The American Spectator : Needless Things

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Needless Things

By Christopher Orlet on 7.15.11 @ 6:08AM

How many starving artists do we really need?

On their recent visit to Southern California, Prince William and wife Catherine and about 1,300 bodyguards toured Skid Row. Nothing too unusual about that. We expect British monarchs-in-training to spend an hour or two slumming it when they visit their former possessions. Such expeditions give a boost to their innate British snobbishness while providing a great photo opportunity: ("Kate, how about a hug for that half-starved rickety lad with the big eyes!") What is more, it shows that today's aristocrats really, really care about the underclass, unlike yesterday's aristocrats who used them for target practice.

On Skid Row, the royal couple visited Inner-City Arts, a nonprofit organization that for two decades has provided free arts instruction to poor, starving, chronically abused children. The visit highlighted two of Prince William's main interests: promoting the arts and doing absolutely nothing useful.

Cynthia Harnisch, president of Inner-City Arts, spoke to the royal couple about Skid Row and the challenges of poverty and homelessness faced by many students at the school, to which Prince William responded, "Yes, but how are finger painting lessons going to help them escape all that?"

Just kidding. The prince would never say that.

Now that I've got out my wet blanket, go ahead and ask what's wrong with some British aristocrats (or anyone else, for that matter) promoting arts training for poor kids?

Actually, just about everything.

I live down the street from several of these inner-city arts centers set up to teach poor kids dance, art and music education, all of them run by guilt-stricken trust fund babies who want to "give back." Their idea of giving back is to teach traditional capoeira Angola to inner city kids.

Of course, what inner city kids really need is for a trade unionist to "give back" and take them on as apprentices and teach them practical skills, especially since the city's public schools won't. (Public schools likewise like to teach the "visual and performing arts." It's so much more fun than, say, fractions.) What these poor kids do not need to learn is how to make esoteric conceptual art. How is that going to help them end the cycle of poverty? Even if they became artists or musicians they will still be dirt poor.

More artists, we don't need. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, the number of artists in America increases about 50 percent per decade. The NEA apparently thinks this is a good thing. Meanwhile we have to look to India and China for our engineers and doctors.

EVER WONDER HOW many artists thrived during the High Renaissance? Probably about 70 first-rate ones, of which a dozen are still remembered by art historians. Today, there are nearly two million hacks who call themselves professional artists. And by no one's reckoning are we living through a High Renaissance.

The arts-as-cure-all remains an enduring and popular brand of snake oil. Recently, my wife gave me an article that describes how to nurture your child’s "spark":

As a parent, you can help your child discover her spark [that thing that makes them light up from inside], and watch this unique characteristic develop over time. One of the side benefits of helping your child discover and develop their spark is that you can reconnect with your own spark by going on the spark journey together!

It's a good bet that any paragraph that includes the word "journey" and isn't about a bad Seventies rock band is going to be meaningless. But this is exactly the kind of thing the trust-funders down at the Community, Arts & Movement Project tell each other every day while they are teaching fatherless minority kids how to “"convey a concept to the perceiver, rejecting the creation or appreciation of a traditional art object." Parents and teachers who encourage this sort of behavior should be held responsible, morally and financially, for ruining these kids' ability to find well-paying, meaningful work.

Middle-class kids can afford to waste their time learning to pirouette or to play electric violin. They are going to go to college and eventually, hopefully, go into business or medicine (or more likely marketing or law). But for a lot of the kids in my neighborhood, arts education is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It's a luxury they can't afford. And the last thing Skid Row needs is another out-of-work musician singing the blues.

About the Author

Christopher Orlet writes every Thursday from St. Louis.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (120) | Leave a comment

Darin| 7.15.11 @ 6:34AM

There's nothing wrong with pursuing art as a hobby or side interest. But unless people are willing to pay you for your work, you are NOT an artist. Lots of people play pick-up or league sports, but they are not athletes (in the sense of professional, paid athletes). And these people know it and would likely shudder at the thought of forcing others to pay them (via taxes) for their "love" of sports. So-called artists need to wake up to reality.

Artiste| 7.15.11 @ 9:56AM

Contemporary art is fashion. The cool factor of saying "I'm an artist" is the driving force behind many young would-be artists' ambitions.

Art is cool, and cool is everything.

loulou| 7.15.11 @ 10:24AM

Actresses are cool.
They call themselves "ack-tors".

Oldefarte| 7.15.11 @ 1:33PM

Yeah, and they're also.....STUPID!!!!!!

Darling| 7.16.11 @ 8:30AM

We should just kill the artists and all other useless eaters...anyone that does not produce something concrete should be killed. All artists, writers, lawyers, management, wall street executives etc etc should be killed. We should kill them in the most painful ways possible. We the producers of society need to take it upon ourselves to kill the non producers. We are forever subsidizing these non producers....they need to be killed. Our society needs to purge these people from our ranks. This is the only way to revitalize our society. kill them all

Merlin| 7.16.11 @ 9:39AM

Yes. Let's start with the worthless old people who are just a drain on the society and consume all medical resources. Balancing the budget then becomes child's play. Children aren't of much use either.

Darling| 7.16.11 @ 9:50AM

Old people and babies produce nothing and should be thrown into wood chippers

Mike H| 7.17.11 @ 2:32PM

Randians UNITE!

TrueBlue| 7.18.11 @ 6:50PM

Might I remind you this is what happened during the French Revolution? And might I also remind you what happened to their ability to defend their own country afterwards?

What needs to be done isn't to kill these people, but to force them to find a useful job by not buying/listening to their garbage, and not giving them free government handouts to continue producing it.

Lawyers have a purpose, but the sue-happy nation thing has got to stop. It makes it nigh impossible to do anything without being sued on some frivolous basis that costs the accused money regardless of how baseless the accusation, and means the end of a lot of business ventures.

