"Art is not about selling, but about having something to say that´s worth telling"

This is the true story of how the artist can never win if they decide to enter and play the game called "art".
For in this game, even if  artist becomes a financial success,
they still lose.

This has lead to a movement were artists are opting out of this "art game" in an attempt rediscover the real meaning of art.

Such artists are realizing that art is not a game but in fact a journey. These artists are called "Pilgrim Painters"
I class myself as one them. 

From the very beginning there as always been snobbery in the art world and as such to be able to get your work shown in a gallery, or to be accepted in the so called "art world" has always been very difficult. 

You either need to have come from a well connected university, or you have connections in the industry itself.
The art world has an agenda, and if you do not fit in with this agenda then you simply will not be seen. You must play the game or you will get nowhere.



Anyone can become an artist. In fact everyone is born an artist.
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up".
Pablo Picasso .

Becoming an artist is not the problem.
It is when you want to live as an artist is when it comes difficult.

Beginners entering into this "earning a living" stage are almost always encouraged by friends and family who usually buy their work to show support.
After this they are usually encouraged to have an exhibition at the local library or perhaps a local cafe/restaurant.  They might sell some work but the prices they get for their work will not break anyone´s bank balance.
And as long as the fledgling artist is happy with getting low prices, then everything is OK.



However, if the fledgling artist is really serious then comes the next stage: 

Getting your foot in the door of an established gallery.

Suddenly the fledgling artist has to sell to people who do not know who they are and their prices are now much higher.
Now is the time the new artist finds out if their work is of any real value, I mean of value in the cold judgemental world of art and money.
Now is the time when the fledgling artist experiences the bitter sweet taste of success or the bitter sweet taste of rejection. But, as I aim to show, either way they still lose.
For their success or failure is based on one thing?
How many paintings they sold / how much money the gallery owner made from selling their work

Now comes the first bitter taste of their first experience in the art game.

If the new artist did not sell very well, or even sold nothing, then they can pretty much kiss their career goodbye before it has even started, because within a day or so, word will have gotten around and no gallery will ever touch them.

On the other hand, if they actually sold everything, then the artist suddenly realizes that 50% of their income goes to the galley owner. At first, agreeing to this does not seem so bad because the fledgling artist is usually happy just to have the opportunity to have an exhibition. But when you actually experience this, trust me you never forget it.

One might say, "Well the gallery owner has to make money too".  
Sure I agree, but let´s just continue down the path a little more of the successful fledgling artist and see what happens.

And so now our new artist is over the shock of their debut "sold out" exhibition. So what next?

Well now our fledgling artist has some money in bank but now they have no more paintings.
The work that they have just sold has taken tremendous emotional effort and no doubt taken a year or so of solid hard work to create. So now they find themselves back at square one of the game having to start from scratch.
And the money they made from their first exhibition will have to last them until they have completed their next body of work, which again could take another two years.
However, while they are trying to do this the gallery owner is constantly on the phone demanding more "of the same style work."

Now you know why the galleries are full of art that looks quick and easy to make.
"My daughter could make that!"

Then two things happen that our new star artist did not expect.

Being a creative person I should imagine our fledgling artist got into art because they had a creative spirit.
However, now they find themselves in the position of making the same stuff over and over again. So now they are no longer an creative person but a production machine who is simply churning out work in order to sell.

Well at least you are making a living right?
True, but can someone tell me what is the difference between this and just selling shares on the stockmarket?

Then three or four years down the line the gallery who represents you suddenly says:
"Oh sorry your style is no longer popular. There is a new person on the block.
I hope you invested your money wisely. Good bye and have a good life"

The art world is full of artists stories like this who are all bitter and angry. If they are lucky, they may have made a little bit of money but even so they feel disillusioned and cheated.

Only a handful of artists have managed to come out of this system and become super wealthy.
Some artists play the art game well, but later admit they become creatively dissatisfied and wonder what it was all about.
Their work sells but their art has no meaning. It has no meaning because they have lost that first creative feeling that lead then to being an artist in the first place. They might have money but inside their hearts are bleeding.

This is the art world that I know and have experienced first hand, and it the reason why I decided to get out of the whole "game" and re-look at what art was really about.

The real problem lies in that there has been a gradual deterioration in the understanding of what makes a work or art, a work of art. 

Many great art critics/historians, such as the Robert Hughes, who were never in it for the money, but because they genuinely loved art. Hughes understood what art was about and what it meant for the development of the human race. I know this because I met him when I was an art student back in 1982.



When Hughes died in 2012, his passing left a big hole in the art world, and without his guiding voice, art lost its direction, and even worse, its meaning.

Now the super rich art collectors were left to do with art whatever they wanted.
And what they did was to turn art into a game that only the rich can play with the artists themselves being the pawns that are readily sacrificed.
In this way they have corrupted what was once pure.
Rather like an amateur scientist messing around with the DNA just for the fun of it.
The result being creations of horror, a freak of nature, or a joke.
Thus the art world is in a total mess. 

The artist today has only two choices. 

(1) -Play the game and make art that they know will sell so that they can at least make a living.
Gallery owners love this kind of artist because they just want to make money.
This OK if this is what you want. But in my view you are no artist and your work is not art but a commodity and has no more meaning than that of decoration.
You will probably have some fun along the way, but not much. You might get some money at the end but eventually the cash cow runs dry and you are left as an empty person with some money in the bank. But the worst of all, is that the day always comes when you see a real artist work or art that blows you away and you feel envious and cheated. I have witnessed this happen with my own eyes.

(2) -Dedicate their lives to creating true original art never knowing if their work will be liked, accepted or can make a living from it. This usually means years of hard work developing skills, experimenting with colors, trying out ideas, designs and so on. Some of these might work but most will not.
Then, after years of dedication with virtually no income, they may one day make a break through and produce something quite new. At that moment their lives are filled with spiritual creative energy that I feel certain somehow goes out into the world and changes it for the better. I dont know exactly how it does this but I know it does.

Every great artist in history has dedicated their lives to their craft. Nothing has ever come easy. We now know from newly discovered documentation that it was not easy even for Michaelangelo. He too worked very hard to be able to create what he did.
If the artist to day truly wishes to make great art they must try to walk along side the footsteps of the giants but not in them. They must make their own path but be guided by the integrity of when art and artist were once pure.
For all of us make a unique footprint as we live out our lives.
In this way, art and life is a journey.



I heard about the slow movement of "Pilgrim Painters" whose aim was to restore the integrity of art once again and I was moved to join it.
Below is a short film telling about the Pilgrim artist movement and of my own work that I creative today which is in line with the spirit of this movement.

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"Art is not about selling, but about having something to say that´s worth telling"
Arthur Adamson

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