Non-attachment, commercial art and the Great Pyramid

As some of you know, I did this piece of art for the Trinkets 'n' Baubles Holiday Party at the Red Cup Saturday. The art was used on an 11x17" poster as well as a postcard, which I also laid out.

This is a piece of commercial art. It is not about my artistic vision, or my personal statement as an artist. It's about getting people to come to a party, and while I can't say it helped bring people who otherwise would not have come, it doesn't seem to have chased anyone off.

Because it is commercial art, I don't have and cannot afford to have any personal attachment to it. I frequently meet other artists doing commercial work who have gotten very attached to their finished product, even though it really doesn't belong to them.

The person who asked me to do this work asked me to make changes after seeing the first draft. This was the original background for the piece, which was meant to suggest the walls in the 'music area' of the Red Cup. She thought it was a little drab, so I made the change that was reflected in the final piece.

The point I want to emphasize here is that commercial art is not 'high art,' whatever that is. Someone wants a change, you make the change. Someone changes your work after your hands are off it, you shrug them off. A lot of the stuff I did for my last full-time job has been changed since I left; I would fully expect my replacement to make changes if he thought they were appropriate, and would assume something was amiss if he didn't.

Now that the Trinkets 'n' Baubles Party is over, all the posters and invitations will go in the trash (except, perhaps, for the few I was asked to sign) and by the time Christmas gets here, no one will have remembered this work.

This is how everything is, so there's no point in getting attached to stuff, no matter how big and important it seems at the moment.

You probably know the Great Pyramid was built as a tomb for a pharaoh. But he's just as dead now as he would have been if they'd put him in a wooden box.

Do you even remember his name?