Introduction

Envision a starving artist.

The artist paints laboriously on the canvas while crouched on the glazed, cobblestone streets of Montmarte, France. Clothed in an enigmatic perfume of linseed oil and filth, the artist renounces the mainstream pursuit of acquiring material well-being. Instead, the artist chooses a life of destitution and suffering in compensation for an inestimable and intangible luxury—the pursuit of passion in art. This dynamic force is essential to the true identity of an artist. 

A starving artist must exist in every artist. Virginia Nicholson, the author of Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939, wrote, “Art offered [artists] a different way of living, one that believed more than compensated for the loss of comfort and respectability.” The term, “starving artist,” often implies connotations of impracticality, absurdity, contemptibility, and other negative attributes, which pervade the universal perception of artists. Art has been undervalued and denied of it significance in the world. It had caught up on me once—I questioned the significance of art myself. Did Pablo Picasso's anti-war painting, "Guernica," transform people's perspective on war? Did Theodore Gericault's "The Raft of the Medusa" challenge people's perception of the restored French monarchy and humanity? Did Kathe Kollwitz's artworks, which advocate pacifism and preservation of fundamental human rights in her works, transfigure the world? Art appeals to the aesthetic sense and simultaneously provoke people to take action in contributing to the world. Art serves to improve mankind. David Hockney, a prominent English artist, spoke, “If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he's really needed.”

The misconceptions of the artist figure reflect the ignorance of the contributions of artists which had benefited the world in various ways. Art is destruction and creation. It is self-expression and an embodiment of the mind and the heart. It is the fine line, in which imagination touches reality. Art is a contemplative process encouraging dialogue and interaction between the viewer and the artist. The starving artist is an individual who is not only conscious of its value, but expresses appreciation in a most sincere manner. The definition and meaning of a starving artist as it had been understood historically is not modified; rather, it is redefined in the contemporary context as “the modern starving artist.”

As I'm currently studying art and peace, justice, and conflict studies, I discovered, through time, that within me there was a fervent desire to bridge visual art and social justice. Henceforth the admiration of and pursuit to become a modern starving artist. I yearn to paint the flaws, strengths, and multifaceted aspects of humanity onto the canvas and to capture the beauty discovered within truth. As an artist, I hope to contribute to the world by awakening and enlightening people of the values and morals to be preserved: tolerance, freedom, justice, equality, peace and commitment beyond self. This passion demands the surrendering of one's life. It is the amalgam of liberation and incarceration. It is an excruciating yet transcendent process of self-discovery. As Charles Bukowski once wrote, "Find what you love and let it kill you."