I was flummoxed when I heard some well known artists hire art assistants to do their artwork for them, artists like Damien Hirst.
I mused over the thought (still musing actually); You have a wonderful art concept, a creative idea jumps out at you, as soon as you can, you get to work on sketches of the idea and like cooking a delicious meal, your saliva juices start flowing in excited eagerness to get started on the finished piece. The finished piece IS the meal. Connecting with the canvas the brushes pencils charcoal and paint. Working quickly slowly. Taking a step back moving in designing listening waiting…Then you know it’s done, cooked, finished.Sometimes you’re ecstatic with the final piece other times…not so much, but you’re eager to start again with something else. It’s the dance that’s fun and makes you feel alive, feel gifted, The Chosen One.
What’s the point then, if you choose to hand this beautiful process over to someone else? Do you still feel like a proud mother that’s just given birth to THE most perfect baby, when you see the finished piece of art?
Maybe it’s like the biblical Moses in the wilderness, when his father in law Jethro advised him to ‘get help, don’t try and council this great multitude of Israelite’s all on your own’. I expect Mr Hirst is in such great demand that he is doing the world a great favour by getting help so he can create even more work to meet the demand. It’s still his design after all.
There just might come a time when I’m a famous artist and I’ll be employing art assistants too, but until that time I’ll enjoy my love affair with the canvas and be glad not enough people know I exist.
Karol the Artist 