Bree ScottiA
prime example as to how art can transform your life is to speak with Kenny Schachter, an artist, art collector, and curator. Schachter has devoted the past 30 years of his life to art. Schachter entered
his first art gallery at the age of twenty-seven with a background in philosophy, political science, and law. Art informs everything that he does as one continuous thread throughout his life.
As the gate keeper of the art world, Schachter points out the warning signs and provides a map through the treacherous art world. As young artists eager to get their art out to the world, Schachter advises the recognition of once your art leaves your studio the artist to artwork connection is gone.
“Don’t trust anyone! They are there to take advantage of you.”
As a someone that has passed the Bar and escaped the hamster wheel of big business, Schechter loves to deconstruct the hypocrisy of the world around us in bite size pieces. Describes Instagram and other social media site as democratizing forces created to disrupt and brainwash our society by preying on are egos. Yet the collide of the art world with the digital world has created more growth in the last 20 years than in the last 200 years of art. The current Covid situation our world finds itself in has accelerated the timeline of digital art as well as overall technological advances to the point where we are unable to fathom what this time next year will look like.
Schechter describes himself as the oxymoron “cynical idealist” wanting the best for a world full of inherently selfish peoples. He finds the beauty of this world through witnessing an individual’s passion. He describes his passion for art as his life’s driving force. To teach, write, and create art is more important to him than money. Teaching is a personal favorite, and the job he gets paid the least for, because it spurs his students to learn and to develop their individual passions. On the contrary he has witness collectors and flippers passion for money and comments, “they are full of shit, they are selling it even before they buy” the art. It is very difficult to monetize art and make a living from it. Flippers do not have a relationship with art which angers Schechter.
"Does art course through your veins? If not you don’t love art because it doesn’t give you life"
Schechter advise to not be afraid of judgement because as people are judging you you are able to stand your ground by creating even more art. Do not take yourself too seriously for “artist are not curing cancer, but they take themselves so seriously.” Art is about accessibility and the current time disallows one from coming in contact with art. Once we are freed to explore the world of art again quantity over quality matters because art cannot be good or bad. Art just is, so go out there and be with it once again.
