Idea of the Day: Art Before The Game
May 16th 2025 | Childhood Artwork is a way into creative freedom
Dearest Being,
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Imagine someone during their first golf lesson turned to their instructor and asked, “Why don’t I just pick up the ball with my hand, carry it over to the hole, and drop it in?” Most likely, the response would be a somewhat confused version of, “Well, because you have to use this stick with an iron head to try and hit it in. That’s just how this works. That’s sort of the whole fucking point to all of this. That’s the game.”
It seems ridiculous in this context, but it’s how systems operate. Everything man made is a structure. Some we can control, understand, elect ourselves to be a part of, and others we cannot.
It seems nowadays we have let the rules of one game dictate another. The more abstract areas of life: Faith, Love, Art. Things outside of numbers. For it is always the artists who must run their ideas by the businessmen, and never the other way around. Different games working in unfair unison.
Sometimes the point of the art is its limitations. That’s the game. That’s the point. Answers in art should never be bound to the belief that there needs to be more money, more access, more personnel, before this creative act can inherit its true value. There should be a desire to seek out answers within the boundaries. Again, that’s the main game. That’s the challenge. That’s the basis of being creative in this realm of physical existence. Even outside of the arts.
It’s often important to remember though that no one has ever walked into the Sistine Chapel, looked up, and thought, ‘Yeah it’s nice and all, but what’s the point? Like, where was Michelangelo going with all of this?’ We seem to just inherently understand the abstract reason for artistic expression when its operating on a high level, even if we ourselves are not practicing artists.
But often, when we shift this work into a slightly different mode, one of less grandeur, it becomes harder to view it as artistic expression. Say, someone making a website for the sake of making a website. Someone gardening for the sake of gardening. Someone making a film for the sake of making a film.
When you say the reason is the process, people seem to get confused. It sounds like you don’t have a plan, or you’re being irresponsible. And maybe you are, but love, passion and devotion are supposed to be irresponsible.
When people do these things and are met only with the question ‘Where are you going with all of that though?’ They are really being asked about how they will survive within the modern economy. A question that’s sceptical subtext and critical foundations are built upon the core understanding that these things, artful actions like these, rarely provide the individual with an income.
Granted, the statistics prove this too. But in some sense, it’s a snake eating its own tail when the more we choose not to ask questions like ‘What is it about gardening that you love? What’s your trick for maintaining fertile soil?’ The more we numb ourselves toward a mindset that never pursues curiosity, the more we lose sight of any life beyond the game.
In this sense, adulthood seems to be all about games and never about play.
Everyone should do what they need to do in order to survive, or even thrive, so long as it’s not harmful. We are all on the same side. But we don’t seem to want to think this way. The point of working a job to feed your family is the same point as painting a new image or praying in a meadow. It’s the pursuit to serve something bigger than ourselves. The rest is all a made up game. One that holds a profoundly real effect over our lives. But a game none the less.
So maybe I should try and remind myself every now and again that I can drop the iron stick, pick up the ball, walk it over to the hole, and drop it in. Because sometimes, fuck the designed logic of it all. You know? Peace.
NS Exhibitions
Nothing Serious Exhibitions is designed to be an online gallery space where visual art of any kind can be displayed.
The goal here is to present all ideas as art, no matter their form or tone.
This makes me want to go back to pitch ideas to potential investors with a completely different attitude. The idea is priceless!!