Dresden and back

Or the importance of meatlockers

Apologies for the delay in getting this latest newsletter out. Things have been busy here at backlands and making art has taken up what time I've had spare. Anyway, on with the show…

“The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to0 the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”

Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut is one of my favourite writers, he lived through the firebombing of Dresden as a POW by shutting himself in a meatlocker. The experience had a profound affect on him and became the basis of his most famous novel, Slaughter House 5. Vonnegut writes with an honest love for humanity in all its faults.

The quote above comes from, if memory serves me, a letter, or possibly a speech to a school. I carried a printed copy in my wallet for nearly 20 years because it beautifully captured my own feelings and reasons for making art. Creating something is the reward.

The chance of making a decent living from the arts is tiny. The Internet has had a strange effect on art. It has opened up the field to enable more artists to make money but made it harder for artists to make a living. People think if something is on the Internet it is free to use. Copyright and intellectual property rights are becoming harder and harder for artists to protect. And So the way making art affects you is of the primary importance.

As Kurt Vonnegut says, dance, sing, wite poetry, make art. Good orbad the act of creating is good for the soul.

Pete