For the Love of Art

For the love of art

Why does it still matter that we make art with our own hands? What calls us, instead of typing a few prompts into a machine and receiving the expected result, to undergo a long upward battle that sees no end? We have to fight off the never-ending frustrations and confront our own limitations. Any improvement only brings in more expectations, and expectations brew fresh disappointments; a skill learned leads to yearnings for another technique and medium. The unmet desires and everlasting self-doubt call and lurk day and night, in the shadow of every novel inspiration. Why do we want to put ourselves through this endless suffering? Why do we show up once more, before an empty sheet of paper, a blank canvas, unfilled pages, unshaped clay? Have we not learned that there are easier paths?

The thing is, being human is never about finding the easiest way, and making art certainly is not the easiest thing to do. We do it not because it is easy, but exactly because it is hard. It’s in this struggle that we are elevated to something more than our own bare existence. Just surviving is clearly not enough for a human being. A well-fed child won’t thrive without touch, without interaction; it’s in the connection with other beings that we are truly born as humans. Every syllable we utter, every gesture we signal, every form and shape we create, is a reach to connection, to find our place in the world, to foster meanings we all share and understand, and only through this effort, we can truly feel in our bones that we are understood, and we belong. 

Yet the modern world has made such a humble desire to create a complicated subject. Before the first stroke is placed on the canvas, the inquiry into talents and credentials has screamed so loudly in our ears, drowning out any inner song of creativity, demanding that we first prove that we have the right to create. Then we have to defend the right to use the tag of “art”. Though it starts with love and the need for love, love has become a dirty word in the art making. The lover of art, the amateur, is a term no one wants to be associated with. But aren’t we all lovers of art, the forever amateurs, constantly moving towards the new unknown so we can continuously grow and venture, and by doing so, position ourselves over and over as students of new art forms? Isn’t it we start this, with a hope of finding kindred spirits, the travel companions, people who we can share this love?

Why do we allow ourselves to be separated, categorized, sectioned, and eventually isolated? Before the first artwork in human history was made with handprints on a cave wall, there were millions of dazzling shadows dancing on the same surface, created by their ancestors; even though the joyful ancestral dance left no trace, it nourished the next generation of artistic expression. Art is made nevertheless, regardless of the commentary and judgements, the gatekeepers and whoever in power to decide the definition of “art” of the time, seen or unseen, known or unknown. All that matters is that we create, to love and be loved. To love is to be true, and be truly vulnerable, or we can never be seen, therefore never be embraced. Our art must live through the struggle of creation, so this love can be passed on to the next generation and generations after that, to every particle we would eventually dissolve into.

It’s in this belief, this desire to connect, an art-making community is born. We want to break the harmful belief that artists must struggle alone and be isolated in their assigned corner by the common order of “the Art World”, and bring back the joy of art-making and human connection. After 3 years of mutual inspiration, we are proud to present the artworks made by our community members, mostly started from one of our Chat&Draw or Behind the Curtains sessions. Friendships are formed, cooperations made, and lots of stories shared; the community itself is one of the most beautiful things we have created together. But who is surprised? We should all remember: the dance comes first! 

Group Exhibition: For the Love of Art

Wednesday 13th May - Friday 22nd May

Location: Factor IJ, Pampuslaan 11, 1087HP Amsterdam

Friday 22nd May 17:30 (walk-in):  Finissage + art talk with Hans Abbing & Elske Rollema (doorgeefschllderij)   

Participating Artists: Agnes Poe (curator), Berta García Landa, Claudia Quelle, Ingrid Huijbregts, Jia Gu, Julia Roeselers, Lynn Lee, Raquel Diniz, Sandra Janssen, Sepideh Shadmehr & Vida Davari