Likewise the Wall Street types have a purpose, but any kind of government handouts/bailouts for them need to stop. If they fail, they fail, along with the companies they represent. That's called capitalism.

DG in GA| 7.17.11 @ 12:07AM

This is also true of poor, starving aspiring writers. Especially screenwriters, of which I am sure there are more than enough in Los Angeles.

I met a 30-something woman recently who has a B.A. and an M.A. in English. I asked her, "What do you do?" "I'm a writer." "What do you write?" "I'm working on a novel." "How much do you have written?" "Three chapters." "How long have you been working on it?" "Since I was 19." (This would make it about 12 - 13 years to write three chapters.) This woman has no other job. She does, however, appear to have indulgent parents. She told me she's trying to decide whether going back to school for a PhD would help or hinder her progress on writing the Great American Novel.

masly| 7.18.11 @ 1:51AM

There really aren't that many ways to tell Johnny what a good boy he is for just sitting there like a bump on a log. No thinking, no processing, no contributing, but at least he's not hitting anybody right now, and what a good boy that makes him. Bless his little pea-pickin' heart
I am a 28 years old doctor, mature and beautiful.and now I am seeking a good man who can give me real love , so i got a username Andromeda2002 on--s'e'ek'c'ou'ga'r.c óm--.it is the first and best club for y'ounger women and old'er men, or older women and y'ounger men,to int'eract with each other. Maybe you wanna ch'eck 'it out or tell your friends!

Stoddard| 7.15.11 @ 1:10PM

Starving artists are my favourite kind.
They thin out the herd.

Alan Brooks| 7.15.11 @ 10:49PM

From your AS perspectives a shortcut would be to retain funding of the arts, while cutting off all other benefits, including Food Stamps-- that way the artists and other no-accounts actually do starve to death so they can no longer ask for govt funding! There is always a solution when you put your minds to it.

Alan Brooks| 7.16.11 @ 9:02PM

As Goering allegedly said (it was apochryphal):

"when I hear the word culture, I reach for my Browning"

Claypoole| 7.17.11 @ 6:04PM

All funding of the arts should come from the money actual buyers of artwork pay. In other words, art is a free market item; no taxpayer money, funneled through government, should go to artists. (Okay, sculpture in front of the courthouse, etc. is paid for by taxes. That's not what I'm talking about.) A small percentage of actively producing artists (I don't know the exact percentage, but believe me, it's small) can make a good living strictly from the sale of their art. All others need a day job.

Alan Brooks| 7.17.11 @ 9:02PM

"Okay, sculpture in front of the courthouse, etc. is paid for by taxes. That's not what I'm talking about"

There's wiggle-room right there; artists will switch from art-art to decorating govt buildings. There is no way out.

Alan Brooks| 7.17.11 @ 9:05PM

.. just remember: you are the gullible ones, you think you will ever have a decent life-- you will not. The outside world isn't neat like your lawn or drawing room.
You probably know you are going through the motions, anyway... tilting at windmills.

Alan Brooks| 7.17.11 @ 9:14PM

But modern art is supposed to be disgusting. Just as Married With Children was supposed to be decadent; as Gilligan's Island and Laverne and Shirley were supposed to be very silly.

oldfart| 7.15.11 @ 6:55AM

When you go to these 'art' shows and look at their product, what you see is grossly overpriced and frankly not worth the effort to throw it in the trash. The latest trend appears to be 'Grandma Mosses' rip offs that totally lack theme and composition. What is even worse is when these people, who all have the same 'look' like they just came from a Hollywood makeup studio, complain that potential customers lack sufficient 'culture' to appreciate the sophistication of their wares on display. LOL A con job is a con job.

Alan Brooks| 7.16.11 @ 8:58PM

Remember the old bank jingle?:

"it pays to live on the Bowery..."

(might have gotten the lyric a bit off)

Mimi| 7.15.11 @ 7:06AM

I had a younger brother...a scrappy, sports-loving kid, who would sit for hours tracing with WAX-PAPER over cartoons. It was a calling and GREAT passion that turned him into a GREAT ARTIST!
He eventually became an esteemed College Professor...teaching Art and his work in private collections and in public museems.
Money was never an object...only the calling and desire to the creative energy.
Now in this dismal time we need "ART" for our souls....You will never be able to curtail or discourage a true ARTIST !

Oldefarte| 7.15.11 @ 1:38PM

The true definition of art is BULLEXCREMENT! I once took an art elective in college and was required by one project to write an essay concerning a water fountain outside a commercal building. Thank the Almighty I didn't have to rely upon my acquired knowledge from same in order to make my financial living thereafter, or I would have starved to death. Art is mostly a waste, unless you're say the president and trying to impress a WH intern in the oval office!!!!!

Purpleguy| 7.15.11 @ 3:21PM

Apparently, college did not ROUND you out...

c. j. acworth| 7.15.11 @ 6:06PM

No no, OF, it's not bullexcrement, it's elephant excrement, shaped into a likeness of the Virgin. That's what passes for art these days.

tarotcard| 7.15.11 @ 7:47AM

well i want to tell you my brother also a singer and he is always searching different object.

Petronius| 7.15.11 @ 7:50AM

The culture vultures despise the working middle class and really prefers that their situations and tastes remain as is so they can continue their snootiness. Their alleged pity for the "under privileged" extends only to curbing or controlling any personal ambitions poor people have of which they don't approve. The phony patronage they exhibit on the Saturday 5 O'clock news is donkey show. As for "the poor", what they want is wads of cash without having to please "the man" to get it. And that is the culture vulture's worst nightmare. Roseanne said so. The patrons of pity can go on glad handing each other in pretense about promoting interest in the arts. How about trumpeting the accomplishments of a man who does it for real. To my knowledge, Arthur Mitchell has yet to be feted at the Kennedy Center at Christmas time.

