If design teaches us anything it is that it does not matter what things can do if they don’t do it for people who have a genuine problem that they need and want fixed. To say it differently to sell umbrellas in the Atacama dessert – one of the driest places on our planet – is not going to make you a millionaire, no matter how beautiful your fabric patterns are, or the wood-stock you use for the umbrella handles.
But why aren’t artists doing this? Every person involved with the arts, especially the visual arts has some preferences of what they like to do and what inspires them to do it. There is not one artist in the world that makes art for everybody. Period. But why do we expect everyone to like our art?
Maybe it would be much better to take a moment of introspection and just define what we do as creatives: what are the things that excite, intrigue or bother us in the world and what are we doing to make them even more exciting or more understandable or relatable. And then find people who have the same problem or excitement or any other feeling towards those things. And maybe not try to sell them anything but to start a conversation. Because that’s more or less what artists do best; we make the world more approachable, more understandable and in the end better to live in. And if we can succeed in doing so and enriching other peoples lives with our actions, the monetary side will and always does follow.