If an artist paints a beautiful picture, and nobody sees it, is it still beautiful? Friend and fellow artist Ari Lankin passed along this snippet from an interview between Hans-Ulrich Obrist and artist Ryan Gander which I must address.

Gander is blowing up. His work is everywhere, he is recognized by major institutions and he is British… the accent always helps. We’ve never met, and I only know of him — but I will say, his thoughts above are exactly the type of thing you should say in an interview when you are hot. Not only does it make Gander sound cool, it is the re-affirmation for the artistic masses to take the “I will be discovered, forget this self-promotional crap” road — which in hand means less competition for the cool kids, like Gander.

I am here to say this out-of-context proclamation is horse pucky. Until an artist is “discovered” he/she must be their own best ambassador. Now, if Gander intends to form and finance a Utopian studio for talented artists who don’t want to Tweet, more power to him. Until then, I am here to tell the artists of the world to blog, make business cards and pimp yourselves out. Only a handful of the talented artists will be discovered, the rest must realize the road to full time artistry is paved through marketing and the good ol’ grip-and-grin.

So Ryan, if we happen to meet, I will be sure to shake your hand, give you my business card, plug Borbay.com and congratulate you on your recent success. Here’s to the arts.