POST American| 7.15.11 @ 8:00AM

'Of course the modern scientific elite
hates beauty. Science hates beauty
because real beauty, TRUE beauty,
is a mystery. Science hates that.
Just as it prefers the neutered, or even
the pornographic, to the work of art.
Art celebrates beauty. The artist's nude
is a work of adoration. The pornographer's
subject is merely naked. Pornography is
ALLL about lust for possesssion ---exactly
like advertising."
-D H Lawrence
letters
1921

---And none of this helped by the fact that
we've been set in a synthetic, forgettable,
culturally defoliated enviornment at the
absolute service of 'cost efficiency'
which is itself just an extension of EUGENICS
on behalf of an entrenched elite.

You can stick with the franchise slum 'visions'
of Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump ---we'll take Lawrence.

Doctor Right| 7.15.11 @ 10:12AM

I think you've missed Lawrence's point:

He was bemoaning the scientist's supposed lack of appreciation for beauty.

There's not really MUCH beauty in "modern art".

Lawrence would be as unimpressed with much of what passes for "art" these days as he was with the aesthetic appreciation of scientists...

Occam's Tool| 7.15.11 @ 9:40PM

I enjoyed my art history class at TCU---but we learned about different types of columns and Greek pottery processes and the like. There is so much useful to lear. By the way, Chris, thanks for the website link.

You have an excellent point, though. The appreciation is either innate, or it will be acquired as one grows up. These kids need to learn how to learn, and reading and math are the places to emphasize.

Occam's Tool| 7.15.11 @ 9:50PM

Not Lear---Learn. Damn again.

Alan Brooks| 7.17.11 @ 9:09PM

"There is so much useful to lear"

Don't sell yourself short, Occam-- King Lear is a GREAT play.

Oldefarte| 7.15.11 @ 1:40PM

Most artists are closeted potential pedifiles!!!!!

Doctor Right| 7.15.11 @ 2:38PM

I'm sorry, but...what?!?!?!?

play nice | 7.16.11 @ 12:20PM

You know Doc, "pedifiles", as in "exercycles".

Alan Brooks| 7.17.11 @ 9:07PM

They keep FILES in their PCs.

Denver Todd| 7.15.11 @ 8:13AM

I saw that news bite of William and Kate at the arts school, presented by Bianna Golodryga. And I was reminded of the entire support infrastructure that is built around the illegal community. Anyhow, as is most tv news, Golodryga presented the segment from a position totally absent of critique.

Redstateboy| 7.15.11 @ 8:29AM

"Of course, what inner city kids really need is for a trade unionist to "give back" and take them on as apprentices and teach them practical skills, especially since the city's public schools won't."

I've been calling for this for a long, long time. It's Liber-ulism insanity!!! We need to be teaching these kids to be Electricians! Plumbers! HVAC Technicians, House Painters, Carpenters.. Give them a bloody skill - not this BS!

Have you considered| 7.15.11 @ 9:43AM

I comment as a construction industry EEO Compliance Officer, monitoring contractor compliance with Ex. Order 11246.

There is, in the trades, the "affirmative action" component, which requires that contractors at all tiers of a covered project (most federal, state and county projects) proactively recruit minorities and women. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?

What happens in reality is, most of these contractors are union signatories, and if they are not, many projects require that they sign a Project Labor Agreement, which bind them to each trade's labor agreements. This creates inherent conflict with the goal of minority hiring.

Most labor trades only allow a limited ratio of apprentice to journeymen, like 1:3 up to 1:5. This limits the number of apprentices they can have.

Also, workers at the hiring hall are queued by seniority. So if you are a union signatory, and you hire from the hall, you can't pick and choose who the union sends you. I will also note that being signatory to a union does Not relieve you of the duty of affirmative action in hiring. You are required to submit a "good faith effort" report if your minority utilization goals are not met.

There is another issue to note as well. Most people think the trades are hard physical work, but do not need much in the way of brain cells. This is simply not true. You must have apprentice applicants that can read, write, and do math. The lack of basic education is a major issue, that holds many back.

Then you get to the work ethic component. When you are a "favored" employee, there is less incentive to produce, as they know that the likelihood of being fired is close to nil.

One of my old salt superintendent's once told me it was more cost effective to hire minorities to build a bench, and then have them sit on it to keep them out of the way.

A truly skilled and productive minority is worth his weight in gold in the trades.

Bottom line, there are laws in place to promote the hiring of minorities, but there are many real world barriers to doing so profitably.

old white guy| 7.15.11 @ 10:37AM

just too much government in all our lives.

Redstateboy| 7.15.11 @ 10:37AM

thank you: Have you considered - for you insight.

barriers need to be removed then.

Stan Redmond| 7.15.11 @ 11:48AM

Boy this is true. I have taken unskilled entry level people in my shop and tried to teach them the new skills so they are more useful to me (YES liberals I said useful TO ME so they can get more money and make me more money). 1 out of 10 maybe make it. The other 9 are barely capable of sweeping the floor.

chuck| 7.15.11 @ 8:20PM

I've been in the construction industry for 30+ years, residential, non-union. 90% of all new hires regardless of race don't make it. Too many are lazy and stupid, two things that will get you hurt or killed when dealing with powerful tools, and heavy materials. Honestly, the best workers are the Latinos. They are motivated, not highly educated, but have a lot of common sense. They have the work ethic that Americans used to have.

DG in GA| 7.17.11 @ 12:12AM

Interesting how the real world BARRIERS to employing minorities are created by the same unions that fund the Democrats who get elected and pass laws REQUIRING us to hire minorities.

Have you considered| 7.17.11 @ 4:55PM

DG, you hit one of the nails on the head.

The unions lifeblood is cash, and namely dues cash.

