Thin Lines and artists

There is this thin line right between love and hate? Found out, same said thin line exists between a guy who is fighting a problem and the same guy becoming that problem he is fighting. Let me explain.

Take religion. Religions generally are born because of some sort of reaction to an existing religion or practice that was starting to oppress. Like Budhism and Jainism were reactions to prevalent oppressive Hindu society. First the new religion really has the right spirit. As it gets bigger and bigger, it loses the essense that made it different and "right" in the first place. Know what I mean? It becomes the enemy it was born to fight in the first place.

Take politics. How many poor suckers join politics to fight the corrupt politicians? How many of them become "one of THEM"?

Take art. Creativity and individualism is at the core of being an artist. As a student the artist learns the basic techniques of his art form. He faithfully copies his teacher and the current accepted "evolutions" of the art form. Think - studying picasso, monet, van gogh's styles. Then at some point he rebels against the accepted. He discovers the creativity within. Maybe he gets inspired by something, but then wants to re-interpret it in his own way. Take it a little further, maybe in a different direction. Said artform now changes for ever, doesn't it? I mean, picasso changed how the world view art...

He is lucky - the world accepts it, says "Wah wah" and he is the toast, the creme-de-la-creme, cream of the crop, next best thing, he deserves the "padma bhushan" yaar... His creative evolution of the art is "accepted". Now he becomes part of the "system" - he has a vested interest in keeping his interpretation "legal" while other contemporaries are upstarts, nincompoops and they are blaspheming the art into something "illegal". The world agrees with you, until the next upstart that comes along that is able to turn their mind.

Now, what is wrong with that you say? Well, at some point, these artists are bloody humans too. For every guy who becomes the king of the world, there are hundreds that dont make it. You get the partronage, your art is legal, and somehow the artist in you probably dies a little, coz you want to keep your status quo... You dont get the patronage, you end up hungry and bitter, and probably, still stay an artist :-)

The world judges the artist and chooses to reward the artist with their partronage, or punish the artist with their indifference. Judging or critiquing art does not "make sense" IMHO it is all about your personal, subjective reaction to what the artist shows you. Its what "turns you on" and "floats your boat", man.

But, what to do now? The world is going to judge, the critics are going to judge, and the poor artist cannot do a thing about that - he is going to have to LIVE the result of that judgement.