Money Talks

...and bullshit walks....right into an art space if properly funded. I don't know why I felt compelled to write that. I think I'm trying to be too witty or somewhat witty too early in the morning. I am thinking about money, though, and its relationship to art. After my residency adventure, I had to look at the cruel fact glaring me in the face from my bank receipt - INSUFFICIENT FUNDS. Money and I have had a pretty antagonistic relationship over the last few years. Rarely do we see eye to eye.

Me: "I want to keep doing art type things. You know, making art, applying to shows...

Money: That's cool. Maybe I'll show up and help you out.

Me: Stop toying with me! I'm not a play thing. I have needs. The need to artistically express myself. And I need to share my work with the world!

Money: You used me to buy a house.

Me: I can't talk to you!

Money: Come on baby, don't be like that. I'm glad I was able to help you get a home. It has everything you need - your studio, bedroom, kitchen. I help you eat well. I help you travel. I make it so you can make your own work and not work as an assistant in someone's studio, making their art. I think if you just tried harder with me. You know I want what's best for you. Give me some time. You'll see (extends a hand out, holding a carrot).

Me: You're right, you're right. I'm going to try harder and not take you for granted. In the end, you always show up when I least expect it. I'm s....

Money: Shhhhh. You don't have to say it. I know.


I vowed a long time ago that I wasn't going to let money, or my lack of money keep me from getting my work seen, making my work or participating in art activities. Unfortunately, we live in a time now where everything costs money. It's hard not to give in to the mindset that the only way to start something new as an artist or arts organization is to either:

A. Come from a wealthy background or be independently wealthy
B. Be married to someone who fits the profile outlined in A.
C. Glom on to an established organization
D. All of the above

What is sparking this train of thought? Mainly A. If you are wealthy, you can do most anything. I'm not talking about morality or spirituality here. Money can't buy you true happiness and there are plenty of miserable misers walking the earth to prove it. However, money allows you to do things. Case and point, the article I read this morning highlighting Alice Walton.

Whom is Alice Walton? She is the daughter of Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart. She had an investment firm between the late 80's and 90's and currently breeds horses somewhere in Texas. With an estimated net worth of 21 BILLION dollars, she is about to see her ten-year labor come to fruition. She is opening her own museum, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art located on family land in Bentonville, Arkansas. Her vision is to make the middle of America an International destination for art enthusiasts. The focus of the museum will display works by American masters from the Colonial era to the present, with the largest concentrations coming from the 19th and 20th centuries. Sounds cliche, but if that's what she likes more power to her. She has taken only one art history course in her life, but according to advisers (who are these advisers?) that have worked with her, she's a very savvy collector. If you have the means to buy million dollar artworks under advisement, you'd probably be considered art savvy as well. And, at the end of the day, according to the article, she a business woman. If a work by an artist that's on her hit list comes up privately, she'll wait to see if it comes up on auction in order to get a better deal on it (please read my previous post on auctions). John Richardson, a Picasso biographer, sees Walton as quite adventurous in not just buying the usual suspects for the museum collection, but some unknown/obscure artist works as well. For example, she acquired works by Norman Lewis, an African-American painter. I've never heard of him, so I though I'd better check him out. After looking at Lewis's work, I can't help but wonder if Richarson thinks Walton's acquisitions are adventurous because Lewis was not well known or because he was a black artist working in abstract expressionism - how odd! Maybe she just liked his work, but there's nothing in the article that indicates that.

In any case, it's admirable that she has her vision and is seeing it through. I can't help to think about my friends who are equally passionate about art and have visions for progressive art centers that would prove that we may not be on the coast, but there are plenty of art savvy people here in the land of the Good Life. If only they had the money to make it easier, and quicker, to see their labors of love through.....

A Billinaire's Eye For Art Shapes Her Singular Museum
by Carol Vogel
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/arts/design/alice-walton-on-her-crystal-bridges-museum-of-american-art.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1