Dues @ 2 to 2.5 % of a journeyman's wage is Significantly higher than 2% of an apprentice's wage.

LindaF| 7.15.11 @ 8:29AM

To be fair, there are more paying jobs for artists right now than ever before - in movies, TV, web apps, business, etc. Having said that, it must be remembered that these are "commercial" art jobs, not the type of work that "conceptual artists" or "cutting edge artists" would aspire to.
I have a lot of respect for any craft well done. My son-in-law is currently studying graphic arts, and is bringing in money with logos and the like for local businessmen. I like that - it shows a real entrepreneurial bent. We've talked about the fact that he will likely have to diversify his income through many freelance projects. He's got a fair appreciation of what he needs to do - his mother supported herself as a commercial artist for over 25 years.

Nina| 7.15.11 @ 8:34AM

Another feel good opportunity. Don't you all feel guilty now? And did the royals actually buy any of this "art"? I agree with the need to learn trades rather than art, art is a hobby and I am by no means degrading "real" artists. I'm an artist...maybe I'll go down the Cape and sell my wares and see how much I can live off that. LOL! Anyone who can put brush/pencil/crayons to paper can call themselves an artist, but to use it in this way to get money from the govment, no. NEA should not be funded by us taxpayers.

MikeBee| 7.15.11 @ 8:41AM

There is a place for art in our society. For example, many of the designers of automobiles have an art background. These are good, well-paying jobs. But, there also aren't too many of these types of jobs out there.

Trying to develop a career in the entertainment industry -- arts or sports -- is a high-risk proposition. Most of those who are very good at art or sports aren't able to make a living in either field. Hollywood is full of very talented people whose main job is waiting tables in a restaurant. Many of the world's greatest artists were only discovered posthumously.

Orlet's right; we should be training our children to be able to obtain the lower-risk, and much more available, jobs. Accountants, nurses, engineers, mechanics, salesmen, etc., are what the world needs to make it turn. Entertainers (arts or sports) will always come from the part of society that has the least to lose in following such a high-risk vocation.

Maxwell| 7.15.11 @ 8:44AM

What is more, it shows that today's aristocrats really, really care about the underclass, unlike yesterday's aristocrats who used them for target practice.

I was going to ask you if they used an AR15 with an ACOG or an Accuracy International topped with a US Optics? Lost my morning coffee out of my nose with one!

On a serious note, the Chinese kid can do chemistry, physics, and diffie q's while the American kid does finger painting and community organizing. What is wrong with this picture?

Doctor Right| 7.15.11 @ 2:40PM

...But does the Chinese kid feel really good about himself???

Josh2005| 7.15.11 @ 3:20PM

WIN.

Tina B| 7.16.11 @ 9:35AM

I don't know. Communist/Socialist countries never put much of a premium on proletariat artists, do they? I mean where are Castro's great artists? Pre-Castro there were many!

How about Soviet Russia? Oh, of course, Soviet Ballet. . . but, then, those silly ballerinas always wanted to escape. Cuban musicians too, by the droves.

China? Ah, Red China. . .the Olympics. . .that little girl singer. . was that faked? I forget. Was all that regimentation even art? Not in my eyes, but who am I?

Art is in everything around us. Construction includes design. Lawncare includes landscapes. Music, painting, sculpture, yes, those displays bring joy.

But so does the house painting industry, in a beautifully upkept neighborhood. Sometimes the artist is the homeowner, daily manicuring and designing, and I reap the benefits when I drive by every day. Brings me joy.

The mundane is there to be made beautiful. Hard work and sweat are involved in creating beauty. The auto designers have made some beautiful cars, that make me smile as I drive past them on the highways. I often smile at the driver, they brought me joy. I love a good Corvette, almost any year. I used to live in So-Cal by Newport Beach. One showroom had Bugattis and Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Rolls Royces and Excaliburs. My late hubby and I used to look at them and smile, and dream.

My point? The picture is a big warped lie. Only one community organizer made it to the top, and his job is to take America down. Remake it in his own image and likeness, or that of his marketers and promoters. BHO is doing his job. Not the job of the POTUS, but of those who put him in power. We are watching it happen in our lifetimes.

This article by Mr. Orlet comes on the same day I learned my school, the public school at which I have taught (21 yrs) and bled maroon and grey for
the past 3 decades, is adding the title Fine Arts Academy to our NEW marquee (sic) this coming year. Emphasis on the arts.

And this for children who had a difficult time explaining to me how one-half was less than one whole, not greater than one whole. At the age of 13. We are going to be emphasizing the exact opposite of what my students need to have successful futures.

So vote carefully in the coming season, put a stop to the status quo and redirect, or not.

play nice | 7.16.11 @ 12:28PM

So whatever happened to "Midnight Basketball"?

Brian Mc| 7.15.11 @ 8:55AM

My little nephew sat transfixed as we sat together on his living room floor so many years ago.

I carefully drew out the rough outline of a steam locomotive coming straight towards us on that piece of paper and then, began to add shading and depth. He was ecstatic at the results I had achieved with a simple pencil applied to paper. It was one of his prize possessions as he grew.

All these many years later he is an architect at a big firm in the Twin Cities. One never knows where a spark (as mentioned above) might take them. A spark from a welders wand could be just as fortuitous to another youngster as my pencil had been for my nephew. While we are hog-tied by the federal agencies through all levels and facets of education the 'need' for inner city art curriculum will only grow. Could the one survive without the other?

Have you considered| 7.15.11 @ 10:10AM

Brian, I commend your spark producing activity, and it appears you did so with your own initiative, and I will assume you were not paid by the taxpayer to do so. This is how it is supposed to be.

Those who advocate universal, mandated, public education, typically argue that it benefits society to have an educated population. A position that does have merit.

But as education budgets tighten across the country, art is, and should be the first to go. You may disagree, but if you ascribe to the notion that education is good for society and that society at large should be funding this, would it not be better to focus on the three Rs?

