Art-ovation

About ten years ago, I was very fortunate to be able to take a hiatus from working and make art on a full-time basis.  For four and a half wonderful years, I had a commercial studio, I painted and I taught lessons.  During that time, a wonderful friend of mine used to periodically call me and ask if I was ready to "stop basket weaving and get a real job".  I always took it as the good natured ribbing it was intended to be, but in fact, eventually took his advice.  And for eight years after that, I kept my art and my career in business separate.  In fact, it is sort of a given thing that art making and business don't mix.  Artists have a reputation for being notoriously bad at business and businesses have no time for something as frivolous as art.  There are a few exceptions, of course.  Thomas Kinkade, who turned his art into a super brand, although, many artists then expelled him from the ranks of fine art....doubt he cares, though, he's laughing all the way to the bank and spends his life making his art.  Sounds good to me.

And so recently, I became very curious why we think that way.  Even in education, there is uber-emphasis on math and science, to the sad exclusion of art, music and physical education.  Now people are starting to get it.  No wonder there is a childhood obesity epidemic. 

But here is a trivia question for you:  Who is considered probably the greatest innovator of all recorded history?  Even if Leonardo DaVinci isn't the first person you thought of, you almost certainly will agree he was a remarkable innovator.  DaVinci was a mathemetician, an architect, a scientist, an inventor.  But amazingly, he is also the artist who painted the two most famous paintings of all times: The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa.  DaVinci certainly had no preconceived notions that science, technology and art didn't mix.  So why do we?  In fact, maybe innovation is a product of art?  Or is it that art is a path to innovation?  Either way, I think now that the two belong together; that they are somehow inextricably bound and that we not only can combine business innovation with art, but that we should.