Art and the Market

Regarding “Art as Public Works Project,” Susan Freudenheim’s profile of artist and teacher Deborah Small (April 19):

So Small thinks that the lack of a commercial market here in San Diego is a healthy thing for artists (“Since you can’t sell here, there’s no pressure to conform to a commercial market. I think that’s very healthy”).

It is this kind of attitude, usually adopted by college-trained, college-supported artists, that I find so repugnant.

I am forced to work at a low-paying, frustrating service job that is not so slowly driving me crazy because, although I have exhibited my art in galleries, museums, art centers, coffeehouses, restaurants, etc., in Los Angeles and San Diego and on the East Coast, I cannot, in this culturally bereft town, support myself from the sale of my own work.

I realize that most artists (certainly in San Diego) are essentially in the same position, but I do not need anyone, especially another artist, telling me this predicament is “healthy.”

I, for one, would welcome a bit more commercial market pressure. I think I’d be up to it!

MICHAEL McALISTER

San Diego