Do artists have a responsibility to society?

Hmmmmm. Well this is a tricky question. I think it's hard to have a definitive answer from my personal point of view. So perhaps this is more of a tool for me to think aloud, aka "ablog".

I guess artists should have a responsibility to society. Artists as a whole maybe more than each individual artist. But I guess without the individual you wouldn't have the whole. It seems far too obvious. Hmmm.

I guess if I consider myself as an artist in society and my role therein, it will make things easier. I don't think I am doing anything monumental for society personally. But, I think I'm making work that relates to those who see it even if they don't understand my relation to it. And isn't that saying something and upholding a responsibility?

My art is being viewed by human beings; those who are all under the conditions of life today and understand common occurrence while dealing with the day to day struggles and pleasures in life. Herein, maybe it's not my responsibility to society, but instead a default relationship to the human nature that causes me to make what I make. Maybe rather than me upholding some responsibility to society, society is what upholds me.

Stories, past, childhood, present, icons, and identity are all natural to those in society. These are words/ideas I tangle with in my art. While I don't go about it with my mind set on addressing those "big issues", the underlying issues seem to be relevant. My art is extremely personal, my own stories behind each decision within pieces. So maybe artists do uphold a responsibility by default. To represent those lives, interests, trials and tribulations that strike us as universal.

If we didn't have a responsibility to society would there be art museums? Would we have traced the path art has taken over the years? If all artists believed they had no responsibility to society, wouldn't a certain passion for art be lacking? While art is so personal, it is also as I mentioned previously, universal. This contrary statement so very well helps us understand how we must take art and implement it as being so very important. And if it's not my responsibility to do it for some societal reason, than maybe I shouldn't be making it at all. But I can't not make art. That would just be silly. So maybe i'm upholding my responsibility to all those people out there. To the world at large. I like to think not...kinda scary.

Who knows. All I know is I will keep making stuff as long as I can still wonder.