Artists are everywhere. They are teenagers. They are adolescents. They are middle-aged, and the middle-class. "Artists" are blooming in fields of expression and creativity with each passing and moment, and as a result, are forced to compete. Compete not for survival, or land, or love, but for originality.
Man is an expressive beast. He longs to create with his own two hands. To accomplish. To raise his head high and know that he has worked long and hard to make something his own.
With the introduction of the digital medium, and the ease of access therein, it is unsurprising that so many have risen up to become "artists" in our new age of computer screens and "Photoshopping." It is with a sense of pride that I call myself an artist, not because I can look at the works of others around me and learn to copy and emulate what I've seen and studied, but because I have taken what I have experienced, and absorbed it. I have made it a part of my diet. I seek not to create what has already been created, but to create that which has not yet even been dreamed.
Often times I become frustrated when viewing the works of others that I believe to be superior to mine, as I'm sure many of us have from time to time. It instills in me a feeling of anxiety that at my age I still haven't reached a skill level which others younger than me have achieved years prior. It falls on me to work harder. To learn from the multitude of failures encountered each day, and to grow both artistically and spiritually. It is the struggle I face everyday. A struggle to accept that I am not the artists of whom I admire, and that I must learn to create works that speak to me, and others like me on a level that together we can communicate through.
"Fuck Art" is a conceptual idea aimed at expressing the inherent difficulties all artists face when trying to create original works of their own. Whether it be literature, dance, music, or the fine/digital arts medium, we all struggle in our own ways on a daily basis.
"Fuck Art" is for the artist. It is the low point before the brilliant idea. The hopelessness. The feelings of sameness, redundancy, and limited nature of our work that without proper maturity can lead to our failures. It is the hope that we can create something original among a sea of flooding artists.
Jim Viola
2007 Artist's Statement
Rowan University
