Reading: Choosing a mission/ Daniel J Martinez

Artist of the past had missions assigned to them by a church or the higher powers that be, government, monarchies, wealthy. Even artist who "free-lanced" still found their mission or (inspiration to explore via art), bending towards these same ideas. Artist were few and far between, it was still a profession just limited to painting, drawing, sculpture, and a little in dance and theater. in the past 100 years it has grown to encompass almost every aspect of life. Art is expressed through endless outlets and media, plus the number of artist has spread to the point that everyone now thinks they have a little artist in them. Their are tons of artist and tons of ways they have grown to express themselves in all fields (cooking, fashion, marketing, architecture, sports- boxing is an art, teaching, performance). All this makes it more difficult for an artist to find their mission, everything has been done, the church buys prints now. The world has changed and so have our attention spans, we want something new every 15 minutes, ohh the pressure on an Artist to keep up. So the Artist has to choose his/her mission wisely, it has to strike a cord, it has to be worth while, you have to put deep thought and time into it. Choosing the mission has now become the most important part of the artist process now. Its not the 14th century anymore where someone tells you what to paint, you paint it and it is celebrated for generations. You now have to think for that "celebration for generations". It has in many ways actually become the art, the process of choosing a mission.

Martinez is an example of how the "artist label" has spilled over into everything, He is a"tactical media strategist" and that "is" his art, he is an artist. In the past he would either be a sculpture or a painter or he was not an artist. Today he is a "Artist-tactical-artist-media-artist-strategist". This is where the craziness of the mission has taken us. A serious political/issues artist, he is passionate about his mission. We as artist must do this if we want our work to make an impact.