Art on a Mission

If San Miguel is to become a true presence on the international art scene, it must back away from commercialism. One studious look at Saatchi Art online -- the gigantic art site for artists selling their work to internet buyers the world over -- will show you that the global art scene is becoming increasingly commercial. Let me explain what I mean by “commercial.” Edgar Degas railed against the presence of commerce in the Paris art world of his time, so much so that he withdrew from the active pursuit of a career as an artist, buying back as many of early works as he could, and retiring into seclusion in his “sacred” studio. I wouldn’t recommend that artists in San Miguel go quite that far. I understand why many of us have chosen to turn art into a business, that is, to work at making a living as a professional artist. Fine. But if the work being produced here is predominantly commercial in the sense that it looks more and more like “commercial art” – the art that is produced for magazines, advertising, movie posters, fashion spreads, web sites, music videos, etc. – then it is no different in style and sensibility from the work I’m seeing on Saatchi. Work that lacks depth, work that has the high-gloss finish of fashion magazines without any emotional-psychological dimension. Isn't that why we came here in the first place -- to get away from the consumerism and materialism of US mainstream culture? If we've really left all that behind it should not reappear in our art work. I believe the artists of San Miguel should have the courage to produce work that is not of that type, work that has emotional depth, work that has many layers of meaning, work that resonates with soul, spirit, and individuality.  To my way of thinking, that is what true art is all about, and the rest is just eye-candy. Yes, there is a market for eye-candy, but if the artists if San Miguel want to distinguish themselves, if we want to be not only a presence but a force in the global art world, then let’s give the art world something greater, stronger, and more passionate than high-gloss pop art. 

Artists Who Teach

Is every professional or semi-professional artist a good teacher? No, of course not. Teaching art requires a different sort of talent from creating art. But here in San Miguel we have teaching artists who may or may not hold a BFA or an MFA and who may not have any solid teaching experience. It’s relatively simple for an unscrupulous artist to take advantage of a starry-eyed, gullible student whose guard has been lowered in advance by all the hype associated with San Miguel.

How does the serious art student who comes here on vacation with the hope of learning techniques figure out who is qualified to teach and who is not? These are murky waters. The fact is that it is much easier to fake or exaggerate credentials when your putative degree is from an art school outside Mexico. What should make the prospective student even more skeptical is the realization that many of the teaching artists here are driven to make money from the tourists who want to try their hand at painting in “magical” San Miguel – as if the place alone will confer a special gift upon them. You can put the talentless or mediocre student in Florence, Italy for a thousand years and Florence would not make them a great artist, although it might give them a better perspective and help them discern good art from bad (and perhaps help them shed their self-delusions).

I think this is an unfortunate situation for everyone concerned. Even under the best scrutiny it is difficult for the student to know if independent art teachers have any skill for it. If you’ve read the introduction to this blog then you know that I taught at the Lyme Academy College of Art in Connecticut, that I went to the Yale Art School by osmosis when I lived in New Haven, and that I was a college professor for 20 years. In addition, I have garnered other experiences that make me a fairly good judge of who is a good/qualified teacher of art and who isn’t. In other words, I’ve known real art teachers, seen them up close, the ones who had the gift of enlightening and inspiring their students. And, yes, they are rare beings, but not as rare as you might think. And certainly the artists who come to San Miguel wanting to elevate the standards of both art and the teaching of art in this city should be those who have received the calling. But instead we have artists who by hype and by skillful marketing are getting students willing to pay fairly high fees in order to be able to say they studied art in San Miguel. They are being hoodwinked by the hype. When I see an artist in San Miguel advertising a class without disclosing their credentials or giving their teaching experience my alarm bell goes off.