Punishing (?) our artists

Image of Annie Mae Young's (b. 1928) work clothes quilt with center medallion
created in 1976 with denim and corduroy.
This image is on the front of one of the promotional books that accompanies the touring quilts.

I know that some artists get rich. I know that. Like some athletes get rich. But they are very few and far between. We like to hold up the Jordans and the Rowlings of the world as examples so that we can sell the dream that if you follow what you love (practice enough, write in enough coffee shops), you will be rewarded, financially.

Unfortunately, the reality is that most artists can't even feed themselves with their art. Every artist that I know (personally) still does something else to live. And this is true even when the art is "famous."

For several years I was in a (paid) research group to study the Quilts of Gee's Bend. It looks like I made more researching than the artists themselves made from making these now wildly famous quilts. I mean, they are on postage stamps.

See this article on the new lawsuit brought by one of the quilters (Annie Mae Young) of several of the more "famous" quilts.

Admittedly, this was a big part of our study at Auburn: how these artists were not being helped (financially) by all of the fame brought to them by the white guys from Atlanta. We attempted to help, but found we had neither the power or money to go against the structures already in place. So, in the end, we became complicit in/to this structure.

Yet, this phenomenon does seem to speak to my doing/thinking pondering and how thinking is rewarded (at least in finances and in status) even while the doing is heralded. I figure I made over $15,000 studying these quilts while the creator made only $18,000.

And while I also attempt to resist measuring success in dollar amounts, I think that eating is important. And at this level of money, we are talking about just enough money to survive (my money was paid over a three year period and I think hers would have been paid over an even longer period of time).