“Not An Artist” - Film Review
There is a sort of delusion that comes with the desire to be an artist. With no certainty, stability, or rationality, it’s a volatile profession. And often it’s no profession at all in the sense that it’s rare to earn money from a creative passion. It is exhausting to try to “make it” in an industry that feels like everything comes down to luck. Ironically, this grind makes excellent fodder for the creative process. The artistic pursuit, and often the lack thereof, takes center stage in Alexi Pappas and Jeremy Teicher’s Not An Artist.
Alice (Alexi Pappas) has found herself in the lows of a writer’s block. She dreams of writing a Young Adult fantasy series about a girl who has a difficult relationship with her father, loosely inspired by her own relationship with her dad (Matt Walsh). Alice applied and has been accepted to an unconventional artist residency program. Along with fellow artists who are at a crossroads in their creative pursuits, Alice meets The Abbot (RZA), the leader of the residency. After a champagne toast, The Abbot reveals the parameters that come with accepting a place in the residency. Each participant has 30 days to create a work in their medium that is vulnerable, honest, and true. At any point during the residency, an artist can ring The Quitter’s Bell, at which point they will have to sign a legally binding contract stating that they will give up art forever. If they ring the bell, they’re given a check worth thousands of dollars.
courtesy of utopia
Anyone who has attempted to pursue a career in the arts knows how inherently disheartening it is. When you first start out, you aren’t entirely concerned about the monetary side because you believe success will come soon. When the years start piling up, though, it’s hard to keep that determination. Yet that determination is a critical part of what makes an artist. A mentor of mine once said, “If you can picture yourself doing anything else, go do that.” The Abbot tries to instill in his participants that being an artist takes a willingness to fail, but also a deep desire to get back up every single time. The Quitter’s Bell isn’t a bad thing, and it doesn’t mean a ringer is lesser. Not An Artist presents it as an opportunity to exit. It can feel equally limiting to be bound to the idea that you must make art, when maybe it’s a means of relaxation rather than a career path.
Not An Artist strikes a familiar chord with those who are in the midst of the uncertain world of art. Far too many moments hit close to home, but the film also makes space to poke fun at the absurdity of it all. Some of the participants in the program are obsessed with the idea of mining trauma in the hope that immense pain will be what separates them from other artists in their field. As Alice learns over the course of the film, it’s not about the exploitation of the hurt, but the processing of it. In how to learn to live with the sadness and radiance that come from the human experience. To be an artist at their fullest potential is to be unconcerned with how others view the final project, and instead to be proud of it unconditionally. Not An Artist is for all the artists out there, whether they call themselves one or not.
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