I have read that up to 47% of our adults are functionally illiterate. I believe the lack of focus in these core areas are killing our future generations.

If parent's want to produce these sparks, it is their responsibility as the parent to provide it on their own hook, like you did.

Brian Mc| 7.16.11 @ 8:03AM

My last paragraph obviously missed the mark. I meant that the Feds were destroying our education system, hence stupid kids breeding poor children in need of inner city art classes. A liberal perpetuation for its voting block...?

Aiken Bob| 7.15.11 @ 9:17AM

Well stated. I am reminded of the statistic that conservatives charities are typically related to humans (e.g. hospitals, diseases, wounded warriors) whereas liberal charities are typically for the "arts", museums (i.e. non human involvement).

froglegs| 7.15.11 @ 9:34AM

This art crap is less useful than teaching them basketball so that they can all play in the NBA. At least with basketball they would be fit and unemployed.

POST American| 7.15.11 @ 9:51AM

Genuine training in the arts is nowhere on offer
in the schools.

What is offered is the NEA-Rockefeller etc.
indoctrination and organization for the promotion
of 'So-shall-ALLL-ism' , or craft and design work
at the service of franchise slum and biz nihilist
'values'.

Of course the glorious heritage of music, western
music, is now under attack via defunding and
marginalization.

This seems to nicely compliment the destruction
of all GENUINE religious culture, or GENUINE
culture genuinely thanks to the long, long, long,
deeply engineered, lavishly funded subversion
of religion by the Rockefeller front 'Council
oif Churches'.

And while, yes, we need plumbers and carpenters
etc. ----I think we can all agree what we don't need
are MORE actuarial psychopaths, MBA's. programmers and 'experts'.

Look at what a mess two decades of their
domination have brought us to!

cicero| 7.15.11 @ 10:09AM

Art, as all skills and trades, requires discipline. Spray painting on other peoples' walls, or piling junk on vacant lots does not. A former client, the V.P. of the local b ricklayers union took me on a walk through of the union's apprentice program, of which they were justifiably proud. They made a concerted effort to recruit kids from the inner city. They would take them through the program, and then, upon graduation, find them jobs with contractors. The big problem was getting them to show up for work. On too many occasions, he would have to call to wake the kid up, go to his house to pick him up, and deliver him to the work site.
It is the culture. This is the problem in all segments of this society, from the schools to the work force, to the beaurocracy. Unless this is addressed, it makes little difference how much or how little you throw at the problem.

Tina B| 7.16.11 @ 9:39AM

I agree 100%. (And I know that 1.0 = 100% = 1/1)

Kevin Compton| 7.15.11 @ 10:16AM

One of the sacrifices we've made as we continue to advance technologically is we no longer have great need for "artisans" i.e. wood workers, sculptors, stone masons, iron workers, potters etc.

Le Cracquere| 7.15.11 @ 8:28PM

A glance at the quality & durability of the average American house or commercial building tells me otherwise.

Kevin Compton| 7.15.11 @ 11:03PM

Well, true. We do still "need" them there's just no market for them anymore.

KyMouse| 7.15.11 @ 10:29AM

Never have I seen any reason for artists to feed at the public trough. If you're good, sell your stuff or find a private patron to subsidize you. If you're not that good, pursue your hobby when you aren't working at some real, productive job.

I've been a writer for 31 years now. When my work sells, I'm thrilled. When assignments have been sparse, I've done temp work in offices, delivered pizzas, house-sat, or had other kinds of jobs. It is my responsibility to work in order to pay my bills. I think of myself as "creative," but neither I nor anyone else should avoid doing an honest day's work for an earned wage.

By the way, a few years ago, Churchill Downs learned that some of its employees were pretty good craftsmen. They were given the opportunity to show what they could do in an exhibit at the museum that is next to the track, and the results were pretty amazing.

A lot of the folks who work at the track in very low-on-the-ladder jobs had been trained in crafts back in their villages in Central and South America. One did magnificent tooling on a leather saddle; some painted; others did silverwork, etc.

There must have been about 100 items in the exhibit. They were available for auction, and I think pretty much all of them were sold.

But the artisans didn't quit their day jobs.

Doctor Right| 7.15.11 @ 10:42AM

Good point.

During the Renaissance, artists had to rely on wealthy, private patrons to survive. Since no one wanted to support crappy artists, only the VERY good ones had patrons.

Maybe that's why they were better artists?

Hmmmm...competition...what a concept!

Rurik| 7.15.11 @ 11:58AM

To expropriate a fashionable modernist concept -"Darwinian selection" at work, survival of the fittest.

Sheila| 7.15.11 @ 11:03AM

Excellent comment, KyMouse. Creative "types," take note specifically: "It is my responsibility to work in order to pay my bills. I think of myself as "creative," but neither I nor anyone else should avoid doing an honest day's work for an earned wage."

Occam's Tool| 7.16.11 @ 4:24PM

Actually, some of the best commentary on artistic work ethic is from Harlan Ellison. he is Conservative on this, if on nothing else.

Occam's Tool| 7.15.11 @ 9:43PM

KY---if you tell Ken who you are, if you've published any non-fiction or fiction, I'd love to buy some.

Mimi| 7.15.11 @ 10:45AM

KY....I will tell you...Your posts are so good, you deserve to be paid by TAS. !!

Anthony| 7.15.11 @ 10:48AM

Mr. Orlet, one of your very best. Bravo sir. My lips were in sync with your delightfully funny and stinging critique of the clueless lefty elites.
The line about Prince William's main interests is a classic!!!
We reached the last sentence together, but you sir, wrote it!!!

