Why artists are underrated
Magritte proudly said – “Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist” which can’t be more true.
Look around yourself, you won’t find a single place that’s devoid of art or does not hold the potential to inspire an artist. And isn’t it’s said that God is the ultimate artist with this world and us are nothing but his mere creative creations. All in all, we have enough proof around ourselves to say this with certainty that mankind can’t survive without art.
Yet! In this artistic world, art is so underrated. Almost everyday, someone somewhere kills the artist in himself/herself and decides to be a puppet of the corporate world. Words of parents and relatives saying “In sab me kuch nahin rakha” to their children who want to pursue a career in Arts echoes in probably every second Indian household. And perhaps that wouldn’t have been a case if art was not so underrated in this world of ours.
And whose fault is that?
Mine and yours of course.
Why are artists so underrated?
- Scary Struggle
Entering a corporate world and landing oneself with a 9 to 5 job is comparatively easier than creating a name for oneself in say among writers, painters, dancers etc.
- No Money
Yes, the art field is underrated and the reasons for why it’s underrated run in circles. No one appreciates art much and hence it’s not paid or underpaid. Since it’s an underpaid job, no one likes to get in the field. Since there’s no demand for art jobs, there’s not much supply and hence the less pay.
- Abba nahi maante
A lot of families discourage their children from pursuing arts. And artist really can’t survive when discouragement gets greater than inspiration.
- Artists bhai bhai nahi.
The biggest of all is, each artist sees each other as competition and not a companion of their art community. Each one of us thrives to succeed ”more” than others, and hence that’s the root of the problem.
There are hundreds of other great and small reasons that art survives so feebly in our country.
“Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits, and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
So what can we do to feed the art until it’s a giant walking on our grounds? Loads of things!
- Open mics and artist meetups
These things are a huge success to encourage an art culture in our society.
All the huge ones like Kommune, Unerase poetry, and small and local ones like My Creative Adda, Hub the Club, etc, contribute a great deal to such a noble cause. All it needs is drive to run such events, and appreciative and participative artists!
- Abba should understand.
It is okay if our parents don’t really understand our pursuits, for they were raised in different settings and backgrounds, and they sure want to see their children succeed, but they should understand and let their children choose the path they desire.
- Social media
Now okay okay okay, before you curse this author, let me be clear. Yes, social media today favours and popularises weird and shit content which sometimes literally are senseless, but that’s because people watch such content. So many artists are out there, if each one of us stop watching the nuisance and support each other, who’s to stop the artists from growing?
Plus, social media do help artists as well, but nothing comes without hard work and struggle.
- Support the community as whole.
Ghar ghar me dushmani se mahabharat ho jaati hai. We artists need to stop seeing each other as competition but a family that ought to grow together.
Afterall, that’s what they teach us in childhood.
Together we rise, divided we fall. And it’s better to have the skies with a few other birds than not have a sky at all.
I am sure there must be a million other solutions out there, and I leave this to the imagination of the artist in you. Believe that if you can create something so gorgeous as art, you can also bring the entire world to their knees to watch it! Just don’t abandon your art, because all the other artists need it as much as you.