I reminded myself of Mr. Harvey's answer just this morning when a friend told me my painting of his dog brought a tear to his eyes. Paintings can do that. A painting of kids wading in a farm pond looking for frogs brought back memories to a collector of he and his brother working on their family farm and cooling off in the farm pond. He told me, after hanging the painting, he called his brother to talk about those days. Our job as artists is to make life better, raise spirits, ease souls, and enlighten. We also create jobs, the UPS man delivers my paintings, the man who makes my stretcher bars has a job thanks to artists. The money we earn from our art is circulated into the economy by buying all those things we need to do those pretty paintings.
Even those non-professional artists are doing their bit. Hanging their paintings in doctors offices may help a patient relax a bit. Art in all forms makes the world better. I like to think I have a job creating those pretty pictures making the world better. This summer I began work at 6:10 AM every morning and stayed past 6:30 PM, seven days a week. I'm sure other artists have similar stories and have to explain to people just what it is we do.
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