MANILA, Philippines - Of course I was extremely flattered to be invited to participate in the grandiloquent ?Global Prospectus for the Arts,? a forum organized by UP dean of Arts and Letters, Virgilio S. Almario, for four art disciplines?music, fine arts, letters and architecture. Abaws gid, they even think I can understand its title!

I was one of four assigned on the topic, Artists as Entrepreneurs. Did they realize what a dismal choice I was, never having made decent money in any artistic venture? When I objected violently, Rio Almario replied firmly, ?Basta, kasali ka!? and I couldn?t get back to him.

So what I did was plan the outfit I was going to wear (which is my camouflage for academic insecurity). So who thinks an artist can solve an economic problem? Mozart and Van Gogh couldn?t and they are the immortals.

Once I was invited to enroll in a course on art marketing by a well known business school. Its main lecturer had been a marketing stalwart of the CCP. To my knowledge, my favorite institution, at that time, couldn?t even sell a single ticket! They even had a hard time attracting students for free showings. I knew there were no real marketers of culture.

Artists and business? They are galunggong and wagyu, altogether different fish?or meat. Artists are notorious for not knowing how to market themselves. It is entrepreneurs who should be in that forum.

In school, we were taught to be idealistic??to dedicate ourselves to others, to follow a sacrificial path. But there is always too much of a double standard about it. For instance, if you, today, met a grade school teacher, or a community worker who has been there for the past 20 years because it is his calling and his vision to follow it, what are the comments you are likely to hear? ?How come he?s still a grade school teacher? He never got anywhere, did he?? or, ?What is that doctor still doing in the boondocks? He doesn?t even own a house! All his classmates have gone to the States and are making fortunes.?

Well-off parents are particularly notorious about derailing their children from idealistic careers. ?Unlike my parents,? they declare smugly, ?I allow my child to choose his path.? Sure, if it?s a choice between law or business, or between engineering and medicine, but not if the graduate was attracted to be a teacher in a public school or an NGO for a poor village. And certainly, never, never to be an artist! Among the dead-end categories are: ballet, writing, painting, movie-making, stage acting and music.

The parents? usual escape hatch is to advise a graduating child, ?Why don?t you earn a little money first? Later, when you are established, you can do what you really want.? The suggestion sounds reasonable and practical and if the graduate had not really thought his path through, it is sound advice.

But for the truly gifted and determined artist, to compromise is to give up one?s dream. It would count as his choice, and it is not his bliss. When one is younger one always thinks, Maybe I can be both? an artist and a rich man. What a delusion! Soon enough you know better.

I know of a number of men and women in conventional professions who would rather have been artists. One of them was railroaded by her parents into a medical course. She followed but as soon as she passed the board, left everything behind to pursue a career in art photography in the States. She is now a highly respected art photographer who, in Manila, has blazed a trail with a gallery that has established photography as an art and possible career for others.

So, it may be argued that a life of art is possible only for people born with a silver spoon in their mouth? But isn?t it possible too, that the universe has positioned persons in such environments precisely because they have trailblazing roles to play in this life?

Balance

Most artists have to keep a tight balance between idealism and materialism. ?Many times,? says ethnic signer Grace Nono, ?I?ve asked desperately, Paano ba talagang gumawa ng pera?! If you?re an artist you really learn to trust in Divine Providence. There is no other way. But before you become really desperate, it always comes to your aid.

?Traditional art education teaches one how to be a good artist but not how to survive as one,? she continues. ?Freelance artists don?t have regular incomes. Even if you sometimes earn a whole lot, you must know how to manage your resources tightly, how to make them last.

?In the beginning I was really wary of the record companies?
they might change my singing style, they might impose a popular musical arrangement on me etc.: But with time and experience, you loosen up. You learn whom to trust. You reach out to people who respect you and will support your vision. You get rid of many self-imposed blockages and this opens doors of opportunity.?

?When I decided to pursue bamboo architecture,? says Ning E. Tan, ?I thought I gave up everything?making good money, creating a name, it seemed such a dead end. But I just shelved my ego and said, Let me just make myself the best darn bamboo house ever, with a jacuzzi on the second floor. But it was what clicked! The bamboo house was exhibited in a big gallery, it was publicized in the papers and on TV, people asked about it and wanted one of their own. It made me a unique reputation I never expected, and a lot of jobs I like.

?A friend of mine too was hung up on photography,? continues Ning Tan. ?But eventually he had to make a living. He got a job in ADB?and guess what? It entailed being abroad most of the time and photographing all those places. You pursue your dream and the universe helps you along.?

?The artist,? says Mariel Francisco, ?creates beauty?for the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the soul to feel. Note how even the most ordinary art activity?like arranging flowers in a vase or even singing a song in the shower, uplifts the most mundane soul. The artist will create even when he?s hungry, even if his wife leaves him, even if he is ostracized by society for being such a weirdo.

?He is in focused pursuit of his daemon. Indeed one must be a little crazy to be an artist. Not all art that is done in full dedication ends up recognized. But all art that is worthwhile is something the artist has poured his heart and soul into.?

No real artist will work for fame or glory?those who do are easily detected. They can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. When their p.r. IQ is larger than their talent, they will find devious connects to all the awards they may covet. But not the respect of their peers.

True artists are the worst marketers of themselves. They never create art for salability (when they have to, they hate themselves because those works will turn up again and again, like bad pennies). Yet in spite of not being supported, artists end up surviving. Things just fall into place, needs are somehow always provided. If they are not, the artist learns higher and more valuable lessons from the hardship. More than he would ever have toiling at something without sincerity or enthusiasm.

Integrity

I really cannot help the artist learn how to make money. I only know how not to make it. As a neophyte theater producer, I remember being strongly advised to approach a high executive of one beverage company who approved the sponsorship packages for cultural events. Just take P25,000 in cash and give it discreetly to him, I was told, kaliwaan ?yan. You will go home with the sponsorship contract you applied for. That?s the way things are done.

I was desperate. Play date was two weeks away and there was no major sponsor in sight. I would lose my pants! I was really bothered. I hunted up a good friend for advice. He cocked his wise head and said, ?Well, that?s all up to you. Whatever you end up doing, one thing is sure? you?ll know what rung of the spiritual ladder you belong. It was all I needed! No way would I want to be at the bottom!

If I had given the bribe and didn?t have to lose so much money, would I have produced a performance as surprisingly successful as it turned out to be? I am sure not. It would have been tainted. I also became firmly convinced that temptations should remain temptations. Examples of such temptations: an artist, in a position of power, using his influence to bag a multimillion contract, say, for a monument, a building or a show, to advantage a firm in which he is a secret partner; for a publisher to hype up wasteful consumership of imported beauty and fashion products to scandalous proportions; for advertisers to enthrone as role models for the young, popular show personalities of questionable morality; for a person in government, to demolish beautiful buildings and eco-spaces for big commissions from developers; to use the city?s resources to install overpriced and tasteless lamps to light our already dreary existence.

What heavy karma must await officials who, given all the power, generous allocations and the opportunity of a lifetime to hire the best artists to make something beautiful out of one?s own city will choose instead to blight it! (This includes all those pink and blue thingamajigs all over Metro Manila). The examples are just too familiar and too painful to enumerate. And they are all related to art management.

So, what credible thing can one teach the artist about marketing himself? How to dress up? How to project a smart image? How to charm a prospective buyer? Surely not. It is ever and always how to be authentic. And how to devote one?s every talent to the creation of a life molded in honesty and truth.