upon himself to put a massive, ugly and very quick/low effort tag all over our building, right next to our front door, Where every neighbor would see it.
We had just finished spending days cleaning up garbage and the remains of a fire in the building, cleaning, fixing it up and trying to introduce ourselves and reassure our neighbours. Now their neighbourhood and view and our home (he did not live there or even close and he had not helped) got made actively worse by this guy. When I explained all that to him, he didn't get it, didn't think it was a problem,.. was like "So,...?". Didn't want to fix it. Dickhead.
I sprayed over his ugly stuff in a neutral colour and more or less avoided him since. Not like we were close before, just moved in overlapping circles.
I have over 40 similar experiences and stories like the above, involving more than 20 artists. All those experiences with artist: involved housemates, exes, quite some acquaintances, some collaborators in the left wing scene and a few casual and fairly close friends and people I worked with as well as a few people I hired for a job. Then I have at least three friends that long-term dated artists and have very similar stories, except the dysfunction, monetary exploitation and abuse was even more far-reaching.
I am very aware that artists, of all kinds, are crucial for any society, culture and even entrepreneurship.
Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I haven’t personally had a single truly positive long-term relationship / experience with those many full-time artists, all of which I genuinely treated as equals and to whom I gave my respect and trust, like I would anyone else that seemed alright initially.
It is not at all that I do not want art or artists in the world! I just seem to feel better when I chose to be around other people.