Our tutorial today was focused on professional vs unprofessional. Using the Miro board, we perhaps predictably, all mainly wrote negative views about being unprofessional person and positive tags about being professional.
We were then asked to read an article by an arts writer Andrew Bernardino about being an in professional artist. He writes for Art Review and Art Forum etc. The article can be found here.
https://momus.ca/how-to-be-an-unprofessional-artist/ This was equating professionalism to almost capitalism and rather scathing of it. “Professionalism makes a person into a brand. The cynical think this has already happened: our slightest movement tracked for personalized advertisements, our declarations and photographs that we share with others all branded and branding, self-awareness as commerce.” He further states: “Unprofessionalism is asserting our right to be human against this machine.”
I agree only in as far as I don’t think art should be made to order. A number of artists feel they have two practices: the commercial one (used to pay the bills) and the one they have a passion for (minimum market maybe).
Bernardino I noticed didn’t hesitate to bolster his own credentials and achievements at the end of the article. “A finalist for the Premio Bonaldi and winner of an Andy Warhol/Creative Capital Grant for Art Writers in 2013, he has a book forthcoming from Mousse on artist Danh Vo.”
I think the article was written to be controversial. For example, it’s just manifestly untrue that a professional never does anything wrong. We’re all human so imperfect. But this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to do things to the best of our individual ability. I accept that we all have different standards and it’s fair to ask who decides on what the standards are. We debated this in our groups.
In the online text I felt that being on time was important. If a time is agreed everyone should be there. Someone put up that they are late because of ADHD. I understand this can be debilitating as my grandson has it and finds organisation really difficult. If this is the case then it should be made clear to the group so that someone could phone in advance to remind them or something. I’ve always felt that if five people are waiting for someone who is 10 minutes late that’s 50 minutes of lost time for the project whatever it is.
I’m encapsulating this session by saying that the need to be professional, or seen to be professional, shouldn’t sacrifice the spontaneity and passion of the art. The art is central to- don’t try to shoehorn it into a perceived market.
Terrye Teverson MA Fine Art Digital 