Rebecca Krupke

Hello. Its me. It has been awhile. A few things have happened since the last time you saw a post from me. I take care of my aging mother who has dementia. I could make a whole post on just this struggle in my life and a have on my own personal page..but I’m here to talk about art and my relationship to it in my life mostly and where i see some inner Issues for us as a society.

Since COVID 19 and the pandemic shut down and the whole essential/non essential talk we directly felt, I’ve been in a weird place with art creation. I have been toying with a lot of inner dialogue. What is the need? I’ve always been a firm believer in a society doesn’t thrive unless art is present…and a part of me still very much believes this, but something shifted during a worldwide pandemic…where do priorities go in the end? Originally this nagging burden implanted itself into my brain in 2020…and until recently hadnt let up. I seeked out other artists opinions to see if I was the only one dealing with this burden and it appeared like I *was* the only one who felt this way as if everyone else had some sort of epiphany. That creation was important. I was the opposite. Was this becaaae my role in family shifted at the same time? A need for my moms healthcare came up and my job as a daughter and caregiver overtook art creation. Mentally and physically doing art while caring for a loved one felt impossible and since the burden to create felt weirdly hindered by this reminder in the back of my mind it wasn’t essential put a hold on art for me.

Slowly over the years I’ve felt myself slipping into a generically dark place where, yes the care I’m giving mom is very important and rewarding, but i do struggle with no matter how much of an A+ student I am, my job will always fail. The end result will always be death for her.

But here’s the thing - just recently I found myself going into the studio to paint. At first for a show and a deadline, but then for myself and at the end of the painting, I realized what I need in my life and where art is now. Part of me sad because my mom always titled my artwork. she had such vivid and poetically beautiful titles - a collab that is now just me. 

Art is in a battle too. An inner turmoil at the same time I go through things. What does art mean to you? Is it an image that sparks curiosity or a pull on your emotions? Is it something you enjoy or that you want to own? As a society we are moving further and further away from the traditional term of artist and art. Who creates? What does it matter? In a world where one click of a few buttons allows us to screen capture our favorite works to forever be in our faces as our lock screens, why bother to financially support artists? Especially when all of us struggle with the rising cost of living? How will this shift greatly impact creators? And don’t even get me started on AI and how easily anyone can instruct a computer to generate a soulless representation of their visions. We are at a weird place as a society not just myself in my role of caregiver and it’s taken me a few years to actually pin down what has effectively happened to art and artists.

So my question I put out there is this…what value do you see in physical tangible artwork created by a complex human being with a life full of emotional responses? Do we want to be a society full of lifeless works or do we want to live amongst creations in all their flawed beauty. A struggle we always are fighting. Perfection is anything but perfect. The flaws and inconsistencies is what gives a piece life. As artists we felt this with the onset of photography and now I think I’m just on the heels of understanding what those artists felt back in the early 1900s when a machine overtakes the human.

So now the real struggle becomes not arts innate value, but how do I hold its value even if monetary is no longer a viable option - when art can be saved or created in a click. That’s the part of the journey I’m on currently. But I’m slowly understanding it’s not about any outside forces. *I* need this…I need to do this for my own health and wellbeing. Will it sell? Needs to turn into “it doesn’t matter if it sells. I need to make it”

Anyways. Happy Holidays everyone 🙂

“Open Skies” 6x18 oil on wood