Art inside and out

There are two kinds of artists ... in one way to look at the world. There is the insider artist, Rembrant (when he was young) Ansel Adams, Edward Stiechen, they made pictures that the insider community understood right off and bought in their life time. Then there is the outsider artist. Diane Arbus, Vincent Van Gogh, Jackson Pollack, Phil Ochs. They told their story of the margin from the outside. They got their voice by the pain that was caused them ... from so many sources. It takes a lot to see in the special hard to see light of the margins. Sometimes you need to be really hated by family, need to be alone, and be able to love the way only the unloved can. Then, just as Rembrant knew what to sell and when, you have to know when your work is done. When you have shown enough pain, and joy and wonder, and also know that you are not meant to benefit from your work, as those who might see something in it, will not see what you saw ... this is why so many like Diana Arbus became known after their death. They did not know how to get those who did not get them in life, to get them until they knew their work was done and gave it to the folks how hated them in life.













The trick for those of us on the outside, is not in knowing what to say, but in knowing when to go.