Hillel| 7.15.11 @ 11:01AM

AS the man said to Gully Jimson,"England doesn't deserve her artists,""Yes but she gets them any way," Humans do art: It's part of human nature. If they can't decorate, they decorate their bodies. That said people have to earn a living. They need training in skills and in getting to work on time.
By the way there is a whole interacial subculture of failed athletes who live in poverty as they they eke out some connection to semi-pro sports.

LarryK| 7.15.11 @ 11:21AM

"How many starving artists do we really need?"

They are starving for a reason! I say let them starve if they do nothing productive!

Appleby| 7.15.11 @ 11:41AM

Yes, the kids in poor (or, as we say in Canukistan, "at-risk") neighbourhoods need to leaarn reading, writing, arithmetic and how to analyze what other people are saying and extract the meaning therefrom. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people under 50 do not themslves know how to do these things, so they volunteer to teach what they personally do know how to do, which is probably soon going to be Tweeting and updating Facebook pages.

As for designing automobiles, this is less a matter of art than it is of engineering; my racing-engineer friends say "if it looks right, it probably is right". However, one of the most beautiful racing cars ever was four miles an hour slower than a brick: that would be the Formula One Prost car. On the other hand, the Pagani car company is going out of business because it has designed wonderful cars that cannot be driven on the street, nor can they be raced, because they cannot be conformed to any standards prevailing on road and/or track.

CalMark| 7.15.11 @ 12:06PM

The real artists will pursue it instinctively. They don't need grants or adulation; they'll work other jobs or just starve to pursue their calling, if it's real. Widespread funding of "art" today has become a soft landing spot for the radical, lazy, and just plain crazy.

Let's stop using public money to subsidize and encourage random paint splotches, excrement daubs, rusty trash welded together, i.e. worthless junk to "convey a concept to the perceiver, rejecting the creation or appreciation of a traditional art object."

Mark Shepler| 7.15.11 @ 12:43PM

Funny running into this subject. My son just last evening announced his second paying art job. He is 15 and found through the natural turn of events that he has both the love and the knack for graphic art. He is completely self-taught and making a name for himself on certain forums of the art types today's kids like. Anime-types and the like. A few months ago he took on his first commissioned project, a series of drawings, for which he grossly underestimated the work involved and the compensation. Alas, twenty-five dollars sounded like a lot in his first ever negotiations. He struggles yet to finish the series but to his credit is manfully seeing the job through to completion because he agreed to it.

Yesterday's commission involves "cover art" for an "album" (a figure of speech nowadays) of some never-heard-of web-based wanna-be alt band or other. The money is much better in a 15 year old's terms and he is stoked because the job is finite, more possibility of further recognition and the pay is better. But what I find most interesting is that his focus is business. His approach is that it is a skill, a craft for which he has a talent and for which he wants paid. Yes, he enjoys the craft but it is not about navel-gazing "self-expression" for its own sake so much as using his imagination to express ideas, anybody's ideas, and getting paid to make them visible to the rest of us.

I also just got off the phone with a commercial artist of over 30 years who I am hiring to draw some pics for a t-shirt series I have in mind. Each design is but child's play to him, simple comic line drawings in spot colors, will earn him a relative pittance and he relinquishes all property rights in them. He is actually well known and in the midst of a project for one of Las Vegas' most renowned and enduring stage shows and yet he answered our piddling Craig's List ad.

Drawing, painting, digital, paper, film, whatever, no job seems too big or small for as he stressed himself, it is all BUSINESS to him. From what I gather he does very well and is happy in his chosen work. When I asked gingerly about signing contracts and non-disclosures he barked his hearty assent because he is ever prepared to sue any customer who fails to pay up. No sensitive artiste he.

As an aside, before the end of last school year, my son's freshman year, the kids have to submit a preliminary course selection for the coming year. Art class is popular because most kids consider it a gut course and so it is difficult to get into. With a view to insuring him a seat I had him approach the art teacher with a portfolio and pitch about how much he loves art, desires proper instruction and would be a model student for her who actually wants more than anything to learn what she can offer figuring most teachers truly do want to teach somebody who wants to learn. Especially something like art, right?

As I suspected she would be, she was ecstatic but sadly pointed out that she has NO INPUT into who gets into her class. None, zip, nada. Their rationale is not dissimilar to the thinking Orlet describes. The logic over there seems to be egalitarian nonsense that "art is for everybody" and so they cannot pick and choose who gets a shot even though very few do it well and far fewer well enough to make it pay. No matter, our "educators" choose to pursue the noble ideal over the practical and real. Just one more little example of how our schools fail our kids. We will not know until just before school restarts whether he's made it in. Regardless of what the school does my son will find his way.

And so in less than 24 hours I have seen clearly the trajectory of a modern, paying career in "art", how one enters that world and it all looks nothing like the feel good world Orlet describes.

CalMark| 7.15.11 @ 2:41PM

Read the article. Or do you just want to brag about your kid? (Tacky, that.)

Orlet is talking about "feel good" make-work, force-feeding skills with limited real-world application. He's not talking about someone like your son finding their life's path in art.

Occam's Tool| 7.15.11 @ 9:47PM

Cal,

Slight Disagreement. It is never tacky to brag about one's children in this child unfriendly age, especially when deserved. We need to encourage production and growth of kids.

But Cal is right on the second point. This make work is simply Liberal masturbation. Your son, on the other hand, sounds like a peach.

Mark Shepler| 7.18.11 @ 8:39AM

Errr, I did read the article. Perhaps you should follow your own advice and read my post before commenting on it. That way you'd know that we're in perfect agreement and you wouldn't come off as a nasty ass. But then, you're used to that, eh CalMark? It is replete with juxtapositions of how people, from my beginner son to a consummate pro, begin and prosper in "art" from that time wasting nonsense of the feel-good, make-work world of "art" Orlet describes.

