October 21, 2004
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So I’ve been thinking a lot about Pride. It’s such a messy, sticky word, so it’s easy to think about for long periods of time. It’s not long before you get caught up in the confusing line between arrogance and confidence.
I came to the conclusion that artists are proud. As a word in our defence: we have to be. You have to be almost arrogant to be sucessful at all as an artist. Think about it, art is a market. It is completely dependent on all the laws of a market- supply and demand. To sell art, there has to be a demand for it. Because art is so subjective, a demand for art has to be created. It’s not a need. (Well, I will qualify that by saying that we all have a need for beauty, but individual, specific art forms only represent one way to meet that need.) And if it is not a need, the artist has to create some other demand for the work. That is why he has to be proud. It is the artist’s confidence that his work is beautiful and that his work is needed that sells the art and makes him sucessful.
So if Art is dependent on Confindence- on essentially Pride, how can we rectify its existance given what prophets like Ezra Taft Benson have said: “Pride is the universal sin, the great vice” (Beware of Pride, 1989)
Comments (3)
I couldn’t be a professional artist… who can put a price on a piece of their own mind, their soul? Usually in those cases some expert that the artist hires gives the artist an idea on how much they could sell their work for, also in some cases the people buying it put the price to it. But aren’t words great?
i acknowledged you in my search paper, dan. be proud. (the good kind of proud that comes from helping a friend
)
Humility is the antidote for pride. Humility is not being weak. One can be grateful and acknowledge the talents that he/she has been given by the Creator.
I think Chirst is the ultimate artist. no pride there. I’m sure he was “well pleased”.
Having confidence in order to sell art is good. It doesn’t mean your head has to be huge. Maybe I didn’t understand why you say that an artist has to be arrogant.. Hmm…