Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:56:06 -0700 To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org From: The Independent Eye <eye-AT-independenteye.org> Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Money does NOT corrupt Art >Here I'm hoping to start the debate about money (and abundance) again. >This time, the aspect I want us to tackle is the belief that money corrupts >art. >Please, tells us what you think, and please-please, give us your real-life >examples. Well, actually, I think that's not a very active cultural meme any more. It hangs around and belches now and then, but few pay it any attention. But anyway, a couple of personal thoughts: 1. If I had money, I'd be doing the same work I am now, but I'd hire assistance. 2. I've done things on commission, e.g. for a science museum, and I made some some decent money, had a chance to explore interesting territory, got a lot of appreciation. I enjoyed that, but it had no effect on the work that I feel compelled to do. It was an affair, not a marriage. 3. The way money corrupts art: someone taking a song people love and making it into a commercial. Art can't be corrupted till it exists. The question is whether the artist can be corrupted. 4. "Corrupted" I guess means failing to do some greater work you want to do and are capable of. Could Elvis have been a greater musical performer if his manager hadn't pushed him into those cheesy movies? Would F. Scott Fitzgerald have written better novels if he hadn't gone to Hollywood? Who knows? They did what they did, and they chose to do it, and maybe that's what was in them to do. 5. I spoke yesterday to a painter who's feeling the financial pinch pretty severely, and her gallery had told her she'd sell better if her paintings were brighter, more upbeat. So now she has a show upcoming and is having a hell of a time finishing a couple of things because she can't just automatically turn on "Upbeat" but at the same time she can't dismiss the marketability thing from her head. That's sorta corruption without compensation. 6. We built resident theatre operations in Milwaukee, then in Lancaster, PA, then in Philadelphia, and pulled out of each of them after 5 years, 15 years, and 7 years respectively. We left each of these when it became clear that, for one reason or another, it was no longer the right circumstance for our work as it evolved. The sacrifice wasn't so much the money as the stability and the resources. I don't see any sort of inherent virtue in these decisions, and they certainly weren't wise career moves, but I wouldn't have been effective any longer if I hadn't made them. 7. We (Elizabeth & I) made a fair bit of money on a couple of plays we wrote that were pretty depressing, and supported ourselves for nearly 9 years touring a piece that was probably the ugliest play I've ever even thought of writing. Our absolute sure-fire comedies went nowhere beyond their first productions. 8. You'll be swayed by whatever you're most hungry for. Some people create *to* the market - and that's true whether it's mainstream or "cutting-edge," frivolous or portentious - and some people just happen to be instinctively attuned to the next big thing. I envy them, because if it's skilled work it'll have an audience, recognition, all that. I don't have that sense of smell, and I don't avoid success in order to stay pure: I just do the work I have a calling to do, am able to do, and then try to make it seen. Peace & joy- Conrad B. -- Visit our website at <http://www.independenteye.org> for our performance schedule scripts & photo archives books & CDs our radio series "Hitchhiking off the Map" and our weekly weblog on the creation of a live-animation TEMPEST for 2009 _______________________________________________ List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit Archives: http://www.driftline.org
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