Art is ever present in our daily lives (Abinuman, 2017). It ranges its origins way back from when our species lived in cave up until now where we live in concrete houses. The ever-present art is born in new forms everyday or evolves from something already existing. What people, not all but an alarming amount still nonetheless, fail to realize is that we will not be here without it. After all, the greatest inventions and innovations of mankind were not made without creativity.
One may have heard of the names Vincent van Gogh, Juan Luna, or Leonardo da Vinci. If not, then they may have been disconnected with the world. The names previously mentioned are famous artists of the world, the painting kind of artists by the way. It is easy to name artists who are famous and known years ago. But what about now? Who are the famous artists of the current time? It’s hard to name someone famous who is not dead yet.
It may not be noticeable to a lot of people, but the art world has its trends just like the other worlds and communities. There are new names but same trends (Sheets, 2017). There are prejudices and inequality everywhere and we cannot seem to eliminate that. Most known artists, old and new (dead or alive), are male which is a sign of the patriarchal world we live in. They are also mostly white. And most probably of the European or American heritage.
The problems do not start nor end with these global trends, the foundation of those who want to pursue art happens early. The lack of support from the people around us can make quite the impact. They are uninformed on how people make a living out of it. Artists are also shamed or ridiculed for having unoriginal artworks which is a great problem since having an original idea is unconventional because corporations tend to sell what is sure to sell and an original idea is a gamble to their finance or stock market place. Corporations fear creativity for its power to knock off their constants, whether it’s power, standings, or even prices (Topic, 2012). These are just some of the reasons why artists are discouraged from art or from exploring their art further (Abinuman, 2017).
Another problem students face is the ‘unimportance’ of art subjects in school. The art, music, and humanities department are often dubbed as minor compared to the math and sciences dubbed as majors. The society has been programmed to credit the academic skills over the creative ones. Figures and terms and numbers often deemed useful compared to creativity called as wasting time. Due to this way of thinking, less people go to arts and less jobs are created for those with art degrees (Fearon, 2015). This led to schools and universities putting less to no prioritizing and funds of the programs inclined to art (Higgins, 2015). With lack of opportunities for employment, there comes the competition over position of the same expertise (Benitez, 2016).
The problems mentioned before are not all we face but just some. The last problem to be tackled in this article is about the rates. One would think that with all the hard work, expensive equipment and education, artists would get at least a decent amount of money. No. I should be like that but no, that’s not how the world functions. People expects low rates because they think our work are not as valuable. When artists charge a proper rate, they are mostly seen as arrogant or ungrateful. While it is true that printing a work is easy, creating it didn’t take just whatever time we took in doing it. There are hundreds of thousands of pesos invested in our education and equipment (Manucom, 2015). To simply ask for a lower rate over a commission (or something as ridiculous as a shout out over social media) is like asking a doctor to operate you in the heart for only one thousand pesos (or a shout out which is just as ridiculous).
In conclusion, artists started becoming undervalued some time ago and it only got worse since then. Many have suffered because of this. Students, professionals, and those dreamers with broken dreams. The industry of art is hard because that’s how the world made it be. And in this financial world we live in, who has the money to “waste” on “simple designs”. And don’t misunderstand. That statement has sarcasm written all over it.
It’s no wonder why artists are undervalued today.
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