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This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world for material to help other writers. Today I discuss how art is always a transaction…
Every time an artist puts a painting on a gallery wall, writes a book, or posts something online, there’s an exchange taking place.
The artist offers something personal, a vision, an emotion, or a perspective, and the audience responds, consciously or unconsciously, with attention, feeling, or action.
Some worry that this transactional nature makes art less “pure,” but that’s a misunderstanding. In fact, it’s what gives art its vitality.
Without an audience — or without someone to engage with it — the work exists in isolation, its energy unrealized. The transaction doesn’t cheapen the art; it completes it. Creating, sharing, and receiving are all part of the artistic process, and embracing this exchange allows artists to connect, provoke, and inspire.
Transaction is not a flaw — it’s the essence of art.
Writer Steven Pressfield explored this theme in a blog post recently, and it resonated with me. Here’s part of how he put it:
“You and I must remember always that art is a transaction. The viewer or reader or gallery-goer brings to the table something precious. Her time. Her attention. She may even actually pay money. In return, you and I must deliver something — an image, a song, a story — worthy of our reader or viewer’s time and attention.
“This is not easy. Why are there forty million songs released every year but only six hundred that anybody actually remembers? Because it’s hard!
“Why do I cite this Entrepreneur’s Code? I do it to get our feet planted firmly on the ground. So that you and I as musicians and filmmakers and video game designers can operate in the world as it really exists—and not in some “artistic” fantasy.
“I will expect no remuneration until I have created value for someone else.”
