Homemakers have an artistic advantage?
8 October 2008 5 Comments
A brief email exchange with Sarah Hempel this afternoon reminded me of a thought coursing my brain for a few weeks now. It might get me in trouble with some types; please just realize that all I’m doing here is relaying my own personal observations with respect to the business of art in America in 2008.
Sarah pointed out that her husband with a good job pays for the groceries, which is a good thing because the art market sucks. She doesn’t make a living with her commissions. “Skill and talent have nothing to do with being a successful artist,” she rightly laments. “I know plenty of crappy artists who have shows every week. That makes me depressed honestly. And the relationship that the protestant church has with the arts makes me depressed.” Tim Jones posted today from Ars Catholica something similar:
By universalizing the spirit of opposition, the avant-garde’s project has transformed the practice of art into a purely negative enterprise, in which art is either oppositional or it is nothing. Celebrity replaces aesthetic achievement as the goal of art.
But Sarah’s point is that she eats by her husband’s good job, and that’s the point I want to build on.
Does the spouse, commonly the wife in American culture, who stays home have an advantage as an artist in a lot of cases? I know things are changing, or were changing (some for the better and some for the worse in my opinion, but that’s also not what this post is about), such that more women are working and more men staying home. Which is why I titled this post using “homemakers,” a theoretically gender-neutral term.
Regardless of these changes, the man usually feels an innate pressure to bring home the bacon. It’s difficult to do that as an artist, so if a man wants to be both an artist and a husband/father, he’s likely to suffer a day job. Wives’ responsibilities then include rearing the children and keeping the home, traditionally, but it seems to me there is the potential in their days for studio time not always allowed a husband/father after he comes home from the office — particularly after they’re in school. (My wife thinks I’m underestimating the time kids take, which is probably true since we’ve not been blessed with them yet.) Further, the children may be out of the house years before the bread-winner is able to retire. This could allow a wife or stay-at-home dad a lot of time for artwork.
Let me emphasize that every family culture is different. Some are more flexible than others. Some marriages don’t involve children. Others involve small tribes of chillun. Some can be dominated by health issues. I’m speaking in generalizations, just thinking out loud here.
Sandra Bowden, as I recall from her gallery talk at JBU a couple years ago, was unabashedly thankful for her husband’s good job, which allowed her to play around liberally in her studio. There was a point at which her husband noted that her studio supplies were costing a lot of money and it would be nice if she could sell some things to help recover those costs. She prayed to this effect, and although she’s never made a mint on her works she’s covered her costs ever since then.
This isn’t a matter of fairness as some might conclude. I’m not whining that my wife gets spend more time with her fiber arts than I do with my sculpture because she works less. What it boils down to is an American culture where people with artistic passion and gifts can’t use those in the most expressive and culturally profitable ways because they have to pay the bills. And there aren’t easily had opportunities in the art market to make a living painting or sculpting. Sure, we can get graphic design jobs and grind out the day in front of a computer, being somewhat creative.
But that’s not what we, as tactile artists, want to be doing. And I’d argue that culture at large is missing out on significant, important artistic additions to the visual environment by not fostering a reasonable art market.
Good thoughts. I’ve considered, too, that a day might come where I might do art full-time, not because I can support myself, but because my husband and myself can support us. Not sure how I feel about that, and would love for my art to support me. As it is, I grind through my own day job.
Art is becoming, or has become, luxury rather than necessity. And with art and music programs disappearing from schools… will be interesting to see how and when people discover their creativity, and what happens then.
aclose friend worked as a stay at home father from his boys’early years. At the same time, he served as a caregiver for his Mother-in-Law who was suffering with Alzheimers. His days were taken up with his family work, and he burned the candle at the other end by being in his studio until late at night, and got by with scant sleep. On days when his wife was at home, he withdrew into the studio, locked himself in and immersed himself in his painting. He mounted four exhibitions of his work during this time. Since his sons have grown up and left the family home he returned to working at his design business during the week, and entrenched in his habit of doing late-night work for so many years has kept up making art. His recent work is both tremendously developed and daring for a man of his years – he is stretching and extending his boundaries and is producing the best work of his life so far, in my opinion.
Whether one works outside the home or inside the home, the only thing that guarantess growth and development as an artist is the habitual blowing on the coals, by committed work and time to the process – this takes self-discipline and putting down the devils of self-doubt and discouragement. G
Working as an architect is just grinding it out Julie? Some days I’m sure it is, but I’m surprised to hear you say that. Probably just looking at the profession I bypassed through rose-colored glasses though . . .
Unfortunately, the number of professional female artists is staggeringly small, especially among those who stay home with children. I have the luxury right now, but we don’t have children yet. Once our baby is in the home, I don’t know that I’ll be getting any artwork done.
I’ve had male artists comment that it’s a shame that I’m choosing to be a mom instead of a 100% full-time sculptor. It’s a shame that I have to make that choice. Do I choose my vocation as an artist over my vocation of a mother?
Having to make those kinds of choices is part of what makes adulthood icky IMO, but we can’t do everything we want to, most of us, unless our interests are few and very specific.