The Last Meritocracy?

Maybe not the last, but certainly among the few remaining. I was reading an article on Slate this morning in which the columnist posted several resignation (and general "eff-off" type) letters from news writers to editors. In one, the author lamented that news writing was not the meritocracy many are led to believe it is. His assertion is that there's one person who is generally clueless who makes decisions about hiring/firing and they usully run toward nepotistic lines.

Banksy's documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop tackles this theme, and the documentary is kinda gut wrenching as we watch a nobody who wants to make a documentary about Bansky follow the artist around, immerse himself in the underground art culture, then make buckets of cash while milking the teat of the elites who want to prove their hipness and understanding of great art but buying art that is at best a pastiche of earlier works. Painful and embarrassing. Banksy says near the end 

I used to tell everyone I met "yeah, grab a spray can, tell your story. Make art." I don't do that so much anymore

My friend Jaime is a trained photographer. Like the type who did a four year program to understand how cameras function, and used a 4x6 for his final thesis (he took pictures of industrial equipment sitting in the yard of Pacific Industrial Supply). He has a great eye and is very adept at post processing. He's had several shows of his work, topics ranging from stained glass to vintage motorcycles, pricing framed 24x36" prints for about $200. I believe he's sold about 3 prints in the last 5 years, despite a lot of really positive  In contrast, the friend of a person he trains martial arts with has no training, yet sells laser printed copies of local landscapes and random people for $50-$100 each, and will sell out every "limited edition." Which I put in quotes because they're digital files, so limited edition is possibly disingenuous.

Which brings me to blacksmithing and knifemaking. While there are some artists who work in metal and will sell random assortments of scrap held together with welding wire, for the most part this community produces some very high quality work. I can't think of a single case in which a person is commanding top dollar for half formed cat turds as one forum moderate described some of the work being posted for critique. And by top dollar I mean the kind of money that can buy a small new car. And maybe that's what draws me to this work. I'm firmly in the middle, I believe, in terms of quality workmanship. The only complaint I've ever had about a knife was that a tip broke off when the guy was digging an arrowhead out of a tree. I claimed that was abuse, and when I brought it to my fellow smiths, I only had one person disagree with me. But there it is-- my work wasn't judged by someone who never sees the work, it was judged on its merit as a tool. There are collectors out there, and there will be a variance in what each is willing to pay, so in that regard it is a lot like anything else in the art world. But while a Banksy print is only valuable as a Banksy print, a knife or fireplace set has both an aesthetic component and a functional component.