My two cents is to confirm Orlet's piece but comes from the other direction, that's all. I only use my son because he just happens to be a living example springing up organically before my eyes and it is HE who has the right view of it as a life's work. Nobody taught him that expressly , he's just figured it out, not the least the very people in his life, the so-called "educators". Put him together with the artist I'm working with and one can see plainly how a young person with native talent can make it pay and, again, that path looks nothing like the foolishness Orlet decrys.

Doctor Right| 7.15.11 @ 2:42PM

Make sure he keeps a nice, crisp copy of all of his work so he can begin building his portfolio!

And tell him something I wish someone had told me when I was 15;

"Find a job doing something you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life."

Mark Shepler| 7.18.11 @ 8:46AM

Will do. Thanks. But that last bit cuts two ways too you know. It's music to a slackers ears!

Occam's Tool| 7.15.11 @ 9:49PM

See if he can audit an evening art class at the local Community College.

Mark Shepler| 7.18.11 @ 8:48AM

THAT is a good idea. Thanks.

Darling| 7.16.11 @ 9:47AM

I feel sorry for you

Mark Shepler| 7.18.11 @ 8:41AM

Oh, please little Darling, don't trouble yourself. I've been posting since the bad 'ol days of ANSI BBSs. I don't take the insults or pity of anonymous gripers to heart.

JFGalt| 7.15.11 @ 12:57PM

Most art today is crap and most artists appear to be con-artists looking for a "patron" to fund their lives. Pissing on canvas is not art. A naked person sitting on the floor with a strainer on their head while holding a flashlight is not art. A canvas painted all red is not art. A friend of mine that went to art school was scoffed at by students and faculty because his meticulously crafted pencil or charcoal sketches of highly realistic roman ruins were inferior to the lines and squiggles done at the last minute before the teacher would come into the class. The students would make up some nonsense as to what it was supoosed to represent and thus be praised. The junk they would produce would be loved by the NEA and would garner funding for nonsensical purposes. More importantly most of these artists knew that they were scamming the system. My friend did well in commercial art and later advertising but I'll never forget the insight he gave me into the chicanery and BS he saw in the art world.

John Navratil| 7.15.11 @ 1:05PM

JFGalt,

But welding re-bar onto a muffler and painting it to look like a dachshund... now THAT's art! Glue some sequins around like a dog collar and that's HIGH art!

Doctor Right| 7.15.11 @ 2:44PM

"A naked person sitting on the floor with a strainer on their head while holding a flashlight is not art."

Bummer...

CalMark| 7.15.11 @ 3:02PM

Sure it is...if you've got NEA sponsorship.

John Navratil| 7.15.11 @ 4:20PM

Doctor Right,

I suppose it depends on who the person is... Porizkova or Pelosi? Mila Kunis or Michulski?

Occam's Tool| 7.16.11 @ 4:26PM

John,

Pelosi holding the flashlight would be a work of horror on an artistic par with Dracula.

Mark MacDonald| 7.15.11 @ 12:59PM

Hilarious, if it were not so sad. Fortunately, the Hispanics in my neck of the woods are learning construction skills.

PattyMor| 7.15.11 @ 1:10PM

How many starving artists do we need? As many as the market will bear as long as they're doing it on their own dime. On mine, NONE.

uncle curmudgeon| 7.15.11 @ 1:14PM

Two comments:
guilt-ridden trust-funders? If only. Around here most of these "programs" are run by professional grant money hawks and "service" vendors from the non-prof sector. ACORN provides as good a model as any for what these people do. The money goes to the 501-3-c while the "poor" play the part of the poster children. De-fund them all, sez me.
As for minority set asides, around here the SWAM (a technical term) companies are often headed by people who have no knowledge or experience in either business or a specific trade. Yet they will be awarded contracts worth substancial amounts, with the expected performance results. But, like Sgt. Schultz, nobody knows nuh-sink about the cause of the on-site problems. Dump SWAMs as well, sez me.

Oldefarte| 7.15.11 @ 1:42PM

Anyone can become an ARTIST....just open up a can of wall paint, throw it's contents against a canvas, and call it your MASTERPIECE!!!!!!!!

Steve in Pittsburgh| 7.15.11 @ 4:48PM

Journey is a bad 80s rock band, not a bad 70s rock band.

Actually, I kind of like them. Sometimes.

Steve in Pittsburgh| 7.15.11 @ 4:52PM

And Skid Row was a cool 80s rock band.

Richard Baker| 7.15.11 @ 5:36PM

Did you ever notice that with the affluence we have here in the US we're overrun with "artists?" Wonder how much the Federal dollar has to do with the glut of these sick, lame, and lazy folks. Can you imagine the reaction of a Michelangelo or da Vinci to the existence of these parasites?

Thomas Baker| 7.16.11 @ 3:46PM

I create paintings (thomasbakerpaintings.com), and each one takes maybe 200 hours of hard, careful work. I don't feel sick, lame, or lazy.

The government doesn't pay me to do it.

And people buy them.

BackToBasics| 7.18.11 @ 1:24AM

Very nice work. I am not an artist but I like the classical style the best. I've sometimes wondered if the impressionists and modern artists did their work that way since it took less time than classical art and therefore they could make more art pieces and hopefully more money? I've seen early works by some and they could do classical art but quickly delved into the more modern methods. So much of the modern paintings and sculptures look like junk to me.

podbaydoors| 7.15.11 @ 5:50PM

Boy, won't make any friends in the "Arts" community with that, but it's not far from the mark. Oh yes, I spent a glorious youth wasting time as a self styled artiste. Lots of fun if you have parents willing to underwrite your escapades.

podbaydoors| 7.15.11 @ 5:51PM

Jackson Pollock?

