I am an accidental arts activist – in 2014 finding myself signing a lease for a former local library which sadly had been closed due to austerity-driven budget cuts.
The space was to be used as my studio and a space to share the work of others. We called it the Workers Gallery because we wanted it to be a space where people could see the work of artists -but specifically see artists working.
Many remain unconvinced that being an artist is actually work. Some visitors comment on my seemingly easy & fun lifestyle rhetorically asking ‘…but it’s not really work is it?’
So when I heard this quote – I thought – yes! that’s what I feel and that’s what I think and that’s what I want to say. That Hockney used the word workers meant so much to me and I punched the air with delight when he said it:
‘…an artist can support hedonism, but he can’t be a hedonist himself because artists are WORKERS – by definition they work…’
David Hockney
David Hockney: Ways of Seeing (BBC Culture Show Special 2012)