Pretty high flying title, huh? Takes me back to the Ivory Tower. Whereas my friends in academe strive ever harder toward abstraction, I trudge toward the essential. Not very post-modern, but certainly adventurous. I do believe that after the French we buy into Post-Modernism more wholesale than any other national culture. I dare say that historically we embraced its tenets more readily than our amis. Simply put, our single revolution in which we became a republic predated the three it took the French by fourteen years.
By becoming a republic, the idea was that every boy, and girl (Thank you Geena Davis!), could grow up to be President. Quite different from hereditary monarchy. The seeds of this possibilty were sown by the Puritans. The Puritan's departure from the old world set the stage for so many cultural legacies in America. Least of not was the conceit that one could and should reinvent oneself. This was unheard of in Europe. And still is to a certain degree. In America, ambition became virtuous. Along with our Puritan forebears came many a forger, thief, con artist and philanderer. Process was tossed aside for bigger, better, more convenient, more profitable. Old world customs of apprenticeship quickly gave way to self-starting. Guilds and unions were disdained and the corporation (the idea that an incorporated business warrants the rights of an individual is really quite astounding) was born and exalted.
These are very broad strokes, I realize. Fast-forward to the present day. Combine the fruits of an ambitious couple of centuries and the legacy of self-reinvention and voila you've got a lot of people that want to be artists. And they want to be artists because they say they are artists. Their process involves little more than a declaration. Throw in some help from having watched a few films or perused a few websites and books (think non-fiction, Becoming a Master Artist For Dummies type books). Better still, many are armed with a reawakened conviction born in childhood that they always wanted to be a ( ). Funny that, since we all have grown up with television and have been inundated with entertainment and images of taking leisure.
I just spent the weekend with my eighty-three year old grandmother. She was born on a South Dakota farm. Didn't eat at a restaurant until after she had my father and didn't own a television until the 60s. A vanishing breed to be sure.
Anyway we seem to think we can just jump into things. We presume that self-will and ambition will supercede process. "I'll figure it out." "I'll have to see once I get into it." "No problem." Ready for a really good one? "Just Do It."
Poppycock and arrogance. Stuff and nonsense, as my British wife scoffs.
Don't get me wrong. It's a wonderful thing to live in a society so affluent as to afford the luxury to reinvent oneself. I'm just spouting off to remind myself and those I work with that though we have certain freedoms, we are not free from responsibility.
As aspiring artists we must deflate our ambitions and egos and find the starting point if we are to become anything more than poseurs or hobbyists. No shame in the latter, by the by. We must also remember that what we first assume to be the departure point is probably way ahead of our abilities. We must remain humble and teachable. We must be un-American.
God Bless America,
Signore Direttore
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