A concert pianist, solo violinist, opera singer or classical dancer are all part of an élite who have attained certain standards of accepted excellence. It is not so with art.

Art is for everyone; practitioner and onlooker, ignorant and educated alike.

Art is contemplated, enjoyed, questioned, admired, dismissed, ignored, collected, revered, denounced and defended. Art can be bleak, trivial and anti-social, dull, shocking, enervating and joyful. Art can be fun. To some it is an obsession.

Artists create employment for picture framers, academics, paint manufacturers, curators, teachers, white van men, photographers, dealers, foundry men, graphic designers, documentary film makers and TV presenters, auctioneers, printers, journalists, gallery-owners, booksellers, publishers and various groupies and hangers-on.

Some artists enjoy fame. Some enjoy celebrity and some make a lot of money. Some are here today and gone tomorrow. Others are never really here at all. Some artists are shy and retiring, others are brash self-publicists. Some will live long enough to enjoy recognition. Most will sink without trace. Some cannot draw.

Some artists are admired by the public but not by their peers. Others are respected by their peers but the public hardly know them. Artists cause discussion and argument but never war.

And it would be a dull place without us.

Derek Balmer, PPRWA, August, 2011