By: Brian Jules L. Campued
Welcome to the country where art is devalued into unjust rates and worse, paid with simple shout outs.
Art might look like a pastime to some people but to the artists themselves, it is their bread and butter—a craft that took years to hone and definitely took their blood, sweat, and tears to produce masterful works. While these aesthetes do enjoy what they create and are more than proud and willing to share their talent to the world, a popular stigma that making art is cheap and as easy as one-two-three still creeps in the corner. Well, it’s the case here in the Philippines.
Just a few days ago, an artist lamented on social media about a self-proclaimed online influencer who sought his services in exchange for a mere shout out. The alleged social influencer messaged the artist on Facebook after seeing his 30 inches by 40 inches portrait of Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray. Amazed by the artist’s workmanship, the unnamed client asked for the same size drawing and requested it to be done after a week but things went rough when the artist priced it at 15,000 pesos. Before blocking the artist, she went on saying that the price was high for a seemingly easy drawing.
This is not the only case about people requesting for free art in exchange of exposure, last year, netizens were enraged after an actor asked for a graphic designer to make him a cover photo and a banner and the best one would get a shout out from him. The list goes on. Who knows how many more cases that happened are waiting to be publicized on the internet? Sure, a simple shout out from a popular guy or gal on social media will introduce the artist to a wider range of audience but it will not guarantee paying clients.
What these people need to understand is that making art is not an easy feat. Developing one’s workmanship takes years of practice and that progress is not instantaneous. Conceptualizing and creating one is not magically done but takes hours, days, months, or years of time, energy, effort, and creativity. To label an artwork as something as “madali lang naman ‘yan” is an outright disrespect to the creative industry. It questions the artists’ skills sets and talents, making them worth less than they actually are.
Artists also invest in materials and gadgets they use in their projects and most of them even enroll in classes just to master their craft. Art materials are consumable—brushes fray, inks and paints dry, pencils and erasers wear out, etc.—and not to mention, are very pricey, too. Setting the price of artworks with combining the prices of the materials used and the time and effort poured by the artists is reasonable enough. Artists make a living through making art. To give them just a shout out on your social media accounts in exchange for the art you requested will not do any good to the artists. A shout out can’t even fill an empty stomach, can it?
While it is the artists’ responsibility to educate other people about artmaking and the economy of it so that many will be informed of how art must be priced and what a piece of art is worthy of, the clienteles in turn must respect the value given to an artwork (regardless of size and how “basic” it looked like) and pay for it. Even though the artists can be satisfied with just an act of gratitude for their service, non-art people must understand that a service is also paid with real money.
People love to witness all forms of art, but when art galleries display an artist’s works, only a few come over to the exhibits. And then when a child starts to show interest for arts, people will say that there’s no money in the arts or they won’t achieve anything if they pursue an arts course because they don’t see how much producing an art cost. The lack of appreciation and recognition for the artists and the art scene is what makes the state of Filipino art saddening.
How come everyone loves and wants art but no one wants to pay for it? Art, in all its forms, is expensive to create and produce. Most people just don’t see the true cost.
Young ECHO 
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