There is much resistance within and around the artist as they pass through the inspiration and execution stages. But often the greatest resistance is after successfully navigating the first two stages and actually completing a work.
So much time, energy and materials usually goes into a work to bring it that far, the artist may tend to relax and feel it is all accomplished. NOT!
3. The Exhibition
The third stage, often the hardest, is like giving birth all over again just to get the world to receive it. It can involve marketing, sales, politicking, networking, publicity and the whole art of curating.
Many people, even artists, forget that a work of art is completed by audiences, viewers and readers experiencing it for themselves. This is when the world receives the representation of the inspiration with which the artist has struggled.
As the work enters the eyes, ears, minds and hearts of others it becomes so much more than the artist’s personal struggle. Conversations are sparked and lives are in some way changed by the presence of this thing the artist sets before us.
What If You Don’t Get Shown, or Published?
If a work does not reach a full exhibition, publishing, or performance, it is a tragic still birth. Not to be exhibited is the loss of a long process pulling the elements together which eventually became the physical representation of the invisible Truth.
Every work completed by the exhibition has a chance of multiplying the effects of one artist’s inspiration in the lives of many people. This is where the ministry of the artist is felt by a world in need of inspiration and insight to life.
New Connections Between Art and Audience
The Internet has boosted possibilities of connecting with art in ways never before dreamed of. Galleries are extended far beyond their physical walls, publishing no longer requires brick and mortar book stores and films can be more than those to which theaters limit themselves.
Examples:
To engage with an artist being interviewed by the gallery curator showing his paintings: CLICK HERE FOR PART 1 and CLICK HERE FOR PART 2.
To view film art that is not limited to the conventional theater, but meant as conversation pieces in a Film Gallery Cafe where the physical art used in the films is also hung, CLICK HERE for “A Prayer For Beauty”, CLICK HERE for “To the Diggers”, CLICK HERE for “Comforting Hovers”.
Supporting the Exhibition Stage
Supporting the artist in the exhibition stage is one way to help truly shape the world. Such support makes a space, or facilitates a method that is conducive for people to receive and value the result of the artist’s struggle. A primary art supporter, such as a curator, gets the art in front of people and stimulates them to really consider what the artist is saying. Exhibition helps the work leave the nest of the artist and belong to the recipients.
It Is An Offering
The three stages of inspiration, execution and exhibition are resident in some way within each work of art you experience and every artist’s life. It is not an easy life to develop these stages thoroughly, but it is a sacrifice that artists offer with a passion.
