Friends of Artists

I have a project.
I am trying to be Friends Of Artists.
Here are some of my reasons:

I think pure, unfunctional (and disfunctional) creativity is the way we, individually and communally, can jump out of our ruts and become different. Hopefully better. the community needs artists to balance all the people creating ruts and trying to force us into them.

Artists think things. and they don't mind when you think things too. you can have ideas with artists, and your ideas often become something. art helps you discover the things you can't discover with the rational cogs and wheels, and artists can turn those cogs and wheels inside out and help you see the gooey stuff they're made from.

Artists have better free time. They aren't locked into a regular cycle of work-eat-sleep-work-eat-sleep-work-eat-sleep-work-eat-sleep-work-eat-sleepin-eat-goout-sleepin-eat-worry. artists are often avaliable for breakfast around 11am, and conversation after midnight.

Artists have commitment. they don't complain about their jobs. they know they have to work - some of them really actually have no choice (ask stephen king). They know about making sacrifices to do what's important, because they already have.

Artists often have compassion. Their work takes them deep into the human condition, or their own fears, or the depths of their longing, or our shared culture. When you've been to those places and returned, you can empathise with the predicaments of people who didn't make it out - people who are stuck inside their longing, our culture, the fear.

Artists often need the sort of help i like to provide: technology; websites; gifts of coffee and conversation; food and a bed; someone to lend a critical but generous ear or a naive but thoughtful eye. And they're often very busy with their projects, so offering that support provides the excuse you need to spend a day together.


God was an artist.
and a gardener.
i'd like to be friends of gardeners, too.
(artists' mums are often gardeners)