I often work with artists. From musicians, to stage and theater, illustrators and animators, dancers, choreographers, sculptors, craftsmen, and more. I work with galleries and museums and on occasion collaborate to build exhibits, but most of what I do is with people.
I describe what characterizes an artist as someone who pursues virtuosity of the fundamentals. You can't show up when you want and slack your way off into it. No one will work with you. Often, artists are driven to work harder to compensate for stereotypes, because no one sees the work or effort it takes to create the possibility to do art. It's why I think average people should be asked to perform at the Olympics alongside the athletes- our perception is relative, otherwise parents wouldn't get into fights over little league games.
Loving art can start with finding resonance with people who do art, with the things they do or produce, or with the tools of art. The more you practice it, the more you will be able to appreciate the challenges and rewards of it. Seeing people light up in anticipation to see what comes out of the kiln, the way their hair stands on end when they hear the roar and feel the blast of heat during an iron pour, or discussing a hilariously bad stage reading with the cast makes you feel connected to humanity in a way that looking at oil paintings in a sterile gallery without an art history background and a vested interest in museum studies just can't.
People that have a derisively low opinion of artists are often uncomfortable with being vulnerable. Sometimes, they're too empathetic, and the thought of being up on stage, under the pressure to perform, being a perpetual object of criticism or ridicule is too much for them. They'd rather imagine flighty, spoiled slackers than have to feel through the burdens of familiar uncertainty and failure. Because following every "Anyone could do that" is the unspoken "...but I didn't."
I reckon learning how to love art is a lot of what I’m doing when I’m engaging with art. Maybe loving the feeling of learning to love art… is loving art? It does seem to be the case that people who can’t at least tolerate, if not enjoy, that process, very much do not love art.
