A few weeks ago I went to hear Matt Wagner talk as part of Creative Mornings, a lecture series for the creative community. Matt is an owner and curator at Hellion Gallery here in Portland, and is a strong advocate for the arts.
In his talk, he compared the artist to the plumber, both hired for a specific purpose, both well versed in their fields, yet one you pay no questions asked and the other you always want to haggle down to a lower price. The idea of a starving artist has become so romanticized in our culture that people use that as an excuse to not pay for art. But art is important and has just as much value as an unclogged drain. In his gallery, Matt helps artists find life long careers instead of having to live from show to show with a different day job.
Theres me, front and center.
It was inspiring to hear how much people care about art. He also said some things about how lots of artists don't fully believe in what their doing but that no matter what, things we create do have value. Made me think that maybe I should get back into doing more art.
I look forward to checking out his gallery soon and attending the next Creative Mornings talk coming up this Friday!
You can listen to his whole lecture on the Creative Mornings website - here