“THE ARTIST HAS TO LIVE LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE”
I remember the first time I saw this building…
The one thing that spoke to me that I never took a picture of.
I just stood there, as if a higher power itself was telling everything was going to be ok.
For a almost 5 years I used just my first name only, to come around. Not tell people my last name.
Not because I was ashamed of it… No, didn’t have reason to.
My dad, Rinaldo Klas is a very good visual artist, a teacher & mentor and he tries his very best.
And my great uncle, Jozef Klas, was an amazing sculptor as well, my dad learned a lot from him too.
I am and should be proud of that. But instead. I put it all away….
I didn’t use my last name… because I wanted a fair treatment. I saw the trouble I had when I used my last name.
So instead of taking the easy way… I took the path of most resistance, cause I figured I was going to have trouble either way.
This didn’t make it easy… Living like everyone else was and still is a hard matter… You keep going from day to day… telling your self it will one day be ok.
Or that it is ok, while watching the rest race by you.
Have friends look and you and tell you: Art is No Living… your gonna die Poor… extremely Poor… like all artist do. Thinking now,… like my uncle did.
I remember one person I had very close at heart asking me: Why do you even practice art, why are you a graphic designer? what you do, you suck at it…
And that while the compliments I got elsewhere differ… a lot.
Some days I just sit still and laugh when I see these same people go into art. Thinking don’t forget what you once told me.
Doodled this today because I got mad… I may not always agree with the other artist…
Their idea’s, their live styles, or their way of marketing or selling… But being part of the art family myself, if I ever belonged to anything.
And even though he may not be right in all his doing.
I can’t stand by and watch another artist, a colleague of my dad and great uncle be put down like that.
Who worked so hard to achieve, what he achieved… be put down and compared to a furniture maker.
A little bit more RESPECT please…
Erwin de Vries, is anything but a furniture maker and even if he was… “a furniture maker”, one with a good and solid reputation also has a price card.
I know one who is really good at what he does, if only he didn’t lack selling skills.
If Erwin was a furniture maker he would still be a good one at it. Cause he has selling skills and drive.
And yes, maybe it was about time Erwin shown his place… but not like that.
So now I wonder:
If the artist really has to live like everyone else… the question that is to be asked is like what and what is art worth?
And in all honesty… what would be the price be that you would put on the skills that this 82 year old mastered.
That has made making and selling art, an art form in itself.
And yes its true if you don’t like the art… leave it.
Any and every artist is also an entrepreneur, a salesperson and a marketer, some slicker then a car salesman, but so what… shouldn’t we have the right to live as well?
I don’t see anyone complaining about the cars they buy that are worth the same as the sculptures Erwin makes.
Needles to say a little respect goes a long way.
