Artists have really never had any representation on Capitol Hill, because it's not the nature of the artist to join together and make a unified presence. Those days kind of died in the '60s.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Actually, I don't think there's anyone that represents the artists, except the artists themselves.
I think there's a huge lack of political artists in America, and I think it really speaks to our consumeristic culture and how people are driven to be financially successful here. It's such a shame that we don't have people who are more inspired than that.
I think that certainly the artists of the '40s, '50s and '60s were fighting a very conformist society, which didn't give them enough space to live or create, and they were bucking all kinds of spoken and unspoken rules.
Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.
The only people left in America who seem not to be artists are illustrators.
Back in the 60s, San Francisco artists lived in communes.
As a longtime fan of talk radio, I'm very worried about the low opinion that conservative hosts and callers have of the American artist. Art is portrayed as a scam, a rip-off and snow job pushed by snobbish elites.
In 19th-century France, artists were part of government. Artists are very sensitive to their time. They're very thoughtful people - it makes sense to hear what they have to say.
Life and people are complex. A writer as an artist doesn't have the personality of a politician. We don't see the world that simply.
Some of the greatest artists did their best work when they got political.