Your Mission...Should You Choose to Accept It...

Someone recently asked me what my Mission Statement was for my art business. This struck me as odd because, as an artist, I really hadn’t considered that I needed a Mission Statement. I mean, I want to make art. I want to make great art, to express myself, to create! Did I need an official Mission? Would that cheapen my pursuit of true artistic integrity? I think I kind of always had a fear of things like that moving me to be “too mainstream”…trite or pretentious. I guess I kind of wondered if you could really have a Mission Statement as an artist and not be completely full of shit.

After mulling this concept around in my head for a bit and talking to my sister…and then eating some Mike and Ike’s; I decided that it is possible to have a Mission Statement as an artist. Not only is it possible, it is probably vital to the structure of your business. It is crucial for you to understand why you are making art. Do you want to invoke feelings in others? Do you want to be remembered after you die? Are you making some sort of political statement? Do you simply like to make pretty things? Is it one of the darker statements like, “I want to create cheap commercialized art and sell it cheaply to the masses as to undercut those with true talent in their search for their true patrons….and otherwise throw off the balance of a civilized arting world!!!!!!! BWAHAHAHAHA (insert more evil laughter here!)!” Regardless of what your reason is and if you can really vocalize it, can your clients or intended audience understand what you are trying to do?

If you hadn’t caught that earlier, the clients are the ones that matter in this. Most artists will never make any real money with their art. This is because, as we have talked about before, the art market is heavily geared toward those who are part of the imaginary elite. Think about this, the people that we all think of as the “Greats” of painting really didn’t get famous during their lifetime. They really didn’t make any money with art. That really makes you wonder about the Mission of any artist in the general population. Do any of them have a noble goal in mind? To drive this point home I would say that you should do a few things when drafting your mission statement.

First, you probably should LITERALLY draft the statement. Make this something that you can look at, something that you can show others as well. Make it simply a draft…this is a changeable document and statement. It is something that you are going to continually work to live up to and to improve upon. Then you also need to join the process in the most honest and sincere way that you can. What do you want to accomplish? What kind of artist do you want to be? What kind of person do you want to be remembered as? Take the honesty and sincerity and lay that down in your mission statement. Write it as though it is a love letter…to your art.

I can’t tell you all of these things without adding my Mission Statement and baring my soul for everyone as well. So here it is….

My Personal Mission as an ARTIST and operating as Arti St Gallery & Studio is to provide a voice for artists and creators that aren’t part of the imaginary elite. I intend to make art that breathes its own soul and invite viewers to imagine things and feelings that they have never been able to put into words. I aim to make work that inspires people to love others, to love themselves. To embrace the unknown and taboo…to create a story from the pieces of those who have been broken down and impoverished. I intend to create art that will never back down when others are too afraid to speak. My Personal Mission as an ARTIST is to keep you on your toes, keep you guessing, and keep you open to discovering the better parts of you.

Join me in my Mission! Don’t be afraid to look at the art, enjoy it, and embody it. I encourage all of you to support the living artists and the least commercial. Those artists that aren’t part of the elite. We shouldn’t reward the overly commercialized artists, we should never accept it. We shouldn’t allow box stores to mass manufacture things that they tell us is art. The art we choose should speak to us, it should develop us as people.

That being said….what are you setting out to do?

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