The current corporate culture, especially in the U.S., has made art into a commodity, to be overhyped and marketed with no regard to intrinsic value such as deeply moving viewers and assisting in the transformational process.

Galleries depend upon sales in order to stay in business, so they will only display what people will buy. And only rarely will they take a chance on unknowns. Decorative art tends to sell well; work that is challenging and confrontative will not.

I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the ratio of galleries to population is the highest in the world. In a town of 85,000, there are more than 300 galleries!

But when I do the rounds, I rarely see new work that is fresh, vibrant, authentic and exciting, regardless of genre. Much of the art seems to be little more than an intellectual exercise, or constructed to go with a potential buyer’s interior decor. Some I cannot imagine anyone would want to purchase (e.g. a dead shark in a tank of formaldehyde).

Many painters create decorative art because it sells, not because it has integrity and power. I have no interest in creating works like this.