POST American| 7.15.11 @ 10:36PM

AGAIN---RE: Art and Lawrence

IF you've studied the backgournd you
are surely aware, that since the church, and
the old system of nobe patronage were destroyed
---the 'patrons' of art in America and the
West for most of last century have been the utra-rich, and the
'benny violent' foundations
---virtually one and all following the Freemasonic
agenda of cutural degradation, demoralization
and takedown.

See, you failed to protect the sanctity of
church doctrine, you stood by ike an idiot
as your churches were infitrated by Rockefeller
'moral values' ---you've taken in stealth
programming on every level your whole
lives, you've acquiesced, you've gone along
----and now beauty, art and your culture
are ---GONE.

----So, keep enjoying the porn n' playoffs.

Just lie back.

---------------It'll ALLLL be over soon.

Until ETERNITY begins in earnest--------------

Ivan Ivanovich| 7.16.11 @ 6:25AM

Good job Mr. Orlet
You hit on 2 things in my life. My Grandpa told me about driving game towards the Tzar during a hunting trip. He hid behind a tree when the shooting started. I am an apprentice graduate, programmer, engineering supervisor, sales engineer, Account Executive, now retired. I can draw lines, circles, ellipses, but I don't do art.

Darling| 7.16.11 @ 8:23AM

play nice | 7.16.11 @ 12:41PM

Speaking of "concrete", years ago I went to the MOMA in LA. In one of the bedroom sized rooms the floor had been dug up leaving a mattress sized hole, the broken concrete scattered about. I asked the guard what happened that the floor had to be dug up...he said it was one of the exhibits.

Rowdy Boots| 7.16.11 @ 11:23AM

Nice Point!

I run two acting companies and I get no GOV FUNDING, nor do I want it.

I am a Free Market Artist who has to compete with these GOD DAMNED arts programs funded by the NEA.

I think the NEA should be turned into the PCEA (PLUMBER, CARPENTER ENDOWMENT AGENCY).

When actors and designers get 20-40 million dollars a picture, it is time to stop funding the arts...there are no jobs anyway...

IF THAT WAS DONE MY COMPANIES WOULD BE ABLE TO COMPETE.

GOD DAMN THE NEA~!

ROWDY BOOTS
THEATER PRODUCER

Rowdy Boots| 7.16.11 @ 11:23AM

Nice Point!

I run two acting companies and I get no GOV FUNDING, nor do I want it.

I am a Free Market Artist who has to compete with these GOD DAMNED arts programs funded by the NEA.

I think the NEA should be turned into the PCEA (PLUMBER, CARPENTER ENDOWMENT AGENCY).

When actors and designers get 20-40 million dollars a picture, it is time to stop funding the arts...there are no jobs anyway...

IF THAT WAS DONE MY COMPANIES WOULD BE ABLE TO COMPETE.

GOD DAMN THE NEA~!

ROWDY BOOTS
THEATER PRODUCER

Longplay| 7.16.11 @ 7:18PM

Right on, Rowdy. The arts in the U.S. were demonstrably better before the NEA started funding it.

GatorRay| 7.17.11 @ 2:26PM

Hmmm, remember all the "art" foisted on America by FDR in the 30's? Wonder why Libutards answer to every economic crisi is GUV funded "art"?

Richard Baker| 7.16.11 @ 5:10PM

Thomas:
Testy, aren't we? My comment was regarding those sick, lame, and lazy who DO take the Federal dollar.

Thomas Baker| 7.17.11 @ 2:06AM

Oh. OK. My bad.

Longplay| 7.16.11 @ 7:16PM

Other than Catherine being a babe, I couldn't care less about these two. It's appalling that U.S. citizens dote over royalty. Regarding the promotion of the "arts", I'm always reminded of the decades-old program in the Netherlands wherein the government buys the unsellable dreck produced by starving "artists" and stores the junk in what appears to be the same warehouse where Indiana Jones' Lost Ark has once again been lost. But not to worry, as the Brits would say, Nancy Pelosi thinks this is just great. All of these artists can now "find themselves" without having to worry about such bothersome things as paying for healthcare. Only, of course, because the rest of us working stiffs who actually produce things are paying for it.

phat shantz| 7.16.11 @ 7:17PM

I don't care what you call it. If someone will pay you for the PRODUCT, then you can make a living. If not, then you are a parasite.

Since we don't, as a culture, encourage smoking anymore, what do the underprivileged kids in the ghetto make out of their clay in art class? At least in the 1960s we could expect them to take home a nice ashtray.

Kingofthenet| 7.17.11 @ 2:20PM

Good Lord, Yes it is a CRIME to try to expand a under-privileged kids mind, just teach him the basics, like how to mop a bathroom floor or how to properly sell Crack.

Kingofthenet| 7.17.11 @ 2:23PM

All art should be like the Rethugs FAVORITE artist, the super successful 'Painter of Light' Thomas Kinkade, that's some quality stuff right there...

BackToBasics| 7.17.11 @ 5:41PM

From the article "....Recently, my wife gave me an article that describes how to nurture your child’s "spark":"

Sounds familiar. Sounds like the "everyone's a genius", "feel-good-about-yourself " curriculums in today's public schools. This unearned feel-good attitude quickly changes into a no-nothing arrogance on the part of many young people who are not even aware of how little they really know.

Tina B| 7.17.11 @ 7:15PM

Yeppers.

BackToBasics| 7.18.11 @ 1:31AM

And if the student moves and the student is a boy they can just give him some Ritalin. It's so sad to see what they are doing to so many kids.

Karin O'Brien| 7.18.11 @ 5:00PM

I think Mr. Orlet is playing the provocateur here and is really just pulling our leg/s. He himself is a writer and amateur philosopher, and a contributor to 2 books of essays, one of which is called Vocabula Bound 2: Our Wresting, Writhing, Tongue. I should think someone like Mr. Orlet, our wresting, writhing, tongue indeed, knows the importance of art in life even if it is the life of a poor person.