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« Life Drawing aka Get Real | Main | My Vork Eet Ees Fabulous aka You should take eet all »
Fame aka Don't Fence Me In
by Jill Peckelun on 9/9/2009 2:53:06 PM
Springhouse
Fame, fame, fame. Every artist wants it. Or, do we?
I have some experience with fame. No, not me, personally but in some circles my Dad is a famous person, an icon, a hero for a time that needs heroes. Dad acquired his public stature late in life long after I was grown.
After Dad got popular in a big way it soon became apparent to me that the public who read about Dad or saw a portrayal of him on television or even himself in one of his public appearances came to believe that they really knew him intimately. Having observed a portrayal of a small portion of a peak life experience they extracted that they understood the entirety of him. No one is that one dimensional. (I remember one photographer rushing over to me and giddily asking, "So tell me, is he really just like a big teddy bear on the inside?" I replied, "No." while I thought, "You must be insane.")
Dad's well respected and deservedly so. We as a people need heroes to inspire us. On a personal level though- I think it would be a burden to try to live up to a public persona. We are all human, and we need to be allowed to express the entirety of our complex and often contradictory natures. We need to be allowed to explore, to experiment, to evolve. And that is an ongoing lifelong experience that is the very best of life itself.
I'm writing about this because while shooting the breeze with other artists and other people about artists we invariably come to the point in conversation where we measure the success of ourselves as artists. To many, that means fame. Fame after they're dead. Fame while they are alive. Fame that brings financial success and personal accolades.
The trouble with fame is that its so constricting. Would we still feel free enough to experiment with new ideas knowing that to do so we're likely to fall down a few times? And that the people who think we're famous might not like what we do? What a fix. It's tough enough not to get boxed in while I'm distinctly un-famous. As a plein air painter I often paint with other folks, or I draw from life with other artists. I've heard a number of times: "That (piece) doesn't look like you. You don't paint that way."
And yet, obviously, I do paint that way.
I like to experiment. I like to play. I like to look at things with a fresh eye so that it never becomes formulaic. I don't ever want to get bored doing what I love best to do. And that means that as I continue to work, my work will continue to change, continue to evolve. I suppose what I'd really like is for my work to be well known, but not particularly myself.
Fame ain't all it's cracked up to be. This is good news for all of us who are unlikely to achieve fame. Most of us don't have the grand moment of public recognition in life. That's not a failure. Most of us have thousands of small moments wherein we make choices that affect others around us and ourselves. We make someone smile. Give encouragement. Reach out. Try something new. Laugh at ourselves. Work hard. Work well. Work better than the day before.
It was the end of a long day and my friend's husband was tired and clearly wishing all of us would just go home. Someone asked him about his plans for the future. It's been years, but I still remember his reply: "I just do the best I can today and tomorrow will take care of itself."
Doing the best we can is all we can do. And its enough. Because its all we can do.
And that is how I measure success.
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| All images are copyright Jill Peckelun ....... Telephone: 484-350-3310...... Friend me on Facebook |
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I think we are in a sea change time. When economy, technology and opportunity all cross. What will happen? Who knows? Maybe the gallery system as we know it will totally change. As artists, we need to be thinking ahead of the change to survive.
Jan Crooker