Are You an Artist?

“Are you an Artist?”  she asked.  I was taken aback by the question.  Quite literally.  I didn’t know how to answer.  I said no.  She looked at me puzzled, slightly deflated,  “oh, you seem like the artist.  You have that kind of vibe about you.”  I stammered an answer about writing, she perked back up as if I confirmed her suspicions.  I had just met her.  We worked for the same company, in entirely different departments, different buildings.  She didn’t stay at her position for long, and left the company unceremoniously.  We would barely ever cross paths, and never work together on any sort of project.  And then she was gone.  Leaving me with the question, “Are you an Artist?”

Now that I have written 2 books, I am more comfortable saying, I am a Writer.  But am I an Artist? 

A month or so after she asked, I had a brainstorm for my new office.  A series of paintings.  I wasn’t much of a painter, but I could put the image that I had envisioned onto canvas in a semi satisfactory way.  The paintings hang there now.  Am I an Artist, now?   I thought.

Merriam-Webster says an artist is:

1: one skilled or versed in learned arts

2 a : one who professes and practices an imaginative art  b : a person skilled in one of the fine arts

3: a skilled performer;

4: one who is adept at something (con artist)(strikeout artist)

So for the purpose of this blog, an artist is “one who professes and practices an imaginative art.”  It spurns the asking of a more affecting and burning question – then what is art?  I was brought up always thinking that art was subjective.  So this brought me to scouring the internet.  What IS art?  What is ART? 

Leading me to a surprisingly poignant Wikipedia’s article on Art: Wikipedia : Art Do read it.  Given credit to the fact that Wikipedia is a product of being written collaboratively by volunteers around the world; That anyone with a computer can write or edit an article, that it isn’t the exact science of the encyclopedias of old; it is an tremendous presentation on ART.  Whoever wrote this entry did an overwhelmingly splendid job. 

“The word art can refer to several things: a study of creative skill, a process of using the creative skill, a product of the creative skill, or the audience's experience with the creative skill. The creative arts (art as discipline) are a collection of disciplines that produce artworks (art as objects) that are compelled by a personal drive (art as activity) and convey a message, mood, or symbolism for the viewer to interpret (art as experience). Art is something that stimulates an individual's thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or ideas through the senses. Artworks can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted on the basis of images or objects.”

I am a writer.  Writing is my creative skill.  The things that I write are a product of my personal drive, and at times convey a message or mood.  I hope that my words would stimulate an individual’s thoughts and emotions.  If only to get lost in the words for a moment.  Is it then, “ART”?  I suppose yes.  Then am I an “Artist”? 

I see things differently at times.  I notice the dew on the single blades of grass, the shapes of clouds, the canopy of green that the trees make over my head as I drive down the road.  Not everyone sees these things.  Some just pass right by.  Some drive down that road everyday and never notice how the sun still comes through between the shadowed limbs of the trees as they meet in the center of the street, like hands clasping in prayer; or in the more dense areas, like a sedative comforting evergreen blanket.  Artists see these things.  Artists take these things and put them into their work. And I, at times, I find the words to describe these things.  Not always.  But sometimes.  But does that mean I am an Artist?

Artist.  It’s a title isn’t it?  Artist.  Writer.  Painter.  Musician.  Poet.  Sculpter.  At what point can you go from saying, “I do a little painting. It’s a hobby.” to saying, “I’m a Painter!”  ?  Is it when someone else gives you the title?  “Oh you should see Georgia’s work.  She is an Artist!”  Is it when you make money off of your art?  As we all know, most famous and infamous artists did not make much money from their art, while they were living, anyway, but they are most certainly artists. 

I will tell you this.  I have a niece.  Who I never knew had an artistic inclination in an inch of her body.  She was a stereotypical good student, and athlete.  Unlike her sister, who writes brilliantly and has a talent for the dramatic and the dramatic arts (because there is a difference), she is the logical one.  She thinks things through, and questions things that don’t make sense, sometimes too critically and she questions them loudly!  And then suddenly, she was showing us her Art. Paintings.  Cut paper.  Mixed Mediums.  And it was/is beautiful and sensational, thought provoking and stunning.  And it came out of that little logical head of her.  Her art was an extension of her bold inquisitive sometimes unsatisfied brain.  It is beautiful.  She is an Artist.  Capital A. 

But Art is subjective, isn’t it?  Of course I think my niece’s art is beautiful.  I also like my child’s drawings when she was 2.  In their own way, they are simplistic, primitive expressions of who she was at that time.  So why can’t they be considered Art?  Does Art have to hang in a museum, or on someone’s wall?

I’m not a big fan of the more modern abstract art.  I’m not a Jackson Pollock girl.  I’m more of a Van Gogh, O’Keeffe admirer. I love Beethoven, Vivadi, but prefer Lennon & McCartney.  I am often puzzled by many performance art pieces.  I understand the allure of a tall angular glass skyscraper, but am more mesmerized by the Gothic or Gothic-Revival architecture.  But that does not mean that either is not Art.  What one person perceives as grandiose and impressive may not be the same for another individual.  Perhaps if just ONE person perceives it as Art, then it is so.  It is Art.  So, if you say I am an Artist – does that make me an Artist?

What if I say I am an Artist?